There was a lot to be thankful for this past weekend. Beautiful sunny weather. Deep blue skies and incredible fall colours. Being with family and friends. Having an opportunity to leave the city and be in nature.
We headed to Grundy Lake Provincial Park for the Thanksgiving weekend. Thanksgiving used to be the last camping trip of the year before we started going camping in the winter. However, since we usually stay in cabins and yurts in the winter, it is still the last camping trip in a tent. That is until we pluck up the courage to try winter tenting.
We visited Grundy Lake a few times in the past but that was a few years ago and mostly in the spring and summer. I had my doubts whether it was the best choice to see fall colours since I remembered lots of pines. It turned out I had nothing to worry about. We booked a campsite at the Poplar campground. When I got out of the tent on Saturday morning, I was bathed in the golden glow of the forest around. The ground had a thick carpet of foliage; the trees were all decked up in their best colours; and beautiful leaves twirled around in the breeze. Kids had lots of fun jumping and rolling in piles of leaves and showering them over each other.
Since our son was still getting over the remains of his cold, we decided to take it easy this time. We spent a lot of time by the campfire and cooked the most delicious food: gnocchi with vegetables, veggie burgers, lentil stew, mushroom and barley soup, and roasted root vegetables (by some universal camping law food always tastes so much better on a camping trip).
We took bike rides through the forest and hit a couple of easy short trails: Swan Lake and Gut Lake. Both trails looked spectacular – smooth rocks, whispering marshes and gurgling brooks framed by interlaced green pines and multicoloured maples, birches and aspens. For more pictures of the beautiful fall forest, visit my Random Pix blog.
By another universal camping law, time always flies so much faster out in the woods. Before we knew it, it was time to go back home. On our way back, I enjoyed the beautiful fall landscape flashing by and started planning next year’s trips. Where should we go next?
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Grundy Lake has always been my favourite park. We’ve never been there in fall, so it was great to see your photos of those familiar trails and scenes in this beautiful season. Thanks for sharing your story – it has given me a bit of a Grundy Lake fix that is always welcome!
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It was our first fall trip to Grundy. It always amazes me to see how parks transform in different seasons. And you are wlcome about the Grundy fix:-) When I get camping cravings, I like to read about other people’s experiences, look at pictures and then I start planning my next trip.
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