We woke up at 8 a.m. to the sound of the neighbouring campers talking. Usually that is pretty normal but in this campground it sounds like they are standing right outside the door.  But it was still pretty peaceful here, all things considered.


After breakfast I decided to take a walk by myself down the road to a trail that I saw some people come out of the day before. I enjoy solo walks in the morning. It's always quiet and the best time to see birds. 

As I started walking I noticed that the Purple-flowered Raspberry plants were vibrant and cheerful looking. 

And a little Herb Robert flower was peeking out from under the woodwork. 

I hadn't walked very far at all when I was surprised to find another bathroom. Up until this point we had been using the one across the road from us and there is no sink or place to wash your hands in it. 

And although there was no sink in this bathroom either, there was a water faucet right across the road from it. We now had a place to wash our hands after we were done!  How did we not find this yesterday? 

The bathroom itself was a typical non-flushing vault toilet. It was half way decent. It had that vault odor that is unescapable. But someone took the effort to fix that with a pine scented car air freshener.  Ha ha! 

The trail I was following came out onto a road. Despite being in a provincial park, there were some sections of private property. This was not all that unusual. 

On the opposite side of the road I spotted an Eastern Kingbird sitting on a wire. 

He was guarding a nearby nest in a tree that contained a female Kingbird warming her eggs. 

I came to an entrance that had two stone pillars on either side of it. 

Apparently I had arrived at Lakeshore Lodge. It was once a hotel but now only its ruins remained and the property has become one of the parks picnic areas.. 

Biting Stonecrop now grew among what stones were left of the old building. 

There was an information board that detailed some of the history of the old lodge. I read a little bit about it but I had been gone from camp for quite sometime without letting Carsten and Penny know where I had gone so I felt I should probably get back. 

I decided to come back later with Carsten and Penny to show the this place. It was too beautiful not too. 

On the walk back I took notice of all the little creatures that many people overlook when out walking. 
I saw an American Giant Millipede. 

A couple of Asian Lady Beetles also didn't have very good ​camouflage skills.

However, the leaves they were sitting on were big enough to hide them. 

They were bigger than my hand! 

When I got back to camp, Carsten and Penny were eating breakfast. While I waited for them to finish, I started inspecting what insects had become trapped inside the dining tent. 

For a tent that is supposed to be designed to keep the bugs out, there always seemed to be a large number inside. But sometimes it's the best way to see some insects you might not ever see. 

Today we had Heliomata moth on the screen. 

There was an Eastern Black Carpenter Ant finding the scent trail that other members of his colony had left for him to follow..

A Spongy Moth caterpillar was just minding its own business and chilling in a corner.

Our plan for the day was to drive over to the Dunes beach and to hike the Dunes Trail. We all hopped into my car and we drove over to the beach. Along the way we saw a Read-headed woodpecker sitting in a tree beside the road over by Richardson Trail. We stopped the car to try to get a better look and a picture but it didn't sit still and it flew off. We were a bit disappointed at not getting the picture, but still happy that we had seen it. 

We continued on our way to the Dune Beach excited for the sighting and for what the rest of the day would bring. 

The Dunes beach had a picnic shelter but it was not as pretty as the picnic area at the Lakeview Lodge.

There was a play structure for the kids. One kid loved climbing this structure so much that his sisters were having a hard time convincing him to come down. 

There is a park store down at this beach. 

They sell ice cream, snacks, and beach toys here. 

Unfortunately, it was closed the entire time we were there.

The beach, true to its name, had rolling dunes that reached all the way down to the waters edge. People were having a good time swimming in the cool water.  

​They had to be careful though and mind the buoys because there is an incredibly sharp drop off not far out from the shore. 

A sign near the trail explained how this drop off came to be. 

On the other side of the beach is the trail head for the Dunes Trail. It is a two and a half kilometer loop. Despite the temperatures being extremely hot and humid, we were very curious about this trail and were excited to hike it. 

The trail begins with a boardwalk made out of recycled materials. 

At first all you can see are scrub lands and you wonder why you thought this hike was going to be very interesting at all. 

But then you slowly start to see the dunes start to peek out over top of the bushes and scrubs. 

And then eventually you realize that you are in the middle of the dunes. 

Sometimes you would be walking through the grasses. 

And sometimes you would be walking through the sand.

And other times your boardwalk seemed to be mostly buried and you wondered how much longer before it disappears all together. 

Every once in awhile you come across a bench so that you could sit and rest. 

The amazing thing was, despite these seemingly harsh conditions, beautiful things grew and lived here. 
We spotted some Viper's Bugloss flowers. 

Two swans flew overhead. 

