HollyDays in Northern ON: Part 4
/Sleeping Giant Provincial Park
August 4 - 7, 2020
Knowing we had a long driving day, we were packed up and headed out of Lake Superior Provincial Park by 8:30 am (an early start for us:). We weren’t sure if it was because of the pandemic or if it was just the usual, but traffic was so sparse, especially in the first half of the day. Despite the clouds, the views were pretty great, so it made for a fun and interesting drive.
Our first stop was in White River - the birthplace of Winnie the Pooh (who knew??). We stopped for gas, a bathroom break, a quick dog walk and learned a little bit of history about Winnie the Pooh. It was a perfect rest stop!
We continued on and stopped at Pebble Beach in Marathon, for lunch. The beach is 2 km long and is made up entirely of rocks/large pebbles. It was so pretty and Daisy LOVED chasing rocks and digging them out of the water (which isn’t really great for her teeth!). I made sandwiches that we ate overlooking the beach. Even though it was quite overcast, the beach was still stunning. We loaded up with gas and a few more groceries and continued on our way. We found gas was generally more expensive after we passed North Bay.
View from the parking lot
Daisy chasing rocks on the beach
We saw two more Airstreams travelling towards us on the highway and waved:) It’s always fun to see another Airstream! Both were bigger than ours (not hard!). The sun came out in the afternoon and the views along the water were fantastic. There were more curves in the road as we ventured further north, making the drive more interesting - there seemed to be a great view around almost every corner. We finally made it to the turn off into the peninsula where Sleeping Giant Provincial Park is located, but it was still a bit of a drive to get there. The extra driving was SO worth it when we arrived at our campsite!
Before we drove into our campsite, we dumped our tank and filled up with fresh water. We were staying for 3 nights, so we knew we’d need to be pretty conservative with our batteries, fresh water and black tank usage. Once full, we were off to site 145 in Campground B. It’s a section where the sites can only accommodate tents, tent trailers or trailers under 18 feet.
I can’t emphasize enough how AMAZING our site was!!! We had a stunning view of the Giant and had access to the water via a set of stairs from our site. The water was SUPER clear, the bottom was made up of small pebbles and it was shallow for a bit, making it easy to go in for a dip when we wanted (our water shoes came in handy here). Daisy was able to access the water at any time we let her and she LOVED it! Chasing rocks, digging for rocks, getting soaked… she was in her glory.
View of the giant from our campsite!
Our site was pretty large and we were able to position Holly in such as way that we had water views from every window. It was fairly open on both sides, so we were able to get to know our neighbours a bit. On one side, there was a really nice couple camping with her mom in their trailer. They were from Thunder Bay and camp at Sleeping Giant multiple times each summer. On the other side was another couple, who were camping with family members on a few other sites. They were from southern Ontario and were quite fun and friendly. They spent a lot of time at the water, enjoying a drink or fishing, so we had plenty of opportunity to chat with them, as we were by the water often also. I was so jealous when they caught a nice fish for dinner the first night we were there! (Although, I would have no idea what to actually do with a fish that had been caught in order to get it to our table to eat!).
Sitting by the water, we saw lots of ducks and a pelican. We’d never seen a pelican before and got out the binoculars to take a closer look. They are beautiful creatures and have a longer beak than I expected. The evening was beautiful and it stayed bright until nearly 10:00 pm (we weren’t far from the change in time zones). When it gets dark late, we tend to lose track of time and didn’t manage to eat until about 9:00 pm! The weather cooled down and the wind picked up as the sun was setting, so we saw the sun finish going down from our bedroom as we watched a couple of episodes of Indian Matchmaker.
One of the things we realized fairly quickly, was that we didn’t have any service at our campsite. I know we were on holidays and all, but having two kids at home and not having any way of reaching them or vice versa, always makes us a little wary. In the end, we learned that we could get a touch of reception near the beach and we took the opportunity to walk the dog and check our phones at the same time. Once in a while, we’d get reception at our site and would find a text or email sitting there that was new, but it was pretty sporadic!
Gorgeous Beach at sleeping Giant Provincial Park
For some reason, Daisy was up before the crack of dawn (there was still a full moon out!) and Chris took her out for a bit. They came back to bed and we all slept until a more reasonable time, waking up to a beautiful and sunny day! We enjoyed the view with coffee and breakfast and contemplated how to spend our day. After trying to watch the sunset through a dirty bedroom window the previous night, one of the first things I did in the morning was clean the window!
