Blue Mountain- A 10 km Hike near Charleston Lake Provincial Park

Charleston Lake Provincial Park has some AMAZING trails! I actually liked the Tallow Rock Bay trail so much that I added it to the #roadtripedition of the Adventure Report Ottawa Hiking Challenge.

More recently though, we headed back out to Charleston Lake to hike the Blue Mountain Trail.

This trail is a relatively easy hike that gets you some amazing views! It’s said that on a clear day you can see all the way to the Adirondack Mountains in New York.

There are actually two access points, and two trails up to the top of Blue Mountain. The access point inside Charleston lake Provincial Park is at Huckleberry Hollow, which requires hikers to paddle over first. Since it was early in the season and the water was still cold, we chose to travel by land.

The access point we used is on private property, so it’s important to be incredibly respectful of this land (and, I mean, all land). Please respect all no trespassing signs, make sure you don’t litter, and keep your dog on a leash.

From this access point the hike was fairly easy, with just a few steep hills. Round trip, it was almost 10 km exactly, but the view from the top was ABSOLUTELY worth it.

Getting There

The trailhead that we access was at the junction of Warburton Road and Blue Mountain Road. You can use these coordinates to get there: 44.467721, -75.989446.

There’s a tiny little parking lot at the trailhead with space for about five cars. There was also a sign posted welcoming people to Blue Mountain, with a bit about the history of the area.

It was easy to spot the trail right away, because it was actually was just a long dirt road that started directly off of the parking lot.

The road was SUPER muddy, even though it hadn’t been a very wet spring, so be warned! Despite this, it was an easy, flat walk along the road for 1.5 km. Then, the dirt road veered sharply to the right. Immediately we spotted provincial park trail markers and a little blue arrow telling us to turn to our left and enter the forest to stick with the Blue Mountain trail.

Here, there was a sign posted requesting people respect the trail and the property. Please read it and do what it says! 😊

The Trail

This section of the trail wound through the forest and was much thinner and more technical than the road that had come before. Still, in a lot of spots it was wide enough for us to walk side by side.

The trail was rocky, root-y, and worn down to the dirt in different spots along the way. Trail markers weren’t super consistent, but between the markers and how well worn the path was, we were never at risk of losing our way.

We crossed over a short bridge at 1.9 km and got our first true taste of heading uphill immediately after. It wasn’t too bad though and levelled off quickly enough.

At 2.7 km we reached the shoreline of a small lake on our left-hand side. From the shore, we could see the huge rock outcropping that we were going to be making our way to the top of, which was cool!

Arriving at Charleston Lake Provincial Park

Just after this, we spotted a sign that let us know we had arrived at the park boundary for Charleston Lake Provincial Park.

At 3.3 km we crossed another short footbridge and came right to the base of the huge outcropping that we needed to get to the top of. From where we were standing the idea of getting up there seemed like it would take a lot of work, but it ended up being not too bad at all.

We didn’t even really head back uphill in any noticeable way until just under the 4 km mark. And then, I’ll admit, I huffed and puffed for a short time.

Just 400 metres later we came to a trail split. This was where the trail from Huckleberry Hollow joined the path we were on. There was a sign posted here that pointed us in the right direction, and we kept straight on the trail to get to Blue Mountain Peak.

Headed to the Top!

At 4.5 km we reached a really cool rocky, uphill section. I loved it. Then, at 4.6 km the tree line started to open just a bit. Soon after the view opened all the way up, but the trail seemed to keep going so we followed it. After hiking 4.9 km we reached the edge of the rocky outcropping and sat down to enjoy the view and some PB + J sandwiches.

The view was spectacular, and we actually got to see an eagle soaring through the sky. The terrain up on top of Blue Mountain was neat too. Definitely rocky with some shrubs mixed in, and a TON of these beautiful flowering trees (plants?) that I couldn’t identify. 10/10 would visit again. In fact, I’m excited to try paddling to Huckleberry Hollow and making my way up.

After a short break, we packed up all our garbage and headed back the way we had come.

Trail Thoughts

By the time we made it back to the trailhead we had hiked 9.9 km. We were able to cover that distance in roughly 3 hours. Blue Mountain was a fantastic hike. It was long-ish, but so much of it was on flat road that it really didn’t feel very hard. And the view at the top was just SO lovely, that even if it HAD been hard, it would be worth it!

And since that view is as close as I’m gonna get to the Adirondacks for a while… I’ll take it.

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

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.