Bon Echo

This past weekend I had a 2-part adventure that started off with camping at Bon Echo with my friend and 4 teenage girls (2 of them her daughters).  We had a fantastic time.  I had always wanted to go to Bon Echo park to see the magnificent cliffs and I wasn't disappointed.

 We went to the narrows to view the 300 foot cliffs.

And went on the tour boat for a closer view of the petroglyphs painted by the Native people using red ochre over 400 years ago (some sources say up to 1000 years ago).  I have no idea why the ice hasn't scrubbed them off by now as the pictures were quite close to the water.

The lake is appropriately named as there really is a good echo from the cliffs.

There are over 260 pictographs on this lake, so we only saw a small fraction of the total number.

It was a glorious sunny day with falcons flying overhead.

and ancient twisted cedars (some up to 1000 years old) growing in crevices in the cliff.

We swam in the lovely warm water.  It's been a long time since I've swum at a sandy beach and it was perfection.

We had a campfire every night and roasted marshmallows and corn on the cob. Yum!

And just so you know that we weren't the only ones who were impressed by the cliffs.  The area was popular with many artists in the 1920s, including the Group of Seven, an iconic group of Canadian landscape painters, who painted the spectacular cliffs.

by A. J. Casson

 by A. J. Casson

by Arthur Lismer

Poster painted by A. Y. Jackson

Part 2 of my weekend adventure coming soon.