We visited Sleeping Giant PP as part of Big Trip #5 in September 2026. 

Sleeping Giant was our final provincial park for this trip–or rather, the last one we camped in. We added in one more short provincial park hike just before crossing back into the US, but Sleeping Giant was our last *real* provincial park experience. It was our biggest hiking park–only Lake Superior PP was close; we loved our very private campsite; and in a tiny village hidden on the end of the peninsula beyond the park there’s an adorable general store with a bakery!

What’s better than fresh baked goods after a hike? Or before a hike? Or for any reason at all? Silver Islet General Store, just a ten-minute drive from our campsite, was our first stop once we set up the Airstream. It’s an adorable seasonal gift shop with some basic food and supplies, plus a bakery and weekend tea room–we got several goodies over two visits including a Persian, which is a Thunder Bay specialty. We bought it not knowing what it was, and after being surprised that something named “Persian” tasted like a strawberry-frosted donut, we looked it up.

A Persian in these parts is basically a cinnamon bun with berry icing. The story goes that US General John Pershing visited a bakery in Thunder Bay after WWI, and the bakery’s owner invented the treat to commemorate his visit, but misspelling the general’s name. Love the story, loved the treat, loved the store.

Silver Islet General Store originally serviced Silver Islet Mining Company in the late 1800s, and it’s the oldest business in Northwestern Ontario. The community of Silver Islet is a small cluster of houses lining the bottom of the Sleeping Giant peninsula, built for the miners and now summer cottages. The Silver Islet silver mine was once the largest in the world; the mine shafts flooded in 1884 and the mine was never reopened. On a calm day you can take a boat out to the mine’s island and see the submerged mine shafts–creepy.

Sleeping Giant is two hours from Rainbow Falls Provincial Park to the east, and 1:15 from Thunder Bay, the next big city heading west. We restocked gas and groceries in Nipigon on the way into the park.

Campground

Our campsite in Sleeping Giant was lovely: wooded, spacious, and private, but we didn’t score a lakefront site. It was quite windy when we visited, so maybe we didn’t want to be on the water anyway. Our site had power, and we had a water spigot a short walk away. We also had a picnic table and a fire pit and spent as much time in our yard as we could until the wind drove us in.

Hiking

We hiked three trails in Sleeping Giant: two little guys and a whopper. All trailheads were only about ten minutes from our campsite, and two share a trailhead.

Our first day in the park, we hiked twice. First up was Sea Lion Trail, only about a mile and a half, with dramatic shoreline views and a rock formation that used to look like a lion before his head fell into the lake.

Next we drove only six minutes or so to Middlebrun Bay Trail, a flat and easy walk through pretty woods, popping out at a beach on a calm bay. This one was about four miles total.

On day 2 we were up early for Top of the Giant, one of the best day hikes in Ontario. The hike is long, over 14 miles, with a long flat part in the woods before beginning a tough climb to the top. It was a clear morning and the Lake Superior views up top were incredible.

We loved it but would have been happy to skip the not-inspiring four mile stretch through the boggy woods before the real trail started, and it turns out you can! Bikes are allowed on that part of the trail, so bring your bike and have a shorter and happier hike!

After a several-day run of power-only sites (meaning we had to be extra-careful with our gray water use) and being alone in the woods, we were ready for full hookups and a real city, so we moved on to a KOA in Thunder Bay and had dinner and a drink out on the town!