Bruce Peninsula National Park - (Tobermory, Ontario)

Well, this enty may actually be a better introduction of Tobermory than the last one which I called Introduction To Tobermory. :)

Tobermory, Ontario is within the Northern Bruce Peninsula Municipality which has a polulation of less than 4,000 spread over 188,000 acres. The town of Tobermory at the end of the peninsula is home to somewhat less than half of the 4,000.

Tobermory is the gateway to the Georgian Bay, the huge eastern part of Lake Huron. Lake Huron is the second largest of the Great Lakes by surface area, and the fourth largest lake in the world. Georgian Bay by itself is 80% of the size of Lake Ontario, the 15th largest lake in the world.

This tiny town is home to two national parks - the Bruce Peninsula National Park and the Fathom Five National Marine Park. It's known as the "scuba diving capital of Canada" and even the "freshwater diving capital of the world" due to the clear water and the number of explorable shipwrecks in the area.

There are two glass-bottom boat tour companies that take visitors to a couple of the shipwrecks and to and around some of the islands, including Flowerpot Island where there are two natural seastacks known as the flowerpots. Photo from Flowerpot Island website.

We considered taking one of the boat tours, but decided they didn't quite meet our "value meter" criteria. :)

So, this morning, we went into town - it's a small place and everything is convenient. I had read the Coffee Shop had Wi-Fi, so we went there for a breakfast wrap and to upload pictures. Unfortunately, they no longer had Wi-Fi.

They told us the library next door had Wi-Fi, but the signal wasn't very good outside and they didn't open until 10:30. So, we decided to go do the easy Singing Sands hike/walk on Dorcas Bay.

There is no daily entrance fee for the Bruce Peninsula National Park, but there is a parking fee at its most popular trailheads. The parking area at Singing Sands is free.

We walked the little boardwalk trail out into the "fen", a marshy wetland.

There were several wildflowers and lots of Pitcher Plants, carnivorous plats that feed on insects that fall into their "pitcher-like" reservoirs.

After the short boardwalk tour, we went on what we thought was the main trail loop. It turned out to be an old road that dead-ended after about three quarters of a mile. Oops. Oh well, it added an extra mile and a half to the day's walking.

The main trail was still an old road ....

and water blocked passage in a few places. We maneuvered our way around and took pictures of the frogs we encountered along the way.

This is one of many Northern Leopard Frogs we saw.

And this is a Wood Frog.

The Singing Sands Trail has a couple of cut-overs from the woods to the shoreline, but we continued on to the end before crossing the dry, rocky area back to the edge of the lake.

As we walked through this area, we kept our eye out for a Massasauga, an endangered pygmy rattlesnake. The signs said this was perfect habitat for them, but we didn't see any lurking under rocks or ledges or the flowering shrubs.

We also looked for orchids along this trail as it was known to have a few different species. Of course, we didn't really know where or what we were looking for, and no orchid-like flowers caught our eye.

We continued to follow the shoreline back to the parking lot. It wasn't the most interesting trail in the world, but it was a nice walk to get our day started. There were only a couple of cars in the parking lot when we started, but by the time we got back to the Jeep, there were probably fifty or so.

The most popular spot in the park is the Grotto/Indiana Head Cove area. I wanted to get photographs, but I had read that it was always crowded during warm, summer days. The young fellow at the Visitor Center told us to go before 10:00 a.m. or after 5:00 p.m. to avoid most of the crowds. So, we decided to go in the evening to watch the sunset.

We went back into town, and I went to the library to upload photos. Linda did a little shopping in the shops along the harbor. The library Wi-Fi was just fast enough to get photos uploaded and get the prior day's Journal entry completed.

Linda bought an outfit she was very happy about, and then we decided to have lunch at the fish 'n' chips place next door to the library.

Service was slow, but the fish 'n' chips and the fish tacos were good. And we chatted with some folks from Ohio while we waited. There were very few license plates in the parking lots that weren't from Ontario.

After lunch, we went back to our room to take afternoon naps. We read until we fell asleep, and then headed out around 6:00 to go to the Cyprus Lake area - the location of the park campgrounds and the parking area for the Grotto & Indian Head Cove.

At the "Head of Trails", there are three trails that will take you to the shoreline: 1) the wide, easy Georgian Bay Trail, 2) the Horse Lake Trail which comes out east of Indiana Head Cove, and 3) the Marr Lake Trail which is a bit more rugged and hits the shoreline west of the Grotto (which is west of, but next to Indiana Head Cove).

The vast majority of visitors take the Georgian Bay Trail .....

so, naturally, we took the "non-stroller accessible" Marr Lake Trail. :)

That trail came out on a boulder beach (not Linda's favorite terrain).

The lighting wasn't great, but we sacrificed perfect picture lighting for fewer people - not a bad trade-off.

Before heading right (or east) to the Grotto, we went left (west) on the Bruce Trail. As I mentioned yesterday, the Bruce Trail is marked with white slashes on the trees. The trail is very well marked and there is a key to the "slash system". This double-slash indicates that the trail turns right ....

and this double-slash means the trail turns left.

Eventually, we made it out to Overhanging Point. There was a small sign, and we walked out on the rocks to take a picture of the rock shelter below, and .

the cliff with the sun reflecting off the water.

But then Linda recognized where we were from the movie we saw at the Visitors Center. We had been standing on Overhanging Point, so I changed locations to get a picture of Linda out there.

Then she got one of me.

I'm a bit more ledge-conscious than Linda .... but you already knew that. :)

Then, we walked back across the boulder beach ....

and into the woods toward the Grotto.

We arrived at the Grotto and had the opportunity to take some pictures with no people in them.

We climbed up the rocks on the other side of the Grotto and got this nice shot of the sun starting to sink in the hazy evening sky.

A few steps farther was this look at the cave.

And, after a few more steps, we were looking down on the beautiful Indiana Head Cove.

There were just a couple of stragglers left, so we pretty much had our pick of spots. We walked around to the other side, chose a rock above the water and sat down to enjoy the sunset while our feet dangled over the edge.

While we munched on our trail mix and enjoyed the tranquil beauty, one of the tour boats pulled up in the midst of its sunset cruise.

We sat there for quite a while longer and some other started to arrive. One fellow had a drone that he flew over the scene.

We exchanged emails and he's going to send me the footage. Cool.

Once we determined that the colors weren't going to get any better, we headed out. It was a very pleasant evening hike. :)

So, that was pretty much it for today. Tomorrow, we have plans to do some paddling and another hike along the shoreline in a less popular area of the park.

See you then! :)