Pimachiowin Aki covers a vast wilderness dotted with carefully stewarded First Nation cultural sites, so I don't want to presume that my short visit in late July 2025 gave me any particular insight into its OUV, but I was able to reach the inscribed zone relatively easily by traveling to the very tiny town of Loon Straits, about three hours' drive north from Winnipeg, and staying in one of the cabins operated by the Loon Straits Wilderness Retreat for a few days. My partner and I formulated this plan as an alternative to transiting through Nopiming Provincial Park and staying on Wallace Lake, as other reviewers here have done, which ended up being very lucky for us, since wildfires in the eastern part of the site during our time there may have made things much more dicey if we had gone that route.

The twin peninsulas of the Loon Straits area are within the inscribed area (although we had our doubts until we started seeing the UNESCO sigil on signs along the highway!) and the serene shores of Lake Winnipeg provide a taste of the remoteness that the interior of Pimachiowin Aki conceals. Even on the periphery of the site we still saw quite a bit of wildlife: a black bear during our drive; a fox from our cabin; about a half-dozen otters during a dawn trip on a kayak provided by our lodging; and a great variety of different birds, including a bald eagle family that seemed to be doing some flight training. The OUV here is very diffuse, but the sense of being immersed in nature at least made for a rewarding visit that intimated some of the reasons why this landscape is so treasured.

If you take this route, be advised that the paved road ends at Bostrom's Corner (also the last stop for food along the way; I believe the last stop for gas is near Powerview, even further south) and the remaining 60 km to Loon Straits are gravel. We were able to make it to our cabin in a sedan, but then we ended up pushing our luck too far on the drive further north to Bloodvein, in search of the cultural component of the listing, and popped a tire on the way. We eventually made it and picked up some provisions at LBC, but as others have said, Bloodvein has very little in the way of tourist infrastructure and without prior arrangements with the tribal authorities (and more paddling time than we had to spare) is no way to access the Anishinaabe pictographs and petroforms further upriver. Nonetheless, this is a beautiful part of the world to stop and catch your breath in for a bit, and we found the Loon Straits Wilderness Retreat so picturesque, and its host is so welcoming, that it would have been a great place to stay even without its further distinction of being one of the very very few lodging options actually located within the core zone.