Chutes park has a high concentration of a variety birds all in one small area.  This is plainly evident when you are lying in your sleeping bag and listening to them in the morning. I tried to identify each bird by it's sound. I have come to the conclusion that I don't know my bird calls all that well. Nonetheless, this little Chipping Sparrow was singing a sweet song, loudly and proudly. 

I emerged from my tent and found this tiny little honey bee visitor sitting on my roof. 

 One of the first things most people have to do when they get up in the morning is to go to the bathroom. I was dismayed to find that every one of the bathrooms were being cleaned at exactly the same time that morning. I tried 3  including the comfort station (they are all within walking distance of each other)  and each time I arrived I was greeted with a "Could you come back in a little bit?" . I am sure if it were an emergency they would have let me in but I figured that I could hold it so I waited.  At least they were doing a good job in cleaning the washrooms inside and out. 

Since I had to wait for the bathrooms to be free I decided to take that moment to fill in the feedback survey that you get when you register at the gate. I mentioned in the feedback that they might consider staggering the bathroom cleaning times so that they aren't all being cleaned at once. 

I finally was able to get to a bathroom. I noticed a little Mud Dauber Wasp on my way back to the site. I was stung by one of these when I was a kid so I know how painful they can be. I definitely did not want to disturb it, so I stayed clear of it. 

Since I was going home today I wanted to explore the beach area before I had to pack up.  The covered picnic area down by the beach is fairly large. 

And then right beside it was a single small picnic table with it's own tiny roof over it. I am not clear on the purpose of this one. Perhaps it is the kids table? Perhaps it is for someone with a dog? 

On the way to the beach I passed by the pet exercise area. They have a wonderful set up here. There is a nice, large shady, fenced in area with a picnic table or two.  There is plenty of space for dogs to run around in. 

And there is even a bench if you want to just sit an watch your dog run around. 

The dog beach is not within the confines of the fence. You have to leave the fenced area and walk to the back section of the human's beach area. There are no dogs allowed on the side where people swim, but the dog swim area is far enough away from the people side. 

The dog swim area is shallow enough for the dogs to safely play in. Since the body of water is a moving river, it is wise not to let your dog go too far out. 

Between the dog beach and the people beach I spotted a White Admiral Butterfly on the ground. The under part of it's wings are a rusty brown colour. 

But when it opens it's wings the top is black and white. 

The White Admiral butterfly was enjoying all the White  Meadowsweet flowers that dotted the shoreline.

The beach is a decent size but the shore is mainly pebbles instead of sand. 

You can see  the falls from the beach.

Swimmers can enjoy the water at the sandy beach located below the falls. There are no lifeguards, and water safety is your responsibility. They do have a Life Jacket Lending Program available to visitors.

There are also no buoy lines at this beach so you have to be careful not to go out too far or you could get pulled in by the moving water. There is plenty of space to swim safely before you have to worry about that. 

They do provide a life ring and rescue equipment located on the beach. 
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I noticed a large number of what looked like nests in the trees. They seemed to be made of mainly pine needles and twigs. It almost looked like a bunch of debris had gotten caught in the branches during a wind storm or something. There were no birds in them. I imagine they are left over from a spring breeding session.  I wonder what kind of bird they belong to. 

Perhaps they belonged to  the Yellow Rumped Warbler that I spotted near by. It had something in it's beak. It was probably having a shadfly for breakfast. 

A River Jewelwing Damselfly was hanging out on a leaf and enjoying the morning sun. 

I could hear the Blue Jays taunting me from the trees. They seem to know always know that I am trying to get a picture of them and they always make it difficult to do so. 

But the little Red Squirrel didn't seem to mind being on camera. 

After exploring the beach I had to go back to my site to take down the tent. It was almost time to go home. 
I made a last stop at the park office to see if they had any souvenirs that I might like. I was thrilled to find out that they were selling Ontario Park Passports.  I picked this one up for $10.98 (I have later found out that they sell as much as $16.98 in other parks!)  

Inside the  passport book there is a place to put a sticker (which you can buy at the park stores for $1.25 each) for each of the parks that you visit. This is so much easier than trying to buy a T-shirt from each of the parks.  Not only can you buy the sticker, but if you want, you can buy a matching crest (which I did)  for about $3.98.  I read that eventually they will be selling the stickers online, which I am happy for because going back to get the stickers for each of the almost 30 parks I have been to already could be a little problematic. 

