page_title: Ontario Highway 6
section_title: South Baymouth to McKerrow
hierarchical_section_title: Ontario Highway 6 / Route description / South Baymouth to McKerrow
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking south from the northern terminus of Ontario Highway 6. In Baldwin, looking toward Espanola, in Ontario, Canada.
context_page_description: King's Highway 6, commonly referred to as Highway 6, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. It crosses a distance of 480 km between Port Dover, on the northern shore of Lake Erie, and Espanola, on the northern shore of Lake Huron, before ending at the Trans-Canada Highway in McKerrow.
  Highway 6 was one of several routes established when Ontario first introduced a highway network on February 26, 1920, following several pioneer wagon trails. The original designation, not numbered until 1925, connected Port Dover with Owen Sound via Hamilton and Guelph. When the Department of Highways took over the Department of Northern Development in 1937, Highway 6 was extended north through the Bruce Peninsula to Tobermory. In 1980, the entire length of Highway 68 on Manitoulin Island and north to Highway 17 became a northern extension of Highway 6. Small modifications were made to the route of Highway 6 in 1997, but it was largely untouched by provincial downloading.
  Highway 6 is one of two highways in Ontario broken into two segments by a ferry. The Chi-Cheemaun ferry serves automobile traffic, connecting Tobermory with South Baymouth between May and October.
context_section_description: The Chi-Cheemaun ferry docks at South Baymouth, and Highway 6 continues as a two-lane highway. Highway 6 is both the main means of connection between Manitoulin Island and the rest of Ontario and the major highway on Manitoulin Island. Secondary Highways 540 and 542 on Manitoulin Island link back to Highway 6. The section from South Baymouth to the Highway 542 junction has the least traffic on a given day, with an average of 610 vehicles passing as measured in 2010.
  Highway 6 continues north, passing through communities such as Manitowaning, Sheguiandah, and Little Current. At Little Current, Highway 6 crosses the North Channel by the Little Current Swing Bridge, which swings open for 15 minutes of each daylight hour in the summer to allow boats to pass through the channel. This crossing is the only permanent 2-way one-lane bottleneck of the Ontario King's Highways.
  After crossing the North Channel, Highway 6 climbs through the La Cloche Mountains near Whitefish Falls (see image). Eventually, it arrives in Baldwin, north of Espanola, ending at Trans-Canada Highway 17 in the community of McKerrow, 117 km from South Baymouth.
caption: Looking south from the northern terminus of ON6
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 60D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2017:04:02 17:50:29", "Image Artist": "", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "202", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "8230", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4686", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1250", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Action", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "250", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:08:15 17:54:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:08:15 17:54:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "83/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "35/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "105", "EXIF SubSecTime": "21", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "21", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "21", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5184", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3456", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "8106", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1036800/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}