Home  |  Northeast Region |  

River

Duchesnay River

Class

Cascade

Size

Large

Visitability

Outstanding

Accessibility

Free

Activity

Moderate

Walk Time

3min

Trail

Moderate

Gorge Access

Moderate

Other Trails

lots

County

Nipissing

From North Bay, drive west on Hwy 17 to the edge of the city. Watch for the signs for Duchesnay Creek, and park in the dirt lot on the right side of the road. To reach the eastern falls, follow the trail from the parking area into the woods. You will soon climb a staircase and then walk a few minutes to the falls.

Settlement

North Bay

NTS Map

31L/5

Easting

614620

Northing

5132436

UTM Zone

Duchesnay Falls is really a group of several waterfalls clustered along one reach of the Duchesnay River. While this could be described as one entry, I've broken it into two - East and West - because of the outstanding visitability of this falls. This is easily one of the waterfall highlights of the Northeast Region.

Duchesnay Falls starts as a series of low, picturesque cascades on the river. The river soon breaks into two main channels, each which tumble over several different waterfalls. The east channel has two main waterfalls as well as a "staircase-like" cascade. The uppermost falls is the "staircase" cascade, where a narrow section of the river flows down through the forest over a narrow bedrock exposure at about a 30 degree angle. This is not a step-class falls, so don't be distracted by my use of the "staircase" terminology. The path to the top of the waterfall leads right beside this section.

The second waterfall (East, Upper) is a 8 to 10 m high cascade, occuring just 20-30 m downstream of the split between the two channels. This falls is shown in one of the links at the bottom of this page. From the spot where this photograph was taken, you can see the West, Upper falls just to the left of the edge of the photo. You can easily get to the base of this waterfall by finding a short route off the main path.

The third, lowest falls on the east branch is the waterfall shown above. This is a good slide-class waterfall, falling about 7 to 8 m over a reach of the same length. You can view this waterfall from the main path (view shown in this photo), or you can make your way to the bottom of the falls by following a different path before you climb the wooden stairs.