Tobermory- Part 2
Got up and had breakfast at the hotel and then headed off for the Georgian Bay hiking trails. We aimed to get out early because they were predicting storms for late in the day.
We headed off to Bruce Penninsula National Park, which we could see from the water during our cruise the night before. We headed for a section called "Halfway Log Dump", which we had never been to before since that part of the park had been closed down for ten years and only opened again in 2010.
You had to pay in an envelope in the parking lot and leave it in a box, so it was interesting to have the two of us scramble in our pockets for $11.70 in exact change! It did give us a ticket, though, to go anywhere in the park for the day.
It was about a kilometre walk out to shore and the shore was made of that gorgeous layered limestone that so characterizes the entire area. Really beautiful and quiet and peaceful without too many other people out exploring yet at that time of morning.
The water was absolutely crystal clear to wade in shading out into those blues and turquoises as the water got deeper. A really lovely spot to climb about and explore, though we couldn't go too far along the shore because the rock cliffs got too steep pretty quickly.
We then walked back to the car and drove over to the Cyprus Lake entrance to the park. We'd been here before. In fact we camped here last time we were in the area.
That's one of my favorite photos from when we camped at Lake Cyprus in 2006.This time out we travelled into the dayhiker part of the trails and headed back out to the water again, near an area known as The Grotto. We hit another limestone pebbly beach, and though it was beautiful, it was much more difficult to walk along!
You can see the pathway on the left-side of the photo there. It was deceptively cultivated at first, but as it got closer to the Grotto the path rocks got bigger and further apart and it became very tricky to walk through them. We were relieved to get to the main trail again!
By then the skies were getting pretty dark and we were feeling rain, so we bypassed The Grotto, which we had explored thoroughly the last time we were in the park, and headed back toward the car.
From there we drove to another part of the park called the Singing Sands- shallow water on the shores of Lake Huron with a sandy bottom where you can walk for ages. We sat to eat our lunch in the van, but the rain was steady enough that we decided to leave wading in the Sands until the next day (which didn't happen, because it was raining the next morning, too).
We went back to Tobermory after that, ate dinner in our hotel and then went for a walk around the harbour to check out the shops. Tobermory has a famous candy store called The Sweet Shop, so we went there to buy fudge and assorted goodies. And then we went back to our hotel room to watch "So You Think You Can Dance?" and eat fudge and drink coolers.
I like this map inside The Sweet Shop. One of the most clever advertising gimmicks the store uses is a series of billboards on the highway leading up the penninsula toward Tobermory. You can't help but see the slogans and comment on them on the road and by the time you hit Tobermory you're more than curious to find this sweet shop! On this map in their store they show where each billboard is on the road.
Next morning was pretty overcast and rainy, so a few places we had considered stopping at on our way back to Richmond Hill (Singing Sands, Inglis Falls) had to wait until another day. We grabbed some Tim Hortons in Wiarton and then battled rather torrential downfalls to get back home.
A nice break from the city, though. We love that area of Ontario. Some summer soon we're thinking of taking a hiking drive/tour up around Lake Superior and over to Thunder Bay. We've never been and I'd love to do that. We're even thinking we may go by way of Tobermory, on the ferry to Manitoulin Island and then up the north shore of Lake Superior. Maybe some year soon.
We headed off to Bruce Penninsula National Park, which we could see from the water during our cruise the night before. We headed for a section called "Halfway Log Dump", which we had never been to before since that part of the park had been closed down for ten years and only opened again in 2010.
You had to pay in an envelope in the parking lot and leave it in a box, so it was interesting to have the two of us scramble in our pockets for $11.70 in exact change! It did give us a ticket, though, to go anywhere in the park for the day.
It was about a kilometre walk out to shore and the shore was made of that gorgeous layered limestone that so characterizes the entire area. Really beautiful and quiet and peaceful without too many other people out exploring yet at that time of morning.
The water was absolutely crystal clear to wade in shading out into those blues and turquoises as the water got deeper. A really lovely spot to climb about and explore, though we couldn't go too far along the shore because the rock cliffs got too steep pretty quickly.
We then walked back to the car and drove over to the Cyprus Lake entrance to the park. We'd been here before. In fact we camped here last time we were in the area.
That's one of my favorite photos from when we camped at Lake Cyprus in 2006.This time out we travelled into the dayhiker part of the trails and headed back out to the water again, near an area known as The Grotto. We hit another limestone pebbly beach, and though it was beautiful, it was much more difficult to walk along!
You can see the pathway on the left-side of the photo there. It was deceptively cultivated at first, but as it got closer to the Grotto the path rocks got bigger and further apart and it became very tricky to walk through them. We were relieved to get to the main trail again!
By then the skies were getting pretty dark and we were feeling rain, so we bypassed The Grotto, which we had explored thoroughly the last time we were in the park, and headed back toward the car.
From there we drove to another part of the park called the Singing Sands- shallow water on the shores of Lake Huron with a sandy bottom where you can walk for ages. We sat to eat our lunch in the van, but the rain was steady enough that we decided to leave wading in the Sands until the next day (which didn't happen, because it was raining the next morning, too).
We went back to Tobermory after that, ate dinner in our hotel and then went for a walk around the harbour to check out the shops. Tobermory has a famous candy store called The Sweet Shop, so we went there to buy fudge and assorted goodies. And then we went back to our hotel room to watch "So You Think You Can Dance?" and eat fudge and drink coolers.
I like this map inside The Sweet Shop. One of the most clever advertising gimmicks the store uses is a series of billboards on the highway leading up the penninsula toward Tobermory. You can't help but see the slogans and comment on them on the road and by the time you hit Tobermory you're more than curious to find this sweet shop! On this map in their store they show where each billboard is on the road.
Next morning was pretty overcast and rainy, so a few places we had considered stopping at on our way back to Richmond Hill (Singing Sands, Inglis Falls) had to wait until another day. We grabbed some Tim Hortons in Wiarton and then battled rather torrential downfalls to get back home.
A nice break from the city, though. We love that area of Ontario. Some summer soon we're thinking of taking a hiking drive/tour up around Lake Superior and over to Thunder Bay. We've never been and I'd love to do that. We're even thinking we may go by way of Tobermory, on the ferry to Manitoulin Island and then up the north shore of Lake Superior. Maybe some year soon.