Located just south of Brighton at the edge of Lake Ontario, Presqu’ile Provincial Park is well known for watching migrating birds and butterflies. To the point, there are over 300 species of birds that have been seen in the park. In addition, Presqu’ile Park also has some of the best hiking trails and beaches in the area. To protect wildlife, Presqu’ile Provincial Park requires your dog to stay on leash while hiking. The park also has several camping options including electrical sites, group sites, a cottage and five soft sided shelters.
Advanced reservations at Presqu’ile are a must. We visited on a warm and sunny spring day in April and managed to find one of the last available parking spots in the parking lot near the picnic area.
We headed down towards the pebble shoreline, where we found a quiet area to skip stones and eat our lunch. Dogs are welcome to swim here on the pebble beach and along the picnic area.
Around the perimeter of the eastern side of the park is a paved one way driving loop. It is a shared road with both bikes and pedestrians. In addition, there are over 12km of interior hiking only trails.
Presqu’ile is the perfect place for beginner hikers! The trails are flat, well marked and several access points if you don’t want to hike the entire loop. We started from the parking lot and headed north on the shared Pioneer and Newcastle Trail. Then, we cut east through the group camping area where we found several drinking water taps. This was the perfect opportunity to refill our bottles and get a drink for our puppy.
We walked by the washrooms and linked back up with the Newcastle Trail. Then, we headed east through the forest and along the wooden boardwalks. The trails were all well maintained and even had a few areas with benches to sit and rest. There were some very muddy sections in the forest that we needed to cross through along the way.
Just north of the Nature Centre is a trail that cuts north / south across the park, joining the paved driving loop to the Newcastle Trail. This trail makes this entire area very accessible and a short walk from any of the parking lots or picnic tables located along the paved driving loop.
At the far east end of the park, and a slight detour off of the Newcastle Trail is the Presqu’ile Point Lighthouse. A must see if you visit the park! Built in 1840, it is the second oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the north shore of Lake Ontario.
On the way back to the parking lot, we walked along the paved driving loop where we found a wide variety of spring wildflowers growing along the side of the road. Although a slightly shorter trip back to the car, we found this route was quite busy with cyclists and cars. If you are hiking with a dog, I recommend sticking with the interior trails as much as possible.
We spent about 2 hours at Presqu’ile Provincial Park and hiked about 6 km with our dog. Offering extremely easy hiking trails, this park is perfect for beginner hikers, kids and pets. Unfortunately, the park has no pet exercise areas nor any leash free trails, but still worth the visit.
Please note that many visitors have found ticks on their dogs at this park, luckily we checked ourselves and our puppy and didn’t find any.
For a nearby Provincial Park with a dog beach, check out North Beach Provincial Park!
