Porcupine Provincial Forest
Come and experience the great outdoors

The Porcupine Provincial Forest is enriched with boreal forest, rouged terrain, sand banks, bogs, wetlands, lakes and rivers covering 207,000 hectares. The Porcupines are part of the Manitoba Escarpment dating back 100 million years, and have the steepest slope of the escarpment, at 1200 ft. up the steepest face. The Porcupines are in the Western Uplands Natural Region portion of Manitoba’s Parks and Natural Areas.

Three protected areas are, Birch River Ecological Reserve (183 hectares), Armit Meadows Ecological Reserve (263 hectares) and Bell & Steeprock Canyons Protected Area (11,310 hectares). Special interests within the reserves are extraordinary plant life, 17 orchid species, 14 plant species classified as rare, so rare they were previously unknown in Manitoba.

The boreal forest offers great habitat to the birds and wildlife, deer, elk, moose, black bear, wolves, coyotes, cougar, lynx and many small game animals. There are numerous types of birds and waterfowl living, migrating and nesting in the area.

We invite you to explore the Porcupines by visiting the scenic outlook at Rice Creek Tower, two hiking trails - Bell River Canyon and Steeprock Campground Trail, plus a canoe route at Steeprock. While in the area other points of interest are, Inland Cement Plant, Silica Sand Quarry, Big Rock Trail (very scenic outlook, picnic site, rock climbing and berry picking during season), Erwood Subdivision Trail (featuring birding and plant life, beautiful flowers), Primrose Wayside Trail and P.O.W. Camp.  Go geocaching across and around the hills, finding great caches with wonderful Manitoba history.

The many lakes and rivers offer great sport fishing experiences during summer and winter, Arctic Char, Brook Trout, Northern Pike (Jackfish), Perch, Rainbow Trout, Sparr (cross between Brook Trout & Arctic Char), Walleye (Pickerel) and Whitefish. There are three Provincial campgrounds, Bell Lake, Steeprock Lake and Whitefish Lake.

In winter there are hundreds of miles of groomed snowmobile trails taking you through the vast backcountry.

This is an extraordinary area waiting to be discovered.

For more information on the Porcupine Provincial Forest visit the Chamber of Commerce Tourist Bureau in Swan River or contact Swan River District Office 1-204-734-3429 or visit http://www.manitobaparks.com/ or reserve your site by calling Toll free 1-888-482-2267 or in Winnipeg 948-3333.

Submitted by Debbie Soloway