Parking
From Highway 17, follow gravel Brent Road about 40 km south to the Cedar Lake-Brent campground. Use the beach/day-use parking area beside the boat launch; the Limestone Trail starts by the dock. A valid park permit is required.
Overview
About Limestone Trail
Why go
- A secluded Cedar Lake beach at the end of an easy walk
- A small fossil-bearing limestone point
Heads up
- Brent is reached by a 40 km gravel-road approach
- The waterfront is unsupervised and dogs cannot go onto the beach
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Algonquin map
Full mapElevation312–321 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 Limestone 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 Limestone Trail
A short walk to the waterLimestone Trail is an easy 0.
Limestone Trail is an easy 0.5 km round trip from the Brent campground boat dock to a secluded beach on Cedar Lake. Allow 20–30 minutes. Treat the distance as approximate: the mapped path to the shore is about 190 m one way, then you return along the same corridor.
The shoreline pointThe dirt path reaches a small wooded point and beach.
The dirt path reaches a small wooded point and beach. The nearby Brent Limestone Cliff is a 15-foot fossil-bearing face on the point between the campground's two halves. Its limestone can be hard to spot on foot and is clearer from the water. This is a short shoreline stop rather than a longer hike.
Access, permits and waterFrom Highway 17, follow gravel Brent Road about 40 km south to the Cedar Lake-Brent campground.
From Highway 17, follow gravel Brent Road about 40 km south to the Cedar Lake-Brent campground. Use the beach/day-use parking area by the boat launch; the trailhead is beside the dock. A valid park permit is required. The waterfront is unsupervised. Dogs can use many Algonquin trails, but cannot go on beaches, so leave them at camp if you plan to use the shore.
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.
