Looking for a killer sweet treat this Halloween season?
This cookie recipe comes straight from the staff at Algonquin Provincial Park!
Round up your little goblins and ghouls and bake some delicious cookies to satisfy any sweet tooth.
Author: Ontario Parks
The people I’ve met in parks…
Stroll the halls at our main office, and you’ll find many a former naturalist, ops tech and superintendent. So many of our long-time team members started their careers in a favourite provincial park. In today’s post, Eva Paleczny — now working centrally as a Learning & Education Specialist — recounts her time working in a park.
As a park naturalist at Lake Superior Provincial Park, I met so many people, some just briefly and others year after year.
And the diverse array of visitors I’ve met while working with Ontario Parks has been one of the best parts of my job!
Stars over Killarney 2018
What happens when two great organizations work together to promote astronomy and dark skies? An incredible experience that captivated visitors from all over Ontario and beyond.
On September 22, 2018, we launched Ontario Parks’ first Dark-Sky Preserve in Killarney Provincial Park (the other is in Lake Superior Provincial Park) with a special “Stars over Killarney” program. Joining us as co-hosts for this special event were our friends at Science North, one of Canada’s best hands-on science museums.
Protected: It’s October – What are the bears up to?
A bonding family experience in the #OPescape RV
Today’s post comes to us from Paula Schuck (@inkscrblr), the writer behind Thrifty Mommas Tips, and our next #OPescape content creator to travel around Ontario’s provincial parks in our wrapped RV.
A few weeks ago, I listened to a podcast about the brain and nature’s impact on health, and I learned that time spent in natural surroundings impacts immune function, weight, and blood pressure as well as attention deficit disorder.
The impact of even a three day break when spent outdoors enjoying nature lasts months and leaves you in better health mentally and physically.
After learning that, I was more eager than ever to leave on our first ever RV trip (in celebration of Ontario’s Parks 125th anniversary). I needed to see for myself if it was true. Would the experience change us?
Continue reading A bonding family experience in the #OPescape RV
Nutritionist turned camper in the Ontario Parks RV
Today’s post comes from Jordana Hart, creator of I Hart Nutrition. Jordana is one of six content creators we invited to document and share their Ontario Parks RV experience in a custom-wrapped RV as part of this year’s OP125 celebrations.
If I am being honest, while I love nature and love being outdoors, I definitely don’t consider myself to be the camping type. So needless to say, this type of experience was definitely outside of my comfort zone, but one I just couldn’t turn down.
I think the idea of being on an RV is what really convinced me. I had never stepped foot into an RV before, and I’m all about new adventures.
Continue reading Nutritionist turned camper in the Ontario Parks RV
Billy’s bobbers
Thanks to Brad Steinberg, our Natural Heritage Education Coordinator, for today’s post, which includes instructions on how to make your own fishing bobber.
I never knew either of my grandfathers, both of them claimed by heart disease before I got to know them. I was, however, blessed with some great surrogates – family friends whose wisdom and support filled the space normally reserved for a grampa. Bill Bishop was one of them.
Bill possessed the wisdom and wit that seems unique to Newfoundlanders, often toasting a meal with a maritime saying that was mysterious in its slang and nearly impossible for an eight-year-old boy to decipher.
Bill and my family shared a deep love of Algonquin Provincial Park, especially the speckled trout that inhabit the murky depths of those cold, Canadian Shield lakes. And every spring, as the lake ice freckled and broke apart, he’d fish for those speckled trout using homemade bobbers made from old wine corks.
A green summer in Bon Echo
This post was written by Stacey Fluke, Green Initiatives/Special Projects Summer Student at Bon Echo Provincial Park.
“Surround yourself with the five most successful people (in your life) and you too will become successful yourself,” is something a former boss once told me when we were discussing my five-year plan.
Bon Echo Provincial Park has had a significant impact on me and it is a pleasure to mention that this year is not only the 125th anniversary of Ontario Parks, but also my fourth season at Bon Echo.
7 leaf-peeping tips for fall fanatics
You’ve checked our Fall Colour Report, and you’re ready for an autumn adventure.
Here are our top seven tips for finding your fall colour fix:
The Murphys Point moth craze
This post comes to us from Mark Read, an interpretive naturalist at Murphys Point Provincial Park.
Most people have a love/hate relationship with moths. But believe it or not, moths are the latest craze to hit Murphys Point Provincial Park!
With moths that range in size from as big as your hand to smaller than a grain of rice, staff at the park have been documenting this understudied group for the last few years.
As a result, the park list has grown from 56 known species in 2015 to a whopping 673! That’s 617 more species identified in the park in just three years!