I suppose I should have become wary when folks in the “gateway community” of Chapleau didn’t seem to know anything about it.  Still I blindly pressed on.  It is the largest Crown Preserve in the world, 7 million acres.  That has to be impressive right?

Wrong.  We did eventually get directions to the Preserve entrance.   I large signboard sported a map showing the main wildlife drive including locations of all the wildlife viewing platforms.  Good, that’s a start.

The short version, we saw absolutely no wildlife….well unless you count the snake Kent ran over on the road.  No moose or bear or fox or wolf.  We drove about 50 miles of pretty rough gravel road and, bupkis.  They did have pretty cool viewing platforms made of native logs and elevated about 10 feet for good viewing into prime moose and bear habitat.  The lower section is protected (I am not sure exactly what from) by electric fence.

On a creepy note, one platform sported a warning sigh, “Do not go beyond this point.  Wildlife baiting”.  It seems that this preserve has pretty much completely gone over to the dark side, hunting not viewing.  Most preserves at least make an effort to support viewing wildlife during the off season.  They seem to have had great plans for this preserve but it very much falls short of expectations.  To anyone coming this way, leave the Chapleau Crown Preserve off your to do list.