Rideau Canal open for skating. Sunday, 12:30pm
Rideau Canal open for skating. Sunday, 12:30pm
Each winter, the historic Rideau Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, becomes the Rideau Canal Skateway, the world’s largest skating rink.
The 54th season of the Rideau Canal Skateway starts Sunday, January 21, 2024, at 12:30pm. The Skateway will be open between the Fifth Avenue and the Bank Street access points.
Edit: The time has since been changed from 9:00 to 12:30, and the length has been shortened from Pretoria to Fifth.
Swede here, we have few canals here, and none that to my knowledge are open for skating like this, we commonly have skating and skiing tracks plowed on lakes every winter instead.
This looks really cool, but I wonder if you can skate under bridges on the canals
You can skate from the locks at Carleton university to the locks that connect to the Ottawa River (when fully open). This includes under a few bridges both pedestrian and vehicle.
There's an interactive map on the webpage that was posted. I quickly counted and there are 7 bridges, which includes a pedestrian bridge and a bridge for a major highway.
@Undearius @stoy All of the bridges are quite high above the ice so yes, you can skate under the bridges.
In the summer this canal is used for boat traffic to bypass some of the rapids in the Rideau river so the bridges need to be high enough over the water to allow them through.