Some places were lush and green. 

Birds like the Great Crested Flycatcher could be seen and heard singing in the trees. 

Wormwood and sage bushes grew plentiful and helped to keep the sand from eroding away. 

A Shoreline Wolf Spider blended in with the sand.  

Around every bend of the boardwalk we were introduced to a new and different part of this unique ecosystem. 

The day was so hot and the sun was beating down. There wasn't a whole lot of shade. We felt like we were in the desert or on an alien planet.  Yellow flowers poked up out of the ground like creatures with tentacles. 

Even their name "Hairy Puccoon" sounded alien. 

The Tamaracks were reaching out like they were ready to grab you. 

The unopened blooms of the Starry False Solomon's Seal plants looked like alien eyeballs popping up to see what was going on, like something out of a movie. 

Part way through the trail we came to a lookout.  It was not your typical lookout. It sat on top of a dune and was not all that high up. 

However, it did give us a splendid view of the surrounding dunes. 

Sometimes you felt like you were exploring some ancient ruins. You always wanted to know what was over the next hill and up the next set of stairs. 

We noticed that the boardwalk and stairs had wire cable running through them to keep them together. I suppose without the cables someone might take them away for firewood. 

One minute you were in the sand and the next thing you know, you are surrounded by a field of grass. 

Then the grass turned into a forest which offered up a bit of shade. We dwindled here for a bit in hopes of getting some respite from the sun. 

Many of the trees were cedars with interesting shapes to them. 

The next place that the board walk took us to was a marsh land. Except the water level here was very low. 

So low in fact that a painted turtle was trying to find its way to some water.  I was worried about it at first. It had a long way to go.  But it was headed in the right direction and was traveling surprisingly fast. So, I felt more confident that it would make it to its destination. 

We rounded a bend and came to the only body of water we had seen since the beach.  (This was how I knew the turtle was going in the right direction. It had been heading towards this area). 

There was a bit of a lookout platform here, but there were some park employees working on fixing it so we didn't go on it. They had driven here in an air conditioned dune buggy. We must have looked over heated because they were kind enough to offer us an invitation to sit in the buggy to cool off for a bit.  I thought that was super kind of them. However, we declined the offer because although it was quite hot out, we were still in good shape and didn't feel that we were in a dire need for it. 

Instead we continued on our way around the marsh and spotted a Killdeer in the mud looking for a meal. 

A Silver-Spotted Skipper butterfly was sitting on a plant. Its wings were curled under and were misshapen. I am not sure if this as because it had just emerged from a cocoon and its wings were not fully unfolded yet, or if this was a deformity of some sort. I like to think it was the former. 

As we got closer to the end of the trail the pathway got wider and sandier. 

We could see the lake off in the distance. 

Then we were a little taken aback when we came across a skull that was sitting on top of a trail marker sign post.  

We had so many questions. What kind of animal was this? What happened to it? Why did someone feel the need to put the skull up on the post? 

I did some research when I got home a few days later and I have come to the conclusion (with a little help from the people at iNaturalist.com ) that this seems to be a raccoon skull.

The vibrant purple and yellow of the Bittersweet Nightshade was stunning and beautiful. 

Once we were done our hike and got back to the beach we thought it might be a good idea to eat lunch at the beach. However, the cooler with all of our food in it was in Carsten's car which was back at the camp.

​We could have both driven there and then switched cars, however, the Richardson Trail linked the Dune beach to the Richardson campground so we decided to hike the trail back to camp instead of driving.  Penny was too hot and tired to do another hike so she stayed behind and saved a picnic table for us. 

The Richardson Trail started off as a small gravel path.

But then turned into a wider, dirt trail that had a canopy of maples. It gave the illusion that you were about to walk through a leafy tunnel. 

Occasionally we would find snail shells embedded in the clay dirt of the trail. 

At one point we came to a fork in the road and were unsure which direction to choose. We assumed it was probably the fork tot he left since it appeared to be more maintained and in keeping with the trail we had been on so far.  But we pulled out the map just to be sure. 

Sure enough, after checking the map and going left, we passed a sign saying that we were going in the right direction. 

I had commented to Carsten that this trail seemed rather unremarkable as far as trails go.  I said that it would be much more interesting if were were able to see some wildlife like a deer or something. 

No word of a lie, about a minute and a half later, a deer jumped up from the bushes right in front of us! It was literally less than ten feet away from us. It scared us for a second and made us jump. We all stood there for a couple seconds looking at each other before it bolted into the woods.  But then it stopped and stood perfectly still. 

