Archive for the ‘Provincial Parks’ Category

Exciting week

Well we have been quite busy this week with the girls visiting. We took them into Belleville just to look around and then we did some shopping at Walmart. They were amazed at the size of the place as we have a superstore here and it is pretty huge. They spent ages looking at the DVD’s and CD’s as they are quite a bit cheaper here than in the UK.

In the evening we didn’t really do too much as the jet lag was catching up with them and they went to bed early.

On Wednesday we went up to Algonquin Park. We had a really good drive up there and stopped off at Tims in Bancroft. This was their first taste of Tims and they really liked the donuts and muffins. We then carried on the journey to the park.

We were lucky with the weather as it was nice and warm but not too hot so walking around was pleasant. One car park we stopped in had lots of black butterflies fluttering around. I managed to get a couple of pictures. They are apparently Mourning Cloak butterflies!

We did the beaver pond trail which goes round two beaver ponds. We saw the dam they had built as well as a couple of lodges where they live.

We then visited the visitors centre and took a look at the photo gallery they had there. There are some stunning photos on display and anyone into nature and photography should definitely visit. We also went round the exhibits they have on show and of course the girls went in the shop.

At the rear of the centre is a viewing platform where you can see across the park and we took some more pics there. When we had visited before they had a feeding station for birds and squirrels etc. This time however the area was a little run down and no food out so no birds or squirrels.

After having a bite to eat at the restaurant we ventured on to one of the many lakes in the park. We spotted some tracks in the sand and when we looked them up they appear to be coyote – unless anyone knows different!

We did a few other trails but failed to see any significant wildlife. The girls wanted to see a moose, but none were playing the game!

At the weekend we took the girls to Toronto where they stayed for two nights. They had a great time and went up the CN Tower, explored the lakefront area and of course shopped. We picked them up on Sunday evening and they were excited but pretty exhausted.

Yesterday we went to Toronto Zoo as this was somewhere they really wanted to go. We drove down together but then split up so they could do their own thing and us oldies were not cramping their style!

We saw some lovely butterflies pictured here.

There were also some amazing animals – here are a few. I will put the rest in my photo album section as soon as I have a few minutes.

This is an acrobatic orangutan baby posing is a slightly undignified way!

A rather stunning tiger

Some lazy river hogs

Just how cool is she?

A grizzly bear who was unfortunately wandering around in circles which is never a good sign in a bear!

And this handsome creature is a Southern hairy-nosed wombat. Now he has a face only a mother could love!

Today we dropped the girls off in Cobourg where they are spending the day on the beach. The weather is going to be great in the mid 20′s so they should get a bit of a tan.

Don’t look if you hate snakes!

Yesterday the weathermen were promising no rain so we decided to travel to one of the not so far away provincial parks. We chose Petroglyphs Provincial Park near Peterborough as we had never been before. The main part of the park is based around some aboriginal rock carvings found at the site.

When we arrived we first went to the Visitors Centre where you can see the history of the site and the meanings of some of the animals, birds, mineral etc to the aboriginals of the area. After visiting here we then went to see the actual petroglyphs. They are housed in a huge greenhouse type building specially constructed to protect the carvings from the elements which have been gradually destroying them over the years.

Inside the building is a concrete walkway around a large ground level rock face with hundreds of carvings of turtles, people, animals etc. The meanings of some are displayed around the edge, but apparently many are not known. Unfrtunately because of spiritual beliefs you are not allowed to take photos, so I cannot share the experience with you. But this picture is from one of the local travel sites.

After experiencing this we then took one of the trails in the park. this park is unusual in that it closes at 5.30pm and no camping, boating etc is allowed, so you have to be sure you can compete your trails before the park closes. We chose to take the Nanabush Trail which is 5.5 km in length and classed as moderate.

The trail goes through woodland and then over a boardwalk over some marshy areas. This is where we saw a snake. This is a Northern Water Snake apparently.

We watched it for quite some time and then it just toppled into the water and disappeared and we carried on our way. The trail eventually takes you round Minnow lake, a small lake, but very pretty.

It then meanders back into woodland. Once thing we noticed was that we didn’t see any other wildlife at all, other than the snake, but we did see lots of fungi.

On the way back we once again went across the boardwalk and saw the snake, this time in the water. After a few minutes we realized there were actually two of them.

You can see its markings here.

A good day out!