The Egan Chutes Trails- A 1.7 km or 8.8 km Hike near Bancroft, ON

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Egan Chutes Provincial Park is, hands down, the most phenomenal “non-operating” provincial park we’ve ever been to. You know when you get to a place and it’s so beautiful, and powerful, that your heart starts to pound in your chest? That was Egan Chutes for me when we went hiking there just a few weeks ago.

The Egan Chutes Park has within its boundaries a portion of the York River. On this section of the river are three “chutes,” which is really just a fancy way of saying channels. The power of the water rushing through these chutes is absolutely breathtaking. Especially because everything else around them is so calm.

The trails are fairly unassuming, but the payoff is spectacular. This is also a favorite place of ours in the winter for snowshoeing. Often, we get to break the trail.

The park is also really great because you can do a short hike on the west side of the York river and see the first chute, or spend more time hiking through the park on the east side to see all three.

I actually cannot recommend this place enough. I do ask though, if you’re going to visit you make sure you are practicing Leave No Trace principles while you’re there. The place is pristine, and I am hopeful that new visitors will help it stay that way. Since this is a non-operating park, no one will be cleaning up after you- except probably me next time I go.

Egan Chutes being non-operating also means there are no safety features installed, and the trails are not marked. At certain points near the lookouts if you were to slip, there’s a chance you would fall into the chute. This could (obviously) be incredibly dangerous. I absolutely recommend that if you are bringing dogs or small children, you keep them close.

Getting There

This little park is so unassuming, it would be easy to drive right past if you didn’t know it was there. Lucky for you, I’m going to tell you where it is!

Egan Chutes Park is about 15 kilometres east of Bancroft, ON. You can use these coordinates to get to the entrance on the west side of the York River: 45.067033, -77.736426.

The roads leading into the park on either side of the river are unmaintained. That means two things: They are in TERRIBLE condition, and they are not plowed during the winter. When we were driving in on the west side, the bottom of our car scraped along the middle of the road more than once, because it was so rutted on the sides. From Highway 28, which you will leave to get into the park, there’s about 200 metres of rough road to travel before you reach a tiny little parking lot that’s in even worse shape. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

The trailhead starts at the parking lot, beginning on what looks like an ATV track.

On the east side of the river, it’s only about 100 metres to a spot that you can park at, and the road is a bit better.  On this side, there are signs that provide a little more info about the park. The trail starts to the right of these signs, following an old logging road beside the river.

There are no facilities of any kind at this park, so keep that in mind when you’re planning!

The Western Route

The trail on the west side of the York River is much shorter than the one on the east side. It started out being really easy hiking, and we followed an ATV track through the forest for about 0.6 kilometres before reaching an open clearing next to the river. We were able to find the trail about 20 feet to the left of the river fairly easily. There was a light dusting of snow that helped out with that!

The trail continued on from here, becoming a single trail that lead into the woods and ran alongside the river.

This section of the trail had us heading up a bit of an incline, and soon we were walking on a ridge high above the river. We started to hear the sound of water running through the chute early, because it was so powerful, and so loud!

After 200 metres on this section of the trail we reached a spot that was COMPLETELY iced over. We found ourselves wishing we had brought crampons. But, we were able to scramble down a few rocky steps to get to a small overlook above the first chute. The power of the water moving through this chute meant that the air all around us was misty with water droplets. Anything that was landing on the ground or on the trees was freezing because of the temperature. I’m sure the same thing will continue to happen all through winter, so while this is a beautiful spot, it’s one to be careful of!

I was really in awe of the power of this section of the river. It probably helped that we’ve had so much rain this year. We stayed put for a bit, then headed down further to check it out from the bottom of the chute. After, instead of trying to clamber back up the icy section, we looped away from the river to get back onto the original trail.

On the west side of the river, the trail ends at the first chute. Heading back to the parking lot, we recorded a round trip of only 1.7 kilometres. We were able to cover the entire distance in just over half an hour (not including time spent admiring the Egan Chute).  That meant we had time to head over to the trail on the east side of the river to check out all three chutes!

