Kayak Bon Echo Lake – Bon Echo Provincial Park

Bon Echo Lake is one of 8 lakes found in 20,000 acre Bon Echo Provincial Park.  If you’re planning to visit the park and are looking for paddling opportunities beyond Mazinaw Lake, this quiet little lake is a beautiful spot to spend a few hours.  Read on for more information about launching and what to expect.

​Read on for more about what to expect when you kayak Bon Echo Lake, or visit our Where to Paddle page for links to more great kayaking destinations in Southern Ontario and beyond.

Our Recommended Trip

Put In / Take Out:
To access Bon Echo Lake from the main park entrance, follow the Hardwood Hills/Joeperry Road which goes off under the Highway 41 Overpass.  Shortly after you pass under the overpass, you’ll see a sign for Bon Echo roofed cabins (sites 610-623).  When you get to the comfort station (shower) building, turn right toward sites 611 and 612.  Shortly after you see these cabins on the left side of the road, you’ll see two very small parking lots (one to the left and one to the right of the single lane road).  The launch is shortly after this, continuing down the trail.

Trip Length: 5 km, 1-2 hours.  

Cost:  We were already camping in the provincial park, so didn’t have to pay any additional access fees, but you would have to pay access to the provincial park if you were looking at this for a day trip.

Degree of Difficulty:  Beginner friendly.  There isn’t anything overly difficult about this quiet lake paddle.
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Gear Recommendations

Life jackets and all Transport Canada required safety gear is always a must.  Sunscreen and sun hats are definitely recommended when you’re out on the water.
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A Quiet Little Lake

If you’re headed out to Bon Echo Provincial Park, kayaking the Mazinaw Lakes is an absolute must-do.  But once you’ve explored the usually very busy Mazinaw Lake, you might be looking for another nice quiet paddle spot.  When we were at Bon Echo, we paddled Upper Mazinaw Lake, Lower Mazinaw Lake, Joeperry Lake, and Bon Echo Lake.  (This post focuses only on Bon Echo Lake – check out our posts on these other lakes too.)  Bon Echo is the smallest and the quietest of these lakes.  It also had the shortest distance from the parking lot to the launch, and was super family-friendly, with a small dock and a gravel beach launch, and no power boat access.

So if you’re looking for a small lake that you could have almost to yourself, you might want to try kayaking Bon Echo Lake!  We weren’t sure what we’d find at this lake, since Ontario Parks offers some roofed accomodations (i.e., cabins) at Bon Echo that sit on the edge of Bon Echo Lake, and we thought it might be busy.  Once we got there, we couldn’t see any docks from these cabins directly onto the lake, and we honestly couldn’t even see the cabins from the water at all.  The only indication they were there was that we could smell nearby wood smoke from some camp fires. 
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While Joeperry Lake was more remote and harder to access than Bon Echo Lake, we actually found we had Bon Echo Lake completely to ourselves.  This might be because it’s smaller, or it might be because it’s not as well known.  We had a hard time finding out much about Bon Echo Lake.  When I called the park office to ask whether there was a boat launch, and didn’t get much information.    Yes, she told me, we would find a small dock where we could launch kayaks.  Yes, she also told me, while there wasn’t a beach to swim at, the lake had several rocks around it that we could use to swim from.

While we never found any rocks suitable for swimming, we did find a dock and a small parking lot, and I can say we definitely weren’t disappointed with Bon Echo Lake, even if it was small.  It was our last paddle after 3 days, and we were probably getting a bit tired.  But it was a beautiful little lake that provided a very relaxing paddle.  The lake was long and relatively skinny so it felt a little bit like wandering down a river, as it was surrounded by towering white pines.

One side of the lake was marshy, while the other was edged by rocks.  Both ends opened into shallow bays, and we saw a family of loons and lots of fish darting around in the clear warm water.
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When we visited Bon Echo in August 2021, it was a super hot and humid week.  We were all ready to get on the water, and we had promised the kids a swim midway through the paddle.  When we couldn’t find a spot to secure the kayaks, nor any spots with decent footing around them, we offered that we would head back to the main beach on Upper Mazinaw Lake after we loaded the kayaks back up, and that was reward enough.
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We really enjoyed our quiet paddle on Bon Echo Lake, and it rounded out a nice week of paddling on Bon Echo Provincial Park’s lakes.  We’d like to try the Kishkebus portage route if we make it back one year when the kids are a bit older.  

Additional Reading

Check out our posts on the other lakes at Bon Echo Provincial Park:

• Upper & Lower Mazinaw Lakes
• Joeperry Lake

Outfitter Options

While Bon Echo Outfitters does operate out of Bon Echo Provincial Park, they do not rent boats on Bon Echo Lake.

More Kayaking Destinations

For more trip planning inspiration, don’t miss our Where to Paddle page for links to more great kayaking destinations in Southern Ontario and beyond.