Centennial Ridges Hike in Algonquin Park: All You Need to Know

Interested in hiking Centennial Ridges in Algonquin? I’ve done the Centennial Ridges hike twice now with my husband and I believe its easily one of the best day hikes in the park. Centennial ridges is a 10.4 km hike directly on the Canadian shield, with multiple panoramic views over forest and lakes. Your total elevation gain is over 500 ft from the parking lot, so your views are from high up on cliffs and very stunning lookouts.

During the peak fall season which is when most people flock to Algonquin, you have a better chance of getting a parking spot at Centennial ridges than for say, Booth’s rock, but the views are arguably just as good and in my opinion, underrated! So below, I’ll cover all your questions about what the Centennial Ridge trail is like, who its best for, how long it takes, and how to be most prepared for this tough but exciting hike.

How Long Does It Really Take to Hike Centennial Ridges?

My husband and I have hiked the full 10.4 km of Centennial Ridges twice now. The first time it took us 3.5 hours, and the second time (a couple years later) it took us 4.5 hours. So, you should assume that you’ll spend anywhere from 3.5 to 5+ hours in total hiking the full 10.4 km of Centennial Ridges.

These time frames involve not only hiking, but sitting down and stopping for snacks and water breaks. That is why the timing can vary so much from person to person; as some people need or want to stop for longer than others do.

The reason that I think it took us longer the second time hiking Centennial Ridges is that I was not feeling 100%. I had a cold, and my voice was very weak. By the end of doing the full trail while not feeling great, I felt a lot worse and my voice was gone completely. (So, I don’t recommend hiking the 10k if you’re feeling at all sick because youll just feel worse after.)

Centennial Ridges isn’t a race, and I don’t think the goal should be to do it in the fastest amount of time. I have a terrible tendancy to race other hikers, try to stay ahead, and pass people. This always ends up tiring me out on Centennial Ridges, so I don’t recommend that. Try to focus on listening to your body and enjoying the views, because they are very pretty!

Even if you don’t need to stop for water or food necessarily, you’ll want to stop to enjoy the lookout views. The early ones look out over terrain; a sea of trees, whereas the lookouts in the later part of the hike give you lake views, the most spectacular being over Whitefish Lake.

How Difficult is the Hike Really? (+Who Is It Best For?)

The Centennial ridges hike is considered challenging. It has a difficult rating on many platforms such as All Trails, and the Friends of Algonquin Park describes it as “very demanding.” I think most of the difficulty comes from the length of the loop, the uneven terrain and the fact that you’re constantly going up and down.

You climb small hills along the trail, but then you get a break from being able to go downhill for a bit (which is still a workout on your thighs) but then you’re going back up again. It’s often up and down, but rarely level, so your legs get quite the workout.

The first part of the hike isn’t too bad at all. For the first 1-2 hours, I think ‘I’ve got this!”, its usually after a couple hours that I start to feel exhausted, physically and mentally.

That being said, a medium level of fitness should be enough for you to complete the Centennial hike. My husband is a lot more fit than I am, but even me with a reasonable level was able to do the full 10.5 km twice without too much issue. I did feel tired at the end both times though, probably from pushing myself too much at the end. (Like I said, I have a weird tendancy to race other hikers.) Our fitness trackers clocked over 16,000 steps after the hike.

The first time, all I needed was a bit of a rest and then I was good to go for the rest of the day. The second time, I had done the hike with a sore throat and not feeling well, and the doing the Centennial Ridges hike actually really took it out of me.

So what to take from that is: don’t do the hike if you aren’t feeling 100%. Even if you’re 100%, you might still feel tired after. Don’t plan two hikes in one day if one of them is Centennial Ridges!

What About Kids, and Dogs?

You can bring kids and dogs on the Centennial Ridges trail, but you should only do so if you’re familiar with the trail and are an experienced hiker. As a mom of 2 kids, I have only ever Centennial Ridges with my husband. My oldest is a teenager so she’s at the stage where we could bring her now, but we wouldn’t consider bringing our 5 year old at this point.

For one, we would end up carrying her a big chunk of the way, which would add to the exhaustion. But the more important reason I wouldn’t bring my youngest yet (and definitely not any child younger than her) is because a big point to this hike is hiking along the ‘ridge’ so you spend a good chunk of time along the edge of the cliff! It’s beautiful, but my nervous system would be in overdrive if I had to worry about a small child getting too close to the edge.

