The rest stops near where I live are no more than places to get out, stretch, have a picnic, and use the bathroom. I have not even considered these to be tourist attractions in themselves.
We were travelling in Quebec and needed a break to go pee. I spotted a rest stop on the side of the road. It was an excellent location, located among the trees and hills of this passageway we were taking. I discovered the largest ever padlock to hold the toilet paper in place (after all, it was during the COVID/toilet paper crisis of 2020), and then when I was leaving, I noticed a pathway to the side. I had chosen to follow it and discovered a small, picturesque stream. Later, we went to another rest stop with a small waterfall beside the parking lot.
In my travels, I began to notice that the rest stops the government maintained usually had some scenic surprise, which is why it was built at that location. This is more so the case in Northern Ontario and the more scenic Quebec places.
We would travel westward on the third day of our epic Alaskan Trip. We would stop at two rest stops on our way to the Manitoba border. The first would be the Central/Eastern Time Zone Marker. On this trip, we would pass through many timezones, but this was the only location that gave details on the timezones and the history of such. It also was a great rest stop because one half of the park is an hour away from the other half. I snapped a picture of my wife, who was that hour away from me. It was rather cool, this weird timeshifting. I would discover just how accurate my GPS was when I would park in one spot, walk to the bathroom (in a different time zone), stumble around the signage and return to the car. It asked me several times if I wanted to update the time on my cellphone.
We would travel a ways more to another rest stop that the government operates. It was the best rest stop we have ever been to. I knew of the waterfalls at this one, and it was a planned stop, unlike the other discoveries I have accidentally made at previous locations. What wasn’t planned was just how excellent the area was.
Raleigh Falls is hidden from the road but not from those willing to walk around the corner. In our time here, several people had come and gone, and we were the only ones who took advantage to see this waterfall and walk along some of the smaller pathways. The setting was beautiful: trees, flowers and a decent flow of water, even though the area was going through a dry spell then. There was actually three levels to this falls. The bottom one was not as accessible to see because so people have walked on the pathway that it started to become overgrown.
Both of these rest stops were travel destinations in themselves. One offered history and the ability to time travel (if you were willing to run around the sign and get dizzy), and the other offered beauty.
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- To find this and all the other locations we have visited, check out Featured Map for directions on how to get here.
- To see the original map of our Alaska trip, click here. Some of the places we could not go to (for various reasons), and some areas we added which need to be included in this map. To see those, click on the Featured Map.
- The original itinerary for this trip can be seen here. It does not include sites that we added on.
- These rest stops are generally open 24 hours a day. Most are open all year, but some close down for the winter.
- There is ample parking and space to get around to stretch. There is enough room for the kids and dog to get out and play.
- The cleanliness of the bathrooms is hit or miss. They are cleaned daily, but a high volume of people can travel through the area.
Destinations on our Alaskan Trip:
DAY 1 – JULY 1- 2023
- High Rock Lookout
- Laurier Woods Conservation Area
- Black Forest Park
- Marten River Pickerel
- Arctic/Atlantic Watershed
- 20-Foot Tall Guy-Paul Treefall
- 49th Parallel Park
- Fauquier-Strickland Heritage Park
- Moonbeam UFO
- Kapuskasing Cenotaph
- Kapuskasing Internment Cemetery
- Reesor Siding Memorial
- Voyageur at Missinaibi River
- Moose and Wolves statue in Hearst
- Our Veterans Park
- Fushimi Lake Provincial Park
DAY 2 – JULY 2, 2023
- Arctic Watershed
- World’s Largest Snowman
- Jumbo’s Cove Train Tunnel
- Terry Fox National Historic Plaque and Lookout
- Centennial Conservatory
- International Friendship Gardens
- Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park
DAY 3 – JULY 3, 2023
- Central/Eastern time Zone Marker
- Raleigh Falls
- Max the Moose
- Last Spike at Feist Lake
- Kenora mural tour
- The Muse/Art Centre
- Husky the Musky at McLeod Park
- Lake of the Woods Discovery Centre
- Manitoba Welcomes You Border Sign
- Giant Stump
- Centre of Canada
- Pete’s Center Canada Heritage
- Birds Hill Provincial Park
