The week of May long weekend took me up to the Bruce Peninsula to do some camping on Georgian Bay. Despite the chilly May evenings (dropping down to zero degrees Celsius), the sun was shining and the landscape was ever impressive. For around $60, I was able to reserve a campsite online for two nights at Bruce Peninsula National Park. Although the temperature was a little brisk, this was probably one of the best times of year to head up to the Bruce, as it gets quite busy in the summer months. Luckily for us there were only 3 other campers on the campsite we chose (therefore I had my very own personal outhouse)! Despite not having showers in the park they did have running water, soap/sinks and foot pedal flush toilets.
Apart from the many different trails you can hike on within the park, there are three notable sights worth checking out which just happen to be along the Bruce Trail. The first is Indian Head Cove, if you’re interested in swimming here, it may be best to go in the summer months when the temperature isn’t as ice cold (I was crazy enough to jump in the water here a couple weeks ago). On a sunny day the clear blue water just sparkles!
From here you can continue along the trail until you reach the Grotto, another cool swimming spot that is inside an open cave. To get down to it you just need to find the hole in the rocks with the tunnel leading down to it.
The third spot is Overhanging Point, with great views from the top as well as the bottom. To get down to the base there is also a tunnel you can climb down or you can hike along the path that leads down to it.
On our last day up in the Bruce we made the 20-minute drive to Tobermory, a very small little town. From here we boarded a glass bottom boat with Bruce Anchor Cruises that would take us to Flowerpot Island, which is in Fathom Five National Marine Park (apparently also a great spot to scuba dive). On top of paying admission for the boat cruise out to the island you also need to pay a park fee of around $5 per person. The park admission also gives you access to the visitor’s centre which is in town and features an exhibit on the area/park as well as a high lookout.
There are quite a few shipwrecks in this area and our tour boat went over a couple that had run aground, the glass bottom is the best way to see them up close.
The great thing about this boat tour is that it dropped us off on the island to self-explore and we were able to select which return time we wanted to take to come back. There really is only access to half of the island but there is quite a bit to see! There are two hiking trails on the island (around 5k distance in total), a marked cave, 6 campsites, a light station, small museum/gift shop and of course the small and large flowerpots! I’d suggest packing a picnic lunch and giving yourself at least a few hours to check out everything.
Until my next Ontario adventure!
♥ JS
carpe diem = travel 
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