Parry Sound

Long before the European explorers, Parry Sound was inhabited by the Ojibwe who referred to it by Shining Shore. Captain Henry Bayfield surveyed its waters in the 19th century and named the town after the Arctic explorer Sir William Parry. Years later, rail service made Parry Sound a valued depot along the rail lines to Western Canada.

During the early part of the 20th century, Parry Sound attracted artists such as Tom Thomson and others from the Group of Seven. Historically, the town competed with a nearby rival lake port at Depot Harbour; that community is now a ghost town.

From spring to mid-summer, lake waters are cooler than nearby land areas, resulting in less precipitation, but alternation of low clouds and fog resulting from warmer air passing over snow-covered ground, frequent into May most years with occasional sunshine, especially once the long winter's snow cover has melted (mostly May through July). Parry Sound's average driest month is July; here, thunderstorms are rare, due to cool lake waters inhibiting the combination of heat and humidity that fuels thunderstorm activity over areas like the central, southern and eastern United States.

From September to January, nearby waters release their stored warmth from the summer season, and increasingly strong polar and Arctic air outbreaks pass over these still-relatively-warm waters before hitting Parry Sound. This results in heavy cloud formation, unstable rain showers (in September and October), transitioning toward heavy snow showers and squalls as temperatures continue to drop from November to January. December, the wettest month, sees heavy snowfall, followed by more in January.

• Town of Parry Sound
• 🌍 Visitors' Information Centre, 2 Bay St. May (Victoria Day) - Oct (Thanksgiving) 10AM-6PM; Nov-Apr M-Sa 10AM-4PM. (updated Mar 2023)

Parry Sound is 225 km (140 miles) north of Toronto on Highway 400; exit on Bowes Street (exit 224). From Sudbury and the Trans-Canada Highway mainline, go 160 km (100 miles) south on Highway 69 (2hr 15 min) to Parry Sound Drive. A branch of the Trans-Canada Highway passes through the area, traveling between Sudbury and Kanata (near Ottawa) on Highway 69 and 400, then Highway 12, then Highway 7, then Highway 417.

• Ontario Northland, toll-free: +1-800-461-8558. Operates primarily in Northern Ontario. Offers several daily trips between Toronto and Sudbury via Barrie. Some trips also stop in Orillia and King City. From Sudbury, onward connections are available to Sault Ste Marie, Timmins, North Bay and Ottawa. (updated Mar 2023)
• FlixBus. Service from Sudbury, Barrie, and Toronto. (updated Apr 2024)

See also: Rail travel in Canada

• VIA Rail Canada, toll-free: +1-888-842-7245. Operates train routes across Canada. (updated Mar 2022) Operates The Canadian between Toronto and Vancouver with stops in both directions in medium to large cities and tourist destinations such as Sudbury, Winnipeg, Portage la Prairie, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Jasper, and Kamloops. In Parry Sound, there are two stations about one kilometre apart, as the railroads through Parry Sound use directional running:
  • 🌍 Parry Sound station, 70 Church St. For eastbound trips toward Toronto. (updated Aug 2023)
  • 🌍 Parry Sound Station Gallery station (Parry Sound South station), 1 Avenue Road. For westbound trips toward Vancouver. (updated Aug 2023)

• 🌍 Parry Sound Area Municipal Airport (YPD  ^IATA), ☏ +1 705-378-2897. 12 nautical miles southeast of Parry Sound. No scheduled flights. (updated Dec 2018)

Scheduled flights are available 185 km away at the Greater Sudbury Airport (YSB ^IATA).

Several providers take you into the wilderness landscape surrounding Parry Sound and the shores of Georgian Bay.

• 🌍 Bear Claw Tours, 35 Shoebottom Rd, ☏ +1 705 746-9481. ATV guided tours. 
• 🌍 Georgian Bay Airways, 11A Bay Street, Town Dock, toll-free: +1-800-786-1704. A modern fleet of seaplanes operate sightseeing flights from Parry Sound’s downtown waterfront. 
• 🌍 Spirit of the Sound Schooner Company Ltd., toll-free: +1-888-283-5870. M.V. Chippewa III offers several 30,000 Islands cruises and menus. 
• 🌍 Diver's Nook, 55 Bowes St, ☏ +1 705-746-9757, info@diversnook.ca. Th-M 7AM-5PM. A fully stocked SCUBA dive shop offering charters and air fills/equipment. They usually dive the shallow wrecks around the Sound, and a charter consists of two dives. (updated Mar 2023)

Several provincial parks provide access to the unique natural areas here, and provide a variety of activities or camping experiences, from one of Ontario's most popular parks for car camping, or backcountry canoeing and camping through a rugged part of the archipelago.

• 🌍 Killbear Provincial Park, 35 Eddie Ramsay Pkwy, ☏ +1 705-342 5492. On a rocky peninsula, Killbear provides canoeing, sailing, and windsurfing opportunities on Georgian Bay. Several sandy beaches are located near each campground. Over 800 individual campsites for car or RV camping are available January through early November. (updated Mar 2023)
• 🌍 The Massasauga Provincial Park, ☏ +1 705-378-2401. The Massasauga provides 13,000 hectares (32,000 acres) of rugged backcountry on a Georgian Bay archipelago. Campsites are accessible by canoe only. Day use areas for fishing, boating, hiking and swimming are also popular. Permits are required and reservations are recommended for overnight stays. The park includes hundreds of islands and twisting waterways; proper navigational maps should be used when planning your trip. (updated Mar 2023)
• 🌍 Oastler Lake Provincial Park, 380 Oastler Park Dr, ☏ +1 705-378-2401. A relatively smaller park compared to others around Parry Sound. Oastler Lake provides over 100 campsites for car camping, a large sandy beach, and rentals for canoes, kayaks, and paddle boards. (updated Mar 2023)

🌍 Depot Harbour is an abandoned ghost town, of which little remains but ruins and foundations, had been a busy Georgian Bay lake port as the western terminus of the Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound Railway. Ottawa lumberman John Rudolphus Booth established a port and railway roundhouse on expropriated native land, building a railway to send trainloads of western grain through Algonquin Provincial Park to Ottawa on its way east to Atlantic ports. By 1898 the town had a hotel, rail yards, two large grain elevators, a school and three churches. In 1904, Booth sold the line to the Grand Trunk Railway for $14.2 million; in 1923, the bankrupt Grand Trunk became part of Canadian National. CNR closed Depot Harbour's roundhouse. The Welland Canal, a competing transportation route, was rebuilt in 1932. An ice-damaged rail bridge in Algonquin Park severed the line in 1933 and was never repaired. A World War II cordite maker in nearby Nobel stored its wares in the railway's dockside freight sheds; an August 14, 1945 fire and explosion destroyed much of the town. The docks, briefly used for coal shipments in the 1950s, later loaded pelletized iron ore from the Low Phos Mine at Sellwood. The last of the town's homes was abandoned in 1964; the mine closed in 1979 and the railway tracks were removed in 1989. The Anishinaabe reclaimed their lands in 1987, but little remains of the town except the loading docks, a bank vault and the foundations of what was once a village. One building remains in use as a cottage, and a fishery has since opened on the docks.