Most Beautiful Place In Ontario - Day 3

Our third day in the Bruce Peninsula started out pretty disappointing, but ended up being surprisingly wonderful. We had planned to go to Flowerpot Island that day. There are ferries that take you there and pick you back up after a certain amount of time. We wanted to go out there and hike the trails on the island. It is supposed to be really beautiful and the flowerpot formations are unreal. When we got to the ferry company to buy tickets, we were shocked. The prices were completely unreasonable. We had already spent way more money than we should have on this trip so we decided against Flowerpot Island. 

The previous day, we had actually tried to go to the Bruce Peninsula National Park to do some hiking and see some sights. By the time we got there, the park was completely full and they were not letting anyone else in so we had to turn around. Since Flowerpot Island didn't work out, we decided we would try our luck at the park again. It was a bit earlier than we had tried to go the day before so we thought we had an okay chance of getting in this time. As luck would have it, we got in with no problem! 

After parking in the parking lot that we were assigned at the gates, we walked towards the Cyprus Lake trails. It actually worked out so much better getting into the Bruce Peninsula National Park on the third day instead of the second day of our trip. We had to walk quite far. I don't think we would have enjoyed it much if we hadn't had a day to recover from that first, excruciating hike, haha. 

The paths took us through forests around a couple small lakes until we got to Lake Huron at Indian Head Cove. I loved the boardwalk paths through the forest, they were adorable and beautiful and magical.

I loved all the twisty trees

The cove was PACKED! People were all over the place. At first I was kind of sad that there were so many people there, it was completely different than our first hike where there was not a soul in sight for hours. Since there was so many people, my sister and I heard about a cool way to get down to the cave below called the Grotto, we wouldn't have found out about it if it wasn't for all the people there! From above we couldn't really see the way down. When we decided we would do it and got down to the entrance, I almost wanted to turn back! It was just a tiny hole leading down into darkness... I am a big scaredy cat, so from what I saw, it did not look like my idea of a good time. I followed my sister down anyways and I am so glad I did! It was really cool and not even very difficult. 

Standing up here I heard someone say "This is why blue is my favourite colour"

This is the hole we had to climb into...

Following people out the other side of the hole

Climbing down into the Grotto

Being in the grotto was awesome! It was my second favourite place of the trip. (The first being basically all the lookouts from the first day's hike...) You can swim under if you are an amazing swimmer or if you have scuba gear, I heard someone say that people have died trying though...

The view out from the Grotto

We climbed back up and continued our hike through the boulder beach and around to another small lake...and then another one after that I think, haha. It was a nice hike through the forest and I went swimming in one of the small lakes off of the trail. It's a beautiful hike and the paths around the small lakes are very nice and peaceful. 

View towards boulder beach

Someone scratched in the word YOLO on this sign, hahahaha

We got back to our car and drove into Tobermory for dinner at the Crowsnest Pub again and spent the rest of our last night in the Bruce Peninsula just hanging out at the Bed and Breakfast on our balcony. We left after a quick breakfast the next morning and made the long drive back to Toronto. I still would love to live up in this area. It was ridiculously beautiful and we hardly explored any of it! If it wasn't so cold in the winter and if there was more to do career-wise up there, I would be seriously considering moving up there! I just don't know what I would do for a job... maybe I will figure something out, haha. 

I would recommend a trip to the Bruce Peninsula for anybody and everybody. I can't wait to go back! If I hadn't injured my foot recently, I probably would have made another trip out there by now. Next time I will definitely be checking out Flowerpot Island! I wish I could spend the rest of Summer there...and Fall....

Most Beautiful Place In Ontario - Day 2

On my second day in the Bruce Peninsula, I woke up with sore legs and blisters all over my feet. We decided we would be taking it a bit easier that day. We packed all of our stuff into the car because we were staying at a different Bed and Breakfast for the rest of our trip. 

Our first stop of the day was to Devil's Monument. It is this huge natural formation of rocks. It is kind of like stacks of flat rocks. It's called a "flowerpot" because of the shape. It starts off thinner at the bottom and gets wider at the top. I had seen pictures of it before when I was researching which trails I should take in the Bruce Peninsula area and thought it didn't look that impressive. It is really cool in person though! Pictures just don't do it justice. It looks so small in my pictures, haha. 

The trail we took was quite small. You walk through forest for a little bit (where we are sure we heard a rattlesnake right by the trail, we ran away so we didn't see it...) until you come to a set of stairs that leads down to a rocky area and towards the lake. You have to walk down the rocks to get to Devil's Monument and the lake is just beyond that. 

You can see how thin the base is

The area had a lot of stacked rocks like this and small waterfalls would come through the cracks. It was pretty!

This is the view of Devil's Monument from the bottom! It's huge!

We walked down to the lake and then back the way we came to get to the car. I think we were only there for about half an hour or 45 minutes.

After the Devil's Monument trail we drove down to Singing Sands beach. There was a trail there too, which we took. I didn't take very many pictures at the beach. We went further along the shore to swim so there would be less people. That far down the beach wasn't very pretty. There were rocks and plants poking out of the sand. It was a very nice place to swim though. I couldn't believe how warm the water was! It was a huge difference compared to swimming on the other side of the peninsula. You could walk into the water forever and not go past your waist. Lake Huron is the clearest lake I have ever been in. There were minnows swimming around and you could see them everywhere. If you stood still, they would come swim at your feet, it was so weird, haha.

After spending a bit of time swimming and walking some of the trails, we headed into Tobermory for food. Our favorite place there was the Crowsnest Pub. I was obsessed with the smokey tequila lime chicken wings. They were amazing. 

After dinner and some drinks we went to our second B&B (Caribbean of the North). We stayed in the Nautical King Suite. It was very nice! The suite was on top of a garage so it was our own little place. We had our own bathroom and a balcony on each side of the garage! One overlooked the lake as it was a lakefront property. 

View from the balcony on the stormy second night of our stay

The second day of our trip to the Bruce Peninsula was very laid back. It was a nice change from the exhausting day before but I was ready for more adventure by our third and last full day!