Parking
Enter Brent Campground from Brent Road and use designated campground parking near the historic walk. Follow the on-site signs to the western road access; there is no separately named trailhead lot.
Overview
About Brent Historic Site Trail
Why go
- Easy way to explore Brent's old settlement between camp or canoe trips.
Heads up
- The route follows campground roads shared with vehicles.
- The listed distance and exact start point are not clearly specified.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Algonquin map
Full mapElevation314–332 m
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
4 active Algonquin alerts
- ClosureProvoking Falls Bridge ClosedThe Provoking Falls bridge on the Highland Backpacking Trail is closed because of safety concerns; the bridge has been removed. - Use the posted reroute, which adds 2.5 km.Official details
- CautionLow Water on Backcountry Canoe RoutesOntario Parks currently lists low-water alerts for six backcountry canoe-route sections: - Varley Lake from Carl Wilson Lake - Latour Creek north of Rosebary Lake - Carcajou Creek north towards…Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Algonquin Tour Guide
Your drive to Brent Historic Site Trail, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Algonquin Provincial Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Algonquin audio tourRecorded for this trailhead
Brent and Cedar Lake0:00 / 0:35
“You're nearing Brent on Cedar Lake, a small campground and paddling base with a much bigger past. By the early nineteen hundreds, this logging and railway settlement had several hundred residents, a school and a church.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Algonquin Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Count the Carry, Too
- Brent Crater Observation Tower
- A Beaver's Underwater Pantry
- Drilling into Brent's Past
- 107 audio storiesacross Algonquin’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Moose, Eastern Wolf, Black Bear, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 39 trails, 66 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Brent Historic Site Trail
A gentle townsite walkThe Brent Historic Site Trail is an easy 3 km out-and-back along campground roads through the…
The Brent Historic Site Trail is an easy 3 km out-and-back along campground roads through the old Brent settlement. Allow about two hours if you stop at the history points. It is a road-based walk, not a separate wilderness trail.
What the walk is forThe draw is the settlement's history, with interpretive stops along the route.
The draw is the settlement's history, with interpretive stops along the route. The Brent Graveyard is one distinctive stop, marked by a white cross and an enclosure in the trees. It makes a good change of pace if you're already camping or paddling at Cedar Lake; its payoff is the townsite history rather than a summit climb.
Distance and accessThe listed 3 km doesn't say whether it includes the return. The mapped corridor is about 0.
The listed 3 km doesn't say whether it includes the return. The mapped corridor is about 0.87 mi one way, so we treat the outing as a return walk along the same road. Start at the western campground-road access, continue through the townsite, then retrace your route. Use designated parking in Brent Campground and follow the historic-walk signs. The campground is seasonal, so confirm access outside its operating season. Dogs are allowed on a leash no longer than 2 m. Keep off the abandoned railway corridor beside the walk; it is private property.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Algonquin
1,237 sightingsMooseMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
245 sightingsEastern WolfMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
331 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
604 sightingsLoonMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
110 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 11 AMSighting map
192 sightingsRiver OtterMost seen around 6 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Algonquin. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
