Grundy Lake Park was never one that was high on my list of "must go to" parks. the name "Grundy" made me think of the word "grungy" and so I had over looked it in the past. But, after this visit, I have changed my mind and I have put this one high up on my list of favourite parks. The first indication that Grundy Lake was a good park to go to was when we received a phone call the day before we were to arrive letting us know that they were out of firewood and that we were welcome to bring our own. That, right there, is good service!
It was going to be just my mom and me this time around. We packed up the car and got ready for the 2 hour journey to a park neither of us had been to before. To get there we traveled through the Monettville and Noelleville area where my mom had grown up. She told me that there had been an increase in the amount of Sandhill Cranes in that area, so we were on the look out for them. We were not disappointed. Not only did we see some flying overhead, but we also spotted some in the local farmers fields.
It was going to be just my mom and me this time around. We packed up the car and got ready for the 2 hour journey to a park neither of us had been to before. To get there we traveled through the Monettville and Noelleville area where my mom had grown up. She told me that there had been an increase in the amount of Sandhill Cranes in that area, so we were on the look out for them. We were not disappointed. Not only did we see some flying overhead, but we also spotted some in the local farmers fields.
It was a pleasant drive to the park. There was one section of highway that was under construction just before the park though. It could mean that in the future, the route to the park may change. I guess only time will tell.
Only 3 people were allowed in the office at a time, due to Covid-19 restrictions. The office staff were nice and friendly. I saw a fleece shirt for sale that I liked and will probably come back for. But for now I just picked up a park patch and sticker for my passport sticker book and we registered for our site.
| The first impression that we had of the park was that it was a very nice park. We were in the Hemlock section on site 152 which is a radio free zone. We drove around a little bit before going to our site just to see what the other sites looked like. Sites 115, 116, and 117 look like they are located along the shoreline on the map. But they are actually across the road from the shoreline. They still offer a good view of the lake though.  |  |
All the sites seem to have pretty good privacy. Ours looked small from the road but once we got out of the car we saw that it was actually quite large.
The picnic table was to the right of the fire pit, but we determined that a better place for it was to the left of the fire pit because the picnic table was currently sitting on prime sleeping tent real estate. The left of the fire pit was too rocky to be comfortable for sleeping on. So, my mom and I picked up the table and moved it. Later on we found out that this was a very sound decision even tough we didn't know it at the time.
One of the best features of our site was a big, beautiful pine tree. It gave the perfect amount of shade and it had character. The site across from ours belonged to a couple of kayakers. We didn't see them much the whole time we were there. So, it made for very quiet neighbours.
We got everything set up by about 5:15 pm It was too early for supper for us and we were interested to know what the rest of this park looked like so we decided to go on a walk to the main beach.
| We made a pit stop at the nearest bathroom before heading off to the beach. This particular one was designated as wheel chair accessible so it was equipped with a flush toilet and grab bars. It also had the cutest little corner sink. The only downfall was that there was only one stall so there were times when there was a bit of a wait for your turn. However, the wait was never long and if you really had to go badly then you could always walk down the road to the comfort station.  |   |
Instead it was a warning that the water was high in sodium. If you didn't have any health issues related to sodium then you were fine to drink it. But if you did have a sodium-restricted diet then it warned that it was best not to drink the water.
As we made our way to the main beach, we passed by the shack for the Discovery Program for kids. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 there were no programs going on this year. So, the shack sat there, unused.
The main beach is one of 6 beaches in Grundy Lake Park. The park actually has many lakes within its borders; the largest ones being Gurdy Lake, Gut Lake, Gurd Lake, Clear Lake, and Swan Lake. The main beach is on Grundy Lake. To be honest, this one was not as nice as some of the other beaches in the park. But this is the beach you use if you have a day pass for the park. The water here is brown in colour and the buoy lines are in an "L" shape, which I thought was very unusual.
The things that this beach does have going for it is that it is fairly large, with plenty of picnic tables. There is a nice little wooden foot bridge that runs from the sandy beach up to a wide open rocky area where you can get a view of the whole beach. There are many little paths that run off from here and I suspect that they lead to various campsites and other parts of the park. We didn't really explore those paths much.
The wide open rocky area even has a picnic table to sit at so that you can enjoy the view of the tree covered shoreline and the stillness of the evening. It is a lovely spot at certain times of the day after most of the beach goers have left.
Above our heads in a few trees we could see the nests of the tent caterpillars. As a kid, I have seen large outbreaks of these caterpillars. So large that driving on a road covered with them, made for slippery driving. Even though these outbreaks do not follow true cycles in the sense that they occur at regular intervals, some areas have recorded outbreaks every seven to ten years or so. During these outbreaks, the caterpillars can become so numerous that they are capable of completely defoliating tens of thousands of acres of forest. Tent caterpillars rarely remain in outbreak numbers for more than a couple years. Although we saw noticeable numbers of them this year, they were far from the outbreak numbers I have seen in the past. I am curious to see if their numbers increase next year or not.
Across the road from the main beach is a volley ball area.
Beside the volley ball area runs Nisbet Creek which joins Grundy Lake to Gut Lake.
It was in this creek that I saw my first ever live dragon fly nymph. I had seen many shedded skins and pictures of dragonfly nymphs but never an actual live one out in the wild. These little guys are expert hunters of mosquito larvae, tadpoles, and small fish (even in nymph stage they are keeping the mosquitoes away!).
Here, growing along the shoreline were some delicate, pink False Foxglove flowers.
My mom and I started to explore the paths that run along and branch out from the volley ball area. I followed one that ran close to the shore of the creek.
Even looking down the side of a rocky cliff I could see them growing far below.
The water was not terribly deep here, but deep enough to keep the frogs happy.
As I turned away from the water and headed back in towards the woods and in the direction of the amphitheatre I met back up with my mom who had taken a different path. We admired the unusual rock formations ahead of us.
We also chuckled that someone had left a pair of sandals behind. I imagined that someone had partaken in a bit too much alcohol or something. It think it would be quite painful on the feet to walk across the pine needles, jagged sticks and rocks with no foot wear on. So I can't imagine anyone would purposely leave their sandals behind. I am sure there is an untold story here.
The path we were on led us down to the amphitheatre. It was a nice amphitheatre too; overlooking Gut Lake. On the other side of the amphitheatre is the trail head for the Gut Lake hiking trail, a canoe access point, and Smokey Point which is a place where you can do some shore fishing.
The snapping turtle was fairly large and impressive. It moved slowly and didn't seem at all concerned that we had gathered around to look at him.
In fact, he would stick his head out of the water from time to time to catch a breath and to take a look at us too. It was so relaxing to put the outside world on pause for a few days and just sit here for a few moments and watch the slow moving turtle. He didn't seem to have a care in the world and I envied that.
After watching the snapper for a bit, my mom and I headed up the road back towards our campsite. Along the way we saw another man made helping hand for the wildlife in the park. It was a bat box. We took a peek under it to see if we could see any bats, but the opening was too small and dark to know for sure if anything was inside.
While circling the building we did find some black berries growing at one side of the building though.
The next structure we came across on our way back was the picnic shelter.
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