Ouimet Canyon
 
 

Contributed by Peter Rotheisler

Ouimet Canyon lookout is located via an 11 kilometre long
access road which turns west from Highway 11/17, approximately
32 kilometres west of Nipigon.

Ouimet Canyon is a dramatic (and accessible) example of an
erosional channel which likely connected the waters of glacial
Lake Agassiz to the Superior Basin. The canyon is a 100 metres
deep north-south trending chasm. It is unlikely that a channel as
narrow and deep as the Ouimet Canyon was formed directly by
glacial erosion. It more probably developed mainly by proglacial
and subglacial meltwater erosion, which exploited a zone of weakness
in the bedrock during late glacial time.