Long Lake Provincial Park, Provincial park in Halifax County, Canada
Long Lake Provincial Park is a protected area of about 2100 hectares in Halifax County with forests, wetlands, and multiple lakes, including the namesake Long Lake covering about 154 hectares. The grounds feature over 5 kilometers of trails mainly on the east side of the lake.
Long Lake was chosen in 1845 by civil engineer Charles Fairbanks as Halifax's first water supply; an earthen dam at its south end was built in 1848 and replaced by a larger granite dam in 1877. The lakes fed the city until 1977. During World War I, the northeast side formed the Chain Lake Position, fortified with trenches and machine-gun emplacements.
Small granite quarries within the park supplied stone for many 19th-century buildings in downtown Halifax. The Long Lake Provincial Park Association, founded in 1987, now helps manage the park and built the Lakeview Trail on the east side of the lake, where benches carry donor plaques.
The park has multiple entry points and trails in various difficulty levels suitable for hiking, swimming, mountain biking, and cross-country skiing. The best time to visit depends on your chosen activity, as the lake is popular for swimming in summer and snow-covered trails work well for winter sports.
An abandoned roadbed between Long Lake and Old Sambro Road is a remnant of an early plan for a resort and artificial beach on the west side of the lake. Erosion along it has exposed a strip of bedrock known as the "scar road", visible from the air.
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