Gargantua Islands

Our first visit to the islands of Gargantua happened during our cross Canada canoe journey. Cape Gargantua’s primitive beauty was unforgettable. The dark volcanic rock pockmarked with patterns easily transformed into faces. Cliffs and caves overhung with ancient cedars. Lake Superior Provincial Park’s common names for the Devil’s Chair, and a larger island to the south, Devil’s Warehouse Island, were named by overzealous missionaries eager to abolish the Anishnabe’s most spiritual connections.  But stories of Nanabijou who rested here after leaping across Lake Superior from Thunder Bay, are being revived and re-told again by the people whose cultural heritage is rooted in this place.  So when these islands were poised to be sold by private owners, the Lake Superior Watershed Conservancy was able enact a permanent conservation outcome to see these islands remain wild for all time.

Arial shot of the Gargantua islands

Gargantua Islands Are Protected By The Lake Superior Watershed Conservancy

The McGuffins are founders of the international non-profit, the Lake Superior Watershed Conservancy. LSWC is an organization dedicated to ensuring the long-term sustainable health of the entire Lake Superior watershed for the future of the total ecosystem and the people who live within it. Through the basin-wide communication, education, scientific study, preservation and conservation activities, we are dedicated to protecting the natural legacy of the largest fresh water lake, by surface, in the world. We invite you to contact LSWC to make a donation or become involved in protecting this World Wonder. Read more on how the Lake Superior Watershed Conservancy saved these culturally and ecologically important islands: www.superiorconservancy.org/gargantua-islands-preserve

Experiencing the Gargantua Islands

The Gargantua Islands lie off the coast of Lake Superior Provincial Park, a two-hour drive north of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario on highway 17, the Trans Canada highway. Once in the Park, the unpaved Gargantua access road off highway 17 provides the closest access point to the islands. Use the remote park registration for backcountry camping.
You can best experience the islands by paddling north from Gargantua Harbour.  Or there is a Coastal Hiking Trail which takes you to Warp Bay where you can see the islands from shore.

 

Gargantua Island Map

Gargantua Preserve Map
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