Petroglyphs Provincial Park

We were headed home but there was still lots to see along the way. After stopping in Brighton one more time we headed North to see the little towns of Warkworth and Cambellford.  I adore the little shops in Warkworth and highly suggest anyone passing by that way to check them out. The first stop was the "Cheeky Bee". 

​It is a rustic ranch style building with Mexican pottery lining the porch. 

And inside is an assortment of some of the most gorgeous gifts you will ever see. Metal works, paintings, cards, jewelry, lights, corn brooms. It's all simply beautiful. 

Another shop you don't want to miss is "Frantic Farms- Clay & Glass & Gallery" 

I love the metal work here and so does my daughter so I bought her another piece to go with her collection. You can often see the artists at work behind the desk while you shop, which is another neat feature.

And the glass work here is just lovely. 

Another shop to check out in Warkworth is the Sprucewood cookie shop. Sprucewood cookies are hand made and come in a a variety of unusual flavours. Penny bought a bag of Pumpkin cookies. 

This place is called the "Yellow Bordello" . We didn't go in, but I liked the name. 

After stopping in Warkworth we went in to the town of Cambellford just a few minutes down the road. This is the town my grandmother lived in before she passed away. It is a picturesque little town with a Timmies and a Canadian Tire and Giant Tiger. But my favourite shops are the Frog's Whiskers (craft store), Kerr's book shop, and naturally,the Chocolate Factory. Inside the chocolate factory are barrels and barrels of all different kinds of chocolate. They are a great price because the are made right there and don't have to be shipped anywhere. We try to stop in here every time we come this way and we stock up on our supply of chocolates.

You can buy chocolate by the bar, by the bag or in gift boxes. 

Our next stop in Cambellford was an emotional one for my brother and I. We almost didn't stop at all. We wanted to see the Little Red School House that my grandmother (farmor) lived in before she passed away. We hadn't seen it since the new owners moved in. So although we wanted to see it; at the same time we were worried that we would be heart broken by any changes that we saw. We pulled up near the mailboxes and made ourselves look like lost tourists as best we could. There was a lady in a blue shirt working in the flower garden at the side of the house. The old dog house was gone but there were two beautiful dogs playing in the yard. Farmor would have been happy about that. She adored dogs. Not much else had changed. The original door was replaced by a new one and the side of the garage was now blue instead of white. My favourite tree had been cut down, but it had been in bad shape and really did need to come down. In it's place they had planted a brand new sapling that in time I am sure will become a beautiful big tree. We only stayed for a very short moment or two. Just long enough to get a glimpse and take a quick picture through the windshield of the car. We didn't want to look like stalkers so we quickly moved on. I left feeling happy that the the people living there now seemed to be happy and taking great care of the place. It was a bitter sweet moment. 

​Soon we were on our way to Petroglyphs Provincial Park. We were all looking forward to seeing the petroglyphs. Carsten had his GPS on to help us find it and we ended up in someones back yard. So if you are going to take a trip out to this park, do not trust your GPS. Use a map and follow the signs. We wondered just how many people ended up in this poor guy's back yard.

Once we righted ourselves and got back on the right road it wasn't long before the park sign came into view.

L We knew we didn't have a whole lot of time to spend here. The gates to come in close at 4:30 and if you aren't out of the park by 5:30 p.m. you could be locked in for the night. It was about 3 pm or so when we got there. 
We drove through the very narrow winding roads through a very pretty forest. It was so peaceful and serene. Finally we came to the parking lot. From there you had to walk up to the Visitor Center. The very first thing you see on the way up to the Visitor Center is the bathrooms.

​ These were in rough condition. But once you got closer it was pretty easy to see why. 

They were having troubles with porcupines eating the bathrooms. Porcupines are known to like to chew the wood on peoples stairs and railings so it was no surprise to us that they would like to chew on bathroom doors as well. Apparently they are attracted to the salt that humans leave behind when they touch things. There were little gates in the doorways of the bathrooms to help to keep the porcupines out. 

​The inside of the bathroom was very basic and old looking. The bathrooms could definitely do with an upgrade.

Even the inside of the bathroom was not off limits to the porcupines and other wildlife. ​The bathrooms though were the only thing that needed sprucing up. Everything else from that point on was stunning and gorgeous and peaceful. 

There were a couple hiking trails available but we didn't think we would have time to walk any of them. Our first destination was to see the actual petroglyphs. 

They had nice benches here and there along the way. 

The walking path up to the Visitor Center was nice and wide. The air was warm and smelled wonderful and there was a sense of calm and peacefulness as you walked. It was a very beautiful place. 

The Visitor Center here is called "The Learning Place". This is where you pay your entrance fee. Inside is a fantastic display of artwork and various items. It is exactly that....a place to learn more about the First Nations culture. 

The shop inside had a beautiful stone fire place. 

