Silent Lake has a full motor ban. No outboard, no electric trolling motor, nothing. Two and a half hours northeast of Toronto you hear the paddle go in, you hear a loon, and then you hear nothing at all. A guide leads the hike and the rest of the day is yours.
When dates open they appear here with the fare. The day-use permit and the guide are part of the ticket.
Dates not open yet
We put seats on sale one season at a time, and this one is not up yet. Nothing is hidden and there is no list to pay to join. Leave your email and you hear the day the dates open.
Cancel 14 or more days before you go and you get 90% back.
A Parkbus guide is with the group for the whole day. You are not expected to know the trail, the route or the plan, and nobody gets left behind.
A few hours of walking on real trail, with uneven ground and some climbing. Roots, rocks and hills, so proper shoes matter. Not a stroll.
Silent Lake is two and a half kilometres long, sitting in the granite ridges of the Haliburton Highlands near Bancroft. It has a full motor ban, which almost no protected lake in Ontario does. No outboard has ever run on it and no electric motor hums across it. You hear the paddle dip. You hear a loon. Then nothing.
The park covers 1,610 hectares of mature hemlock, sugar maple and red oak. Beaver meadows give way to cedar swamps. A great blue heron will probably pretend you are not there.
The day tends to go the same way for most people. You get off the coach still carrying the city, checking a phone that has stopped working, replaying a conversation from Thursday. Then there is a hike, and a swim, and a while spent lying on a warm slab of Shield rock, and at some point all of that drifts off across the water without you noticing it go.
What is left is sun warmed stone, dark blue water and a kind of quiet most people have not heard in a while. You are home for dinner with sun on your face and pine sap on your hands.
You will hear the paddle go in. That is the whole pitch.
A guided hike, then the beach, then whatever you feel like. The guide flexes the route for the weather and the group.
We pick you up
Just north of Yonge and Bloor subway station. Come up the Asquith exit and look for the coach. Get there fifteen minutes early.
Three hiking trails, a day-use beach and a lake with nothing running on it. The Lakehead Loop is a gentle 1.5 km through cedar and black ash. Bonnie's Pond Trail is 3 km past mature beech and a beaver pond. The full Lakeshore Trail is 15 km around the lake and takes about six hours. Your guide picks based on the group, usually something in the 3 to 6 km range with stops at lookouts.
Good to know:
Facilities: Flush toilets at the comfort stations near the day-use area and Pincer Bay, Vault toilets along the trails, A park store at the gatehouse selling coffee, snacks, ice and basics
Note: Cell signal is patchy at best and most carriers drop out inside the park. Tell anyone who needs you that you will be offline for the day.
We drop you back
The bus returns to the same place it left from, so you go home the way you came.
This is our estimated return time, not a guarantee. Traffic can change it and some trips do run late, so please leave yourself some room afterwards rather than booking something tight against it.
A swim day with a hike attached, so pack for both.
The gatehouse store has coffee, snacks, ice and basic supplies. There is no restaurant inside the park.
Pack a lunch before you get on the coach. Bring more water than you think, at least a litre and a half.
Signal is patchy on the way in and most carriers give up entirely inside the park.
This is the trip working as intended. Tell whoever needs to know that you are offline for the day, and then enjoy not being reachable.
Deer flies and mosquitoes are a real feature of a Shield lake in high summer.
Bug spray belongs on the essential list rather than the nice to have one.
This one runs in summer, when the water is warm enough that the beach is half the reason to come.
Placeholder dates · the real ones come from our booking system
We are Canada's outdoor bus service. Since 2010 we've taken more than 300,000 people to parks and trails without a car. You bring a towel. We handle everything with wheels.
Silent Lake is one of the only protected lakes in Ontario where no gas engine and no electric motor is allowed at all. The difference is immediate and it is the whole reason to come.
This is an ActiveDays guided day. Your Parkbus guide leads the hike, chooses the trail to suit the group, and keeps everyone together without anybody feeling hurried.
After the hike there is real time at the day-use beach for swimming, lunch and lying on warm granite. This is a day with an afternoon in it, not a route march.
The park rents canoes, kayaks and paddleboards at the Pincer Bay Canoe Hut through the summer. First come, first served, paid at the park.
★★★★★ 4.6/5.0 on Google
All stops enable guests ample time to explore the destination. This is a highly a good idea trip for those that appreciate spending time in nature minus distractions.OnAir48444 · Tripadvisor · Oct 2025
This is the 1st time I used Parkbus but it won't be the last.Brenda H. · Google
This is a great service if you don't have a vehicle or just don't want to drive. I'm so happy to have discovered this. There will definitely be more Parkbus trips in my future!James Taylor Wilson · Happy Parkbus customer
Factor in the cost of gas, parking and renting a car, it's a lot cheaper than taking a personal vehicle.Toronto Star
Parkbus is a great option for nature lovers, whether it's a day trip or overnight camping getaway.The Globe and Mail
Cancel more than 14 days before departure and you get a 90% refund, with 10% withheld for payment processing. Inside 14 days refunds are not available, except for a medical emergency in the 48 hours before departure, which needs a signed doctor’s note within 14 days of the missed trip and returns 50%. Tickets are transferable: you can change the passenger name up to 48 hours before departure.
If Parkbus cancels a trip, you get a full refund. We decide no later than 48 hours before departure and only on confirmed conditions: the park closed or the park authority asking us to stand down, an evacuation order or alert, an area restriction order, the highway closed, or the trip judged unsafe to run. A forecast is not one of those things, and trips run rain or shine.
Your phone loses signal somewhere on Highway 28, and it turns out that was the point.
Not quite the right fit? These all leave from the same spot downtown.
