Bluff Trail

Anyone interested in glacier-created landforms will want to visit Awenda Provincial Park on the edge of the Penetanguishene Peninsula, which juts into Georgian Bay to create Nottawasaga Bay and Severn Sound. The most impressive visual element of Awenda is Nipissing Bluff, a beach rising 60m (197ft) into the air. The park also includes most of Giants Tomb Island, which it shares with the Township of Tiny.

The mixed deciduous forest on top of the bluff is a good spot to view wildflowers in the spring, including red, white and painted trilliums, and changing leaf colours in the fall. Also, 200 northern and southern bird species can be found here, including hooded, black-throated blue and cerulean warblers and yellow-throated vireo. Eastern fox snakes, eastern Massasauga rattlesnakes and five-lined skinks live on Giant’s Tomb Island.

Awenda Provincial Park also contains the remains of abandoned Aboriginal villages that are now archaeological sites. Researchers are trying to find evidence of four different Aboriginal cultures– the Paleo, the Laurentian Archaics, the Middle Woodland and the Huron–who are assumed to have inhabited these sites. This trail guide includes Beaver Pond Trail, Brûlé Trail, Nipissing Trail, Dunes Trail, Beach Trail, Bluff Trail, and Wendat Trail.

With several access points throughout the park, you're likely to constantly encounter new hikers along this circular trail. It travels partly along a high bluff and partly through a low wetland. It offers tremendous views of Georgian Bay, and during the fall the views can be spectacular.

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