Nanabozho, a trickster from Ojibwe legend and cultural hero is the unofficial mascot of Bon Echo Park.

The Prices built a large hotel at the narrows, the Bon Echo Inn, which catered to the wealthy who were looking for a healthful retreat.

Flora was both a successful business operator in Toronto and a vocal proponent of women's rights who founded, along with other feminists, the Canadian Suffrage Association.

After obtaining the property for $15,000, they sent away the pastors and turned Bon Echo Inn into a haven for artists, poets, and writers, most notably James Thurber and members of the Group of Seven.

After that, the inn was leased to the Leavens Brothers who operated it as a summer hotel, and other portions of the property were rented out for use as a boys' camp and other recreational purposes.

Some of the cottages, including Dollywood and Greystones, remained in use as summer getaways for years, but financially the property was often a burden on the Denisons.

Although he could have made a substantial profit dividing and selling sections of the property as building lots, Denison's interests in conservation led him to donate the land to the province for the purpose of forming a park in 1959.

In 1956, Kay McCormick, Marnie Gilmour, David Fisher and Alan Bruce-Robertson paddled across Mazinaw Lake in a canoe on the Saturday of the Labour Day weekend, and climbed a rock outcropping subsequently named Birthday Ridge.

The Alpine Club of Canada maintains a hut on the lake, and Bon Echo rock climbing remains core to the ACC's Toronto Section[7] to this day.

Bon Echo's 400+ campsites in the Mazinaw and Hardwood Hills campgrounds are typical of those in the Ontario Parks system.

In addition, accommodation in heated yurts is available in the Sawmill Bay camping area,[8] as well as a number of cabins, most of which are located on Bon Echo Lake, west of Highway 41.

This trail in the northern reaches of the park hosts five campsites, each equipped with a picnic table, stone firepit, and dedicated outdoor box privy ("thunderbox").

The paths are not bold, preserving the ecology of the trail, and can be confusing at times, although the way is marked by flags on particularly difficult sections.

Additionally, in the more secluded areas one may see white-tailed deer, moose, black bear, red fox, beaver, and raccoons.