Family Fun at Algonquin Eco-Lodge!

It is Spring Break in Ontario. Your children are off for a week and you are looking for an educational, fun, and exciting way to spend quality family time with them. How about a tour that emphasizes good old fashion family fun? This is an excellent way for parents and their children to have a wonderful time in a Winter Wonderland, at the Algonquin EcoLodge. There are lots of activities for kids of all ages, from board games in the evenings to snowshoe hikes during the day. There are no televisions or video games, since the ecolodge is run by alternative energy, so it is a wonderful way to spend quality time with your children, or with your parents.

The Eco-Hunt is an outdoor activity that combines a treasure hunt with snowshoeing and GPS navigation. Participants are given a GPS and a set of snowshoes. The GPS is preloaded with the location of several “Geocaches” that are hidden in the surrounding forest. A geocache is a container whose location coordinates has been recorded by a GPS. People use the provided GPS units to find these hidden containers. Inside are an assortment of prizes that the kids can take. There is also a bit of information regarding the natural history or geography of Algonquin Park. The caches are hidden in places that demonstrate this information.

This is a great way to get your family out and exploring their environment. It’s fun for the adults as well as the kids, since everyone enjoys a treasure hunt – the adults get to play with some high tech toys, and the kids get the thrill of discovering the cache. It also has the added benefit of getting everyone outside and active. Much better than spending the week indoors with an Xbox. And since cell phones don’t work, parents won’t get distracted from the fun at hand!

In the evening, as we gather around the bonfire toasting marshmallows, we will show you how to howl for wolves. Algonquin Park has about 40 wolf packs and, in fact, we have one that lives very near to the Ecolodge (we’ve seen fresh wolf tracks right up to our front door!!) so hopefully some of the wolves will respond to our wolf howls. We will teach you about the night sky, and show you how to build a quinzee, a shelter made of snow. You can even try sleeping in it!!!

A 3 day Ontario March Break package includes the following activities. Of course, you are free to relax and “do your own thing”.