Photos from The Pinery

Hope you enjoy these photos we took yesterday around The Pinery Provincial Park

Visitor Centre building

One of many displays at the Visitor Centre

Canoe, Kayak, Bicycle rental centre (+ Icecream Shop)

Park store and restaurant

A colourful array of Kayaks & PFD's

Bicycle rental fleet

BEACH PHOTOS 

 

Camping at The Pinery

This is our first visit to The Pinery Provincial Park since April 2010 . . . that was a cold weekend.  Today the temperature hit 30 degrees and we had the A/C running.  "Severe thunderstorm watch was in effect for much of the afternoon and a "tornado watch" for our home area of Waterloo.

We arrived early Sunday afternoon and are leaving on Friday.  A few roads have changed around the Park store so we found it a bit confusing upon arrival.  My how the trees have grown, especially where the Park staff had previously done a "controlled burn" along the road that goes to the Burley campground.

Lots of poison ivy at the campsites.  Not a lot of birds at our campsite but we have been seeing the Tufted Titmouse and both male and female Hummingbirds.  Not much luck with our TV satellite dish although we did have satellite 82 yesterday but unable to get satellite 91.  Oh well, we'll just have to rough it with a laptop computer and two Blackberry smartphones.

Campsite 461

Humming Bird at our feeder

A pair of Turkey Vultures roosting for the night

Old Ausable Channel

Red-Spotted Purple Admiral butterfly

Beach prints

Beach scene

Sunset at the beach

Rondeau Park - Day 5 through Day 8

This afternoon it's raining lightly and tomorrow we're heading for home.  Therefore this may be our last chance to do a blog for this trip.  Enjoy the photos.

Downy Woodpecker tapping on our awning

Pair of Turtles on Marsh Trail



May Apple flower




Wild Geranium on Marsh Trail




Rondeau Bay shoreline



Turtles & Redwing Blackbird - Marsh Trail

Parks staff removing another dead Ash tree



Fungi at base of tree



Honeysuckle bush



Breakfast at the Park store

Selfie

Sycamore tree

Patch of Violets



Who said Dandelions aren't  beautiful?

Swamp on Rondeau Road (near Visitor Centre)



Young buck on Rondeau Road (near Visitor Centre)

Rondeau Park area update

 

 

RONDEAU PARK VISITOR CENTRE

 

On Friday, May 23 we drove down to the Visitor Centre and took a few photographs.  The weather was still a bit cool so we spent the rest of the day just taking life easy.  

Rondeau Park Visitor Centre

Deer display at Visitor Centre

Spiny Soft Shelled Turtle display.  Shell covered with White sand.

Bald Eagle display

Red Headed Woodpecker & Red Wing Blackbird (female)

Tulip Tree display

Bird feeding / viewing area at Visitor Centre

 

 

OIL MUSEUM OF CANADA

 

On Saturday, May 24 we drove to Oil Springs to visit the Oil Museum of Canada.  While many people know that this oil field was the first in Ontario (1858), few people realize this was also the site of North America's first commercial oil well and the first "gusher" well in 1861.  When the "oil boom" ultimately tapered off, Lambton County oil men took their expertise afar to develop oil fields in foreign territories such as Venezuela, Java, Persia and Russia.  The Museum includes various artifacts brought from such countries when the men returned home to Lambton County.

 

One hundred and fifty years after the first discovery of oil in Lambton County, many of those wells are still pumping crude oil which goes to Imperial Oil in Sarnia for refining.  Many of the wells still use the same "jerker rod" and "jerker cable" technology to power the pumps.  The major difference is that the "jerker rod power houses" now contain electric motors rather than steam engines.

 

Oil Museum building

An active, "jerker rod" operated oil well on the Museum property

Site of first oil well at Oil Springs

"Spring Pole" drill rig system used for drilling some of the early wells.



Jerker Rods emerging from the Power Station

Interior of an operating, Jerker Rod Power Station

Newer style, electrically powered oil pump

Bridge over Black Creek

Very simple, "jerker cable" operated pump near Black Creek

A present day oil producer at Oil Springs