The Eastern Route

The trail on this side of the river starts on an old logging road to the right of the signs. Truthfully, the entirety of the trail on the eastern side follows old logging roads. It’s pretty easy hiking the whole way, with a few hills here and there.

The best little side trail for the first chute is right beside a big old, overturned tree. It’s absolutely impossible to miss, if you know which tree you’re looking for. We reached this tree after hiking for 1.1 kilometres and headed into the woods to our left to try and get a different view of the first chute.

This took us to a ridge high above the chute, which was an amazing vantage point. It’s only about 100 metres off the road to get there. Since the ridge was so high, the water hadn’t iced anything over here. But, a fall from here would have devastating consequences so I’ll warn you again to be careful!

We headed back to the logging road and continued north to get to the next chute. This second chute is named the “Middle Chute.” Very creative.

We reached the spot on the trail that heads to a lookout for this chute not long after the first. After 1.7 kilometres, a quick detour off the logging road got us to the best vantage point of the Middle Chute.

The view of the Middle Chute is from much further away than the first. This spot didn’t feel as up close and personal. But, it was a nice open spot and would be a good place to set up a hammock for a day of peace and solitude if you felt like it. The area around the lookout was clearer than the rest of the forest. It kind of gave off a campground vibe (even though that’s not technically allowed).

We were looking forward to finding the third chute, and so didn’t spend too much time with the second. After we had hiked for roughly 2.4 kilometres we came to a crossroads. There was a small clearing to our left, but the logging road split off to the right.

When on the eastern side of the York River, it’s important to always stay to the left to keep with the river. The river makes a hard bank west before the third chute. There were actually quite a few little roads that branched off to the right of the logging road as we were hiking along. We ignored them all in order to stick with the river.

After passing through the clearing, the trail changed from a logging road to a skinnier trail, closer to an ATV trail than a road. Trails branched off of this one too, but we stuck with it until we could hear the third chute, which was around the 4.1 kilometre mark.

We actually chose to head through the forest to access the third chute, and there was definitely a footpath there that showed us the way, although it didn’t appear often traveled. The beginning of the path into forest was fairly clear though- it looked like a nice wide entrance into the woods, which we didn’t see anywhere else on the trail before this.

The path through the woods took us downhill, and we were shocked to come across one of the most fantastic swimming holes I’ve ever seen. Water from this third chute tumbles down into a beautiful, calm section of the river here. There was even a bit of a beach at the shoreline!

We actually ran into some nice gentlemen who had canoed down the river. They were having a fire on the beach to warm up. We didn’t take any pictures of the beach because we got busy talking to them about our plans to run the river next summer. You’ll have to take our word for how fantastic this spot is.

Getting Home

There were ATV tracks in the snow leading onto the beach. We thought that we might be able to loop around and get back on the main trail, but we decided to just head back up the way we had come instead.

We did our best to travel quickly on the way back, because the sun sets so early in November. When we made it back to where we had parked, we had hiked a total of 8.8 kilometres. We were able to cover that distance in two hours and eleven minutes.

Every time I visit, I’m blown away by the beauty of this place. I can’t wait to head back in the summer to check out how the swimming is! But, we’ll definitely be back there before then because the snowshoeing is just too good. Last year we went on Christmas day and were able to break the trail because no one else had set foot in the snow. I absolutely love that feeling. Maybe you do too.

When we go in the winter and there’s a lot of snow, we park on the side of the road because the roads into the park are not maintained. No one plows them, so if you’re planning on doing either hike, make sure you account for an extra 200 metres into the trail on the west side, and an extra 100 metres on the east side.

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- West Side of the York River

Map and Elevation Gain- East Side of the York River

 Gear We Brought

• Hiking boots
• Base layers
• Fleece sweaters
• Light jackets
• Mittens
• Buff Merino Wool Headbands
• Small backpack
• Nalgene 32 Ounce Bottle
• Snacks
• First aid kit (with water purifying tabs)
• Fire starters
• SOL 2-Person Emergency Bivvy
• Compass
• Coghlan’s Bear Bell
• Olympus TG-4 Waterproof Digital Camera
• Cell phones