It stayed like this for a few minutes; not moving a muscle. It probably thought we couldn't see it. Or it was at least hoping we couldn't see it. But we could. And this gave me an opportunity to pull out my camera and try to take a picture. By this time it was quite a bit further away and there was a whole bunch of branches and overgrowth in the way. So, all I could get was just  the shape of it. 

We got back to camp, got the food and drove back to Dune Beach.  Penny had picked out a table under the awning of the store. It was the perfect spot because even though the store was closed, there was still electricity in the outlets and we were able to charge our phones. We got the idea from other people who were also charging their phones from other outlets around the building. 

As we ate our lunch and played board games in the shade, I looked up to watched the shore birds down at the beach from time to time. 

There were a couple of Killdeer rummaging through the sand and weeds along the shoreline, looking for insects and food. 

A Red-winged Blackbird was also down on the beach joining in on the hunt. 

On our way back to the car we saw a little rabbit in the grass by the parking lot. 

There is a Pet Beach located between the Dune Beach and the Richardson campground. We were curious to see what sort of a beach set up they had for our four legged friends. So, we made a bit of a detour to go poke around and see it. 

It was actually quite nice. It was a section of a beach that was attached to the left side of a humans only beach.  There was no dividing fence or anything. Just the sign that indicated where the pets were allowed to be. It was large with a beautiful sandy shoreline. 

Much the same as it looked to the right. 

Growing in the beach sand were some pretty purple Seaside Peas. 

And not to be out-done, the sea shells were also keeping up with the purple theme of the beach. 

When we got back to camp I noticed that we had another visitor in our dining tent. At first I thought it was a Bumble Bee. But it turns out that it is not a Bumble Bee after all. Upon closer look at its feet and head it is notably different than a Bumble Bee. This is an Eastern Yellow-backed Laphria which is a type of Robber fly that mimics the colouring of a bee.  

Back at camp we relaxed for a few hours and eventually had dinner.  After dinner I suggested to Carsten and Penny that we all go down to see the Lakeside Lodge picnic area that I had been to earlier in the morning. 
We had done a lot of walking already today but they were still up for it. 

As we passed the bathrooms on our way to the Lakeside Lodge, we passed  another little bunny hanging out in the underbrush. It was so cute with its little white spot on the top of its head. 

On the side of the road, a Giant Millipede was traveling along at a relatively quick pace on all of those legs of his. 

And a White Admiral butterfly stopped for a rest in the gravel. 

Before long we reached the wooden fence line of the picnic area. It looked rustic and quaint, like a country farm. 

This time while I was here I walked down closer to the shore line. I realized that the rock and the ground by the shore had some interesting formations. 

If you were standing on top of this rock formation you would not even realize that there was a big hole under you and that the ground might not be as stable as you might think. 

The shapes of the banks and the shapes of the rock below the surface of the water combined to make a picturesque scene that would make for a wonderful painting. God is such an amazing artist! 

Someone had created a little mini inukshuk down by the waters edge. 

Bell flowers were growing in purple splendor against the magical back drop of the water from the lake. 

Penny called me over to see the Virginia Ctenucha moth that was in the clover. I just love the bright blue and orange colours he is dressed in. 

A Mallard duck was searching for minnows by herself down in the lake. 

On the walk back to camp we saw another Kingbird. Or perhaps it was the same one as earlier. 

There were some red flowers growing by the side of the road that I had never seen before. I looked them up later on and found out that they are Hound's-Tongue. 

When we got back to camp I was still a bit restless. So I decided to go and see if I could find the Red-headed woodpecker (or maybe its a pileated woodpecker?) that we had seen from the car earlier in the day. I walked alone a little bit up Richardson Trail and sure enough I found it. Or rather, I found two of them. I spent a good 20 minutes or so trying to get a good picture of even one of them. But no luck. The best I could do was the red tuft of a head from behind a tree truck. Oh well, maybe better luck next time. 

By this time the sun was starting to go down so I began to head back to camp.

I couldn't help but make a quick detour before I went back though. I was curious to see what the campsites were like a little further up the road from where we were. There were a few like site 426 that seemed to have more privacy than the open field that we were in. 

It was too late now to go and ask to switch sites but for future reference there were a select few that had trees surrounding them. 

We decided that it would be a good night for a fire. It was a gorgeous night with a big orange moon. Fireflies were flitting everywhere. We were thinking that we were going to have a really good evening. But alas, it wasn't so. 

The noisy neighbours from across the road decided to become increasingly noisier than the day before. They were drinking and playing music on their truck radio. Whenever they got to a "favourite" song they would turn it up even louder. And of course then they would have to talk/yell even louder over the music so that they could hear each other. 

