So on this lovely Friday afternoon, I wanted to share a one of my favourite Canadian spots with you: Bruce Peninsula.
It’s currently, as you can imagine, pretty cold in Toronto at the moment so I thought why not reminisce in some summer adventures!
Bruce Peninsula & A Gorgeous Grotto
Since moving to Toronto, as a nature junkie, I have been on a mission to find all the best nature spots around the city!
(Check out the Algonquin adventures post for more nature heavy adventures)
I looked up the most beautiful places in Ontario and The Bruce Peninsula popped up on Cyprus Lake, aptly named as the waters look like you could be in the mediterranean.
So myself, two friends and a delightful golden retriever decided to head up there and hike to the grotto.
Now, if you drive directly to The Grotto, you have to go online and book your time slot, as in summer it gets really busy, so you are limited to a 4 hr window.
We knew this, but thought it applied to all trails leading to The Grotto too… it does not.
We parked at Little Cove Provincial Park with the intention of doing the hike to The Grotto, having a play and a swim, then hiking back all before sunset.
Google maps told us it would take about 2 hours, but the trail head said about 4hrs, we assumed it was underestimating our fitness so we went with Google’s timings, bearing in mind that we had only allocated 5 hours to this adventure before the sun was due to set!
So off we went…
High in spirits, feeling good, taking in all of the gorgeous colours of the lake, adventuring through the woods, exactly what we wanted.
It was challenging but doable, and we were beasting it because we knew we were on a time limit!
Fast forward to two hours in and every opening we get to we question whether THIS is The Grotto, it was not!
This happened approximately three times with frustrations building as we were being ravaged by bugs the more sweaty we got.
SO naturally, our pace picked up.
We managed to find the funny side, but definitely felt like cat and mouse with this illusive grotto… at this point, did it even exist?!
Fast forward another two hours and we FINALLY make it to The Grotto, after some renewed faith by other hikers walking the opposite direction, assuring us we weren’t far.
It.
Was.
Beautiful.
People were jumping off the rocks, playing, laughing.
The waters clear and azure blue, just stunning.
There were bathrooms there and areas for you to change, but not in an obnoxious way that ruined the authenticity of the location.
Miley, our trusty retriever, mascot and morale booster was first in the water (always first in!) and we all played and swam and watched the sun set.
Then it dawned on us.. How were we getting back to the car!? We can’t walk 4 hours in the dark with only one person with 30% battery on their phone and one head torch.
SO, we head to the main car park as groups of people are leaving and start asking for a lift back to our car, ‘for three girls and a wet dog”.
LUCKILY, a lovely couple, the gentleman from Belgium and his partner from Brazil, offer to take us to our car!
HALLELUJAH, we were saved!!!
We are forever grateful because there was no plan C!
With a little pre-planning, you will be fine. But if you DO fancy the hike, which will take you 4hrs, and you park at Little Cove, you are not restricted with time, so you can allocate the whole day, hike up, take some lunch, relax at the grotto, then head back, all in time for tea!
Thank you for reading all about my adventures at Bruce Peninsula! If you would like to take a free look at the insides of the Digital Business System that we use to able to have adventures like these, as and when we please, then click here!
If you missed our post from Monday, no need to worry you can click here to go and take a look 🙂
(Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram to keep up to date with all our latest trips)
Have a great day!