Ottawa Valley

Introduction

View of the Ottawa River towards the north.

The Ottawa River was first eyed by Europeans in the early 17th century. Jacques Cartier almost certainly viewed the river from atop Mount Royal in Montréal, but Étienne Brûlé probably was the first to travel on it in 1610.

Dusk on Golden Lake.

The region referred to as the "Ottawa Valley" is the fertile area south of the Ottawa River between Arnprior and Pembroke. The soil was deposited here as the last glacier melted and the Great Lakes drained through the Ottawa River. To the west is an area more typical of the Canadian Shield popular with cottagers.

Bonnechere River at Fourth Chute. (See Bonnechere Caves.)

Since my sister-in-law's boyfriend has a cottage on Golden Lake, we've spent a bit of time vacationing here. It's nice to drive around visiting the sights, and then return to a lakeside cottage to swim and relax. This summer, we visited Pembroke, briefly. Rain made sightseeing difficult. The skies cleared for some brief moments, but it didn't matter anyways since I'd left my camera on all night and the battery was drained. We then went to a pick-your-own blueberry farm, but unfortunately, the blueberries weren't quite yet ready for picking. I'm not superstitious, but this was on a Friday the 13th! Anyways, we returned to Pembroke a month later and snapped a goodly bunch of photos.

Beach on Golden Lake.