I woke up at 8:30 to the sounds of highway traffic going by. You could still hear the birds and the chattering of the squirrels in between the short lulls of the vehicles going by.
The air was chilly but we had stayed relatively warm during the night. It helped that we had placed our backpacking mats on top of our regular camping mats which provided more insulation from the ground and was a bit more comfortable.
The air was chilly but we had stayed relatively warm during the night. It helped that we had placed our backpacking mats on top of our regular camping mats which provided more insulation from the ground and was a bit more comfortable.
There was not much morning sun on our site so I ate my breakfast standing in the sunlight of the empty campsite across from us. It was warmer that way.
We packed up camp by 10:45 and headed to the park store to buy a T-shirt. They didn't have anything that I liked so instead we decided to stop in to the Agawa store which was only about a minute down the road.
This place was filled with so many hand made items. Even some of the shelving units were handmade out of Birch trees.
They had things like colourful hand carved wood ducks.
And they had some beautiful glass lights.
The walls were filled with the artwork of various painters.
In one corner a wooden rocking horse caught my eye.
It was made even more interesting by the sign on it that told how it was made by the same carver who made one for Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
The wood work pieces in this store were just amazing!
From wooden faces on the wall,
to wooden vases and bowls on the shelves, the thought and work that went into these pieces were wonderful.
There were even wooden board games. The people who made these were very talented.
We marveled over how many different shapes and sizes there were of cribbage boards. There was so much to see here. It was almost like walking through an art gallery.
We probably spent almost an hour in the store before we finally left and continued on our way to Batchawana Bay which was just 10 minutes down the road.
As we had found out the hard way the day before, Batchawana Bay Park is a Day Use Only park. For $11.25 you can load your car up and take the family to the beach for the day. I think that is definitely worth the money if you are in the area.
Since we had a valid park permit from Pancake Bay Park we did not need to purchase an additional park permit for Batchawana Bay because Provincial Park permits are transferable in that way.
If you make a left when you first come in there is an Information Kiosk at the end of a large parking lot. We parked the car and got out to look around. The Information Kiosk was open for the purpose of public washrooms but no one was around except for the cleaners. So we didn't see what else was inside.
Outside the Information Kiosk was a set of picnic tables. I was unclear as to whether or not this was part of the park or if it was open to the general public. If it is not technically part of the park then it would be a good place for lunch and a swim for free if you chose to do so.
To the left of the picnic tables was sandy beach that headed towards the tree line.
To the right you could see the sandy beach running as far as the eye could see down into the farthest reaches of the park.
We got back into the car and started to drive to the other end of the park. The roads were open and paved and well taken care of. One side was lined by many trees that gave you privacy from the near by highway. The other side was bordered by the shores of Lake Superior.
There were many little spots with picnic tables and garbage bins where you could park your car and have access to the beach.
Some spots didn't have much in the way of trees but most had at least one or two.
But every spot had a picnic table and the view of the lake was lovely.
The whole place was very quiet and peaceful. We only saw about two or three day campers in the whole park. If it is quiet like this all the time then this would be a fantastic place to spend the day maybe reading a book in the shade of the trees or in the sandy sun.
But we didn't have the whole day to spend here. We had to get going because we still had a 6 hour drive ahead of us to get home. So we turned around and headed back out of the park and onto the highway home. We were looking forward to sleeping in our own beds after our week of camping in a tent. But we will also miss being in the great outdoors and we look forward to our next camping trip.
RSS Feed