Featured Park - Awenda

Ontario Parks Insider

Awenda certainly has great beach front along Georgian Bay and watersports, including swimming, snorkeling, and kayaking, are definitely the highlight for many visitors. But for others it’s the ability for the camper to go back in time that makes it a great place to visit. Awenda is close to two historic attractions: Discovery Harbour in Penetanguishene and Sainte-Marie among the Hurons in Midland.

Discovery Harbour is a reconstructed British Naval depot dating back to the early 1800s where one can book a cruise aboard two replica schooners copying 1812 British Naval ships, H.M.S. Tecumseth and H.M.S. Bee. You can also join a tour through a recreated village, including officer’s quarters, barracks, doctor’s office and cartographer’s house.

Sainte-Marie among the Hurons is an accurately reconstructed 17th-century Jesuit mission. This was one of Ontario’s first European settlements and now costumed staff create a vibrant representation of how settlers once lived, and died, here with the early Aboriginal inhabitants. The museum includes a palisade and longhouses, with artifacts collected from the time-period. Across the road, an immense white church called Martyr’s Shrine, honours the memory of Jesuits killed by invading Iroquois. This year, both Discovery Harbour and St. Marie among the Hurons are introducing audio-wand tours for their guests.

Of course Awenda is also a great place to park your RV and simply enjoy your surroundings. The park is a mix of deciduous and coniferous forests intermingled low-lying wetlands. While the forest in the camping area is mostly made up of maple, oak and birch, in the areas below the bluffs cedar and hemlock predominate. You'll also find carnivorous pitcher plants, as well as beautiful orchids in the park. In the spring the park is awash in trilliums, which should play to anyone's sense of romance.

Awenda has over 30km of trails, ranging from easy 1 km strolls to moderate 13 km hikes. The bonus is that many of the trails intersect allowing you to customize your itinerary.

Ontario Parks’ Go for Green Strategy strives to green the green

Ontario Parks Insider

With 10 million visits annually, on average, the operational impacts of our protected areas can be substantial. We use energy to run campgrounds, we produce waste, we consume water, we develop buildings, and we consume fossil fuels.

So how do we deal with all these impacts? In June of 2008, Ontario Parks created a Go for Green Strategy. The strategy outlines greening initiatives for Ontario Parks, which include;

  • Energy conservation retrofits
  • Minimizing environmental impacts of new infrastructure
  • New vehicle fleet strategy
  • Climate change as a component of the natural heritage education programs


Since the Go for Green Strategy was implemented, Ontario Parks has made significant improvements to conservation retrofits (i.e. making older buildings more efficient) and is using leading edge environmental technology to create new facilities.

Take Fushimi Lake Provincial Park for example; In 2007, staff initiated the process to create a completely off-the-grid operational park. By fall 2008, the park warehouse was retrofitted with a 6 kW solar grid-tie-in system. The solar panels are directly connected to the existing hydro grid. With every beam of sunlight, the solar panels are producing an excess of hydro to operate the park and the remainder is fed back into the grid. So not only does the solar panel system run the park it produces extra energy!

Another off-the-grid project is thanks to the efforts of the Friends of Misery Bay Provincial Nature Reserve. This small but significant protected area now houses a completely off-the-grid visitor centre to support education and awareness of Misery Bay on Manitoulin Island. The brand new visitor centre features solar panels, battery pack with an inverter, large windows for passive solar heating and an eco-friendly septic system.

Ontario Parks is also working hard towards improving and updating operational vehicles. Staff often use vehicles for travel between and within parks. Staff are encouraged to cycle around parks to visit campers or get from one building to the next. When biking is not possible some parks are now using electric or hybrid vehicles. Ontario Parks also owns a SmartCar which travels around to various parks to offset the use of other less fuel-efficient vehicles.

As visitors to Ontario Parks you too can do your part. Balsam Lake, Darlington, Killbear, Killarney, Long Point, MacGregor Point, Pinery, and Sandbanks parks ask visitors to “Park Once”. The program challenges campers to keep their vehicle parked for the duration of their stay in the campground. As campers you can also be aware that you are only camping on designated sites, cleaning up after family pets, using biodegradable soaps and staying on designated hiking trails to keep vegetation trampling to a minimum.

With a rising concern for global warming and climate change many Ontarians are searching for ways to reduce their environmental footprint, while still enjoying a fun family vacation. So remember when you visit Ontario Parks, enjoy what nature has to offer, take only pictures, leave only footprints and ask staff about some of the green initiatives happening in your favourite park!

Mysteries of Migration

Ontario Parks Insider

The arrival of the American Robin is known to many as the quintessential first sign of spring. However, each spring Ontario actually welcomes over 250 different bird species. All kinds of feathery friends, from warblers to raptors, make their seasonal journey back north from as far away as South America.

They begin to arrive around the same time we start to pine for longer days and melting snow. Their songs slowly start to fill silent winter mornings and before we know it the trees are all a flutter with activity. It is truly a remarkable wonder of nature that is too easily overlooked.

Just how do migrating birds find their way?
Studies suggest birds can orientate themselves to north and south by using the position of the sun during the day, and the stars at night. It is also believed that they can sense magnetic north. In addition to these seemingly supernatural powers, they use more obvious clues as well; clues such as sighting landmarks or the sound of waves on shores and wind through mountain passes.

One of the most amazing things to consider about bird migration is that the road map and perhaps even the techniques must be hard-wired into their brains. Many migrating birds abandon their young as soon as they start to fly, and a short time later, the young birds are able to make the migration all on their own.


Best bets for catching the spring migration in Ontario

There are several birding hot spots at various Ontario provincial parks, especially at parks that border the Great Lakes. Crossing Lake Ontario, or any other large body of water, can be a tiring experience. This provides us with a perfect opportunity to catch a glimpse of several bird species as they rest up after a long flight.

Here are a few best bets to see spring birds:

Long Point
Long Point thrusts 40-kilometres into the northern edge of Lake Erie. A visit in the spring will yield spectacular warbler migrations and great hawk flights. The Long Point Bird Observatory is a good place to start - be sure to pick up an annotated checklist from the park office.

Presqu’ile
Presqu’ile is at the top of many birders spring viewing destinations. Jutting out into Lake Ontario, near Brighton Ontario, Presqu’ile is on a major flyway for many migrating birds. May 22nd and 23rd is Warblers and Whimbrels Weekend (http://www.friendsofpresquile.on.ca/). View the elusive Whimbrel and many colourful Warblers as they migrate to their northern nesting grounds. Enjoy guided nature walks, bird-banding, evening programs and the Lighthouse Interpretive Centre.

MacGregor Point
Encompassing seven kilometres of Lake Huron coastline, MacGregor Point located near Port Elgin, provides top notch bird watching. To celebrate this fact, the Huron Fringe Birding Festival is held annually on the first two weekends after the May 24th long weekend. This birding and nature festival is filled with guided hikes concentrating on not only birds, but wildflowers, butterflies and insects. There are also workshops covering bird identification, nature photography, and evenings are highlighted by illustrated programs featuring excellent speakers, night hikes and "Owl Prowls".

Pay More for Energy

Ontario Parks Insider

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In Canada, our electricity comes from a range of sources like coal, nuclear, oil and gas, and large hydro. Only a tiny fraction comes from clean emissions-free sources like wind power. There’s a price to pay for the status quo: climate change, air pollution and a future at risk.

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