In the summer of 2015, as part of our summer camping trip up north, we stayed at Mississagi Provincial Park. The park is located about 25 kilometres north of Elliot Lake, Ontario. Just north of the park is the Cobre Lake Hiking Trail, which is about 11 kilometre in length, if you were to do the whole thing. Maya would not be able to do a hike that long, especially considering we were told it was quite strenuous. So, we decided to take the shorter trail south that lead to an abandoned copper mine.

The Cobre Lake Trail is in the Rawhide Lake Conservation Area. Their beautiful sign shows the trail, wildlife species you might encounter, as well as some of the native wildflowers. The sign also told us that Cobre means copper in Spanish and was named because of the copper mine that operated here in the 1950’s.

The drive in was basically along a road that looks like the one above. Single traffic only with large rocks and eroded areas. The beginning of the trail headed up a slope from the parking lot through lush green forest.

Along the way we found various ruins from the days of the copper mine. I have no idea what some of the structures or machines were used for and there were no interpretive signs along the way. The above building looks to be handmade out of rock found in the area and with the size of the chimney I would say there was definitely a large fire burning inside. Was it shelter? Or was it used to process the copper?

As interesting as it is to see some of these artifacts, I do wish that companies would clean up after they abandon sites. So many different metal devices were just left out in the forest. Perhaps some wildlife can benefit from this and use it as a shelter. That’s being positive, isn’t it?

As we came to the end of the road and the main copper mine it opened up to give us a really good view of Cobre Lake. The water was clean and clear but didn’t look like there was a lot of life. Hopefully this isn’t another lake affected by acid rain.

We didn’t see anyone canoeing out on the lake and the few people we saw at the parking lot headed out to do all or part of the main trail. The clouds were keeping the sun at bay which made for an enjoyable hike that wasn’t too hot or too cold.

Some signs of a recent fire and litter told us that people have either stopped here recently or even camped out.

The reflections were absolutely amazing with the rolling hills showing as abstract paintings in the water. 

The lake looks like it would have been nice to take a dip in or go for a paddle but we didn’t do either during our visit.

As we were returning back to the trail head the sun started to peek out from behind the clouds and the wind started to blow across the lake.

Everything looked so spectacular in the light and the top of this old beaver dam made for a lovely place to stop to have a snack and a drink of water.

As the clouds started to separate and the blue sky appeared, the clouds creating this interesting effect on the water’s surface. As we got back into the truck the temperature started to warm up and we were glad to be off the trail before the heat set in again.