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The last time I visited the Morris Island Conservation Area, it was winter and I was out for a little solo hike. I absolutely adored it there. It’s a little ways from town, so the area doesn’t see as much traffic. The newly fallen snow was pristine, and it felt incredibly peaceful.
This time around, it was the middle of summer, and I had my daughter with me. But the area was just as lovely as I remembered- just with less snow.
Dogs are allowed on all the trails at Morris Island (they even provide poop bags at the trailhead!). From May to October, there are washrooms that are available at the trailhead. Canoes and kayaks can be launched in the bay at the conservation area for a really easy, protected paddle. On the day that I went the only people I ran into were people fishing in the area. So, I don’t know much about fishing, but I think this might be a good spot!
There are two sets of trails in the area. In the winter, I snowshoed the Causeway, Island Loop, and Chats Falls trails. That set of trails is a bit longer, at just over 5 Km.
For this last visit, I decided to check out the trails closer to the Ottawa River- the Old Voyageur and Miner’s trails. These trails are much shorter, so I wouldn’t recommend driving ALL the way out to Morris Island just to hike them- think about combining the trails in the area, or going paddling while you’re there! Honestly when I set out I thought they’d be longer- oops!
Views over the river at Morris Island Conservation Area.
Getting There
Driving out to Morris Island is certainly a bit of a road trip- it takes about fifty minutes to get there from Ottawa. And there’s not much on the way, one you’ve left Kanata. It’s a nice drive though, with lots of trees and farmer’s fields along the way. You can use these coordinates to get there: 45.459261, -76.271367.
The parking lot at Morris Island is huge, and I’ve never seen more than a handful of cars there.
Parking costs $3 for the day, which I gladly pay because the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority does such a great job marking and maintaining their trails. The parking meter accepts cash and credit cards (no debit!)
Map of all the trails at Morris Island Conservation Area, put out by the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority.
Universal Accessibility
There have been efforts made at Morris Island Conservation Area to make things universally accessible, which is fantastic. I always hesitate to say with certainty that an area actually IS accessible, since I have no experience in that department. But, I’ll tell you what I saw and hopefully it will help you decide for yourself!
Part of the Old Voyageur Trail, and the entire length of the Causeway Trail are marked as being universally accessible. They’ve been built and maintained using small chunks of gravel, resulting in surfaces that are quite flat and smooth. Taking the Causeway Trail would bring you across the bay, and to a nice fishing spot off of a bridged section of the trail.
The Washrooms are marked as being accessible. There are concrete pads at the entrance to the washrooms, and the earth has eroded away from these pads in places, leaving a drop of a few inches. There’s also no button that can be used to open the door. There were grab bars by the side of the toilet, but I think it could be really tough for someone in a wheelchair to actually get in there to use them.
There’s also an outhouse style porta-potty about 100 metres down the Causeway Trail. It has an accessible sign on it, but I can’t imagine that anyone actually thinks it’s universally accessible? I used this washroom in the winter, and my memory isn’t the best, but I think there was a drop of a few inches from the entrance to the floor of the washroom. Plus, it’s so small that you can barely turn around inside. This one, I can confidently say is NOT universally accessible.
The Causeway Trail was designed to be universally accessible! Woot woot!
The Trailhead
There are two trailheads that leave from the back of the parking lot (near the washrooms). Near these, there’s a big posted map, and individual brochures with maps that you can take with you.
The trailhead for the Causeway Trail looks like a wide road, and it’s gated off. Right beside the washrooms, the trailhead for the Old Voyageur Trail starts. There’s a big blue sign there, so you’ll know you’re in the right spot.
Start here!
The Trail
We headed out on a wide, well-groomed path (because this section of the trail is universally accessible). Then, we found ourselves hiking along a bit of a ridge above the Causeway Trail.
We reached our first split in the trail after hiking less than 100 metres. Having decided to hike the loops clockwise, we veered off to the left, in the direction of the water. Heading to our right here would have had us hiking the loops counter clockwise.
Soon after, we saw the first trail offshoot branching out to the water. Only a few steps down this offshoot and we were by the shoreline, looking out over the Ottawa River. A hundred metres further down the trail, we reached the second lookout over the water. This lookout was nice and open, with a little bench and rock face where you could sit and relax. Both spots had brand new benches installed.
