Pukuskwa National Park, Ontario, Canada

We decided to move along from Thunder Bay yesterday morning. As we got on the road, Lake Superior came into view right away. 

We were on our way to White River, via Pukuskwa National Park. We were under the impression that Pukuskwa National Park was an area best seen on foot, or by kayak or canoe. I'm leading up to a story with a surprising ending...a gem, you might say. I'll get to that in a minute, but first I want to tell you about the things we saw along the way. For one thing, we passed over a snazzy bridge, still being built. You can see that its cables are still wrapped in plastic.

Here we go! Cool! We get excited about bridges and tunnels.

Along the way, we had some fabulous views of Lake Superior.

Here's a panorama taken from the same spot.

Here's a picture of the map we were following. We followed that red road, Trans-Canada 17 all around the lake shore. We expected to get off at Hwy 627 (I think), drive out to the end (marked with a red arrow), then turn around and get back on Trans-Canada 17 and continue on to White River.

Our navigation unit took us all over Hell's Half Acre on this trip, getting us into a real pickle at one point when we had to turn around.

Finally, we found it and drove into the park.

There, we discovered a really nice campground with spaces big enough to accommodate our rig, including electricity. We decided to stay the night. It cost us around $15 USD for the night. Very nice.

The weather had been dark and chilly all day, but there was no rain, and so we got out almost immediately for a hike. We'd seen the signs for the "Beach Trail" and that was where we headed.

Reaching the trailhead, we found this map, and decided to take the entirety of the Southern Headland Trail...a hike of about 5,000 steps, according to my Fitbit.

It was a nice boardwalk out to the sand.

There, we stood right at the lake's edge.

Behind me was a sign describing the work of these artists.

There were a few works included on the sign, but I'm showing you just this one.

If you'd like to see more, you can check out their website:

From there, we started out on the trail, which turned out to be one of the best hikes we've ever taken. It was well-maintained (with great effort, we're sure), and took us up board steps,

over rails,

up and down stone steps,

over rocks and more board steps,

and out to some incredible examples of the Canadian Shield. It's too bad it was so foggy because we imagine the views out here are spectacular on a clear day. Nevertheless, the fog added its own brand of scenery, and we appreciated that too.

When we got out here, we came across this interesting piece. It appears modern, and there was no explanation for its presence. It appeared as a giant megaphone. I put my hear down to it to listen...and it sounded just as you'd expect...like putting a conch shell to one's ear.

Also, this interesting Aspen tree shedding its bark.

Some interesting colors of lichens and moss.

Every time I saw the mushrooms that are growing under this tree, I thought I was seeing peanuts. This one was interesting for the very large fungus growing on the trunk near the top of the image.

At places the trail was a little hard to discern. Here, we came to a "fork in the road" and had to decide which way to go.

Thank goodness for the "bread crumbs" of informational signs.

We thought this one was particularly interesting. You can see the accompanying map below.

Here's an image showing the glacial carving in the rock.

A little more information about Lake Superior.

Here we stopped to #sharethechair.

The fog made my hair curly.

Continuing on...we made our way farther down the trail, crossing over rocks...

eventually coming down these stairs,

to reveal this beautiful inlet.

Here, I took the image that will appear in my sketchbook.

My word for this One Word Wonder..."Serene."

From there, we headed back to our trailer and settled in for the night. We were lucky again with the weather because our hike was nothing more than fog. Last night, it rained hard, and it has rained hard most of the day. We continue to count our good fortune that the rain hasn't prevented us from seeing or doing anything we've wanted to, but we are a little tired of the gloom.

Tonight, on the recommendation of my friend Cathy, we're staying at Pancake Bay Provincial Park. We have a nice pull-through site with electricity. We dumped our tanks before leaving Pukuskwa National Park, and then we were able to fill our water tank with potable water upon arriving here. Mike has ridden his bicycle off to pay our fee for the night...a little steep because we selected a "beachfront" site. There's a bridge right next to our campsite that will allow us to get out next to the lake. I'll tell you more about it in tomorrow's post, internet access allowing.

Tomorrow we'll be heading off to another Harvest Host site...a brewery this time. We may change our minds if the day gets to late and head to Sudbury instead. Soon, we'll be seeing Lake Huron for the first time, and we'll be able to add something new to the side of the trailer.