One-Tank Trip for
June 23/12
(c) By Jim Fox
Now that summer is
officially here, many thoughts turn to sun and surf.
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| Thousands of people are drawn to Wasaga Beach Provincial Park on Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay each summer with its 14-kilometre-long beach. (Photo – Ontario Tourism) |
Yes, summer’s a
beach and that fact is backed up by a poll by Trip Advisor travel website saying
the most popular getaway choice is a beach trip.
Other top desires
are cultural, road, city and guy/girlfriend getaways.
Bring out the best
beach bum in you with the following suggestions.
A day at the beach
Ontarians don’t
have to travel far to find a great stretch of sand in the summertime.
In fact, there are 106,844
kilometres of protected and maintained beaches in Ontario Parks.
Not surprisingly,
the longest and most popular is Wasaga Beach Provincial Park on Lake Huron’s Georgian
Bay that stretches for 14 kilometres.
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| Wasaga Beach (Ontario Tourism) |
An upcoming summer
event from Aug. 17 to 19 is Wasaga Under Siege: A War of 1812 Experience to
mark the 200th anniversary of the historic battle.
Hundreds of people
will re-enact the war involving the U.S., Britain and Canada (First Nations)
that resulting in the sinking of the British schooner Nancy in the Nottawasaga
River.
Wasaga Beach is the
first provincial park in Canada to be awarded the Blue Flag designation for its
efforts to manage the shoreline to meet strict criteria for water quality,
environmental education, environmental management, and safety and services.
“Many park beaches
remain well-kept secrets including Neys Provincial Park, on Lake Superior,”
said Lori Waldbrook of Ontario Parks.
Even though the
Group of Seven painters immortalized the landscape at Neys on canvas, not many
people know that it has one of the finest beaches in northern Ontario, she
said.
Closer to home, the
beach at Inverhuron Provincial Park on Lake Huron is also waiting to be
discovered. Park campgrounds have reopened after being closed for many years.
On Lake Erie, there
are nine Ontario Parks with beaches, with “one of the best” being Long Point
Provincial Park.
The park is part of
a massive sand spit and is a designated World UNESCO biosphere.
Sand dunes at Long
Point rival the ones at Sandbanks, a busy provincial park on Lake Ontario.
“Few people know
that another nice beach is close to Sandbanks: North Beach Provincial Park, a
day-use park, that’s a ribbon of sand sheltering tiny North Bay from Lake
Ontario,” Waldbrook said.
In the past year, there
have been several infrastructure improvements for beach park ecosystems.
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| Summer fun on the water (Ontario Parks) |
These include the Friends
of the Pinery constructing a rolling boardwalk to help protect the famous dunes
at the park south of Grand Bend.
The “friends” are
now working on funding to make a wheelchair accessible boardwalk that will
eventually connect two picnic areas to the beach.
Sandbanks
Provincial Park, south of Belleville and marking its 50th anniversary this
year, has the new Dunes Trail.
Other spots include
Sibbald Point Provincial Park on Lake Simcoe with great fishing and swimming, Bronte
Creek Provincial Park, between Burlington and Oakville, and Darlington Provincial
Park, east of Oshawa, with a “nice beach.”
Park details at:
http://ontarioparks.com
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| Things are wet and wild at Bingemans Big Splash Waterpark in Kitchener. |
Go wet and wild
Along with the
parks are numerous spots to get wet and go wild this summer.
- Bingemans on the
Grand River in Kitchener offers overnight camping as well as the Big Splash
Waterpark.
It has a heated
wave pool and slippery, wild rides including Boomerango, hurtling down a “huge
drop” in a raft, pipe slides, the Cyclone, Big Squirt, Full Throttle, Torpedo
Bay and more. http://bingemans.com; (519)
744-1555
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| Bingemans Big Splash Waterpark |
- Wild Water
Kingdom in Brampton is one of Canada’s largest waterparks and has many liquid
attractions such as water slides, fun fountains, wave pool, lazy rivers and
numerous pools for children.
Featured
attractions include Midnight Express, the Abyss, Nightrider, Cyclone, Devil's
Drop, White Lightning, the Cliff and the Big Tipper. www.wildwaterkingdom.com;
1-866-794-WILD (9453)
- Canada’s
Wonderland in Vaughan has SplashWorks with more than seven-million litres of
heated water fun.
Get soaked with the
Plunge, Supersoaker, Lazy River, Pumphouse and in what is billed as
“Canada's largest wave pool. www.canadaswonderland.com
- Fallsview Indoor
Waterpark in Niagara Falls has a “mammoth play area,” 4,500-litre tipping
bucket, six-storey-high waterslides, full-sized wave pool and plunge bowl. www.fallsviewwaterpark.com
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Jim Fox can be reached at onetanktrips@hotmail.com
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