The Agawa Canyon Railway Tour – A Beautiful Way to Explore Ontario

With 2025 shaping up to be the year Canadians commit to vacationing in their own backyard, there’s no better time to explore the beauty that’s been here all along. If you’ve ever wanted to step back in time and see what much of Canada looked like hundreds of years ago — all without leaving Ontario — then the Agawa Canyon Railway Tour is a stunning window to the past.

Most of the 10-hour round trip train ride into the Agawa Canyon is out of reach of cell service — phones and tablets read “no service” and teens, tweens, and some hyper-connected adults may hyperventilate a little. It’s part of the rugged charm of being so remote that most of the places seen from the train aren’t accessible by car — because there are no roads. The only way into the park is by train or backcountry hiking (the train is by far the more relaxing of the two options). Everyone needs to step back, take a deep breath, and resist the urge to panic. A day out of cell phone contact is not the end of the world; everything will still be there when you return to full signal strength. Plus, who wants to be on social media when there’s breathtaking natural scenery everywhere you turn? Instead of connecting to Wi-Fi, you can take the time to connect with your family — and with the depth and breadth of the great Canadian wilderness.

The Algoma Central Railway broke ground in 1900 in Sault Ste. Marie and completed to Hearst in 1914 after plans to continue it further north to Hudson’s Bay were abandoned.  The railway’s initial purpose was to carry resources and material into Sault Ste. Marie, but now the train carries only passengers yearning to explore somewhere still untouched by the modern world.  When the train arrives at Mile 114, otherwise known as Canyon Park, you won’t find chain restaurants, strip malls, or amusement park rides waiting for you. Instead, you will find pristine natural beauty, all at the bottom of the Agawa Canyon. 

As we rode the rails deeper into the Agawa Canyon, I kept thinking to myself that this is how most of Canada looked when the first settlers arrived hundreds of years ago: rugged, vast, dense, and breathtakingly beautiful. I felt very small in comparison to the vastness surrounding me. My children, conversely, felt like giants as they saw their country with fresh new eyes and a sense of awe. They had so many questions about what they were seeing. How long does this go on? Do people actually live out here? Are there bears in the forest? How was the railway built? How many people did it take to build the railway? What happened in the winter when it was snowing? Are we going to see a moose?

Thankfully, I didn’t need to answer any of those questions because the train has flat screen televisions throughout that have GPS triggered commentary. Passengers will learn about the history of the Algoma Central Railway, told in a way that brings history to life. The commentary is peppered with fun facts like the one about the special whistle that had to be invented to scare off moose because some moose like to charge moving objects such as trains. My kids loved this fact and now think that moose are at Clint Eastwood coolness levels.

Spoiler alert: we did not, in fact see any moose. However, when we stepped off the train, I felt like an explorer touching down on uncharted soil (despite the fact that well over 300,000 people have made this journey before me). Seeing the natural beauty that surrounded me, it was easy to see why so many of the members of the Group of Seven came here for inspiration. From the towering height of the canyon itself to the black and gold waters of the Agawa River, to the rushing waters of Black Beaver Falls, artistic inspiration is everywhere.

Our Agawa Canyon railway tour stop gave us time to stretch our legs, explore the trails, and take in the sights before re-boarding the train. Like the journey there, it was leisurely, unhurried, and full of time to talk. As a family we snuggled, napped, gazed at the landscape zipping by, and pondered coming back to do some of the adventure trips on offer. We were torn between snowmobiling in the winter and camping in a rail car at the bottom of the canyon in the summer. As we approached the end of our journey, I noticed that I once again had cellular service so I did the only thing I could think of: I slipped the phone back into my purse and enjoyed being out of reach for just a bit longer.