A Visit to Point Pelee National Park

Point Pelee National Park is a unique national park located roughly just under 4 hours of drive south from Toronto. The first long weekend of the summer, the May 24 weekend, was showing a beautiful forecast, so we decided to visit this park. 

There is something unique about the park as well, which I will get to later. We started early in the morning, and thus reached Point Pelee around noon.

To get to Point Pelee, once you take the exit from 401 highway, you go through lots of small roads. Some of them have very low speed limits, such as 40. But soon, we were at the entrance of the park.

Boy it was busy! We had completely disregarded the fact that it was a long weekend, and a beautiful weather to boot, and so there was a long line up of cars to get in. 

No worries, we did get in, and once we were in, we were told that the "Tip" parking was full now, so we would have to come back in a bit.

This is where I would give the most important advice applicable almost to any sightseeing - get there early. We really should have been there around 9 or 10 am. That way, we would have gone straight to the Tip, and got the morning hours light as well.

No worries, we headed to the March Boardwalk. The marsh is about 70% of the park.

Due to its southernly location and the moderating effects of Lake Erie, the climate in the park is slightly warmer than the rest of Canada, and many species of birds, rare in rest of Canada, are found here.

It really is a bird watcher's paradise. People come here with binoculars and expensive cameras to photograph the nearly 360 species of migratory birds that has been recorded in the park. There's a huge diversity in the flora and fauna recorded in this park.

You can walk along the marsh on the boardwalk, and if you walk leisurely, taking pictures and enjoying the scenery, you can spend easily up to an hour here. We walked the whole circle on the boardwalk, which I recommend to any one.

You can even rent canoes or kayaks (or use your own).

The kids really enjoyed the walk. The weather was hot, but not hot to be uncomfortable. There were lots of wildlife to see, and we saw this crane hiding in the bushes.

It was now time to visit the "Tip". This time we were lucky to be allowed in to park at the Visitors' Centre (it was still very, very busy). After you park there, you take a shuttle to go to the Tip.

And what is the Tip? Well ... read on to find out.

Point Pelee National Park forms the southernmost point in mainland Canada (its latitude is the same as that of Rome, Italy and Barcelona, Spain.

After the shuttle dropped us off, in 5 minutes, we were at the Tip. This is why this spot is so unique. When you are standing here, there is NO ONE in mainland Canada who is more south than you. 

Everybody standing patiently in line to take the picture at THE TIP. This is it ... once you stand there, you know that you are the most southerly person in Canada.

Here we are. The wait time wasn't bad ... perhaps about ten minutes in the line. Usually there is no line ... but as I said ... this was the long weekend.

This beach is really not for swimming, due to the very strong currents. In fact, you are not allowed to swim in the waters. Most people, after taking their picture, just spend some time here on the beach relaxing, or playing in the sand. There are other spots in the park where you can go for a swim. 

Here is a picture showing the four corners of Canada. As you can see, Point Pelee is the "south" corner.

On the way back to Toronto, we had to stop in London, Ontario. Whenever we are in London, we have to visit the Mandi Guys. This dish of theirs, chicken leg mandi, is one of my favourite dishes.

Overall, it was a fun visit to Point Pelee National Park. There's activities for the kids. It's not too far, and if you are up for it, you can do it in a day (although it is better to split it into two days, and use London as a pitstop for the night on the way back).