After packing up I went to say my good byes to Jayson and Cindy and the family. I had a fabulous time at Chutes Park and I will not hesitate to come back to camp here again. I adore this park and the next time I go to Canuckapalooza, I will be sure to come back. 

Woke up to a gorgeous sunny morning. I had slept very well and I was happy to be in the great outdoors.  The campground  was remarkably quiet and peaceful.  The sun streaming through the trees was beautiful. 

I headed over to Jayson and Cindy's for a delicious breakfast. After breakfast we played a few board games and then went outside to play a game of Bocce Ball.

At about 4 o'clock Jayson and I and his two sons headed over to Chutes Park to hike the Twin Bridges Trail.  It's a good thing I had Jayson with me as a guide because I would have went down the long flight of stairs to the falls to begin the trail when the trail head was actually at the top of the hill just a little further down the road from my site. 

The path was wide and well groomed. It is an easy hike for almost anyone. The trail was lined with cedar trees and it smelled wonderful. 

Up in one of the trees was a bat box. Unfortunately the roof had come off of this one so there probably weren't any bats in it. 

Near the beginning of the trail was a sign warning us about the presence of poison ivy. I am not an expert on what poison ivy looks like but I think I spotted some. I always remember the verse "Leaves of three, let it be". But there are other plants that have three leaves so, it's not always easy to tell.

A lititle further down the trail was another sign asking you to stay on the trail. The reason for this is because at that point the trail runs along the edge of the group site.  

This is one place in the park that could use a bit of a change. It would be nice for both the campers and the hikers if they would plant a wall of trees along the border so that hikers didn't feel awkward and campers didn't feel intruded on and had more privacy.​ 

Oddly enough, just on the other side of the group site they had already begun to plant some new trees. All they would have to do would be to plant some more. And it would provide more shade to the group site if they did.

A little further past the group site is another wide open area. This section butts up against the road. This is the place where people park their vehicles and sneak onto the trails to avoid having to pay to use them.  

Once we got past those open areas, the trail finally turned into a more forested area and began to feel more lime a real hiking trail. This was where the beauty of the area began to come into view and where you got better views of the rapids.

​In some places benches were provided so that you can sit and relax to enjoy the view.

With two young boys along for the journey, there was plenty of exploring to do. We took some side trails and got closer to the edge of the rushing water to explore down there. We weren't the only ones.  There were two other groups of people on the side trails too, some with cameras in hand.

There were plenty of things besides the falls to take pictures of, like the yellow swamp buttercup flowers.

And these Bluebell flowers.

The water ran fast enough to leave a build up of white frothy foam along the waters edge in some places.

In one spot the misty spray rose up into the sunlight and we could just make out the dim colours of a rmini rainbow.

When you are exploring the waters edge you can sometimes come across some interesting pieces of driftwood. Jayson found one that looks like the head of a rhino or a triceratops dinosaur.

There were two wooden bridges that allowed us to cross over to the other side of the falls.

We were very surprised to find that nestled into the woods, just a short distance from the trail were a pair of Adirondack chairs and a little plastic side table. 

And what do you do when you find a pair of Adirondack chairs in the woods?  Why, you sit in them of course!

As we sat relaxing and enjoying the scenic view of the falls, a dragonfly was doing the same on a near by branch. 

Adirondack chairs were not the only surprising thing we found. Hayden found a shovel, that was as big as he was, standing in the ground next to the trail. Apparently some of the park staff had been doing some maintenance work on the trail and had accidentally left it behind. We took it with us when we left the trail and returned it to a member of the staff before we left the park.  

The trail eventually led us to a wide, open expanse of flat rock. 

We all went in different directions to explore and discover what hidden treasures might lie among the rocks here.

Dreyden found a little nook carved into the stone to explore.

Hayden found a June Bug.

I called the boys over to see the mosquito larvae that I found swimming and squirming around in a puddle. 

And Jayson pointed out a spot where the water came and went like the tides and where the stone was so weathered by the movement of the water that it looked like it was plastic. 

In the distance we spotted our final destination. It was a look out nestled into the tree line. 