To add to this, the campers behind us thought it would be a good idea to turn on their car and shine their headlights over the entire campground (because there are no trees to block any of the light so every campsite was flooded with light, not just ours). They left these lights on and motor running for a full half hour. They weren't even setting up camp or anything. They were just sitting in their vehicle doing nothing.  

We were getting angrier and angrier and then the mosquitoes came out.  The campers next to us were also getting fed up. They started to yell at the noisy people telling them to shut the music off. This of course fell on deaf ears.  I was wondering at what point do I drive up to the gatehouse to complain when, thankfully, the rangers showed up and told the noisy people to shut the music off.  The rangers stuck around to make sure that they didn't turn it back on again too.  The people with the intrusive headlights had finally turned them off about 5 minutes before the rangers had showed up. 

Despite it now being dark and quiet again, we were no longer in a good mood anymore. We decided to call it a night and put the fire out and go to bed. We were going to be going home tomorrow anyways, so we figured we should probably get a good night sleep. Such a disappointing way to end such a wonderful day. 

It took us about an hour and forty five minutes to drive from Darlington Provincial Park to Sandbanks Provincial Park. We were almost there when we got to a cross road with signs pointing one way for the East Gate and another way for the West Gate of the park.  We really hadn't done our research on this before hand and so we were not sure which gate to go to. We took a wild guess and basically followed Googles suggestion and decided to head to the East Gate. 

Turns out we guessed right and the East Gate was the correct one for us. Later on we figured out that the West Gate was the entrance to where the RV camping is. Although, I suppose they may let you in at any gate because all the roads eventually joins up together no matter what part of the park you are in. But that is only a guess on my part. 

We were not expecting the park to be so busy. There was literally a line up to get to the gate house.

There are actually two lanes when you enter the park. The one that we were in where you lined up to register, and another lane that was for those who had already registered. That way they could just go on through to their campsite without having to wait in line behind everyone else. Naturally that lane was pretty empty. 

We waited for about 15 minutes before it was finally our turn at the gatehouse.  Not too bad considering how many cars had been in front of us.  Since we had a reservation, it didn't take us long to get registered. 

Our site was in the Richardson campground on site 410. 

You are only allowed to park one car per campsite and any others had to be parked in the visitor parking. This seemed a little ridiculous because the sites were so big and open that there was room for probably 4 or 5 cars on each site. 

All the sites were huge, but we were very disappointed to find that there was an extreme lack of privacy on almost all of them. It was like one big open area with everyone's site joined together. It was hard to tell where yours began or ended. Standing in our site and looking out I could see at least 4 or 5 sites away with nothing blocking my view at all. It felt more like a picnic ground than a campground. It was a complete let down. . 

We tried as best we could to set up our tents in such a way as to afford us as much privacy as we could get. It wasn't the greatest.  Sound travels easily in such an open area and we could hear every little thing. At least we were on an end site, so we did have a few trees to our left. But behind us and to our right there was nothing. 

Since we were using our tents as walls it meant that we had our dining tent a little closer to the fire pit than we would have liked and the door facing in a different direction than we wanted. We put a tarp up over the back door of the dining tent to give us a bit more privacy.  

The site with the most privacy was across the road on site 107. That would be the one I would choose if I were to come back again and camp in the Richardson section. It had trees almost all the way around it. Right now though, it was currently occupied by a group of young, and very loud group of couples. Probably about 6 in all. They were blaring their music and swearing and had no consideration for neighbouring campers. I thought to myself that this was looking like it was going to be an unpleasant stay. I was wondering if perhaps Cedar campground or Outlet campground would have been the better choice of campgrounds in this park. 

At least there were some pretty Purple Flowered Raspberries near by to make things a bit more cheerful looking. 

It was very hot and we were sweating profusely. So, we decided it would be a good idea to go take a shower. To our surprise and dismay we discovered that there were no showers or comfort stations in the Richardson campground. Every other section of the park had one except our section. This meant that we had to get into the car and drive to the West Gate to use the showers there. Actually, you had to drive to get to just about anywhere in the park. 

The showers were at the top of a hill that over looked the RV and trailer section of the park. From where we were, we could see that those campers didn't have much privacy either. It was like a wide open field here too. 

There were only 5 parking spaces at the showers and 2 of those were for wheel chair access parking.  We were lucky that we came when it wasn't busy and we were able to get a parking spot. But one guy who came after us had to park on the side of the road. 

The showers were ok, but they could have been cleaner. 

The water was warm but you can't control the temperature. 

As I waited for Carsten and Penny, I admired the purple Vetch that was growing in abundance along the side of the road. 

I was also impressed by the charging station for electric cars that was right beside the showers. 

