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This summer my wife and I had the chance to visit Bruce Peninsula National Park. We had never been before, but based on the logic "it must be pretty beautiful if they made it a national park," we made some reservations, dropped off our daughter, and headed up.

The Bruce Peninsula is a northward jutting piece of land which separates Georgian Bay from Lake Huron. The Bruce Trail runs along the Niagara Escarpment all the way from Niagara Falls to the northernmost point of the peninsula at Tobermory; that's 800-plus kilometers of walking if you were to tackle it all, and we were able to see just a small piece of it as it passes through the national park.

The pictures on this page are from a day we spent on the park trails with a tripod on my shoulder and a roll of Kodak E100VS in my camera.

I've come to have pretty high expectations of our beloved Canada's National Parks; and Bruce Peninsula more than held up its end. Flora and fauna come together on a rugged Canadian landscape in a way which is genuinely unique. For example, I did not expect the effect that limestone in the area has on the colour of the water. It was amazing to stand on a rocky bay, surrounded by pines, and look at water reminiscent of Caribbean beaches.

The Caribbean comparison ends with visual similarities, though, as this fresh water is startlingly close to freezing (well it was really cold anyway) at the end of June.

As the trail led up away from the water we were presented with solitary, infrequent (but regular) examples of lilies. Used to seeing these in clumps at roadsides, it was quite interesting to see them clinging on at the side of a trail. A few different colours were evident, and many were in surprising locations, be it growing up through a dead bush, or clinging to a pocket of soil on a barren rock.

I suppose we were enjoying the trail a little too much though, as between breathtaking views and watching our step we went a little further than planned. We were lucky to run into two fellows we'd met at the campground, who knew where we were better than we did (even though they had been on the trail for several hours more than us).

(...)

We went with them back to Overhanging Point, and from there back to the rock beach where we parted ways (but not before they had pointed out a rattlesnake on the trail). Thanks guys.

From there we made our way over to the Grotto, a beautiful natural cave carved into the cliffs. The Grotto is on the lines of 'at your own risk' trails, though, and the 10 meter climb down to water level is not for the faint of heart. If you can manage the climb down, go for it. The view from above alone makes it worth the walk, though.

The cave extends into the side of the cliff for some meters to expose a pool which connects by an underwater passage to the main body of water at the tip of the point.

The cave is lit from beneath the water by green light coming from the far side of this passage, and swallows were visible in the dim light as they flew in over our heads to reach their nests protected high up on shelves in the cave.

Within the Park, Cyprus Lake campground is really quite nice. The water is warm (even in June) and the lake is ringed by a trail. Boardwalks connect some sections.

Our campsite was just steps from one such boardwalk which ended at a beach. Sites were generally quite private, with plenty of trees.

All text and images unless otherwise indicated are Copyright © 1999 - 2000 by Graham Braun. Canadian Web Hosting by Studio Braun - www.studiobraun.ca.