Sandbanks Provincial Park

Hi Blog! When we came home from our bike ride yesterday, we got to talking to our neighbors. They are from the Kingston, Ontario area. They've been to this region many times.  They told us not to miss the Sandbanks Provincial Park. On Thursday, September 4, 2014, we loaded up the bikes and took off in search of adventure.

Sandbanks Provincial Park is a provincial park located on Lake Ontario in Prince Edward County near Picton, Ontario, Canada. It is noted for its picturesque sand dunes and beaches. It also has the world's largest fresh water sand bar and dune system. In addition to Day Use Areas, the park contains 549 campsites. We asked the Gate Attendant when we arrived, where we might find the best place to park and ride our bikes.  He suggested we park at the Main Gate and take the Woodlands Trail to Dunes Beach. Sounded like great advice.

The Woodland Trail winds through large, open meadows and wooded groves that once were large farms on this peninsula.  Since the area was made a park, the park administration has been husbanding the fields in their return to wilderness, planting trees and encouraging diversity of plants and wildlife in the meadows created by the former farm fields.

The Woodlands Campground is set in both meadowed areas and wooded areas, including some of the most mature hardwood forest.  It is a picturesque setting.  Here is Kathy working her way through the Woodland Campground.  As you can see, Fall is coming.

Hey wait, there are no dunes here.  This looks just like the rest of the shore of Lake Ontario. We must have made a wrong turn.  Back to the campground.

It wasn't long before we were back on track. Did you know that Sandbanks is the World's largest baymouth barrier dune formation?  Here we get our first glimpse of the dunes, across the water from a small beach that welcomes swimmers and picnickers.

Back in the day, much of the Sandbanks was used as pasture for cattle. By the mid-1850s, the area was changing dramatically. Farmers cut down 200+ year-old trees to clear the land. They built buildings and roads; and in an effort to free up the land to grow crops, farmers allowed their cows to graze on the dunes. The removal of the dunes' natural vegetation meant that there were no longer plants to keep the dunes/sand from shifting across the landscape, burying everything in its path. By the 1880s, considerable roadwork was necessary. In fact, the West Lake Road had to be moved three times in a period of 50 years, as the sand kept on burying it. In 1911 locals tried to plant white willow to stop the sand, but that did not work. Currently, the shifting sand is under control.

Thanks in part to the planting efforts of Parks Canada and the Friends of Sandbanks many of the dunes have been re-seeded, encouraging reforestation. Here is a particularly green round mound.

We ended up going backwards on the Dunes Nature Trail, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the various micro-climates found on the peninsula.  In between the tall dunes are low areas that collect rainwater.  Some of these remain water filled all year round.  Here is one of the local residents giving us the lowdown on the low area.

At the high point, we could look over the dunes out to West Lake.  The dunes completely cut off West Lake from the rest of Lake Ontario.  The waters of West Lake are protected from wind and waves that can be common on Lake Ontario generally, and so are relatively calm.  We hope to come back to West Lake next week and kayak.

We soon left the Dunes area behind and headed out toward West Point.  The West Point Trail follows an old service road that once served Lakeshore Lodge, built in the early 1900's for eager tourists but now demolished and given way to open grass fields fronting on the lake.  The road takes you right out into Lake Ontario. Here we are looking West from West Point.

To give you the total picture, here we are looking East from West Point.

We followed the trail around the point and back to Highway 12. The road runs along the lake where it forms a sheltered cove between the dunes area and the campgrounds to the east.  The water in the cove is calm, clear and bright blue-green.  In the photo below, beyond the water are the various swimming beaches of Sandbanks Provincial Park.

As we got out to Highway 12, we noticed several houses.  It appears farming is still being done in the park. Apparently, there were still a few active homesteads on West Point when Sandbanks became a park.  It can't be sold to anyone other than the Park, but the owners have a right to continue until such time as no family members are left to inherit the property.

Among the farming are large fields of corn, nearly ripe in this early September weather.  Here is Dave proving that the corn is as high as an elephant's eye.

We passed another owner-occupied cottage.  Here the red flowers seem to reflect the red in the Canadian flag.  They contrast beautifully with the blue of Lake Ontario in the background:

We wanted to tour all the campgrounds to give a full report to all our RVing friends, but several of the campgrounds had already closed for the season. It was also getting late and this park is huge.  We opted instead to go back to the truck, drive home and start Happy Hour!  Oh, yes, and bake a scrumptious tomato pie with some rich, red, ripe, sweet tomatoes that were homegrown by our RV neighbors.  Cheers!