There were books and post cards and mugs and all sorts of little things to buy. It was set up very nicely and intermingled with big boulders that were lined against the walls. It made far a unique display. We only had a quick look for the moment and decided to come back to the Learning Place after we saw the petroglyphs. Once again we were worried about how much time we had. 

Just outside the door of The Learning Place is McGinnis Lake. There is no swimming, boating or fishing allowed in this lake because it is protected as a meromictic lake.

There was a little write up about the lake describing how meromictic lakes have 3 layers and the very bottom layer does not have oxygen and does not support life except for cyano bacteria. The lack of oxygen at the bottom of the lack means that things that settle on the bottom do not decay. As a result, the sediments on the bottom of this lake represent a perfect record of the last 10,000 years that scientists can study. Any swimming, boating or fishing could stir up the layers of waters and mix the layers together which would ruin that perfectly preserved record. 

The next stop was the long awaited petroglyphs. There is no photography or video allowed of the petroglyphs because this is a sacred site of the First Nations. However, they did have some postcards with a couple of pictures available at the Learning Place. 

The petroglyphs were an amazing site. They had erected a specially designed, large, glass building over the site many years ago because they had found that the weather was eroding the petroglyphs away and that they were in danger of disappearing all together. Before the building was erected, the First Nations people for hundreds of years would cover over the petroglyphs with mosswhen they were done their ceremonies. The damp from the moss had already warn much of the oldest petroglyphs away or to the point where they were hardly visible anymore.  Inside there is a concrete wall keeping people form going in and touching the stones. The only people who are ever allowed on the stones are the First Nations people who come about once or twice a year to perform traditional ceremonies. The land actually belongs to them and they are gracious enough to let people come to look at the petroglyphs.

One of the park rangers was there on site and he was a wealth of knowledge. While you are looking at the petroglyphs you don't have too many questions that come to mind. But when the ranger gets to talking about how they were found, how the building was made, what some of the symbols mean, etc. you realize just how many questions he has answered that you wouldn't think to ask.  We learned that to First Nations, women are held in high regard for bringing life into the world. A common custom among First Nations is that women in their menses cycle do not enter sacred sites like this one. First Nations believe that the female body undergoes a natural purification at this time, whereas males have to attend other ceremonials such as the sweat lodge in order to attain similar purification. We also learned it is customary to leave an offering of loose tobacco.Tobacco is a sacred plant, given to First Nations by the Creator, and widely used in prayer to the Creator, the ancestors, the earth and the universe.This offering is best left at the periphery of the site. Sure enough, there was a mortar and pestle with tobacco laying on one of the edges of the site.

One of the interesting things about the petroglyphs is that depending on what time of day it is, or even what season it is, certain petroglyphs can be seen better depending on how the light falls on them. 

We were surprised by how much time we actually spent inside the petroglyph building. But we still wanted to take more time in The Learning Place. So we headed back. Along the way we saw another garter snake in the leaves. This was the second snake we saw in one day. 

Inside the Learning Place were plenty of quotes and sayings that would look great as posters. 

There were also some traditional artwork to see as well. 

Much of the artwork had some educational information written on it and were done on glass which were lit up from behind.  

My other favourite piece was one that symbolized to me this whole trip that we were on, which to me was partly in remembrance of my grandmother.  The piece was of a First Nations person dressed in red and dancing in the sunset.  The words say:

                             "What we are told as children is that people,
                                    when they walk on the land, 
                                         leave their breath wherever they go. 
                                    So whenever we walk,
                                           that particular spot on the Earth 
                                                   never forgets us.
                                    When we go back to these places we know
                                              that the people who lived there
                                                  are in some way still there, 
                                            and that we can partake
                                                of their breath and 
                                                       of their spirit. "

By the time we got out of the Learning Center we had only about 15 minutes left before the park closed. We hadn't even touched the hiking trails yet. I really wanted to take a quick peek at the trails so we decided that we would walk 5 minutes down the trail and then 5 minutes back and that would leave 5 minutes to get to the car and leave. So we started on our 5 minute journey down the Nanabush Trail. 

As we strolled along a dragonfly decided to land on Penny's shoulder. 

It was a beautiful sunny day and the trails were a beautiful walk. 

Even the rocky areas were smooth and easy to travel. 

Some of the paths were lined with a pretty decoration of little green plants. The brochure says to watch out for poison ivy, but we didn't see any. 

Soon it was time to turn around. I would have liked to have gone further but our time was up. 

On the way back to the car, by the bathrooms there was this stone structure. Not sure what it was for. Looks like it may have been a old water tap at one time, perhaps. 

There were also some interesting rock formations where water had carved  out some interesting shapes over the years. 

On the drive out we saw a couple of wild turkeys in the bush and we stopped for a second or two to watch them. ​ I would like to come back one day and if I do I will not under estimate the amount of time I can easily spend here. Instead of just an hour or so, I could easily spend 4 - 5 hours here or more depending on which trails I might like to hike. 
It had been a great day but now it was time to go home.