This hike is part of the Adventure Report Ottawa Hiking Challenge! If you hike this trail, you’re officially working on the Road Trip Edition!
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The Mill of Kintail Conservation Area is a really beautiful spot that has some wonderful old buildings! It’s also perfect for families who want to get outdoors, because in addition to the hiking trails, there’s a cute little park, and even a basketball court!
One of the coolest things about writing this blog is hearing from other people who like to get outdoors about their favorite spots. Since I started writing it, we’ve heard from more than a few people about the Mill of Kintail Conservation Area, so we decided to head out for a short hike early in November.
View of the Mill of Kintail from a nearby bridge.
Conservation Areas in Ontario are great places to hike because they tend to be open year round, and most are dog friendly. The Mill of Kintail is dog friendly too, so off we went with our four legged friend!
There are a few different trails in the area, and we decided to hike the Forest Hike Trail. We decided we would leave a few trails for another day.
The Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority has put together a great map of the trails in the area!
Getting There
The Mill of Kintail Conservation Area is just under an hour away from Ottawa. With the exception of Almonte, a very cute little town, there’s not too much out in that direction (that we saw anyways!).
The roads leading towards the conservation area change from paved roads to dirt/gravel before we arrived.
Approaching the parking area, there was a sign on the sign of the road that let us know we had arrived. That was a good thing, because there was a little house next to the parking lot, so at first glance it looked like private property!
You can use these coordinates to get there: 45.244715, -76.257975.
Turn here!
We pulled into the parking lot and paid our parking fee at a little electronic machine in the middle of the lot. It cost us $6.00 to park there. We used a credit card, but the machine takes coins too. What they didn’t take was debit, so make sure you don’t rely on that!
After parking, we hopped out of the car, and went to go double check the big map posted at the end of the lot. There were also printed maps available, so we grabbed one to bring with us.
The Trailhead
There are a couple of trails that started from this first parking lot. The Forest Hike Trail wasn’t one of them. Beyond the parking lot, there was a road that continued into the conservation area. But when we got there, the gate across it was closed.
We decided to take the “Fitness Trail” further into the conservation area in order to access the Forest Hike Trail.
We walked past the gate, and hopped onto the Fitness Trail, which was to our right beside the road. This trail was only 300 metres long, and brought us through a small forest before we arrived at the “centre” of the conservation area.
Looking around this area, there wasn’t any parking here anyway, so it really didn’t matter that the road was gated.
Cool Buildings and Places to Play
I’m calling this spot the centre of the conservation area because I don’t really know what else to call it! Despite MY lack of creativity, there was a lot of very cool stuff here.
Just as we left the Fitness Trail, we spotted a nice park and a basketball court to our right. Ahead of us were some very cool, very old looking buildings. After a quick break at the outhouses nearby, we headed over to check them out.
In this section there was also a covered picnic area, perfect for lunch after a hike!
Apparently this building is called a “cloister”- either way, it’s beautiful!
The Mill
We walked past the Pioneer Cabin, the Hugging Tree, and the Cloister on the Hill until we found ourselves on a set of stairs leading down towards the Mill itself.
The old Mill was beautiful too, and after admiring it for a bit we turned to our right (passing another outhouse), and turned onto the bridge to access the Forest Hike Trail.
The old mill.
When we got across the bridge, there was another trail map posted- handy! All the trails on the map were color coded, to match the trail markers on the trees.
We decided to complete the loop counter clockwise, so we turned to our right and headed out.
Heading over the bridge to reach the trailhead for the Forest Hike Trail.
Forests and Fields
We found ourselves on a lovely trail winding through the trees right away. The trail was so well travelled that it was fairly easy for us to walk side by side. After hiking for 300 metres on the trail beyond the bridge, we found ourselves walking through a wide open field. We crossed it, following the worn in path, and re-entered the forest on the other side.
After another 400 metres, we reached a split in the trail where the Trillium Trail branched off of it to our left. The Trillium Trail was marked by orange trail markers. If you were looking for a really short hike, taking this trail back to where you started would be a good way to do it- the Trillium trail is only 750 metres long.
Of course, we stuck with the Forest Hike Trail, which continued to be wide, flat, and easy to follow. So far, there had been tons of trail markers to help keep us on track (although we probably didn’t need them with how well-worn the path was).
The trail markers at the Mill of Kintail Conservation Area are cute, but more importantly, they’re easy to follow!
Cows
Nearly a kilometre after we had started the trail, we reached another split, where the Secret Snow Loop Trail crossed the path we were on. Just beyond that point, on our right hand side, was another open field, but this one was filled with cows!
After being on the Forest Hike Trail for 1.6 kilometres, we wondered about a little split in the trail that we saw headed off to our right. The trail in front of us seemed much wider, and based on our map, that seemed to be the direction to go in. But for the first time on the whole trail, we couldn’t see a trail marker to guide us!
We went straight, sticking with the wider path, and eventually found another trail marker. But from this point on, they didn’t appear as often as they had before.
We joined a shared trail (shared with bikes) that was much wider than the Forest Walk Trail for a little while, but quickly saw a sign telling us to turn to our right to hop back on our trail.
The whole length of the trail was wide, flat, and easy to follow! Except for that one spot…
The Creek
Nearing the end of the Forest Walk Trail, after we had been on it for roughly 2.3 kilometres, we spotted the creek on our right hand side. This creek was the one that flowed past the Mill, and under the bridge we had crossed originally.
Soon after, there was a split in the trail that we chose to take. The Mackenzie Walk Trail veered off to our left, marked by yellow trail markers. This little trail brought us down a gentle slope, and followed the shore of the creek for a few hundred metres before rejoining the Forest Walk Trail. It was definitely worth taking the Mackenzie Walk Trail, in order to get a better view of the creek.
Walking down by the creek was definitely the right choice!
Getting Back
Not long after rejoining the Forest Walk Trail, we were back to where we had started. We crossed the bridge again, and took the same route back to where we were parked.
In order to get back to the parking lot, we hiked a total of 4 kilometres. We hiked this distance in roughly an hour and a half. But, we spent a fair amount of time checking out the buildings in the area and taking pictures. Plus our dog likes to stop and sniff a lot, so this hike could definitely be done faster if you weren’t as leisurely as us.
The entire length of the trail was a really easy, fairly flat hike that wasn’t challenging to navigate. Given the time of year that we went, the forest had that really cool, naked feeling. I think it would be pretty beautiful at any time of year though!
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!
Conservation areas are a great place to adventure! We’re so lucky to have them. 🙂
Map and Elevation Gain
Our GPS tracked route of the Forest Hike Trail.
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 on the Forest Hike Trail- it’s a nice easy walk!
If you’ve done this hike and you liked it, I think you’ll like the trails at the Morris Island Conservation Area too!
Gear We Brought
- Hiking Boots
- Wool Socks
- Long Pants
- Base Layers
- Fleece Sweaters
- Buff Merino Wool Headbands
- Light Gloves
- Winter Jackets
- Sunglasses
- Cell Phones
- Day Pack (from Mountain Warehouse)
- Dog’s Leash and Harness
- Dog Winter Coat (just in case!)
- Dog Waste Bags
The Mill is a wonderful spot to hike and snow shoe. One suggestion to add to gear list is tick repellant….yes even in winter! Do tick checks on yourself and dog afterwards as there have been numerous tick encounters there on both humans and pets. There’s a Lyme disease warning sign on the washroom building there.