I took a little walk around our small loop of the campground and noticed that most of the waterfront sites were occupied by either tent trailers or tents. We were one of the only hard sided trailers with a water site (although another Airstream came in a few days later for an overnight stay). All of the sites on the water had a pretty spectacular view. I realized that I didn’t need to have taken so much time to decide which site to pick as any of them would have been great and they all had the same type of water access. Our site was closer to the tip, but not quite on it. The wind often picked up in the afternoon, but I heard the sites on the tip had a more relentless type of wind.
We decided to try an afternoon hike so we had some lunch before heading off. One of our challenges when we’re without electricity (which is almost always) is that toast is hard to make. This trip, Chris decided to try making toast as we would a grilled cheese sandwich (without the cheese!). It was very delicious!
We chose to hike the Sifting Lake Trail. The big draw was that it’s classified as an off leash dog trail and was only a short drive from the Marie Louise Campground. The trail was pretty to start, but the mosquitoes were out in full force. We had barely begun when we turned back to get some bug spray. Once we were appropriately doused in bug spray, we began again. The trail is quite dense and there was only one other car in the parking lot. Even though it was an off-leash dog trail, it was one time where we didn’t feel at all comfortable with Daisy being off-leash! The trail is listed as easy and was pretty flat, but there were TONS of tree roots and rocks forcing us to keep a look out at our feet instead of our surroundings. Compared to other hikes we’ve done, this wasn’t one of our favourites. The wind had picked up before we left our campsite, but there was not a speck of wind on this trail and it was hot! It’s an out and back along the same path type of trail, where we came to a lake at the turnaround point. It was pretty, but also very marshy and there wasn’t really anywhere to stop and sit down or take in the view, so Daisy had some water and we headed back the way we came. There were loads of new smells for Daisy and she enjoyed stopping to smell everything. We didn’t see anyone on the trail until we were about halfway back to the beginning. The few people we saw all had dogs with them as well. If this had been the only hike we were able to do on this trip, it might have been a bit disappointing and it wouldn’t have left us wanting to do more. Luckily, we had another day to hike a bit more! If you don’t have a lot of time in this area, we would definitely give this hike a miss and try out some of the other much better places.
Along the Sifting Lake Trail
Hiking the Sifting lake Trail
View at the Turnaround point
Majestic! spotted on the side of the road!
After our hike, we continued back towards the Trans Canada Highway to visit the Terry Fox Monument. We were in grade school when he was running his Marathon of Hope and the annual Terry Fox Run became a ritual in our schools after he died. The views from the Monument were stunning and the surrounding park is beautiful. Terry Fox was a huge part of our childhood and visiting the Monument was on the must do list. It was incredible and I wasn’t prepared to feel so emotional when we visited it.
Terry Fox Monument. So moving.
We continued into Thunder Bay, where we visited Centennial Park for a short time. Daisy was pretty tired and hot at this point, so we didn’t really walk for very long. It was a huge park and it would have been fun to explore it a bit more. The waterfront is usually the crown jewel of most cities, so that’s where we headed next. It was windy, but also very pretty with lots of shops and restaurants - many of them with outdoor seating. In different times we would have stopped for a drink and snack on one of the outdoor patios, but although some were open, we didn’t feel that comfortable, especially with Daisy. We picked up a few groceries and started the one hour drive back to our campsite.
It was quite windy when we arrived back at the campsite, putting any thoughts of cooking over a campfire to rest. Our neighbours rigged up a side tarp to block the wind and were still able to have a fire, but if you’ve been reading other posts, you’ll know that campfires aren’t really THAT important to us. We had supper, cleaned up, took a quick walk with Daisy and watch a few episodes of Indian Matchmaker. Daisy was exhausted from our day!
The view from our bedroom window at 8:30 pm! Still sunny!
The wind had cooled things down allowing us to sleep only with the window open and not with the fan on. I kept waking up to hearing water flowing, but of course it was only the waves from the water!
We were slow to get out of bed on our second morning. After taking Daisy for a short walk, we enjoyed our coffee down on our little beach with the view. The day started a bit cloudy but the sun came out as we were eating breakfast and the temperature was lovely.
