Three gorgeous fall drives in Eastern Ontario

8.6K

Keen to admire the fall colours in Eastern Ontario but not sure where to drive? Try one (or more) of these scenic leaf-peeping routes in and around Almonte, Perth, Westport, Cornwall, Alexandria and other pretty spots near Ottawa. Along with stunning autumn leaves, you can enjoy fabulous food, hiking trails, art galleries and other stops along the way.

One bit of advice: Do your scenic drive on a Thursday or a Friday, if you can, to maximize the chances that shops and restaurants will be open, while decreasing the risk of running into a traffic jam of other leaf lovers.

So what are you waiting for? Start the car!

Pakenham, Almonte and Carleton Place

Lanark County bills itself as the Maple Syrup Capital of Ontario, so it’s no surprise that many of its rolling hills are carpeted in maple trees. And that’s what you want when you’re looking for a leaf-peeping destination—after all, sugar maples have some of the brightest and richest fall colours. The other advantage to this drive is that it’s really close to Ottawa, especially if you live in the west end.

Start by taking the Kinburn Side Road (Regional Road 20) exit from Highway 417 toward Pakenham, then prepare yourself for a beautiful view of the village just as you come to the top a hill overlooking the Mississippi River. Do not stop on the hill for a photo! Down at the bottom of the hill, just before you cross the Five Span Bridge, there’s a small park with a parking lot on the right-hand side of the road. You can stash your car there and take lots of lovely pictures.

In and around Pakenham, you could go for a hike at High Lonesome Nature Reserve, pick up some craft beers at Cartwright Springs Brewery, or shop for beautiful hand-made women’s wear at designer Paddye Mann’s boutique.

Your next stop is Almonte, about a 15-minute drive to the southeast along County Road 29. If you’re hungry, choices abound, from organic java at Equator Coffee and sustainable sweets at Hummingbird Chocolate to fresh sandwiches at North Market Bodega and Italian fare at Café Postino. Shop ’til you drop in cute stores galore. Stroll along the Riverwalk to get some nice fall photos of the waterfall and its surrounding heritage stone buildings. Pop into the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum for some local history. And walk off those sweets and sandwiches on the trails at the Mill of Kintail Conservation Area. (For more tips, see my complete guide to Almonte.)

Another short drive (roughly 12 minutes) down County Road 29 brings you to Carleton Place, the largest community on this tour. Unwind (if you aren’t relaxed enough already!) with a meditative walk around the free Carleton Place Community Labyrinth. Kick back with a book and a takeout coffee in the big red Muskoka chairs just across the river from the town hall. If you didn’t eat your fill in Almonte, book ahead for a memorable dinner at Black Tartan Kitchen. And pick up some cheese and fudge at the Cheddar Stop to sustain you on the (short) drive back to Ottawa along Highway 7 and Highway 417. (For additional ideas, see my complete guide to Carleton Place.)

Alexandria, Cornwall and the Long Sault Parkway

This driving route is much more ambitious than my first itinerary, so you might want to break it up with an overnight stay in Cornwall—particularly if you plan to take any of the side trips I suggest. Meandering through largely flat farmland, this scenic drive isn’t as showy on first glance as the one in Lanark County, but it’s packed with things to see and do, as you’ll discover below.

Start by heading east on Highway 417. If you take exit 51 (as suggested in the Google Map above), you can follow a pretty route to the village of Dunvegan. There, if you’re a history buff, you could start following an audio driving tour of heritage sites in the area. Stop #1 is the Glengarry Pioneer Museum in Dunvegan, which created the entertaining tour.

From Dunvegan, you’ll follow fairly quiet rural roads to County Road 34, which takes you south toward Alexandria. A few kilometres before you reach the town, you could hang a left and pop into Stonehouse Vineyard, which offers snacks and wine tastings on a pretty patio surrounded by vines. (Ignore your GPS; my iPhone map app caused me to overshoot the vineyard initially. Instead, watch carefully for the winery’s somewhat hidden sign on the north side of Lochiel Road.)

In Alexandria, the Priest’s Mill Arts Centre (currently under renovation, with an expected re-opening date of September 2023) sells all sorts of art and craft products by local makers. Nearby, Left and Write sells gifts and pretty stationery items. If the weather’s pleasant and you’re hungry, try to snag a patio table next to the waterfall at the North Glengarry, a pub housed in a former gristmill built in 1819.

From Alexandria, keep driving south on County Road 34 for about 11 kilometres. At that point, you could turn right onto County Road 18 for the short drive to St. Raphael’s National Historic Site. This huge 19th-century church was largely destroyed by fire in 1970; the remaining ruin is an atmospheric, peaceful place to take some fall photos.

