Sleeping Giant

The Sleeping Giant, also known as Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, is a unique formation of mesas, otherwise known as tableland, and sills which is located in the central south part of the Province of Ontario, within the eastern part of Canada. Overlooking the city of Thunder Bay and Lake Superior, the Sleeping Giant got its name from the appearance that it has.

As moving to the southern part of the formation, there are clearly visible various sections that are separated, and even at one point, especially when seen from Squaw Bay, it appears that the Giant has an Adam’s Apple. The highest point is measured to be 563 meters (1,847 feet) above the lake, and features over 100 km (62 mi) of incredible hiking trails with many spectacular geological features that wait to be discovered.

There are some local legends connected to the formation of the Giant, where the well known is the one from the great tribe of Ojibway Natives that lived just outside Thunder Bay. Due to the their loyalty to the Gods they worshiped, the Spirit of the Deep Sea Water, Nanabijou, decided to reward them by letting them know about the silver mine which nowadays is known as Silver Islet.

There was the only condition where the people from the tribe should not tell the white man of this place, because otherwise Nanabijou would be turned to stone and the Ojibway tribe will perish. The entrance of this mysterious silver mine was located at the highest point on the cape, where after a while the Chief and the Ojibway people found it, and began producing beautiful silver ornaments.

This led the Sioux warriors to try and find the location of the impressive ornaments that were created by the tribe, and through torture and even death, their tries were unsuccessful.

Then, the chiefs of the Sioux tribe coined a plan to disguise one of their own man as a scout, where he would successfully find the location, get a silver piece and bring it back to his leaders. Unfortunately, upon his return from the successful mission, the scout stopped at a white traders post in order to purchase some food for which he paid with a piece of the silver he collected.

He was persuaded by the white men to take them to the location of the whereabouts of the silver, and upon their journey to the mine, a terrific storm broke over the bay, where the white men drowned, however, the Native was found in a crazed condition floating aimlessly in his canoe and the entrance to the silver mine completely shut down by the sleeping figure of a man.

Still, there are plenty of other legends connected to this impressively beautiful formation. It was also voted as number one site of the Seven Wonders of Canada list, which makes it even more interesting for people to come and see it peacefully sleeping.

Filled with boreal forest, the wildlife is thriving in the untouched nature, among which the most common that can be seen are deer, moose, wolf, fox, lynx in addition to more than 200 bird species.

Probably the most frequent activity that can be done here is the hiking to the top of the giant, whereas, camping and mountain biking are gaining even greater popularity in recent years.

All in all, being an important natural treasure for Canada, this spellbound place with astonishing lush green and snowy paths will leave breathless every single visitor who would like to get a glimpse of a unique creation by the nature, or according to some the Gods worshiped by the Ojibway tribe.