Dacre Heights- A 4.7 km Hike West of Ottawa

Dacre Heights was somewhere we hadn’t heard of until this year, but it’s so cool that we’ve already been twice.

It’s an absolute gem in what feel like the middle of nowhere (although really it’s just rural).

This unique property is privately owned, but the owners have opened it up for public recreation. The property used to operate as a ski hill but no longer does. So there’s elevation gain and some great views to be had, as well as a few cool remnants of days gone by.

There are hiking and snowshoe trails that wind their way up the hill, and people do all sorts of activities there, from skiing to snowboarding to sledding. It’s so far out of the way though that both times we went we only saw a handful of people.

Dogs are allowed, but only during the summer, and on a SHORT leash- one of the owners is very afraid of dogs so please keep this in mind and be respectful. You can read more about etiquette (i.e. no fires, no motorized vehicles, etc.) at www.dacreheights.ca.

The trails are open year round. There’s an outhouse near the parking lot.

Getting There

Dacre Heights is just under an hour and a half from Ottawa, heading west. You can use these coordinates to get there: 45.347167, -76.938122.

The drive there is quite stunning, and when you get close the hills rise up in the distance, making for quite the view.

There’s a parking lot by the side of the road with room for about twenty cars, and this is where we pulled in.

The Trailhead

Facing the back of the parking lot, a trail started up the hill on our left hand side. There was no signage to mark the trailhead, but we figured it looked like as good a place to start as any.

We headed uphill, passing a cottage that was being renovated (the fireplace had been ripped off!), and an old RV. It kind of made us wonder if we were heading into someone’s backyard but then after just 200 metres, we saw a sign in the trees for the Firefly trail. It pointed off to our right, so off we went.

The trail continued gently uphill, and we followed blue markers spray painted onto the trees as we went. A few hundred metres later we came to a wider trail running DOWN the hill- an old, skinny ski run? The trail did not continue on in front of us, so despite not seeing any markers, we headed to our left, up the run. Quickly though, we spotted a blue marker in the trees on our right hand side, and followed it.

Ski Runs

Soon after, we reached another run going up the hill. The trail continued straight ahead, although we didn’t spot a marker, we went straight, only to come to another skinny run. Here, there were no markers and no option to go straight, so we turned left to go up.

Heading UP the runs was tougher work, as they were definitely steeper. Fortunately, by the time we reached .7 km, we reached the point on the trail where we had gone “wrong” before. There was a trail with blue markers heading off to our left and our right. Previously, we had gone left because that direction was uphill and it felt correct. But since we wanted to take “chicken run” up, this time we trusted the map and turned to our right, heading slightly downhill.

Chicken Run

At 0.9 km the trail spit us out into a bit of an open field. There was a fence right across from us, and an open area heading up the hill to our left. We couldn’t spot any trail marking but assumed this was “chicken run,” and headed uphill.

Part way up the hill (just past the big tree) we had to hike through a small raspberry brush. In the winter this was no problem, but in the summer with fewer layers I might have wished for pants.

As we headed uphill, the trees on either side of the field slowly closed in, until we eventually found ourselves out of the field and back onto a trail.

At 1.5 km we reached a split in the trail, with the trail branching off to the left and the right. We decided to go right, thinking that we were at the top of Chicken Run, and wanting to get in the longest hike possible.

Just the Most Gorgeous Section of Trail- and the Lookout!

It turns out this was a good decision because the next section of trail was gorgeous. There were lots of evergreens and on the day we visited we were high enough that the tips of all the trees had frosted over.

After 2.08 km, the trail brought us right to the lookout. There were three big trees in front of it, but as soon as we walked around those we were rewarded with a gorgeous view.

We weren’t exactly sure which direction to head in next, but spotted a blue mark off to the left and headed over there. We started to see signs of the old ski hill, like discarded parts from the chair lift. Then, we came across a spot where some beautiful red chairs had been set up, for folks to sit and enjoy the view.

Continuing on in the same direction, we passed an old abandoned shed, and the trail began to slope steeply downhill. At 2.63 km we reached the trail split we would have arrived at had we gone to the left at the split where we chose the longer route.

Back on the Firefly Trail

We turned to the right to follow the Firefly Trail back down the hill. The trail was well marked all the way back, and we caught a few more stunning views on the way back. We also crossed over a lot more runs, but on each side opposite there was a blue mark to let us know which way to go.

At 4.06 km we were back to a split in the trail that we recognized, and we retraced our steps back to the trailhead.

Trail Thoughts

By the time we arrived back in the parking lot, we had hiked a total of 4.7 km. We were able to cover that distance in just under two hours.

Dacre Heights was a ton of fun to explore. We stuck with the marked trails but the way all the ski runs are laid out, it would be pretty tough to get lost even if you decided to go off trail! And from the looks of the ski and snowboard track sin the snow, a lot of people decide to do just that.

I absolutely adore the idea of opening up a property like this to the public, and commend the owners for doing so! It’s just such a stunning spot with so much potential for wandering, and I’m so glad we found 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

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.