Hope Bay Campground Attractions

Hope Bay Campground has the Bruce Trail right at it's door. It's majestic features provide Grey-Bruce with an unparalleled variety of terrain and scenery, setting the stage for the most spectacular walking, hiking and climbing. There are many cliff-top vantage points in Georgian Lakelands / Grey-Bruce.

The trail skirts around swamps, climbs over cliffs, squeezes under gigantic boulders and crosses cobblestone beaches. Dark green cedar forests contrast with the brilliant blue of Georgian Bay. The exceptional rugged shore of the peninsula offers panoramic views and wildlife is abundant.

Hope Bay

Hope Bay has towering cliffs that surround one of the prettiest beaches on the Bruce; the sandy bottom extends far into shallow water, opposite a picnic site.

A trek along the Bruce Trail on the north escarpment reveals giant glacial potholes in the Hope Bay Nature Reserve. You can be sure, that when you wake up to a view like this your breath will be taken away!

Wiarton Willie in “Canada’s Groundhog Capital”

In Wiarton, Ontario, only 15 minuets away from Hope Bay Campground. Wiarton Willie, Canada’s famous white groundhog, emerges from his lair every February 2nd to check his shadow and tell us whether we’ll have a long winter or, hopefully, an early spring. After hibernation, he’s as anxious as we are to Frolic in the warm sun. Wiarton is the Gateway to the Bruce Peninsula. In Wiarton you will find many stores, shops and restaurants.

In its very early history, Wiarton was a landing stage for natives and voyageurs portaging their canoes and cargo across this narrow part of the Peninsula to Lake Huron, thereby avoiding the sometimes treacherous waters at the tip of the Bruce.

Cape Croker, Ontario

Follow the signs to Cape Croker, only 5 minuets away from Hope Bay Campground, which has incredible views of the escarpment skirting Sydney Bay’s beaches. The Bruce Trail follows the top of the bluffs. The Chippewas of Nawash hold a Pow Wow here in mid-July, featuring traditional aboriginal foods, dancing and singing.

The oral history of the Chippewas of Nawash records that the waters around their territory at Cape Croker were a healing and a burial site for Ojibwa from all over the north and west Great Lakes region. A 10-acre site just north of the Nawash First Nation has artifacts proving that aboriginal people have used this land for over 2,000 years. Burial sites and human remains have also been found.

Lion’s Head

Nestled on the shore of Isthmus Bay on the east side of the Bruce Peninsula, Lion’s Head is 15 minutes from Hope Bay Campground and is one of the most interesting villages you can find. the natural harbour with its cliffs overlooking the clean blue water of Georgian Bay offers breathtaking scenery.

Lion’s Head is also on the 45th parallel, halfway between the equator and the north pole. Lion’s Head Provincial Nature Reserve, will provide you with panoramic views of the bay and contains the largest concentration of glacial potholes in the province, and they are huge.

The village of Lion’s Head got its name from a cliff on the east side that resembled the profile of a lion. Lion’s Head has always been an active port. In the days of sail then steam, lumber and fish were exported and passenger ships made regular stops here until the ‘30’s. Now, sailors, sport fishermen and power boaters lucky enough to discover the well protected marina find exploring Georgian Bay from this port a delight. Beach front activities and a wonderful collection of community events keep the tempo pleasantly upbeat in Lion’s Head.

The Bruce Peninsula Art Show is an annual attraction drawing visitors from across the province.

Tobermory

Tobermory is only 45 minutes from Hope Bay Campground. Tobermory is the jewel in the crown of Bruce County. Named after the seacoast fishing and diving village on the Isle of Mull, Scotland, by a home-sick Scot, this Tobermory is remarkably similar to its namesake, but with a lot more pizzazz. This harbour town in its early years has been called The Tub, Collins’ Inlet and Bury, after Bury, St. Edmunds, England. The township is St. Edmunds. Tobermory is the “Underwater Capital of Ontario” and a favorite place for many people to visit. Although Tobermory has many modern facilities, it still retains the quaint charm of a fishing village, as can be seen by taken a walk around Little Tub Harbour.

The harbour is surrounded by bricked walkways, flower beds and a boardwalk on the east side. Big Tub Harbour, the deepest natural harbour on the Great Lakes, now protects two nineteenth century shipwrecks which visitors from all over the world see. You can see through a diver's mask or a glass-bottom tour boat and over the side of a cruise boat. Little Tub Harbour bustles with activity.

Chi-Cheemaun

No holiday is complete without making the grand crossing of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron aboard the Chi-Cheemaun, the largest passenger / vehicle ship on the Great Lakes. Our “big canoe” sails between Tobermory at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula and South Baymonth on Manitoulin Island.

Flowerpot Island

Accessible by tour boat from Tobermory, Flowerport Island is part of Fathom Five National Park. Bring a picnic and explore the walking trails and caves. Located approximately 3 miles (5 km) off of Tobermory and within the boundaries of Fathom Five National Park, Flowerpot Island itself is a very popular attraction for tourists, photographers and botanists.

The most prominent features on the island are the two sea stacks, one standing 40' (12m) and the other 23' (7 metres) on the eastern shore which to some resemble flowerpots. As the lake levels dropped over several thousands of years, these monoliths were carved out of the rock by erosion of softer rock by the action of the water. If you look at the upper portion of the big flowerpot, some say you can see the face of an Indian chief looking out to sea.