Preparing for an upcoming camping trip to Pinery Provincial Park, I have been thinking about all the merits of Ontario Parks – beautiful forests, stunning lakes and rivers, and adventurous hiking and biking trails. While I have explored many of our province’s natural treasures, such as Long Point, Algonquin, and Sandbanks there are still so many for me to experience. As Ontario Tourism used to tout, it’s “Yours to Discover!”
Given that June is Recreation and Parks Month, you may want to do some discovering yourself. And the library offers two amazing opportunities to visit local parks for free. With your WPL card, you can borrow a Grand River Parks Membership Card. This day pass provides access to ten different GRCA parks as well as the Luther Marsh Wildlife Management Area. You can also borrow an Ontario Parks Day-Use Permit. This day pass provides access to more than 100 provincial parks in Ontario.
WPL also has many books that might help to pique your interest in Canada’s provincial and federal parks, and I wanted to suggest two of my recent favourites.
The first is Park Bagger: Adventures in the Canadian National Parks by Marlis Butcher. Butcher titled the book as such because she has “bagged” or visited all 48 Canadian national parks and reserves. Each chapter presents an awe-inspiring travel journal entry about her experience at one of these sites. From Gwaii Haanas in British Columbia to Terra Nova in Newfoundland, to Point Pelee on the southern tip of Ontario to Quttinirpaaq, at the very northern point of Nunavut; she has visited and explored them all.
Given that many of the parks are not accessible by road, months of planning and a creative approach to funding her travels and gaining entry to some of the locations was needed. Planes, helicopters, and boats as well as trained outfitters were often required in the end. Exploring such a large number of parks across our huge country is a truly remarkable feat and it’s a real pleasure to read her adventurous tales.
Her chapter about Qausuittuq in Nunavut, which only recently became a National Park in 2015 is one of my favourites. She was a member of the very first group of tourists to enter the park after it was given its official designation and what it took for her to get there and back for what in the end amounts to 24 hours in the park is unbelievable. A can-do attitude and the ability to alter her plans at the drop of a hat was definitely required for Butcher to achieve her bucket list goal!
While Butcher’s objective may not be attainable for all, my second recommendation presents parks and natural areas in a way that would be accessible for many, it is titled 150 Nature Hot Spots in Canada by Debbie Olsen. Olsen gives her suggestions for the best parks, conservation areas and wild places in the country, organizing them into 5 regions – West Coast, Prairie Provinces, Central Canada, Atlantic Canada and The North. She includes spots that both locals and tourists enjoy and some hidden gems as well.
This is a great book for anyone looking to plan a nature based get-away this summer and who is in search of some inspiration. For each destination, Olsen presents a list of what makes it a “hot spot,” includes photographs which certainly act as eye candy and a brief essay on the merits of the site. She writes of such remarkable natural phenomenon as the 500-million-year-old fossils that can be found in Burgess Shale, Yoho National Park, BC or the Bonnechere Caves near Eganville ON, which were formed naturally by acidic ground water dissolving the stone millions of years ago. Other sites offer incredible historical gems such as the more than 500 petroglyphs or rock carvings found in Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site in Nova Scotia, which are very telling of the Mi’kmaq culture and traditions in the area.
Olsen also includes a few special interest suggestions in a section at the end of the book, including the most scenic drives, best wildlife viewing spots or best multi-day backpacking trails. After making my way through this informative and tantalizing book, my list of Canadian must sees is now much, much longer…but I have to say that is a great problem to have!
Check it out 