Highway 7 · KM 270 from Ottawa

Peterborough

The western bookend — canoes, the Lift Lock, and the Kawarthas beyond.

The western end of our corridor. Peterborough has its own full tourism apparatus, so we cover it lightly — but two stops deserve a mention before you point the car home:

The Canadian Canoe Museum, in its new waterfront home, is legitimately world-class — National Geographic put it on a global best-of list, and it earns it. And the Peterborough Lift Lock — a National Historic Site since 1979, and the highest hydraulic lift lock on earth — has been raising boats twenty metres in one astonishing motion since 1904, part of the Trent–Severn Waterway.

Heading back east? Norwood is 30 km behind you, and the chip trucks await.

Coming up in Peterborough

Market Hall 29 shows · from Fri, Sep 11

Things to do in Peterborough

Beavermead Park

The city's only supervised beach, on Little Lake — lifeguards daily from late June through August. Rogers Cove nearby is the unsupervised alternative if the main beach is busy.

2011 Ashburnham Drive, Peterborough · Checked Jul 2026 · City of Peterborough parks list · Map
Canadian Canoe Museum

World-class, and named to National Geographic's global best-of list — over 100 canoes and kayaks telling Canadian and Indigenous history through the lens of the boats themselves.

2077 Ashburnham Drive, Peterborough · Checked Jul 2026 · museum's own site (canoemuseum.ca) · Map
Cox Terrace (National Historic Site)

A Second Empire-style residential terrace built in 1884, designated a National Historic Site in 1991 — a quieter architectural footnote a short walk from the canoe museum and the Lift Lock.

332-344 Rubidge Street, Peterborough · Checked Jul 2026 · Parks Canada Directory of Federal Heritage Designations · Map
Peterborough Lift Lock (National Historic Site)

The highest hydraulic lift lock in the world, raising boats nearly 20 metres in one motion since 1904 — a National Historic Site since 1979, and part of the Trent–Severn Waterway. Watching a boat go through is free and genuinely astonishing.

Checked Jul 2026 · Parks Canada · Map
Rotary Greenway Trail

The city's north-running multi-use trail — roughly 7 km of paved 3-metre path to Trent University, then crushed limestone on toward Lakefield — passing the Peterborough Lift Lock, the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world.

Ashburnham Dr north toward Lakefield · Checked Aug 2026 · Rotary Club of Peterborough and Ontario Trails Council · Map