About Muskoka

The Land of Lakes

Muskoka begins approximately 100 miles north of Toronto as you pass Severn Bridge and enter the first town, Gravenhurst. It then meanders north west to Huntsville and north east to Geogian Bay Township. While encompassing approximately 2,500 square miles, Muskoka equally exists in the hearts of people around the world.

There are three large lakes, Lake Muskoka, Lake Joseph and Lake Rosseau and hundreds of smaller lakes dotting the area for a grand total of 1,600.

It is a beautiful natural area of water, forest and the rock of the Canadian Shield. Busy as both summer and winter destinations, the Muskokas also boast quiet peaceful places where one can marvel at the beauty of nature or be surprised by the inhabitants such as moose, bear, deer, herons and the ever growing turkey population.

It is truly a wonderful place and once experienced hard to forget. Muskoka Dreamscapes hopes that those who long for Muskoka can find a little of that peace and beauty here to call there own.

MUSKOKA

A stream of tender gladness,
Of filmy sun, and opal tinted skies;
Of warm midsummer air that lightly lies
In mystic rings,
Where softly swings
The music of a thousand wings
That almost tones to sadness.

Midway 'twixt earth and heaven,
A bubble in the pearly air, I seem
To float upon the sapphire floor, a dream
Of clouds of snow,
Above, below,
Drift with my drifting, dim and slow,
As twilight drifts to even.

The little fern-leaf, bending
Upon the brink, its green reflection greets,
And kisses soft the shadow that it meets
With touch so fine,
The border line
The keenest vision can't define;
So perfect is the blending.

The far, fir trees that cover
The brownish hills with needles green and gold,
The arching elms o'erhead, vinegrown and old,
Repictured are
Beneath me far,
Where not a ripple moves to mar
Shades underneath, or over.

Mine is the undertone;
The beauty, strength, and power of the land
Will never stir or bend at my command;
But all the shade
Is marred or made,
If I but dip my paddle blade;
And it is mine alone.

O! pathless world of seeming!
O! pathless life of mine whose deep ideal
Is more my own than ever was the real.
For others Fame
And Love's red flame,
And yellow gold: I only claim
The shadows and the dreaming.

Emily Pauline Johnson, Shadow River