Silent Lake Conservation Area
Address: 1589 Silent Lake Park Road, Bancroft, ON K0L 1C0, it is about 2 hour an a half or more of driving from Toronto. It is a beautiful park or conservation area in Bancroft.
Admission: First I thought that it was free of admission in the winter, but we had to check in and pay the fee before going in. And, there was an actual staff over there to assist us. The fee was $18 for all of us (2 adults and one seven year old kid). Parking: There were plenty of parking out there. It is a bit far from Toronto and on a cold day as well as it needed admission to get in, so it was not crowded at all.
All about Silent Lake
From the Parking to the Lake:
The time that I went there was on Jan 8 2022 and it was so much snow a day before which made the ground full with thick snow. But they pave the ground for us for the parking and the parking lot is spacious to park so many car. The park itself is huge to explore, and they even have the lodges/campground for renting during the winter as well. And some trails are also open for the winter. I saw people coming with some ski equipment and snowshoes to do at the park. It would be so much more fun than just hiking a lone.
Froze Silent Lake
All the lake surface was frozen and it was all covered by snow. It was so much fun and made me feel like I was in a different world, to walk on this blanket of snow. My 7 year old kid enjoyed making marks/drawing on the snow. Also, with a sun reflection on it (the time that I visited there was in the late afternoon and the sun was already down) so it made a golden brown on the blanket of snow.
The entire lake was frozen and it was a good chance to walk on the flat surface lake which we could never ever do in the summer/spring time.
Explore the trails
This is the entire information that I got from the map or information brochure that was provided at the entrance.
The park includes many opportunities such as: heated roofed accommodations (yurts and cabins). Winter activities include over 34 km of cross country ski trails, 8 km of snowshoes trails, and ice fishing.
For the hiking trails, they have 19 km trail length. Each trail features the quietness and beauty of the environment around the Silent Lake.
Here are the trail information: Lakehead loop (1.5km) around 30 minutes round trip marked as Easy, Bonnie’s Pond (3km) around 1.25 hours round trip marked as Moderate, and Lakeshore trail (15km) 6 hours round trip marked as Strenuous.
The trail that I chose to do was the Lakehead loop because we did not have so much time. But it was a great workout since the path was quite up and down but not too challenging. Note that, this trail was very beautiful because it was along the lake and the hillside, also I took a shortcut in the evening to go back by walking on the frozen lake straight back.