Looks like it is free for now, but won't be forever. I don't have an electric car but I am sure that by the time I ever do get one, it won't be free anymore. 

The comfort station was in better condition than the showers. It was clean and well maintained. 

After our showers we drove to the park store. We could tell by the sign that said "Full Hot Breakfast" that this was not your average provincial park store. 

This park store had a full on café and grill inside. It also had a patio on the outside. 

We climbed the steps and went in through the big double doors. When you walk in the store is on your left and the café and grill are on your right. 

We began at the store. It had things you would never see in a regular park store, such as freezer mugs, pancakes, and angus burgers. 

There were books and T-shirts and a multitude of other toys and souvenirs. We spent quite a bit of time in there looking around at everything. We picked out a couple of fun items and headed over to the check out.  The young gentleman at the cash register was super friendly and had a wealth of information to share with us about this park a well as two other day parks we were considering visiting; North Beach Provincial Park and Lake On The Mountain Provincial Park.  He told us that Lake On The Mountain had spectacular views but the North Beach had  fabulous beaches. He explained that North Beach was unusual in that on one side there were big waves and you had to watch out for under currents but on the other side, the water was calm and safer to swim. This really piqued our interest. 

​We thanked the cashier and then headed over to the café and grill to buy ourselves some dinner.   

You placed your order at the counter and then you went around the corner to the tables to wait until they brought the food out to you. The food was good and we enjoyed the meal. 

There didn't seem to be any washrooms inside the café and grill but there were some directly across the road. The building looked like a mini comfort station from the outside and I was expecting to open the door and find multiple stalls inside. Instead there was only one toilet behind each door. This meant that there was a bit of a line up outside the bathrooms. We were there near the end of the day when it wasn't all that busy. I can just imagine the line ups during the height of the day in the heat of the summer.   

There may have been a lot of wasted space but it did mean that the bathrooms were large inside. They were relatively clean for the most part. 

After dinner we decided to go check out Outlet Beach. It was getting little late in the evening and we didn't have bathing suits for swimming, but we just wanted to go see it.  This beach is supposed to be renowned for its wonderful sandy shores. 

You could tell that the beach was very big. You could drive a long ways down the road and get to a number of entrances to it. 

We were at the beginning of it, at parking lot number one. The parking lot was huge and could accommodate a large number of vehicles. That was just the first parking lot. Looking down the road, off in the distance, you could see other signs for other parking lots; each one an entrance to the beach.  This place had to be hopping when it was in full swing. 

We followed a blue mat that was laid out over the sand that allowed for wheel chairs to have access to the beach. 

After passing some dunes the path opened up onto the beach. The mat turned from a blue one to a brown one and it headed in the direction of the water. 

However, the mats all of a sudden stopped short. They didn't go all the way down to the water. In fact, they stopped quite a distance away from the water. It left me wondering how anyone in a wheel chair could ever get down to the water. It has to be frustrating for someone to be able to get that close only to be hindered at getting any further. I am unfamiliar with the process so perhaps I am missing something here. 

I must admit, the beach certainly did live up to the name of the park. The sandy banks and shores were absolutely lovely. It did not disappoint.  It was clean and inviting and it seemed like it went on and on forever. I can see why this would be a very popular beach. 

It was interesting to look down and see that much of the sand was made up of shells; both whole and crushed. 

The gulls were waiting quietly near by, hoping that someone would either drop some food or throw them some. 

 Behind us were some sand dunes that were roped off. 

A sign in front asked that you stay off the dunes because they would easily erode if they were walked on. 

​We stayed on the beach for a bit but eventually decided it was time to head back to camp. We said good bye to the sea gulls and made our way back to the car.

When we got back, we settled into the dining tent to play some board games for a few hours. A Rustic Borer beetle joined us for awhile on the screen of the tent. 

The noisy neighbours that I had worried about turned out to not be a problem after all. They became quiet by 10 pm and we were able to enjoy the evening. 

When it was time to get ready for bed, we headed over to the bathroom to brush our teeth and wash up. We had not used the bathrooms in our campground yet because we had been in other parts of the park all day. So it was to our surprise and dismay that we found out there was no sink or running water at the bathrooms at all. You couldn't even wash your hands there.  We didn't know where the water pump was and it was too dark to go looking at this point. So, we ended up having to use a bottle of water to wash up and brush our teeth with instead.  It's a good thing this park has a wonderful beach, because the campgrounds themselves are terribly lacking. 

As we drifted off to sleep I could hear a loon really, really faintly off in the distance. It reminded me that despite the park not being all I had hoped it would be, at least I was out of the city and under the stars.