Ontario Camping Trip…1900s Mine Style

History and Geology buffs unite! If you’re looking to step back in time on your next camping trip, Murphy’s Point Provincial Park is the perfect place to add to your Ontario Parks Bucket List. 

Located 20 minutes outside of Perth, 1.5 hours from Ottawa and 3.5 hours from the GTA, Murphy’s Point offers your typical camping experience, except there is a guided hike that takes you down into Silver Queen Mine. 

The Silver Queen Mica Mine is an early 1900’s mine that focused on Mica, Apatite and Feldspar. This tour takes place Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the summer months. Pre-registration is required, you can either register at the gatehouse when you check in or you can call 613-267-5060. 

On Sundays, there is also an open house that offers a live costume interpretation along the trail and mine. Check on the Ontario Park’s website for tour information as, dates and times may change season to season. 

We took one of the regular guided tours and learned so much about the history of the mine from the Ontario Parks staff. The guided hike commences at the old Lally Homestead where we saw the ruins, and two rebuilt houses of the Lally family, who attempted to farm the land over 100 years ago. However, the Canadian Shield rock in the area made the land very difficult to farm, so the Lally’s and many others in the area turned to mining. The Silver Queen Mine was open from 1903-1920. 

The hike is 2.5 km round trip along a wide flat path. It does get steeper when you are about to go down into the mine but it is stroller/wagon friendly up until that point. For safety reasons, hard hats are required in the mine and provided by Ontario Parks staff. The hike is dog friendly on leash, however the dogs cannot go into the mine or buildings, so we switched off. 

We also got to explore the rebuilt bunkhouse closer to the mine. The ground sparkles with Mica along the whole trail, but please remember to leave the trail as you found it, you are not permitted to take any with you.

After we finished the mine tour we drove into Perth and dined at Riverwood Pizza Company with River views! We chose the Magic Mushroom Pizza, and the pesto on top was delicious.

During the summer months, every weekday at 2 pm there are Snake Talks in front of the park store. Our son loved meeting Canada’s longest type of snake, the Gray Ratsnake. We even got to pet him. This species is at risk and Murphy’s Point is engaged in conservation efforts to protect them. There are currently two rescued  Ratsnakes that live in the Murphy’s Point Education program. 

We got hit with a summer storm afterward, and hunkered in our camper for the rest of the night. We woke up the next morning to beautiful blue skies and headed to the sandy beach and playground where the kids enjoyed splashing in the water and playing in the sand. 
Murphys Point offers kayak and canoe rentals where you can paddle through several different lakes. We took my son and dog out kayaking on Hogg Bay which leads out to Big Rideau Lake. 

We were so glad to check Murphy’s Point off our Ontario Park’s Bucket list (Park 77/115 for us).  If you are looking to go to other Ontario Park’s in the region you can visit Silver Lake Provincial Park and Sharbot Lake Provincial Park. 

Where should we go next?