The Old Quarry Trail- A 5.7 km Hike in Ottawa

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The Old Quarry Trail is great for a morning or afternoon out because it’s right in the city. It’s off of Eagleson road in Kanata (that counts, right?), and when you’re done walking (or snowshoeing), or biking, you can easily head out for coffee, lunch, or dinner. This trail is officially called Trail 23 on the NCC maps.

It’s also a really great option because you can choose to do just the loop closest to the parking lot, or add on a second loop if you’re looking for a longer hike.

We went out late this fall when there was just a dusting of snow on the ground. It was beautiful. It’s a nice, easy stroll through the woods, and we saw people out with fatbikes, which looked like fun too! Dogs aren’t allowed on this trail, and in the winter the trails are available for cross-country skiers.

The forest along the Old Quarry Trail.

Getting There

The trailhead for the Old Quarry Trail is right across from the Hazeldean Mall. The parking lot is P5. You can use these coordinates to get there: 45.301592, -75.874672.

There’s space for at least fifty cars in the parking lot, so we had no trouble finding a spot. There are garbage cans and an outhouse available at the trailhead. There are also a few picnic tables around.

The Route

Starting out, we weren’t actually sure which trail to take. We had taken a look at the trail map before arriving, but instead of there being one trailhead, there were four trails that headed off into the woods.

We stood facing the trails, and decided to take the one that was third from the left.

This got us onto the southern section of the first loop, which we followed along for 0.3 kilometres before taking a quick detour to our left where the trail split. This brought us to an area with a little bird feeder, which might be a fun spot to hang out for a bit if you were looking to feed or photograph some of the birds in the area.

Bird feeding/photographing spot on the trail.

The trails in the greenbelt are generally really well marked, and have little maps available at various points that are marked along the trail.

See? Well marked.

Point 23B is the first point on this trail that we could choose to head in one direction (left) to start closing the loop and heading back, or carry on to our right to make the first loop larger. We had been hiking for only 1.5 kilometres when we reach 23B, so we chose to carry on. Check out the map at the end of this report for a visual of what I’m trying to say. 🙂

After walking another 0.3 kilometres, we reached 23C. At this point we had similar options- we could have headed left to start back on the northern side of the loop towards the parking lot, but we chose to head to our right to get to the attached second loop. The path connecting the two loops is so short it’s almost not worth mentioning- about 0.1 kilometres.

The Old Quarry Trail makes for nice, easy hiking, so having the second loop to add on is great because adding a bit of distance really makes it feel worthwhile.

The Old Quarry Trail is flat the entire length of it.

The second loop was nice and long, and we took it clockwise. The total length of the second loop is about 2.5 kilometres, so it added on a nice distance to our hike, when you consider how long the first loop is. On this second loop, after we hiked for one kilometre, the trail started to wind along beside trail 24. We turned to our right to continue following the trail. It veered away from 24 after a few hundred metres leading us to our right back into the woods.

When we had hiked back to point 23C, we chose to take the northern part of the first loop so that we could see the whole thing.

Getting Home

After hiking for a total of 5.7 kilometres, we were back at our car feeling relaxed and re-energized. It took us an hour and twenty-three minutes to cover that distance. I love those first signs that winter is coming, and the Old Quarry Trail is a pretty good one to get out on if you want to stay in the city.

I hope this trip report has enough info to get you there too. Let me know in the comments, or share and tag a friend to start planning your next adventure!