The Rock Candy Mountain Trail is located along Highway 129, approximately 35 km north of the town of Thessalon and is an easy 1.5 km hike to a beautiful lookout over Cumming, Tunnel, and Axe Lake.
Trail Details
Round-Trip: 3 km
Difficulty: Easy
Location: Thessalon, ON
Click Here for Google Map of Route
Directions to Trailhead
From Thessalon head north on Highway 129 for 32 km. Look for the first right about 100m after the Tunnel Lake Trading Post. Turn down this gravel road and drive a short distance to where you will see a trailhead sign with a red image of a hiker on the left side of the road, with a place to park directly across from it.
Rock Candy Mountain Hike Details
Park in the clearing and follow the trail from the trailhead sign. The trail isn’t flagged but it is pretty well traveled so it is not too hard to follow. You walk through a forest path that is uphill a lot of the way until you reach the top where there is a bare-rock clearing at the cliff edge. This is the first lookout. From here you can follow the trail toward the north along the cliff edge until you find two more lookouts and the trail just seems to end. All of the lookouts were spectacular.
Return to your car the way you came, but watch as you are coming out from the first lookout back onto the forest trail that you stay to the left. There is a tempting trail to the right that takes you out to another cottage road –so watch that you stay on the left trail as you head back to the parking area as the trail isn’t flagged.
I have heard that this is a good place to view falcons and that there is a nest below the second lookout where you can see the birds flying around when you are there. I didn’t get to see any falcons the day that I went…maybe next time 🙂 I also heard a story from some hikers along the way that the name comes from the way that the lava that once flowed out of the mountain through the existing rock has fallen into pieces off the mountain and lay at the base like rock candy.
The Rock Candy and Grindstone Falls hiking trails are maintained by several Mississagi River Valley lodge owners, please respect all their hard work creating and maintaining these fantastic trails and leave them in the same or better condition than you found them.
