Brent Crater

Aerial view of Brent Crater

Information
This 2 km loop trail is situated in the northeast corner of Algonquin Park. It starts at an observation tower that overlooks the 4 km wide crater made by a meteor about 450 million years ago. The well-maintained footpath descends the eroded rim of the crater and makes it way to Tecumseh Lake and back up the crater edge. Numbered posts designate geological features of the meteorite’s explosive impact.

How to get there
A kilometre north-west of Deux Rivières along Hwy 17, turn left onto the signposted Brent Road. This is an access road for Algonquin Park. Set your odometer to zero and follow the gravel road south to Brent. Twenty-four kilometres from Hwy 17 is the Cedar Lake-Brent park office, where you can buy a permit and superb publications by The Friends of Algonquin Park. Continue on the right-hand fork to the Brent Crater (35 km from Hwy 17). Park near the wooden observation platform.

Directions

• The trail is well marked with the sign of a walker in white on a blue background. There are numbered posts from 1 to 6 along the trail designating natural features described in full in the trail guide on the Brent Crater Trail available from the park office.
• Walk about 150 m down the Brent Road and follow the trail that enters the bush on your right. Follow the trail down into the crater to Tecumseh Lake.
• Upon climbing back up the crater rim, turn right onto the Brent Road and walk 300 m to the observation tower.

Points of Interest

1. Parking lot at trail entrance.
2. The trail leads you down the heavily eroded "wall" of the ancient meteorite crater.
3. At post two limestone and sandstone rocks, that were lifted tens if not hundreds of metres into the air, now lay shattered and tilted.
4. You have reached the crater floor at post three. There is a little creek which has carved out a gully in the soft gritty limestone found virtually nowhere else in the Park. The uncommon Bulblet Bladder Fern is found growing on the limestone rocks.
5. Beneath your feet at post four is a thin layer of sandy, gravelly soil left by glaciers. Twelve diamond drill holes were made to investigate the layers of rock beneath the crater.
6. The trail touches one of the two lakes in the crater, Tecumseh Lake at post five, the other lake is Gilmour. These lakes are unusual in having high concentration of bicarbonate and are insensitive to acid rain. In the marsh at the edge of the lake are found pitcher plants which trap bugs to enhance their diet from the nutrient poor soil.
7. Good examples of rocks shattered by the meteorite's impact are found at post six.
8. The observational tower affords a view of Tecumseh Lake and Gilmour Lake within the shallow crater basin and the opposite rim 4 km away.

Brent Crater Info

• The Brent Crater meteor was about 150 metres in diameter and on impact the 250 megaton explosion created a hole, 4 km across and 600 metres deep.
   
• The once-thriving village of Brent on Cedar Lake is another 5 km down the Brent Road from the crater (40 km south of Hwy 17). Today there is a small campground with non-flush toilets.
   
• The 16-km-long Greenbough Esker is approached via the Brent Road. Take an unmarked road to the left nine kilometre south of Hwy. 17. After half a kilometre, stop where the road crosses a long, linear hill of sand and rounded stones that was formed by an ancient waterway that was either beneath, within or alongside a glacier. The White Fringed Orchid and other rare plants thrive in the peatlands bordering the southern portion of the esker.

Further Information

At the Brent Gate pick up the excellent Brent Crater Trail guide published by The Friends of Algonquin Park.