We passed a map of the trail that was on a post. It showed that the look out that we were headed to was almost  directly across the river from where our hike began. 

We were pleasantly surprised to find a picnic table on the side of the trail. This meant that we could come and have a picnic lunch here sometime. I thought to myself that it was nice that the park staffput the picnic table there because it couldn't have been easy to get it to where it was. 

We finally reached our destination. We stopped for a break at the look out to see what we could see. 

The falls looked lovely from here. 

There were Pale Corydalis flowers growing on the rocks. 

At this point it was about 6 p.m. It had taken us almost 2 hours to get here. That was because we had taken so many side trails and had stopped to explore so often. The troubling part was that we were supposed to have been back at the house for supper at 6. Jayson made a quick call to his wife to let her know that we would be late. (Luckily there was cell service where we were). And so we headed back the way we had come. 

Since we were in a hurry we didn't take any side trails and we kept to the trail. Well, except at one place. When we got to the Goblin Trail we couldn't resist going down it. The Goblin Trail is our name we gave to a section of the trail that splits off into a dark, wooded section. It looks like something the goblins would travel on and seems mysterious and magical. 

The Goblin trail follows the parallel to the main trail, only at a much lower level. If you look way up you can see the main trail above your head. You can also see the bottoms of the trees growing above your head too. 

We followed the Goblin Trail until it eventually joined back up with the main trail. 

We finally made it to the end and headed back to the house. We were amazed to find out that what took us 2 hours to go into the trail, took us only 40 minutes to come back. 

   Back at the house we had a wonderful dinner and after that we played some board games. I ended up having a bit of a headache so I decided to call it an early night and went back to camp before dark (around 9:30 pm). 
   
   I stopped off at the comfort station to check it out before going back to my site.  

The path to the comfort station was lined with solar powered lights. 

I took an Advil for my head ache and then went for a walk in the dark to the falls. I didn't turn on my flash light (except on the stairs so I wouldn't fall down them). I sat in the dark and listened to water and the wind. It was so peaceful.

On the way back, some campers were setting off some fire works in celebration of the Canada Day weekend. I couldn't see them very well because of the trees though. 

Back at my site I wasn't quite ready to go to sleep yet, so I took my folding chaiir and set it up inside my tent in order to avoid the mosquitoes. As I sat and read a book, I could hear a loon calling over top of the sound of the rushing falls. It is a beautiful night and I really like it here in this park. 

Every year for Canada Day my friend, Jayson, and his wife, Cindy, host a large gathering which has affectionately come to be known as "Canuckapalooza".  I hadn't gone in a few years so I thought why not go this year and at the same time I can check out Chutes Provincial Park. 

The first thing I have to point out is that if you are using "Lady Google" to try to navigate your way to the park..."Do Not Trust Her!".  She will bring you to the municipal office instead of to the park entrance. (which I found out the hard way). Instead look for the traffic lights it is the only set of traffic lights in the whole town)  and you will see the sign for the park there. The main park sign is slightly hidden so you don't see it until you are almost on top of it. But if you are having troubles finding the place, don't give up! This park is well worth any trouble you may have getting there. This park is a hidden gem. 

I arrived at the park at about 2:45 and when I pulled up it almost looked like the girl who came out to greet me was going to tell me that the sites were all filled up (it's a small park) but when I said I had a reservation she smiled and ushered me inside the office. The girls in the office were super nice and helpful. 

I had picked out my site online and you never know what you are going to get until you get there really. Turns out I had picked a site in the Radio Free zone. (Yay!) And when I got to the site I saw that they had placed a "Reserved" sign on the post which I had never seen in a park I have been to before. (Also Yay!)

And my site was right across the road from the stairs that lead down to the water falls. In fact, I could hear the falls from my site. (You guessed it....also Yay!) 

The whole park was practically full and yet it was so quiet here. You could hear the wind in the trees and the birds singing. I quickly came to find out that this is an excellent park for bird watchers. There were so many different kinds of birds here. 

There was a wonderful smell of campfire in the air and I didn't even have one lit.  It was heavenly here!

My site had quite a long drive way and from where I parked it looked like the site was going to be small. But looks can be deceiving. 

Once I got right onto the site, down by the fire pit and picnic table, I realized that the site was large enough that it could probably easily hold 2 or 3 large tents. 