Trail Markers
So far on our hike, we hadn’t seen too many trail markers. Fortunately, the path was so wide and well-travelled that it would be nearly impossible to get lost. And after hiking about 400 metres, we came to another well signed split. Here, the Old Voyageur Trail looped off to our right, and the Miner’s Trail carried on in front of us. Wanting to complete both loops, we headed straight. It was extra easy to figure out where on the trail we were, because the map that we had showed coordinates at every trail split that were also printed on the actual signs at these splits.
We crossed over a sturdy foot bridge and immediately after came upon a sign indicating that there was a shortcut to our right- turning here would have shortened the Miner’s Trail significantly, so we decided not to take it.
The further we hiked from the trail head, the more of these we saw.
Getting Rockier
The trail began to get rockier in this section. Although we had to watch where we put our feet, the hiking was still fairly easy because we were travelling over flat terrain. We reached another little offshoot to a lookout at the 0.5 kilometre mark (we must have missed the third lookout!). There was a bench here too, although it wasn’t one of the fancy new ones we had seen earlier.
In spots, the trail was a bit overgrown, with brush closing in on the sides. But, we began to see more and more white trail markers, so it was easier to follow in that sense. We headed up and down a few little hills. Then after hiking 0.64 kilometres we spotted a white trail marker to our right, but noticed that there was a wide path heading off to our left. We decided to head off in that direction, and were rewarded with yet another view over the water.
The terrain on the Old Miner’s Trail was MUCH rockier than on the Old Voyageur Trail.
Heading back, we kept an eye out for the trail that we had left on our right hand side. We carried on straight in order to complete the loop. The trail remained nice and rocky through this section (we love a rocky trail!).
At just under a kilometre, we followed faded red trail markers to yet another lookout. This one clearly hadn’t been used as often, being one of the furthest out from the trailhead. This was one of the loveliest we had seen so far though, as the river floor was scattered with small boulders (and a few little islands if I remember correctly!).
So many calm places to sit and relax!
Back to the Shortcut
After hiking only 1.2 kilometres, we reached the Miner’s Shortcut again. It headed off to our right. Since we originally came across this shortcut at roughly the half kilometre mark, taking it would have shaved about .6 kilometres off of our hike.
We crossed back over another little foot bridge, greeting a couple dedicated fishermen on the way back. Then, we were back on the Old Voyageur’s Trail. The trail returned to its original state of being quite flat and well maintained. We arrived at a split on the trail that we could have taken left to join the Causeway Trail (a great way to lengthen this hike). Instead, we stayed straight on the path to head back in the direction we had come from.
Time and Distance
Before we knew it, we were back at the parking lot. We had hiked only 1.6 kilometres, and we were able to cover that distance in just over fifty minutes. Because it had been such a short walk, we decided to head down the Causeway for a bit and look out over the bay.
Morris Island Conservation Area is truly stunning, and I’m glad that I finally got back for another visit.
Looking out over the bay in the winter, just because I love winter time at Morris Island too!
I hope this trip report has enough info to get you there too. Let me know in the comments, or share and tag a friend to start planning your next adventure!
Map and Elevation Gain
Our GPS tracked route of the trails at Morris Island Conservation Area.
Whenever I’m hiking somewhere new, I tend to wonder about who was on, and who took care of that land before me. I’ve enjoyed using this website as a place to start learning more about the indigenous people whose land I’m on: Native-land.ca.
Elevation gain. Don’t be fooled! There is none.
Gear We Brought*
- Running Shoes
- Workout Clothes
- Sunglasses
- Cell Phone
- Infantino Up Close Newborn Carrier
- Pacifier
- Baby Sun Hat
*Of course, I had far more than this in the car for the baby! We also sunscreened before heading out on the trail.
I saw this blog post on Facebook and decided to head to Morris Island today. We spent the day hiking and paddling, with some side trips to the Antrim Truck Stop and Penny’s Fudge Factory for treats. Thanks for introducing us to this great location!
I didn’t know there was a fudge factory nearby! That sounds great!
They have never had the parking meter before (it’s new). Good way to blow $150,000 instead of spending it on cleaning up the environment. The trail has always been kept clean before this. You will notice a donation poll that was their as you walk in on the right. The parking meter another costly dumb government move. Parking meter alone will never get paid off and they placed it in a flood zone.
This is a great place to walk around in or go for a short canoe ride, or catch some fish.