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River

Duchesnay River

Class

Cascade

Size

Large

Visitability

Outstanding

Accessibility

Free

Activity

Moderate

Walk Time

5min

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 western falls, follow the trail beside the road over the river, and then follow the good dirt path into the woods to the falls. The walk to the falls is less than 5 minutes.

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 west channel carries well over half of the river's discharge and has two main waterfalls. The lower falls on the west branch is the largest of all at Duchesnay, and is pictured above. It is a cascade that falls perhaps 8 to 10 m and is close to the same width at its base. Once again, my photography fails to accurately portray the size of this waterfall. Ok, it isn't huge, but it's considerable.

The lower falls grades into the upper falls, which is a long cascade that drops perhaps 10 m over 20-30 m. You can walk right to the edge of the upper falls, by diverting off the main trail and carefully walking out across the exposed bedrock. Be careful though! There aren't any steep drop-offs, but the rocks can be slippery and steep. There are no fences at any of the falls.

The uppermost waterfalls at Duchesnay are small cascades no more than a few meters in height. I found these to produce absolutely gorgeous photography in autumn.