May 31st, Josée and I were wondering what we should do on the weekend, so we went on Google Maps, looked around our area and noticed the Bruce Peninsula. I quickly booked us one of the few remaining campsites for that weekend.
I finished work around 5pm on Friday and we left right after. It took us about 3 hours and 30 minutes to get there from Parry Sound; just in time to check in at the front office.
Our Campsite for the next two nights
Knowing that we would have to wake up super early to get a parking spot near the Grotto, I drove Josée there, drove back to the campsite to park, then ran along the Cyprus Lake loop until I met up with her. From there, we went to the Grotto. We took the Marr Lake Trail to try to avoid people.
Marr Lake
The Grotto is just a few hundred meters down the Bruce Trail from Marr Lake. Luckily, we arrived in between parking times and there weren’t many people there, giving me enough time to scramble down to the Grotto itself and snap a few photos. There is an alternate way to get there by going through a cave; that is, if you’re good with tight spaces.
The Grotto
We followed the Georgian Bay Trail back to the parking lot and I ran back to our campsite to get the car. When I drove back there to pick up Josée, the authorities were already handing out parking tickets – it was only 12:01pm!
We then drove to Tobermory, stopping at Bruce Anchor Cruises to get tickets to Flowerpot Island. We ate lunch and headed out on our “cruise” – a 6 km boat ride to Flowerpot Island. The island was packed with people. I was lucky to get a photo of the “large flowerpot” without anyone in the shot (see header). At 1.1km, we took a short break at a museum close to the lighthouse on the island. Unfortunately, the lighthouse was closed.
View of Georgian Bay from the museum
We ended up doing the loop trail for a total of 2.9km. Along the trail, we saw a ton of Trilliums and a few bunnies. We got to check out a bunch of the campsites because no one had reserved them or shown up yet. In between campsites 2 and 3, there is another great view of the bay.
View near campsite 2 and 3
From there we took our “cruise” back to Tobermory and ate at the Tobermory Brewing Co. & Grill. Then we checked out Singing Sands Beach.
Singing Sands Beach
We spent the night at our campsite, where I got one last shot of Cyprus Lake. And that’s a wrap on our mini vacation.
Cyprus Lake
Click on the 
icon to make the Google Map full screen to better see all the photos I took and where they were taken. Click on the 
symbol to see the all the photos. There are 36 in total. I colour coated each hike. Blue is the grotto, yellow is Flowerpot Island and purple is just random photos.
Stats:
The Grotto Hike: 7.4km distance, 124m elevation gain (this includes the gps going all weird in the cave)
Flowerpot Island Hike: 2.9km distance, 92m elevation gain
Ontario Adventurer 