Sibbald Point Provincial Park (in the Spring)

 Sibbald Point Provincial Park is a mid-size provincial park about 1 hour north of Toronto.

This week (from today, Thursday) the new provincial stay-at-home order comes into effect as Ontario fights the 'third wave'. Last weekend, my family and I decided to visit this park, given that it was a warm spring day (15C!) and there is nothing much else to do in these lockdown times as we wait for the vaccine and a return to normalcy. 

The attraction of this park is a large sandy beach on Lake Simcoe.

The water is very clear, as you can see, but it was colder near the water. 15C can feel like 10 or even 5 as you get close to the cold water, so you really need to prepare accordingly. There are lots of grassy areas for picnics (and even some picnic benches).

As usual, there was no lifeguard. In fact, there was no one at the entrance to the park. You take an envelope from the entrance booth, put your daily usage fee there (in cash) and then close the envelope. There's a piece you can tear off to put on your dashboard as your parking permit, and you put the envelope in the deposit box.

The beach would be really nice in the summer. Since it's Lake Simcoe, you can fish from the shore for perch (and later, bass). There's a forested hiking trail as well.

In the picture above, you can see some of the embankments from the beach. These are huge bunch of irregular large rocks that are in place that you can walk over to go deeper into the lake. 

Of course, when you reach that pathway, you are warned that these rocks are slippery (they are, obviously, wet from the waves). And remember, no life guards.

However, it's not really that difficult, and even my 6 year old had no difficulty navigating the rocks (with a little bit of help). Do have extra pairs of socks for the kids if you are going to do this in the spring!

The water was so clear. So blue. It looked so nice and refreshing.

It's not hard to imagine how it will be in the summer on a hot day. I just hope we can get through this pandemic by then, and get vaccinated, so we can enjoy a proper summer.