Camping in Tobermory Pt. 1

Indian Head Cove on Georgian Bay.

A group of us went car camping at Cypress Lake Provincial Park in Tobermory this past weekend. We left early Saturday morning and returned on Sunday afternoon. According to Google Maps the trip is about 300 kilometres from Toronto and is supposed to be 4-1/2 hours by car.

Emily, Peter and Gabe did the majority of the organizing. Emily and Gabe had a lot of equipment such as tents and sleeping bags already, so that was cool.

We took two cars up. Gabe drove Emily and Peter. I took Fiona and Keith. We met at the McDonalds in Brampton (410 and Queen Street), had breakfast there and departed.

Our first stop was Lion's Head. It's a quaint town off Highway 6, halfway between Wiarton and the park on the east side of the peninsula facing Georgian Bay.

We walked around for an hour. They had a very small farmers market there. We walked through the harbour where a lot of pleasure boats were docked. I chatted with an older couple who were sitting by the water enjoying the scenery. The water was crystal clear. We saw some pretty large fish swimming in the harbour. That was neat.

Afterwards we headed up to Tobermory (about 10 kilometres north of our campsite) to grab a bite for lunch. We had fish and chips at a restaurant called, what else, The Fish & Chip Place.

Next we had ice cream for dessert. I bumped into the older couple from Lion's Head again at the ice cream shop. They came up to Tobermory for a classic car rally with their 1958 Buick Special. It's a beautiful car.

At the car rally I ran into my Flickr friend, Georgette. She drove up from Toronto with her friends for the weekend too. What a funny coincidence.

After Tobermory we checked into the campground and set up our tents. Then we started on a hike around the park. We began on the Cypress Lake Trail and switched to the Horse Lake Trail. That connected us to the Bruce Trail and Indian Head Cove where some people were swimming and jumping into the water off the cliffs (which they weren't supposed to do).

Continuing along the Bruce Trail we hit The Grotto, a small cave, and ended up at Overhanging Point a scenic lookout that was great for pictures.

We headed back to our campsite from there. First taking the Marr Lake trail which connected to the Georgian Bay Trail and finally to the Cypress Lake Trail.