I got a new tent last year at the end of the season and I had never put it up before. I was happy to find that it was easy to set up and I was able to to so fairly quickly. My brother bought an identical one last year and he couldn't get his to go back into the bag it came in so I came prepared and brought a Christmas tree bag with me that I had bought last winter specifically for this purpose. 

I was happy to find that there were not as many bugs as I had expected to find at this time of year. There were lots of those big house flies (which aren't actually house flies and are called "cluster flies"), but I will take those over mosquitoes/deer flies/horse flies/black flies any day. 

Once the tent was set up I decided to take a few quiet moments to enjoy the park, just me and God, before heading over to Canuckapalooza. First stop was to go and see the falls. So I headed down the long flight of stairs to the path below. 

The path was wide and well maintained. It looked very inviting. 

Through the trees I could see all the people down at the beach cooling off in the water. 

The path leads to an observation deck with a long bench and a picnic table that over look the falls. It would be a great place to sit and have lunch. 

The water was crashing over the rocks below and it was very loud here. You can see the swimmers in the distance at the beach from here. 

At the top of the falls I could see some people on the other side. At first I thought that they had crossed the rushing water somewhere. 

But then I saw the trail map that was posted and I realized that those people had probably followed the trail and got there that way. 

Along with the trail map, there was a little blurb about the history of the river posted. Chutes Park got it's name from the old wooden logging chutes that used to be here. They would send logs through the chute and down to the bottom of the falls to be sorted. The chutes no longer exist today and there are not even any partial remains of them anywhere. But there was a picture on the poster. 

Tucked away in the corner by the trail signs, some pretty white flowers that I think are service berry flowers.

As I headed back towards my campsite I noticed an old, run down,  set of stairs that went down to the river bank. Those stairs were sectioned off with caution tape. I had wondered about the purpose of these stairs. Jayson later told me that there used to be campsites down there, but there aren't any more. 

On the way back up the stair case (the ones that weren't sectioned off) I spotted a pair of fire flies mating on the railing. 

It was such a beautiful day. A pair of Cedar Waxwings were singing in the trees. 

And a pair of Turkey Vultures circled overhead. I was amazed by the variety of birds in just one small area. 

I figured I had better make a bathroom stop before heading over to Canuckapalooza. The bathrooms were your typical non-flushing vault bathrooms that you usually see in your provincial parks. They were clean and well maintained. The difference between these ones and the ones in most other parks is that these had motion detection lights secured to them so that if you are going to the bathroom in the middle of the night you can actually see your way to the bathroom! What a great idea. All the parks should have these!  It's little things like this that make the difference between a mediocre park and a great park. This park is full of little "add-ons" that have been carefully thought of and implemented. 

Hanging outside the door of the bathroom was a laminated sign warning people of a $125 fine for gathering wood in the park. At least no one can say they weren't warned. 

At about 4 pm I finally arrived at Canuckapalooza. The kids had all just got back from the beach and were ready to play board games. We had a BBQ dinner and everyone relaxed, conversed and had fun. One of the main topics seemed to be about hiking and camping. 

As the sun went down and the stars came out, so did some of the night time bugs. At one point we turned to see that something the size of a humming bird was flying around one of the guests. It took a moment to realize that it wasn't a bird at all, but was a large  Hawk Moth. When it landed we proceeded to catch it and gently release it outside. 

The end of the first day of Canuckapalooza ended with a bang. Jayson set off some fireworks in the back yard and everyone gathered around to watch them go off. The kids loved it. (And aren't we all just big kids at heart?)

The party wound down at about 11 pm and I headed back to the campsite. Unfortunately in the dark things don't look quite the same as they do in the day time so  I ended up making a wrong turn and went a little bit out of my way before realizing my mistake and turning around. I got to see a baby porcupine wadling down the road because of this though. 

Back at the camp I sat in the dark and had a snack and a drink before going to bed. I heard something walking through the bush. At first I thought it was another camper but when I turned on my flashlight I saw the cute little face of a young raccoon looking back at me. When he saw me he got nervous and turned around and went back the way he came from. 

Just before bed I took a walk down to the falls in the dark with no flashlight on. The stars were shining and the fire flies were flickering. The air was warm and there were no mosquitoes. It was a beautiful first night!