Beach Bonanza
With a great lake on the left and a massive bay on the right, Bruce County is endowed with more than 100 beaches! However, it’s not the quantity of beaches that’s intriguing as it is the fantastical diversity. On the Lake Huron side, where the water is warm and the shore is sandy, there are gorgeous, long strands, action-packed hangouts, and quiet, shallow coves. On the rocky Georgian Bay side, where the water is cold and emerald in colour, there are long, flat ledges, sea caves and pockets of big boulders.
Coastal Cornucopia
• On Lake Huron, the popular beaches of Sauble, Port Elgin, Kincardine and Southampton are all located downtown, so you can stroll the shore and shop the boutiques, play volleyball and eat ice cream, swim and enjoy a café lunch.
• Sauble Beach, voted the best beach in Ontario, is an animated, 11-km-long stretch where you can watch kite boarders and rent water trampolines, climbing walls and stand up paddle boards.
• Southampton’s Beach has swing sets, and a Friday Family Fun Night in the sheltered picnic area.
• Port Elgin’s Beach is site to a carnival, flea market and weekly bandshell concerts. You can join a beach volleyball game, play mini-golf, walk the docks of the harbour, and hop aboard the miniature steam train.
• At Kincardine Beach the “Phantom Piper” plays a bagpipe from the deck of the restored lighthouse each night at sunset. There’s a km-long boardwalk, giant beach chairs, volleyball courts a Tiny Tot Park. Kincardine beach is totally dog friendly, so bring your dog along to enjoy the beach with you. Station beach is is a Blue Flad beach.
• The beaches at Point Clark, Kincardine and Lion’s Head have lighthouses to explore.
• Bluewater Park in Wiarton has a small sand beach, a playground and direct access to the Bruce Trail.
• In Bruce Peninsula National Park, Singing Sands is a pancake flat expanse ideal for small children, the Grotto iis an alluring sea cave that begs to be explored, and Indian Head Cove is a stunning, cliff-wrapped, cobble and flat rock beach perfect for a picnic.
Dogs Welcome
There are dog-friendly beaches at MacGregor Point Provincial Park and at North Shore Park in Port Elgin.
***Also, see “Water Sports”.
