Our Travels: Macgregor Point Provincial Park
Spending leisure time at this all-season park along the shores of Lake Huron is a must for this nature-loving couple.
For the past 15 years, my wife Audrey and I have gone camping in MacGregor Point Provincial Park, a two-hour drive from our home in Stratford, Ont. Macgregor Point is located on the Saugeen Shores of Lake Huron, about three kilometres south of Port Elgin, Ont. We have an old hardtop trailer that my father bought in 1962, when we were kids. This park is our little getaway from the stress of work and city living.
Macgregor Point is a nature haven, a home to many small animals including frogs, turtles, raccoons, red-tailed squirrels, garter snakes and more. Deer are also plentiful in the spring and summer. The park offers seven kilometres of shoreline along Lake Huron. It is no more than a tenminute walk from most of the campsites.
An enjoyable feature for any visitor is an evening campfire. The only sounds we hear
during a campfire are the breeze rustling through the trees and bullfrogs. It’s such a relaxing retreat from city life. The park also features many hiking and bike trails that are easy or moderate to navigate. For older people like Audrey and me, there are no long or strenuous hikes, and we can easily walk to the lake to take in a gorgeous Lake Huron sunset.
The park is open all year long and features various special events. In May, the park hosts a week-long birding festival, as it’s home to many birds including blue jays, chickadees, red-winged blackbirds and woodpeckers. Larger birds include osprey, egrets and blue heron. On occasion, we have seen swans along the lake shore.
In summer, beautiful wildflowers are abundant: lady slippers, blue flag iris and the unique pitcher plant, which only grows in a marlstone environment. In addition to birds and small wildlife, Macgregor Point is home to a multitude of attractive insects including dragonflies and damselflies, ladybugs, water striders and bumblebees.
For dog owners, this park features two dog exercise areas right along the shoreline, where dogs can swim or roam around off leash.
In October on the weekend following Thanksgiving Monday, Macgregor Point puts on a Halloween-themed weekend called “Witches in the Woods” that is great fun for children and adults alike. The staff prepares and displays a scary haunted trail in the campground that people can see at night. As well, kids can trick-or-treat for candy, as people decorate their camp- sites. They even have a contest for the best decorated Halloweenthemed campsite.
The best feature of this park is its natural simplicity and beauty. Whenever we camp here, no matter the season, I usually walk to the lake early in the morning and again in late afternoon or early evening, as the Lake Huron sky is almost always worth a view and some photographs. The sky never looks the same twice, another one of the great features that keeps us coming back season after season, year after year. ■