Thousand Islands National Park-Jones Creek West Trails

Another weekend another trail, in this case two in one day but you can find part two here.

The first trail I did was Wolf and Hawk Loop in the Jones Creek West property of the park. This was my first time visiting Thousand Islands National Park, so I wasn't sure what to really expect. The park is well known as a boating park, as most of the islands are only accessible with a private boat. The park does have some chunks of mainland property as well, which is where these trails can be found.

The trailhead for these two trails (which is really just a loop with a there and back portion) is found on county road 5 just off of highway 401. The closest exit from the highway is 675. Parking is just on the shoulder of the road, but I would recommend you park on the east side as the shoulder is wider.

The trail as a whole is just under 8km which I did in 2 hours. There was 188m in elevation.

I seemed to be the first person on the trail that day as the amount of spider webs I went through was truly outstanding.

The first part of the trail which is called the Wolf Trail is a straight section of trail that has some slight elevation changes, and a small boardwalk section. It mainly passes through a hardwood forest mainly made up of Maple, Oak, White Pine and Shagbark Hickory with some other species interspersed within. There are some rather large trees along this section of trail.

At the end of the Wolf Trail is a small boardwalk section that goes over a rather sad and gross looking beaver pond. When I was there the water level was quite low due to the very dry summer we have had in South Eastern Ontario. Even due to the low water I still saw some frogs and turtles on the banks.

From the boardwalk the trail climbs a hill and comes to a fork, this is the start of the Hawk Loop which is a 3.9KM trail that loops around. This trail at the time of my hike needed some serious maintenance so unless you like climbing over some significant downed trees and are good with way finding I would turn back at the boardwalk.

At the fork I decided to turn left and go clockwise around the loop. It is a nice trail that passes through a variety of habitats but does need some maintenance. I'm not sure if it is just due to budget constraints, lack of equipment at the park or just by design but this trail is rather rugged in parts, especially for Southern Ontario. All of the trees that were down across the trail occurred this year as most of them still had the leaves attached, and some were even still green.

This trail passed through some hardwood forests very similar to the Wolf Trail, some pine forests which were a nice change and this loop had a lookout with a bench, but the view was grown over. There is also some significant elevation changes in this section as you climb up and back down some rock outcrops. Once you finish the Hawk Loop you return back to the car following the Wolf Trail.

The Jones Creek West Trails used to link up to the Jones Creek East Trails but due to a boardwalk that was damaged the trails no longer join. It appears this happened a few years ago and the park hasn't fixed it yet.

All of these photos were taken on my iPhone 16Pro