This view never got old
Once breakfast was finished, we drove a little further south to hike the Sea Lion Trail, which is accessed by the Kabeyun Trail. The Sea Lion Trail seemed like it would be a popular trail in more normal times. Despite how short it is, it’s actually quite up and down, on a narrow path, with lots of tree roots and rocks and includes a bit of climbing. I would not consider it an easy trail (more like moderate), but the views on the way and the actual Sea Lion are quite stunning. The water is a gorgeous colour of blue and green.
After the Sea Lion, we continued on the Kabeyun Trail for a bit - the trail was quite a bit wider and mostly flat. It was mid-day and pretty hot by this point, so we only walked about 20 minutes out and then came back. This was an easy trail and while we ran into others along it, we were able to have some great conversations about all sorts of things without worrying that we might trip on something. Daisy was zonked after our little hike! In fact, she was tired even before - at the turnaround point, we stopped for some water and she lay down for a little rest instead!
We also took a drive to the tiny town of Silver Islet - the place where the Silver Islet Mining Company was located. It’s been more than 100 years since the mine closed, but the small community still exists with some of the original mining homes (although in 2020, because of the pandemic, it was requested that people not travel on the road through the community). As well, the General Store and docks were closed. The story of the underwater silver mine is truly unique and it always amazes me how these large scale operations were built and used (safely?!?) in the early part of the 19th century.
I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and enjoying the views at our campsite while Chris went out for a run. It was too windy for a campfire again but we still went for a swim! Our water shoes that I threw in at the last moment, came in very handy on the pebbly beach and water floor. It was so slippery without them. The water was very refreshing on such a warm day!
Gorgeous views from every direction!
Loving the beach and the water
Dinner was fish, mashed potatoes and salad (sadly not fresh caught fish!). Next time we’ll have to figure out how to buy fresh, local fish!
We were excited to see another Airstream pull in around dinner time. It was a new 22 foot Caraval - so pretty! We didn’t get a chance to meet the family that was travelling in it as they were up and out early the next morning.
Playing in the water, hiking and sniffing all sorts of new smells, made Daisy one tired pup. She slept in much longer than usual and we all enjoyed a leisurely morning. Our morning walk was all around the park - we are definitely on the prettiest stretch of campsites!
After coffee and a delicious egg breakfast, we began packing up. I went for another swim while Chris was hitching up. We reluctantly pushed off from our site at 1:30 pm and stopped to fill our water tank before getting on the road to Quetico Provincial Park.
Overall, we LOVED our experience at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park! Maybe it was the beautiful, sunny weather or the gorgeous views of the Giant or the amazing sunsets that we saw each night from our site. Maybe it was having a water view from just about every window in our Holly or that we had private access to a little beach area and the water. Maybe it was the places we could easily visit or all of the hiking that was available so close by. It was probably all of these things! The beach at Sleeping Giant is also fantastic, but having our own waterfront site meant that we never needed to use it. There were other sites that could accommodate larger trailers, that were far more private than ours and still on the water. The view from these sites was pretty great as well and a bit more protected from the wind, but in our opinion, we had one of the very best sites in the park!
There were a few places around Sleeping Giant PP that we didn’t get to but would have considered if we had more time: Cascade Conservation Area, Eagle Canyon Adventures Suspension Bridge, Hike to the Top of the Giant (even with more time, this would have been difficult to do with Daisy as it’s likely too far for her to hike), the Thunder Bay Lookout (and other scenic lookouts).
Next Up: Quetico Provincial Park (with a side stop at Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park)
Lake Superior Provincial Park - White River - Marathon - Terrace Bay - Sleeping Giant Provincial Park
Towing: 561 km
Driving: 165 km
I forgot to take photos of our usage at the end of our stay.
Battery: We were in the 12.1 range on our battery. I don’t remember being at all concerned about our battery usage more than normal, even though we were pushing it with a 3 night stay.
Fresh Water: We were pretty much out of fresh water by the time we left (which is why we stopped to fill up before leaving Sleeping Giant - so we had water to flush the toilet on the road!) We definitely used water from our portable water holder but I don’t believe we had to fill it up more than once. Having easy access to swimming helped with showers and I just had one shower to wash my hair on our second full day. Chris most likely had 2 showers (but I can’t recall!).
Black Tank: We used a bucket to collect grey water from dishes and that was really helpful to preserve space in our black tank. We dumped our grey water in the outhouse twice. By the time we left we still had enough space to allow us to use the toilet on the road.
