How quickly the weekend passes. It’s almost time to go home but before we do we have to hunt down some orchids. I mean, it is one of the main reasons we come up this particular weekend.
Sit for a Spell
Unfortunately high water levels have struck the shorelines of Tobermory this year. Singing Sands beach, where we would find some of our favourite orchids, is water logged.
Instead we choose to hike a section of the Bruce Trail we haven’t tried before in the hopes of finding some flowers hidden among the trees. We lucked out on this decision when we came across trilliums galore in the underbrush.
Trilliums
And just as we thought the trilliums were all we would see, we came across a small bunch of Large Yellow Lady Slippers.
Yellow Lady Slipper
I was so excited to see these little flowers that I couldn’t stop photographing them. They all were still in the early stages of blooming. I’m not sure if that’s because we were further south of Tobermory or at a slightly higher elevation (we were high on the escarpment). Either way I was happy to finally see some orchids this weekend.
Cabot Head Lighthouse with Wolf’s Milk flowers
We made one final stop after our hike at Cabot Head Lighthouse. This is a favourite spot for some pretty great views of the bay not to mention all the wildflowers that grow here.
Tobermory is one of my favourite places to visit, especially in the spring or fall when less people are visiting. It’s become a popular place in the summer months and who can blame them. It’s one of the prettiest spots around.
It’s the last day of our trip to Algonquin but the exploring isn’t done just yet. After breakfast we head out to Big Pines Trail for what we hoped would be a snowshoe but the melting snow didn’t make for good conditions.
Enjoying the View
After our hike on the Big Pines Trail we decided to do one more hike at Spruce Bog Trail. This trail is always a good spot for spotting birds and other wildlife.
Red-breasted Nuthatch
We were not disappointed as we were greeted by a nuthatch and a couple chickadees. A red squirrel also joined us and was more than happy to pose for our photos.
Posing for photos
As is traditional we stopped one last time at the Mew Lake campground to see if we could spot the Pine Marten again and we were lucky enough to have him come out of the forest and visit us.
Who are you?
Although hesitant he was more than happy to eat the seed that people have left behind. Another great trip to Algonquin comes to an end but we look forward to future trips here.
I started off the morning with a great hike around Cyprus Lake. I stopped about halfway around to take the photo below, which I believe if you look straight across the lake that is where my campsite is. (Not that you can see it or anything…I’m just guessing.)
Mid Hike Rest
As I approached the ¾ mark on the trail I found a perfect little bench to take a rest with no real views of the lake but a good place for communing with the trees.
Sit and Rest
After lunch and a long afternoon chill out session my plan was to head to Singing Sands for a sunset shoot followed by dinner and then back to Singing Sands for some night shots.
Fringed Gentian
Well, the golden hour was definitely golden. The sunset, however, was not so dramatic. Actually, photographically speaking, it was boring. So I didn’t bother with showing you those photos. Instead…
Venus Setting
After dinner was when the show really happened. As the sky became fully dark, the stars started popping out one-by-one. And then the Milkyway rose up to greet me. If I remember my stars correctly that bright star casting its reflection on the water is Venus.
Ah…what a night. I could have stayed there forever but sleep was needed as tomorrow was another day to spend with nature.
We woke up extra early this morning to drive over to the Tobermory lighthouse and get us some sunrise photos. We were eager to see what mother nature was going to show us.
Rise and Shine
And I had a front seat to the spectacular event.
Front Seat
You couldn’t ask for a better morning. Temperatures were mild, the colours were on point and we had some cloud for the colours to reflect off of. Thank you Mother Nature!
Flowerpot 2
After a hearty breakfast we hopped on a boat and headed over to Flowerpot Island. After such great sunrise, the clouds came in and the drizzle started, eventually turning into a more substantial rain later in the day.
We walked along the shoreline path and stopped to photograph the flowerpots before heading to the lightstation museum on the north side of the island. That’s when the rain settled in so we got into our rain gear before heading back to the trails.
droplet
Instead of hiking the shoreline around the island we decided to cut through the middle and take the trail over some more rugged terrain in the hopes of spotting the elusive Striped Coral Root orchid. It wasn’t until we reached the main trail again that we spotted the orchid. I was thankful that I had the rain gear as I was down on the ground a number of times to get photos of almost every flower we spotted.
Striped Coral Root
By the time we got back to our Airbnb we were both wiped and very damp. Not to mention excited to see what we had captured. We have one more day here in Tobermory and it looked like we may have some better weather.
