I always joked and declared that Ontario was one of the best places in the world to endure lockdown life for a couple of years. When options of how to execute your spare time became limited overnight, we went to the outdoors within our own province like never before.
Ontario is like a country within the country. Globally speaking, our province fits several European nations within its borders, and the greatest statistical gift of it all pertains to how wild most of Ontario still is — let alone the shear variety of climates and their associated ecosystems and human cultures. Our backyard is a smorgasbord of opportunity to travel, and it is amazing.
With spring on our doorsteps, I’d like to highlight 'Owen’s Picks' for the most fascinating natural regions of the province, some of which I only discovered by creatively digging deeper during those unprecedented past two years. Others I have been visiting and learning about since childhood.
Feel free to use this article to inspire your next warm weather trip. The positive ripple effects of Canadians exploring more of their own big backyard is that we support local and, perhaps, subconsciously feel more inclined to show stewardship toward our land — especially in times of Ontario’s Bill 23, when some of southern Ontario’s most precious countryside destinations are at risk of being changed forever.
In no particular order though, let’s leave the south and start adventurously up north. Way up north.
Imagine a bath tub where the water only runs cold, and it is nearly half a kilometre deep. Lake Superior’s chilly, Gatorade-blue waters cover the largest surface area of any of the world’s freshwater lakes, making it the second largest in the world by volume after Russia’s Lake Baikal.
In southern Ontario, we feel like the Niagara Escarpment is our mini mountain. As we drive north into the Canadian Shield’s granite lands of lakes and forests, we suddenly redefine what a big hill is. Still not technically a mountain around, though.
When we drive nearly 12 hours out to Lake Superior, you see cliffs and scenery that I would best describe as a tiny replica of the B.C. coast. It’s a whole other tier of massiveness unknown to most. Again, still not mountains by definition, but for conversation’s sake, these are Ontario’s mountains.
Mist-clad rugged landscapes sit with authority as the ancient cliffs gaze over Lake
Superior’s restless waters. Creeks and waterfalls, some without names, poor into the Great Lake out of giant rock chasms, or sometimes meander gently through impressively surprising stretches of sandy beaches. After being up that way three times over the past few years, I fell in love with one of Ontario’s last accessible wild frontiers.
In the summer, when those beaches get toasty, they are just as busy as Crystal Beach in Fort Erie.
On that note, let’s head all the way down to Lake Erie’s coastline, where I am currently working on an upcoming Hidden Corners nature documentary. This significantly more shallow and smaller Great Lake may be Ontario’s, if not Canada’s ultimate summer getaway.
This is where beaches and biodiversity collide in spectacular fashion. The most species-rich region of the entire country is still preserved in pockets of protected land all along this lake, but the stretch of woods and water in Norfolk and Haldimand Regions are enjoyable beyond belief.
You can be hiking among some of the tallest and rarest trees without the sounds of traffic. For example, one of Canada’s most discrete stands of black gum trees. Then, you can hop in your vehicle and be on one of the world’s largest freshwater beaches in minutes. Cutesy but lively towns are always within reach for all of your family needs, but it takes only moments to feel swallowed up and deeply immersed by the rolling sandy forest hills.
Not all coastlines are this gentle, though.
Let’s go to my “second home” peninsula, the Bruce Peninsula.
One of the more awe-inspiring moments, which happens every day of the year, is watching the Caribbean-like waters of Georgian Bay crash into the sheer wall of the Niagara Escarpment as it plunges directly into the water. Nothing quite like water that fell out of the sky seconds ago smashing into 420 million years of rock layering.
Bruce Peninsula National Park offers the full spread of shorter family-friendly trails to demanding back-country remote experiences. Either way, there is something special about being cloaked in a dark, dense cedar forest, only to pop out to an astonishing view of beach rock, vertical cliffs, and the bluest of blue water.
In fact, the entire stretch of Bruce Peninsula from Owen Sound to Tobermory is jam-packed with scenery like this. I always refer to the Bruce Peninsula as Ontario’s “other up north” in comparison to Muskoka and beyond, and is just four hours away from Niagara.
Twelve hours, four hours, or less than two. I’ve given you three outstanding areas of Ontario that are not only special to our province, but the world.
Keep it local, Niagara! Pick your adventure, and sink your outdoorsy teeth into these three wonderful regions as our weather warms up.
