Bruce
Peninsula National Park
Bruce
Peninsula National Park was officially established in 1987 to
bring much of the complex and unique Bruce Peninsula ecosystem under
federal laws that protect Canada's significant landscapes.
Cyprus Lake is the main visitor's area in the National
Park. It's easy to see why this area is such a popular family vacation
spot. Here you can camp, fish, swim, sail, canoe, participate in
the interpretive programs and explore an extensive trail system.
These trails link up with the Bruce
Trail (link to an external site).
Amble alongside Cyprus Lake or try the more rugged paths that skirt
the Georgian Bay shoreline with its wide vistas of rocky cliffs
set against turquoise waters.
Although outside of the Niagara Escarpment Plan
Area, one of the newer Bruce Peninsula National Park acquisitions
is Singing Sands on Dorcas Bay. This long sandy beach on the Peninsula's
west coast is alongside the Federation of Ontario Naturalists (FON)
property, the Dorcas Bay Nature Reserve. This is one of a system
of FON reserves that protect and preserve unique natural areas.
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Cabot
Head Provincial Nature Reserve
The best way to see the Cabot Head reserve is to follow
the shoreline road from Dyer's Bay. To the north are the cliffs
of the Escarpment. Beyond the boulder beaches and the blue waters
of the Bay, the headlands of Cape Chin, Lion's Head and Cape Dundas
rise majestically to the south. North of Dyer's Bay there are traces
of a flume that carried logs down the Escarpment from Gillie's Lake
during the timber boom in the late 1800's. At the end of the road,
Cabot Head lighthouse guides boaters past rocky shoals into safe
harbour at Wingfield Basin.
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Cape
Chin
This small park, with its shingle beach and undisturbed
forest, is used for hiking. North of here, along the Bruce Trail,
is the Devil's Monument and lookout. A plaque describes how this
large inland flowerpot or stack was formed by wave action from a
post-glacial lake 5,500 years ago.
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Cape
Croker Indian Reserve
Just south of Hope Bay is Cape Croker and some of
the Peninsula's most striking and dramatic scenery. The Cape Croker
Indian Reserve was established in the early 1800's and is home to
some 600 Ojibwa Natives. The Cape Croker Indian Park, owned and
managed by the Chippewas of Nawash Band, invites visitors to camp,
picnic, hike, swim, canoe, fish and experience this rugged landscape
of hills, cliff-lined harbours and mile upon mile of rocky shoreline.
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Colpoy's
Bluff
Colpoy's Bluff includes four parcels of land located
on the north shore of the Bay, east of the Village of Colpoy's Bay.
The park is used for hiking.
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Fathom
Five National Marine Park
Fathom
Five is Canada's first National Marine Park. It is composed
of a huge volume of water with a surface area of 13,028 hectares,
plus all of the life found in the water, the lake bed below and
on 19 off-shore islands.
It is made up of 45 square miles of clear water
and an archipelago of 19 islands that dot the water base area. Sheer
cliffs, limestone overhangs and large caves can be found both on the
islands and submerged beneath the waters that surround them.
Explore an area of submerged forests and underwater
waterfalls dating back to a time before modern man. View the remains
of ancient corals in this once tropical sea or get up close and
personal with its modern inhabitants -- crawfish, bass and sculpin.
For the wreck diving enthusiast, the remains of more
than 20 historical shipwrecks also lie beneath these clear, cold
waters. Dive shops are located both in Tobermory
and Wiarton. Tobermory also boasts home to one of only two hyperbaric
dive chambers in Canada.
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Hope Bay
Forest Provincial Nature Reserve
Huge potholes are among the features here. Relics
of the ice-age, these intriguing formations were created by hard
granite rock, carried by the glacial meltwater, grinding into the
softer escarpment limestone. This park is ideal for hiking and nature
walks.
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Lion's
Head Provincial Nature Reserve
Located high on the rocky headland that gives the
Village of Lion's Head its name, this park is used for hiking and
for enjoying the wide views over Whippoorwill and Isthmus Bays.
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Smokey
Head-White Bluff Provincial Nature Reserve
This forest park is a good example of the type of
upland forests typical to this particular portion of the Escarpment.
There are still faint traces of old log slides where cut timber
was pushed over the Escarpment edge and down to the beaches. This
area is accessible by the Bruce Trail.
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Spirit
Rock Conservation Area
Take the path along the shore and climb the spiral
staircase up along the sheer Escarpment cliff. Legend has it that
further south along the shore an Indian maiden threw herself to
her death. They say when the light is right, her image can be seen
on the rock. A sign now marks the spot. On top of the Escarpment
wander along the old carriage path and through the ruins of "the
Corran", an estate in the grand style, build over a century ago.
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