We visited Pukaskwa as part of Big Trip #5 in September 2026. 

From Wawa, it was another easy trip on the Trans-Canada to Pukaskwa National Park, through White River, the home of Winnie the Pooh. There’s a statue of Pooh next to a gas station where we happened to stop.

Pukaskwa is apparently pronounced “PUCK-a-saw,” although we heard it said a bunch of different ways. It’s yet another magnificent park on the shore of Lake Superior, with rugged geology and a mix of sandy, driftwood strewn beaches and beaches covered in smooth pebbles. It’s at the southern end of Canada’s boreal forest, which covers 60% of Canada. The global boreal forest, or taiga, wraps around the Northern Hemisphere at high latitudes, and is the world’s largest land biome, containing 30% of Earth’s forests. Pukaskwa, being at a transition zone, is home to a mix of southern and northern tree species, including white birch, quaking aspen, balsam poplar, spruce, and pine.

Campground

Campsites at Pukaskwa are first come-first served starting at 11am. We rolled in at 10:55 on a September Friday and and there were several spots available with power hookups. After we secured our site we saw lots of other campers cruising through so definitely get there early! There’s another loop of the campground without power so if that’s not a priority for you you’ll have more options.

Our site was quite wooded, but Starlink was ok, and we were adjacent to a comfort station with bathrooms and water spigots.

Hiking

There are a few short hikes in the main area of Pukaskwa, or this one loopy hike, under five miles, that hits all the highlights in the park. The views of the hills and water were gorgeous and the mossy forest was beautiful, but there were lots (for us; we’ve been spoiled by recent hiking) of people and dogs on the trail–although to be fair, we started this hike in the afternoon, where usually we go early in the morning to avoid crowds.

After our hike, I stopped in at the visitor center and the ranger said the only other trail in the park is a 12-mile round-trip hike to the White River Suspension Bridge, and we decided to skip it.

The ranger also said there weren’t any other good hikes in the area, but we found a lovely one in the town of Marathon, about 25 minutes from our campground. This hike to Painters Peak is just over three miles total, climbing through a (boggy after morning rain) forest to a little bald overlooking Lake Superior. We didn’t see anybody else on the trail until we returned to the beach by the parking area.

Marathon didn’t have much going on, but we were able to restock groceries there, then returned to our sweet campsite in Pukaskwa for the night before moving on to Rainbow Falls Provincial Park, and our favorite Lake Superior campsite, in the morning.