Bruce Peninsula National Park & The Grotto

I think at this point I must have hiked the Grotto trail in BPNP at least 10 times. I love it. The payoff for the amount of effort on the hike is huge and the park is just beautiful.

I was lucky enough to have a weekend away with my best friend under the stars. It was supposed to rain the whole time and it never did once! Some drizzle on the way up but otherwise perfect.

There’s something to be said about being able to share time outdoors with people you love. It really makes everything more meaningful. The importance of how connected we all are feels like it comes to the forefront.

The park itself is incredibly busy and compared to 10 or 15 years ago the amount of people you see here is astounding so it’s worth it to try and camp there on the shoulder seasons or even during the week during the school year.

We stayed in the Tamarack campground and even though it was a radio-free campground there were people with radios, but you could always call one of the park wardens if you needed to. Overall it was quite quiet and the people were lovely.

Overall I’d highly recommend the park and it’s worth it to drive up there. Bring your binoculars and tracking book because you will see wonderful things – hawks flying through the trees above you, green herons flying across the road, snakes, beaver evidence (they LOVE those aspens), and baby chipmunks and squirrels galore.

They also had a resident cub who’s been a bit of a nuisance but everyone seemed to be relatively respectful with keeping their campsites bear-safe and we didn’t see the bear or any evidence while we were there!

If you get the chance to go I highly recommend it. It now reminds me of two of the people I love most in the world and it brings me a lot of joy to know I’ve been able to share the experience with them.