Day trips
Day trips from Petawawa: down the highway, up the canyon road, down the river
From Petawawa the day trips run in three directions: down Highway 17 to Pembroke and Ottawa, up Barron Canyon Road into Algonquin, and down the Ottawa River to the rafting reach. Every distance is computed; every neighbour keeps its name.
The trips, direction by direction
Petawawa is a town in Renfrew County, in Ontario's Ottawa Valley, where the Petawawa River runs down through rapids in the middle of town and empties into the Ottawa River. The town was incorporated on July 1, 1997, and its Town Hall stands at 1111 Victoria Street. It is the home community of Garrison Petawawa, one of Canada's largest Army garrisons -- a Department of National Defence establishment, attributed to the garrison and the Canadian Armed Forces wherever it appears in this guide, never to the Town. This guide prints no population figure: the settled count in the town's file (identity-A) had not landed at writing time, and a provisional number is never dressed as a settled fact here. The timezone is Eastern (America/Toronto, EST UTC-5, EDT UTC-4 in summer).
The distances in this guide are computed, not estimated: the origin is the Town Hall place point, 1111 Victoria Street (45.894787, -77.283325); each destination is taken at its published central point; the straight-line distance is the great-circle (haversine) distance between the two points, the road estimate multiplies that distance by 1.35, and the driving time divides it by a 62 km/h average, rounded to five minutes. These are honest planning orders of magnitude for choosing an outing -- the day's route itself is read on the road, on Ontario 511, and with the operator.
The forms of the outing
Down the highway: Pembroke
Pembroke is the valley's city and Petawawa's nearest full-service run: its downtown, its riverfront and its own museums and stages, in the City of Pembroke, wrapped by the Township of Laurentian Valley. It is a destination, not a suburb: Petawawa's airport question (see the getting-here page) even turns on the difference -- the Pembroke & Area Airport mails to Pembroke and stands, on its own site's account, in Petawawa. Distances on this page: 16 km straight-line (computed), about 21 km by road and 20 minutes' estimated driving from Town Hall.
Up the canyon road: Algonquin's east side
Algonquin Provincial Park's east side is Petawawa's great back door, and Ontario Parks states its geometry plainly: Sand Lake Gate is the only entrance to the east access points -- Mallard/Sec, McManus Lake, Grand Lake/Achray, Lake Travers and the Eastern Pines Backpacking Trail. The park's own directions run from the Highway 17 bypass: south on Doran Road (County Road 26), then right onto Barron Canyon Road (County Road 28) for 26 kilometres, on pavement then gravel, to the Sand Lake Gate at the park boundary. Beyond the gate lie Achray Campground on Grand Lake, the Barron Canyon Trail -- a short lookout trail over the canyon the Barron River cut through the park's east side -- and the Eastern Pines loops (6 and 15 kilometres from the Achray access point on park descriptions). Day-use vehicle permits are booked online through Ontario Parks in advance, selecting the Achray/Sand Lake Gate entry; the permit rules of the day live on ontarioparks.ca. Gate distances, computed: Sand Lake Gate is 21 km straight-line (computed), about 28 km by road and 25 minutes' estimated driving; Achray and Grand Lake are 31 km straight-line (computed), about 42 km by road and 40 minutes' estimated driving -- straight-line figures, with the road running longer on gravel, exactly as the method note states.
Down the river: the rafting reach
whitewater, named at its true seat: the Ottawa River's famous commercial rafting reach -- the Rocher Fendu rapids -- is down the river in Whitewater Region, and its two best-known resorts are seated there, not in Petawawa: OWL Rafting, 40 Owl Lane, Foresters Falls (soft-adventure and sport rafting on its surfaces), and Wilderness Tours, 1260 Grants Settlement Road, Foresters Falls (a 600-acre adventure resort on its listings). From Petawawa they are a day trip, computed on this guide's day-trips pages -- close enough for a raft day with a Petawawa bed, and never borrowed as Petawawa businesses. Petawawa's own white water is the Petawawa River itself: rapids in town at Centennial Park for viewing and fishing, and a river local paddlers run in season -- a locals' water, printed as such, with no commercial programme claimed for it here. Computed: OWL Rafting is 51 km straight-line (computed), about 68 km by road and 65 minutes' estimated driving and Wilderness Tours is 47 km straight-line (computed), about 63 km by road and 60 minutes' estimated driving from Town Hall.