I don’t have a dog, but I do sometimes see dogs on the Centennial trail! They do seem less common on Centennial Ridges than other hikes, probably because of the length. The dogs I do see are usually medium size and look very exhausted and sometimes I feel sorry for them. It’s a long way to hike for a small to medium sized dog, although it may be easier for a larger dog. Be sure to keep them on a leash at all times, for the safety of others but also to keep them away from the cliff edge.

How Some People Cut the Hiking Time Down Significantly

There is a common practice that I’ve noticed a lot of people doing the hiking time down at Centennial Ridge significantly. You’ll noticve it more on fall weekends, when Algonquin is at its busiest.

If you look at the numbers on the map, the trail itends for you to go to post 1 first, then 2 and 3, basically doing a clockwise tour around the loop. What some people do is they start at the parking lot and trail entrance like everyone else but instrad of going clockwise, they instead hike the trail in the opposite direction toward posts 12, 11 and 10, take in the views at Whitefish Lake. (Which are arguable the money shot of Centennial Ridges; the other lookouts that they miss by doing this are also very pretty, especially in peak fall, but Whitefish Lake views are probably the most stunning.) 

This isnt the official way to do the hike, and I’m not necessarily recommending it. But if you’re there on a busy weekend, you’ll probably see people hiking against traffic towards the end of the hike, and this is probably why.

At first I found this to be a bit unfair, because the people doing the shorter loop could be taking parking spaces that people who want to do the whole trail. But, doing the shorter version does probably mean they need the parking spot for less time. So, its probably a tradeoff.

I recommend doing the 10km if you feel up to it, because the views at the earlier parts of the hike are still very beautiful (see above.) But if you’re not up to it, or only want to get those stunning Whitefish Lake views at posts 10 and 11, then you are allowed to park and hike backwards on the trail towards them.

In total, doing it the shorter way should probably still take you about an hour roundtrip (30 minutes there, and then 30 minutes back) plus additional time for sitting down on the cliff with a view of the lake.

What to Bring and How to Prepare for the Centennial Ridges Hike

For the Centennial Ridges hike, you need to pack snacks, wear very good shows with decent grip and have a minumum 2 litres of water per person. There’s nowhere to fill your water bottle along the way. The shoes with decent grip are definitely important; you can still get through it in flat runners, but it will be harder work to maintain your grip and balance on all the exposed roots and rocks sticking out of the ground.

In terms of food, my husband and I usually bring: 1 sandwich per person, 1 piece of fruit, a granola bar, trail mix and 2 litres of water per person. We also bring hats, sunglasses, bugspray and sunscreen.

Pack as light as possible, so that you don’t have to carry so much stuff that adds to the load. But don’t pack less water or energy than what you’ll need to get through it comfortably.

Is the Centennial Ridge Trail Busy?

Fall is by far the most popular time to hike Centennial Ridges, and its the only time we’ve ever hiked it. It is considerably busier in late September than it was even a week earlier in mid September, because of the colour change.

But still, being a longer, more challenging hike means that you don’t encounter as many people on Centennial Ridges as you would on the easier, shorter hikes.

The Centennial Ridges parking lot can still fills up very quickly on fall weekends mornings. Last year in peak fall, we arrived at 10:30am on a Saturday and the lot was already full! (We parked just outside the lot, on the side of the path leading to the lot., and then a bunch of other cars followed suit.) We always stay overnight near Algonquin so that we can get an extremely early start on fall weekend mornings, and this helps a lot. Sometimes we stay in Huntsville, which is a 40 minute drive to Centennial Ridges, or we rent a cozy cabin in the woods – there are so many of them in this area. See the places I recommend staying nearby here.

Even if the parking lot at Centennial Ridges looks full, it doesn’t mean you see big crowds on the hike. A good chunk of those people may be doing the ‘cheat route’, where they were planning to hike backwards to posts 11 and 12. But even if the people every single car were planning to do the full 10 km, its such a long distance that you end up pretty spread out from others. That being said, you’ll almost definitely see other people at the most popular lookouts, which are posts 11 and 12.

I hope that this information has helped you plan your hike on Centennial Ridges with more certainty. It’s challenging, but its worth it and you feel so accomplished afterwards.