Bruce Peninsula National Park

Our last week at work was so tropical and humid that we underestimated how cold it would be this week. Our first night was chilly and we had to get up in the middle of the night to layer up.
After breakfast we packed up our day bags with lunch and lots of water and hit the trails for a full day of hiking, climbing and spelunking.

Once out in the sun by the lake the morning chill melted away and we enjoyed what turned out to be quite a beautiful day.

Bill tests out the water

Georgian Bay Coast

The rocky limestone outcrops along the shore make for great climbing and Bill was in his element. He's much more agile than I am and eagerly explored all of the caves and inlets we came across.

Just your average cave....

Bruce Peninsula is famous for it's crystal clear waters and it's most famous attraction, the Grotto. The Grotto is a deep pool inside a cave at the bottom of a limestone cliff side. We climbed down to explore and realized that there was an under water opening in the cave to the other side. Bill was excited to explore it and we went back to our site to grab our bathing suits. The water, while tropical in it's clarity, seemed so inviting however it was extremely cold. We later learned from locals that the ice had only left the bay a few weeks prior.

I made it in almost to my knees before chickening out. Bill however, worked up the courage to get right into the water and swim over to the cave entrance. There were plenty of other people our age down in the Grotto by that point to cheer him on.

Bill preparing to jump in the cold cold water

We vowed to return some other year in mid summer when the frigid Georgian Bay waters would hopefully be warm enough to explore the underwater cave.


Out near Overhang Point we found some small caves or 'spelunking holes' to climb down into. Spelunking is the sport of caving at shallow depths where no ropes or gear is needed.  I was to chicken to bring my electronics down with me for fear of crushing them while climbing so unfortunately we have no pictures of the spelunking.


Tried after a full day, we took the long way home to make dinner and have a small camp fire before calling it a night.