Ontario Highway 523

Highway 523
Route information
Maintained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario
Length:	20.1 km[1] (12.5 mi)
Major junctions
South end:	Nipissing–Hastings boundary
North end:	Highway 60 – Madawaska
Districts:	Nipissing
Highway system
Ontario provincial highways 400-series • Former ← Hwy 522B Hwy 524 →

Secondary Highway 523, commonly referred to as Highway 523, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The highway is a 20.1-kilometre (12.5 mi) north–south route in Nipissing District which follows the historic Madawaska Colonization Road. The highway begins at the Nipissing-Hastings boundary, where it continues south to Highway 127. It ends at Highway 60 in the village of Madawaska.

Route description

Highway 523 begins at the boundary between the Hastings County and Nipissing District, east of Algonquin Provincial Park. From here the road continues south as the Madawaska Road to Maynooth, where it meets the Peterson Road and Hastings Road, all former Colonization Roads which served to open the northern frontier to settlement in the 1850s. North of the boundary, the Highway begins and is known as Cross Lake Road. It passes through a sparsely populated region dotted with lakes and muskeg, generally remaining straight, though curving sporadically to avoid the many obstacles presented by the Canadian Shield.

After passing thorough the village of Cross Lake, situated on the eastern shore of a lake with the same name, the highway abruptly curves to the east for 1 kilometre (0.62 mi). It turns back to the north and later approaches the northwestern tip of Bark Lake, on the opposite shore as Bell Bay Provincial Park. Here the highway curves to the west and follows the delta of the Madawaska River, curving north just short of entering the village of Madawaska.^[2]

Major intersections

The following table lists the major junctions along Highway 523. The entirety of the highway is located within Nipissing District.^[2]

Division[2]	Location[2]	km[1]	Destinations	Notes
Hastings County	Hastings Highlands	0.0		Division boundary line; road continues south as Madawaska Colonization Road
Nipissing District	South Algonquin
		20.1	Highway 60 – Whitney, Barry's Bay
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (2007). "Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) counts". Government of Ontario. http://www.raqsb.mto.gov.on.ca/techpubs/TrafficVolumes.nsf/tvweb?OpenForm&Seq=5. Retrieved March 13, 2011. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Peter Heiler (2010). Ontario Back Road Atlas (Map). Cartography by MapArt. p. 61, 80, section P44–Q45. ISBN 978-1-55198-226-7.