Head back to (or stay on) County Road 34 to your next stop: Glengarry Fine Cheese, just north of the village of Lancaster. (As you may have intuited by now, I can never resist stopping for cheesy comestibles.)

Once past Lancaster, you could hop onto Highway 401 to drive west to Cornwall, but you want scenery, right? For that, drive a few kilometres further south and pick up County Road 2, which hugs the St. Lawrence River. If you didn’t stop for lunch in Alexandria, try to get a table on the deck overlooking the river at the Blue Anchor Bar & Grill in Glen Walter.

At this point, you may be feeling the need for some exercise. In nearby Cornwall, you could rent bikes at Marina 200 to explore the city’s large network of bike lanes and bike paths—the ones running along the St. Lawrence River and the Cornwall Canal are particularly nice. (Here are lots of other outdoorsy things you can do in Cornwall.)

Not tired yet? Just west of Cornwall is the pièce de résistance along this route: the Long Sault Parkway. This gorgeous road connects 11 small islands in the St. Lawrence, which were created when the St. Lawrence Seaway was purposely flooded in the 1950s. The beaches are closed for the season now, but you can still stow your car in a beach parking lot and enjoy a picnic overlooking the water. (Hey, you worked up an appetite with all that cycling, right?)

At this point, you’ll probably be ready to head for home. The map at the top of this section shows a pretty direct route back to Ottawa via Finch, but there are lots of side trips you could take along the way, if you have the time and inclination. Chesterville is a pretty waterfront village, the St. Albert Cheese Co-op is the spot to go for fresh curds (I know, again with the cheese), or you could enjoy a short forest hike at the W.E. Burton Conservation Area in Russell.

Perth, Westport, Merrickville and Kemptville

Again, this fall scenic drive is awfully ambitious to do in a day; you could always break it up with a stay in one of the communities along the way.

Head southwest on Highway 7 to Perth, with a possible stop en route at Balderson Village Cheese (because, cheese). You could easily spend a day just in Perth, packed as it is with shops, a museum, a delightful riverfront park, restaurants, coffee shops and even a chocolatier. (For details, see my post on day tripping to Perth.)

But if driving and leaf peeping are your priorities, you can eventually head southwest from Perth along the route mapped below to Westport. Be ready for the stunning view just north of Westport on County Road 10. You’ll crest a hill and see the village far below, tucked between two lakes framed by trees aglow with fall colours. Again, do not stop here for photos! You’re just asking for some poor unsuspecting driver to rear-end your car. Instead, take a left just near the top of the hill and pop into Foley Mountain Conservation Area. From there, you can take a gentle hike to a lookout point that gives you a similar view of the village, and you can snap pictures to your heart’s content.

There’s lots more shopping, eating and drinking to enjoy in Westport. You could check out Rosie Yumski’s food and kitchenware shop, the craft beers at Westport Brewing Company, or pizza and wine at Scheuermann Vineyard and Winery. And a few minutes away in Newboro, shopaholics could spend ages exploring Kilborn’s on the Rideau, a rambling store that seems to sell just about everything.

Just east of Newboro, pick up Highway 15, which you’ll follow northeast to yet another photogenic Rideau Lakes village (Portland) before reaching the bigger burg of Smiths Falls. Again, you could easily spend a day there, whether you want to hike the flat Cataraqui Trail, enjoy some great sandwiches from C’Est Tout Bakery or see the vintage locomotives at the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario. For more ideas, see my complete guide to Smiths Falls.

Don’t head back to Ottawa just yet—there’s still more to see! Just down County Road 43, you’ll find Merrickville, a stone Rideau Canal village seemingly created in a cuteness lab. Seriously, this place is gorgeous, and it’s packed with boutiques and restaurants; see this Merrickville post for tips.

And not far from Merrickville is my last suggestion—the town of Kemptville. If you’re not shopped and noshed out, you’ll find lots of possibilities. (Jac’s Boutique is lovely for clothing, and nearby Brewed Awakenings is a great spot for a caffeinated pick-me-up and tasty baked goods.) However, I’m suggesting Kemptville here mainly because it gives you one last chance to get out among those glorious autumn leaves before heading home. Head to the Ferguson Forest Centre to explore 22 kilometres of wooded trails.

When will the leaves be at their peak?

If you’re wondering when and where the leaves will be at their best, check out my list of online fall foliage trackers. (Isn’t the Internet a marvellous thing, sometimes?)

Looking for more tips for things to see and do in Eastern Ontario, the Outaouais and beyond? Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter and/or buy my guidebook, Ottawa Road Trips: Your 100-km Getaway Guide.

As the owner of Ottawa Road Trips, I acknowledge that I live on, work in and travel through the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be present on this land. Ottawa Road Trips supports Water First, a non-profit organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration.