Canada Guide
Ontario
Gatineau Park
A good reason to venture north from Ottawa is the rolling forested hills and lakes of Gatineau Park, which extends northwest from Gatineau and has long been a favourite with the region's hikers and cyclists, who troop off here in their hundreds every summer weekend. From the Musée Canadien des Civilisations, it's just 3km west – follow the signs – to the park's southern entrance. The park was founded in 1934 when the government snapped up the land to stop its deforestation for firewood during the hard years of the Depression. The park is latticed with hiking trails and many of these are readily reached along the park's most scenic road, the Champlain Parkway, a turning off the park's main road, the Gatineau Parkway.
Cocooned within the park – and signed from the Gatineau Parkway – is the Mackenzie King Estate (mid-May to mid-Oct Mon– Fri 11am–5pm; Sat & Sun 11am–6pm; $8 per car), once the summer retreat of prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. In a characteristically eccentric manner, King littered the grounds of his estate with architectural follies – chunks of the old Ottawa Parliament buildings and so forth – and his former house, the otherwise inaccessible Moorside, now offers light meals and high teas (advance reservations on 
819/827-3405).