I am a big fan of Fire Tower Lookouts and when I heard about the Saunders Lake Tower I just had to go!
Round-trip: 2 km
Difficulty: Easy
Location: Thessalon, ON
As you will likely know if you’ve been to this site a few times, I have a huge obsession with fire towers. Big thanks to Dan Kachur for the great info on this one! It was great to see that this tower even still had the Cupola!
From Highway 17 in Thessalon, Ontario turn onto Highway 638 and follow it for about 30km then turn left onto Hwy 670 for 9 km. Turn right onto Shaw Road, and follow this road for about 20km until you come to see Saunders Lake on your right. Along the way, you will pass by a boat launch on Saunders Lake where there are a picnic table and parking area to stop for lunch. The trail to the tower isn’t marked but is located across the road from the north-west tip of the lake.
The trail is an old road and isn’t that hard to find from the road. The trail heads north-west from the road directly to the tower. It’s pretty easy going with a gain of about 200 ft from beginning to end.
Thanks for the post and the information. It is nice to see the tower from a different era is still standing. I have actually suggested the MNR preserve remaining towers and position live stream web cameras on them so they can spot fires and also show the world our vast forest areas.
It was still standing last summer. I could see it but I had a hard time getting to the base of it. Haven’t actually got right up to it yet, hopefully this summer I will have better luck.
just curious is this tower still standing?