A weekend away from Toronto - Point Pelee

Point Pelee is the southernmost point of mainland Canada. It is a peninsula filled with trees and lots of wild life.

It is very famous for the diversity of migratory birds that show up in the park in spring (April 29th, 2016 -> May 18th, 2016). This is known as the Festival of Birds and it was our main motivation in visiting this place.
Birds - Point Pelee
Birds - Point Pelee
Birds also make their stop at Point Pelee in autumn. They take a break there before continuing the migration south in search of a warmer climate. I haven’t visited Point Pelee in autumn, but I am tempted. The Carolinian Forest dressed up in the fall colors must be gorgeous. I will probably visit it this year again and if so, I’ll share my experiences in this blog.

Point Pelee is a 4 hours’ drive from Toronto, but believe me, it is totally worthy. So, my wife and I (plus a bunch of other friends) left Toronto around 7am in the morning on Saturday May 7th, 2016. We took the 401 West stopping just once in one of the various OnRoute along the highway. 

In the highway we drove by the Batman in the Batmobile :-) See the video below. This was an unexpected plus to our road trip :-)


We also encountered one of the biggest wind farms in Canada between Tilbury and Ridgetown. It is called South Kent Wind Farm and belongs to the municipality of Chatham-Kent. The wind turbines seem to have no end as you drive along the 401. Unfortunately, we did not take pics of those :-(

We arrived at the park around 11:15am.

One quick note here: once inside the park we could not find places to have lunch. They have some stores in which you can get snacks, but nothing heavy. You can only get potato chips, ice cream, pops and things like that. Nonetheless, just one block before the entrance of the park, there is a place where you can have burgers, wraps, hot dogs, fish and chips, soft drinks. It is not a fancy place, but it gets the job done.

We paid the fee at the entrance, $19 bucks per family (up to 7 people in the same car). You can also pay individually. The pass to the park is valid for the whole day, so keep the receipt in case you want to have lunch outside of the park. With the receipt at hand, you will be able to get back into the park.

After paying the fee, we just drove into the park…

You are able to hear the singing of the birds all around. Now, if you really want to see them up-close, you should get yourself a pair of binoculars. I was the only one in our group of 7 carrying binoculars. Because of that I was the only one able to see a pair of deer in the distance and I was able to see the birds hidden in the far away foliage. I recommend 8x40 long range pursuit binoculars.

But hey, if you don’t have binoculars, that’s fine. All of us were able to see the birds, turtles (lots of them), and fishes (less than a meter away from where we were standing).
Bird in the Marsh - Point Pelee
Bird in the Marsh - Point Pelee
Frog - Point Pelee
Frog - Point Pelee
Turtles - Point Pelee
Turtles - Point Pelee
We were also able to see wild turkeys (twice), which are not migratory birds. They were really sneaky, camouflaging very well in the bushes. They are kinda big and thanks to that we were able to spot them.

There are several things you can do at Point Pelee: hiking, bicycling, bird watching, canoeing/kayaking, geocaching, swimming (at designated beaches), picnicking (picnic tables and grills onsite). For more details click here.

There are two places that you mustn’t miss: the Marsh Boardwalk and Point Pelee's Tip. 

Marsh Boardwalk

It provides a 1km long boardwalk over the marsh. It also has an observation tower and telescopes. From there you can get a sense of what Point Pelee really is.
Marsh Boardwalk - Observation tower - Point Pelee
Marsh Boardwalk - Observation tower - Point Pelee

Marsh Boardwalk - Geese - Point Pelee
Marsh Boardwalk - Geese - Point Pelee

Point Pelee's Tip 

This is the most southern point of mainland Canada and it was the place in which we all got wet with an unexpected shower/rain :-)
Point Pelee's Tip
Point Pelee's Tip
We left Point Pelee around 6pm with a lovely feeling in our hearts. We enjoyed nature at its best and we were satisfied. This is a place really worth seeing.

We did not come back to Toronto that day. Instead we drove to Windsor and stayed at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Windsor (Ambassador Bridge) (the previous link will take you to my review of the hotel).

It took us an hour to get to Windsor. We stayed overnight and the next day we toured a little bit around Windsor. I’ll write soon about our exploration of this town...
If you liked this post (trip) as much as we did; then share it with the Google Plus (G+) button at the beginning of the article. Thanks!

No comments:

Post a Comment