Here is a 14km bike tour to three big waterfalls that are particularly awesome in the spring! The ride starts at Hog’s Back Falls, then visits the Chaudière Falls and ends at the Rideau Falls. The spring runoff is, of course, what makes the falls so powerful at this time of year, but the higher volume of water also causes flooding along parts of the Ottawa River and Rideau river shorelines. This route avoids bike paths that are flooded, and also takes into consideration ongoing construction detours.
Hog’s Back Falls was originally a set of rapids known as the Three Rocks Rapids, but the building of the Rideau Canal created the more spectacular version we have now. More on the transformation from rapids to falls can be found in these two links:
A Rapid Ride: The Billings shoot Hogs Back “Falls”.
Washed Away The Story of the Building of the Hogs Back Dam.
Next stop – the Chaudière Falls on the Ottawa River, just west of Parliament Hill. When french explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived at the falls he noted how its elongated curved form and volume of water flowing over it ressembled a boiling cauldron, or chaudière. More on the history of the Chaudière Falls can be found here.
The above map shows three great locations from which you can view the falls.
Last stop – the Rideau Falls! The Rideau River ends by spilling down into the Ottawa River in most spectacular form resembling a huge curtain of water, or in French a ‘rideau’ of water.
Et voila!
OttawaVeloOutaouais 