North-west and south: Deep River, Renfrew, Ottawa
Up Highway 17, Deep River (28 km straight-line (computed), about 38 km by road and 35 minutes' estimated driving) is the valley's planned science town, its own municipality, with Chalk River in Laurentian Hills (34 km straight-line (computed), about 46 km by road and 45 minutes' estimated driving) beside it -- named as destinations, never absorbed. South and east, Renfrew (67 km straight-line (computed), about 90 km by road and 85 minutes' estimated driving) carries the valley's south-end services, and Ottawa (134 km straight-line (computed), about 181 km by road and 175 minutes' estimated driving) is the big-city day: Parliament, the national museums and the scheduled-service airport (CYOW, in Ottawa: 141 km straight-line (computed), about 190 km by road and 185 minutes' estimated driving). Calabogie Peaks (79 km straight-line (computed), about 107 km by road and 105 minutes' estimated driving) is the winter downhill day, in Greater Madawaska.
The airport and river notes, on the trips page too
the airport note, printed once, plainly: this guide builds NO airports page for Petawawa, because the brief reserves that ruling to another worker's evidence. What the surfaces reached actually say is printed here so the record is honest: Pembroke & Area Airport (CYTA), 176 Len Hopkins Drive, mails to a Pembroke address, and its own site describes it as located in Petawawa; the Laurentian Valley township page states it is physically located in the Town of Petawawa; and a federal submission calls it a certified airport located in Petawawa -- the only certified airport between Carp and North Bay on its own account, with a 5,000-foot asphalt runway, open to the public, serving medivac, military, business and recreational flying, and with no scheduled passenger flights on visitor surfaces. From Town Hall it is 4 km straight-line (computed), about 6 km by road and 10 minutes' estimated driving from Town Hall (computed). The garrison's own airfield and heliport are military (DND) and are never a public airport in this guide. The scheduled-service airport for the region is Ottawa International (CYOW), seated in Ottawa. If the airports ruling lands as seated-in-Petawawa, the page is owed at merge; J does not pre-build it. the river note, printed once, plainly: Petawawa's waterfront is a freshwater riverfront -- beaches at Petawawa Point and Black Bay, rapids in Centennial Park, paddling and fishing water. There is no cruise port here and this guide builds NO cruises page and promises no cruise ship, ever. Boat launches and river rules live with the Town and the waterway authorities.
Home the same night, the return discipline
Three rules: confirm the master activity the day before (a park permit, an operator's trip time, a museum's access rule); travel with the season's light -- in October, darkness comes early on Barron Canyon Road and Highway 17 alike; and read Ontario 511 on the morning of the trip. Attribution is by seat, never by closeness: Pembroke, the city to the south-east down Highway 17; Laurentian Valley, the township that wraps around Pembroke and borders Petawawa; Deep River, the town up Highway 17 to the north-west; and Laurentian Hills, the township that holds Chalk River and Point Alexander, are separate municipalities, with their own places, named as destinations when they appear, never absorbed. Algonquin Provincial Park is a provincial park, not a town: its east-side gates and trails are destinations reached from Petawawa, never Petawawa content. The Ottawa River rafting resorts are seated in Whitewater Region, down the river to the south-east, and are named the same way. Inside Petawawa's own boundary, the neighbourhoods and shores this guide names as the town's own are the downtown and Petawawa Boulevard corridor, the Civic Centre campus on Civic Centre Road, Petawawa Point and Black Bay on the Ottawa River, and Petawawa Terrace on Laurentian Drive.
Common questions
What is the best day trip from Petawawa?
The signature trip is Algonquin's east side: Sand Lake Gate, Achray and the Barron Canyon lookout, on a permit booked in advance. The nearest city trip is Pembroke; the biggest is Ottawa; the wettest is the rafting reach in Whitewater Region, booked with OWL or Wilderness Tours.
Is Algonquin Park part of Petawawa?
No: Algonquin is a provincial park. Its east-side access points are reached from Petawawa through Sand Lake Gate -- the only entrance to them, on Ontario Parks' own page -- and they are destinations, never Petawawa content.
How are the distances on this page calculated?
From the Town Hall place point (1111 Victoria Street, 45.894787, -77.283325) to each destination's published central point: great-circle (haversine) distance computed in the generator, road estimate at 1.35 times that distance, driving time at a 62 km/h average rounded to five minutes. Planning orders of magnitude -- the day's route is read on the road and Ontario 511.
More to explore in Petawawa
The header images on this page are illustrations drawn for Dayfari, not photographs. No verified photograph of the Petawawa places named here (licence and subject checked) could be attested for this version, so those places are illustrated or described in text only, rather than borrowed from another town.
If you book through these links, Dayfari may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.