S ome places can only be discovered from the water. Nowhere is this truer than Algonquin Park. It sits in the heart of Ontario , the Canadian province with the highest number of lakes, and home to one-fifth of the world’s freshwater.

Though this nugget of information couldn’t be further from my mind as I paddle my canoe on the indigo waters of Canoe Lake. The only movement breaking the lake ’s stillness comes from the trees swaying in the breeze and a curious loon popping his black head out of the water to inspect me with his red, beady eyes before diving back in.

Though it’s my first time in Algonquin Park – and my first time on a canoe, escorted by an Algonquin Outfitters expert guide – I feel I’ve seen all of this before: the orange, teal, and emerald trees, their summer and autumnal palette mixing in the elements, and the lake glittering around me.

I knew the landscapes from leafing through art books.…