Visitor guide
2,721 square kilometres of granite, pine and water in southeast Manitoba, holding more than 200 lakes. Here is what is in it and how to reach it.
The Whiteshell is Manitoba's best known park. It sits in the southeast corner of the province and runs to the Ontario border. It was a forest reserve from 1931 and became a provincial park in 1961.
It is all Canadian Shield. Bare pink granite, black and white spruce, jack pine, balsam fir and aspen, and water everywhere. A dozen rivers run through it and more than 200 lakes sit in the rock. The Whiteshell River strings West Hawk Lake, Caddy Lake, Jessica Lake, White Lake and Betula Lake together before it joins the Winnipeg River.
People come to swim, paddle, fish, hike and sit by a fire. In winter they come to ski, snowmobile and fish through the ice. Falcon Lake is 126 km east of Winnipeg on the Trans-Canada, which most people drive in about 90 minutes.
The park is named after the megis: a small white seashell that is sacred to the Anishinaabe. The teaching is that the Creator used it to breathe life into people.
People have lived here for at least 8,000 years. The petroforms were laid out by Algonkian speaking peoples, ancestors of today's Anishinaabe, and the Midewiwin society used them for healing. Around 1800 more Anishinaabe moved into the area from the Lake Superior country.
The first Europeans came through in the spring of 1733, when the La Vérendrye expedition found a Cree settlement using sturgeon weirs on the river. After that the Winnipeg River became a main fur trade route. Alexander Mackenzie, David Thompson and the painter Paul Kane all travelled it. The brigades ran until the North West Company merged with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821.
The railway arrived next. CPR construction started in 1877 and trains were running between Winnipeg and Fort William by 1883. Rennie began as a stop where locomotives took on coal and water. The first summer cottages went up around 1920 near Brereton Lake and the West Hawk and Falcon Lake shores, and people have been coming out for the weekend ever since.
Six you should know by name. Each one has its own campground, its own beach, and its own crowd of people who swear it is the best one.
South Whiteshell · off the Trans-Canada
The deepest lake in Manitoba at 115 metres, and 16.2 square kilometres across. The round shape is a crater. A meteor hit the granite here and the lake filled the hole. Divers come for the clear water.
South Whiteshell · off the Trans-Canada
The busiest lake in the park, with five islands, a golf course, a beach and a strip of shops. Named after Pierre Falcon, the Métis songwriter who lived from 1793 to 1876.
South Whiteshell · near West Hawk
Famous for the tunnels. Two granite tunnels were blasted under the rail line and now let you paddle straight through the rock into South Cross Lake, then on to North Cross Lake. The first one is about a 2.5 km paddle from the resort docks.
North Whiteshell · on PR 307
A wide spot on the Winnipeg River with a large campground and a store. The Bannock Point petroforms are about 6 km east of it along the same road.
North Whiteshell · on PR 307
Sits between White Lake and Nutimik Lake, with a campground and a sand beach. Quieter than the southern lakes and a good base for the petroforms.
North Whiteshell · off PTH 44
One of the northern campgrounds, along with Otter Falls, White Lake and Big Whiteshell Lake. Good fishing, and close to the Alfred Hole Goose Sanctuary at Rennie.
Bannock Point is a flat sheet of bedrock with stones laid out on it in the shape of snakes, turtles, fish, people and a thunderbird. First Nations people placed them here for teaching and for ceremony. Some are thought to be up to 2,000 years old. The site is still sacred and still used.
You can visit. Bannock Point is on Provincial Road 307, about 6 km east of Nutimik Lake. Manitoba park interpreters run free guided walks through the summer and will take a group or a class by arrangement. Call the Park Interpreter's office at 204-369-3157.
The larger site at Tie Creek is closed to visitors. It holds the biggest collection of petroforms in North America, and in 1979 the province fenced off nine acres of it to keep it undisturbed. That fence is still there.
The Mantario Trail is the big one. 64 km of granite ridge, bog and lake between Caddy Lake and Big Whiteshell Lake. Most people take three to five days. It is remote, it is hard, and help can be hours or days away, so it is for experienced backpackers carrying everything they need.
Hunt Lake Trail is the hard day hike. 13 km along the shore of West Hawk Lake, over bare granite, with roots and rock the whole way. Take water and good boots.
Falcon Creek Trail is 2.2 km and easy. It is also where a man reported being burned by a landed craft in 1967, in what is still called the Falcon Lake incident. Park interpreters run a guided hike and tell the story.
The short self guiding trailsare the best of the park for an hour of your time: Amisk, Pine Point, McGillivray Falls, Forester's Footsteps and the Whiteshell River trail. Signs along each one explain what you are looking at.
The Trans Canada Trail runs along the western side, and the section from Pinawa to the Seven Sisters dam is about 17 km of easy walking, riding or skiing.
Four small museums and centres, and all of them are worth a rainy afternoon.
From the south
The fastest way to Falcon Lake and West Hawk Lake. About 90 minutes from Winnipeg, and you stay on divided highway nearly the whole way.
From the north
Enters the park at Seven Sisters Falls and runs along the Winnipeg River past Nutimik, Betula and White Lake. This is the road to Bannock Point.
From the middle
Comes in at Rennie, near the goose sanctuary, and links the northern lakes to the southern ones through the middle of the park.
Inside the park you have campgrounds, cabins and a handful of resorts. There are eleven park campgrounds: Betula Lake, Big Whiteshell Lake, Brereton Lake, Caddy Lake, Falcon Lake Beach, Falcon Lake Lakeshore, Nutimik Lake, Opapiskaw, Otter Falls, West Hawk Lake and White Lake. Book early for July and August.
Wilderness Edge is not in the park. We are in Pinawa, on the western edge of it, about ten minutes from the boundary and a short drive from the north gate at Seven Sisters Falls.
That matters if you are bringing a group. Campgrounds are built for families of four. We have 143 guest rooms, a kitchen that feeds hundreds at a sitting, meeting rooms with heat and power, and everyone under one roof. Groups use us as the base and drive into the park for the day.
In southeast Manitoba, running to the Ontario border. Falcon Lake is 126 km east of Winnipeg on the Trans-Canada Highway. The park covers about 2,720 square kilometres.
It is named after the megis, a small white seashell that is sacred to the Anishinaabe. The teaching is that the Creator used it to breathe life into people.
Three main ways in. The Trans-Canada Highway brings you to Falcon Lake and West Hawk Lake in the south. Provincial Road 307 enters the north of the park at Seven Sisters Falls. Provincial Trunk Highway 44 enters at Rennie.
Yes. Manitoba Parks charges a vehicle permit for every provincial park. You can buy one online before you go or at a park entrance.
West Hawk Lake, in the Whiteshell. It is 115 metres deep. The round shape comes from a meteor that hit the granite here long ago.
Yes. Two granite tunnels were cut under the rail line and now join Caddy Lake to South Cross Lake and North Cross Lake. It is one of the best known paddles in the province.
At Bannock Point, on Provincial Road 307 between Nutimik Lake and Betula Lake. The site is open to visitors and park interpreters run free guided walks.
No. Wilderness Edge is in Pinawa, on the western edge of the Whiteshell. The park boundary is minutes away and the north park gate at Seven Sisters Falls is a short drive.
Send us your dates and headcount. We come back the same day with rooms, meals and activities priced in one quote.
The town on the park's western edge, and the closest beds to the north gate.
The slow float that runs all summer, one hour from Winnipeg.
How to book a guided walk at Bannock Point with a park interpreter.
What to bring and where to drill, for first timers and old hands.
143 guest rooms ten minutes from the park boundary.
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