Arrowhead Provincial Park 451 Arrowhead Park Rd Huntsville, ON P1H 2J4

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The Big Bend Lookout at Arrowhead Provincial Park is a very short walk from the parking lot near Roe Campground. The short trail takes you to a deck with spectacular views of the surrounding countryside and a look into a geological feature left over from the ice age – an exposed river delta.

The other geological feature this trail demonstrates is a meandering river and the gradual creation of an oxbow lake. Meandering rivers are rivers with sharp turns in them that erode the sediment from the outer curves of the river bed. The sediment is then deposited on an inner curve of the river farther downstream, eventually cutting off the river and creating an oxbow lake.

Due to this erosion, the viewing platform has been moved back from the edge of the delta many times. Every year it erodes almost one foot. The platform has been moved 20 feet back in the last 20 years alone.

The observation deck allows visitors to view the Muskoka terrain, the Big East River and the delta while decreasing the rate of erosion. It is very important that no one walks or slides down the slopes because this only speeds up the process of erosion in this delicate ecosystem.

You can also view the river and delta by canoeing the river but please stay off the slopes.

If you look at the sandy slope you can see horizontal bands of sediment (sand and silt) that were laid down 10,000 years ago by a glacial river. This is one of the best location in all of Ontario to see the inside of a glacial delta. The thicker the band, the greater the river flow during a particular year.

The Big East River currently flows into Arrowhead from Algonquin Park and eventually, due to its shape and erosion, it will be cut off from the river to form an oxbow lake like the ones shown below.

Here you can see an oxbow lake in the making and various oxbow lakes that have already been created. Nowitna River, Alaska.