There’s a strategy for travelers facing busy, tourist-filled areas during peak season. It’s called: Zig where others zag. We employ this strategy often, and it’s been quite effective!
One of the most well known, busy, and tourist-filled areas of SW Ontario is the Bruce Peninsula – home to Bruce Peninsula National Park, Fathom Five Marine National Park, 5 provincial parks, and the town of Tobermory at the very tip of the peninsula. Although the area boasts some interesting places to hike, reservations were required (for camping, restaurants, hiking and even glass bottom boat rides) and none were available when I first checked in March. Nor April. Nor May.
Hmmm. Are there other interesting places we could visit that other visitors would not? After doing some research, Owen Sound rose to the top of the list. This small city (pop 22,000) is at the end of a sound on Georgian Bay. (Yes, it’s literally a zig to the Bruce Peninsula zag.) It’s situated on the Niagara Escarpment (more on that below), with hiking trails and bike paths along the sound. The city if Owen Sound manages 2 campgrounds, and various venues throughout the town host music events 6 days a week. Sounds like our kind of place!
Niagara Falls, where Lake Erie drops into the Lake Ontario via the Niagara river at the US/Canadian border, is quite well known to most. Lesser known is that the falls, which drop 50 meters/160 feet, are part of the Niagara Escarpment – a set of cliffs that runs continuously from western New York and through Ontario, Michigan and Wisconsin (some of it underwater). And – who knew? – an organization called the Bruce Trail Conservancy has created a 900-kilometer/560-mile walking trail along the escarpment from Niagara Falls to Tobermory, including a section of the trail through the Harrison Park Campground where we were staying…
We arrived at Harrison Park just in time to settle into our campsite, have dinner and walk to the Visitor Center at the old railroad depot-turned-museum for a Harbor Nights concert. The featured artist was The O’Deadly’s, a creative band with Celtic instrumentation playing everything from traditional Irish tunes to current hits and everything in between – Bruce Springsteen on accordion, the Beatles on tin whistle… They were fun! And the setting, right where the Sydenham River meets the Sound, couldn’t be beat. The audience arrived via car, foot, roller blades, yacht, kayak and electric scooter.
As we mentioned, the Bruce Trail ran through our campground. What we didn’t know was that the local section of the trail would take us to Inglis Falls, one of 4 sets of falls on the escarpment in this county. The hike on a very well maintained trail up to the top of the escarpment was a delight and the views at the falls were rewarding.
We got back from the hike just in time for dinner and to walk over to the Harrison Park bandstand where the Owen Sound City Band were offering up their weekly concert. Musical creativity is plentiful here. The 17-piece band played pieces ranging from traditional marches to Adele. Fun!
As one looks at a city map of Owen Sound, parks are clearly a priority. It appears no matter where we were in the city, we were never more that 6 blocks from a park. We decided an urban walk was in order – downtown, the west city path, a few little neighborhoods. And we spent some quality time at Nawash Park, right on the sound, checking out the marina, breakwater, miniature lighthouse, and art exhibitions. We admired the beautifully stonescaped outdoor performance amphitheater, regretting there was no performance during our stay.
We did enjoy listening to Piper and Carson at the local farmers market – think Neil Young (coincidentally from Ontario) meets millennials. We took note when they launched their Wolf Song, getting everybody to howl with them during the choruses.
We’re glad Owen Sound called out to us!
For anyone who’s interested, more Owen Sound, Inglis Falls and Owen Sound music pix…
