Where Did All The Flowers Go?

by | Jun 3, 2019 | Bruce Trail, Flower Photography, Local Photography, Parks

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

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

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

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

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.

Flowers of the Bruce

by | Jun 4, 2018 | Bruce Trail, Flower Photography, National Park, Parks, UNESCO sites

On our final day in the Bruce our goal was to photograph the flowers that were blooming this time of year. The Indian Painted Brush can be found by the side of the road south of town and if it’s a good year the roadside will be covered with them. They can be found in other places around the Bruce but I find that this is the best spot for them

Painted Brush
Painted Brush

We also stopped at Crane Lake, one of my favourite spots for flowers this time of year. It’s where I know to find the Nodding Trillium. Until I started coming up this way I had no idea that there was a Nodding Trillium. And their a tricky one to find since they grow facing the ground rather than the sky.

Nodding Trillium
Nodding Trillium

Of course that’s not the only flower you can find here and some are still opening up to the world.

The Opening
The Opening

And you’ll always find the Yellow Lady’s Slipper – these are hard not to spot this time of year. They are pretty much everywhere once you know where to look.

Yellow Lady Slipper
Yellow Lady Slipper

That’s it for our excursion to the Bruce for the Orchid Festival. I’m always sad to leave the Bruce behind but I know I’ll be back again very soon.

Backroad Bonanza

by | Jun 5, 2016 | Flower Photography, Local Photography, National Park

It is always sad when the weekend ends so quickly but, I guess it eventually has to end.  Now that didn’t mean we couldn’t take our time leaving the area by taking the scenic way. Driving the backroads along the west side of the peninsula it wasn’t long before we found something to photograph.

Laying Some Eggs

Laying Some Eggs

This snapping turtle was hanging out, just laying some eggs by the side of the road. Of course we only discovered this once we got out of the car for a closer look. We didn’t stay too long so as not to stress her out. As we continued down the road we noticed large bunches of Yellow Lady’s Slipper orchids all along the edges of the road.

Bunch of Slippers

Bunch of Slippers

I don’t know why this area seems to have these large groupings but I was happy to have stumbled on them. I think we spent a good part of an hour (maybe even two) going from bunch to bunch, photographing to our heart’s content. We couldn’t get enough of them but we couldn’t stay much longer so off we headed to the main highway. We didn’t expect to see much along here but it wasn’t long before we noticed the roadside covered with Indian Paintbrush.

Field of Red

Field of Red

In all the years I have been coming up to the Orchid Festival (okay it hasn’t really been that many years – maybe five) I have never seen so many of these flaming red flowers. They were everywhere. It was a great way to end our time here in the Bruce Peninsula.