During an extremely hot summer day in 2015, we were on Manitoulin Island during our epic camping trip of the summer. We hiked on the Inland Alvar Trail first, which lead up to the shore. This shoreline is not sandy and I’m not sure how popular it is for swimming but it is very unique and ecologically significant.

The first thing we did when we arrived at the bay was to let Maya get a drink and get wet to keep her cool on such a hot day. Maya loved the water but the smooth rock isn’t the best for older dogs due to it’s slippery nature.

On the shore there is plenty of sand, which is a bit misleading. There were a lot of interesting tiny wildflowers and other plant life that isn’t common along the shores of Lake Huron. I would have loved to spend more time exploring and photography all of the unique plant life, if it wasn’t so hot.

The coastal shore trail goes in both directions and actually leads to another trail further west. As much as would have loved to explore the entire park our time on the island was short and during a fairly significant heat wave.

Check out the water. The sand ends after about a foot and then the entire area is all rock with cracks in it. It was so interesting and unexpected. It was quite shallow along the entire limestone bed and I’m pretty sure it dropped off quite steeply at its edge, but I didn’t get to check it out.

It was so shallow and slippery that Maya could only get her toes wet. We wet down the rest of her ourselves just to regulate her temperature.

Have you ever seen a beach like this?

Was water was clear and cool and I would have loved to have laid down and cooled off completely but I didn’t really come prepared.

Chitra and Maya found a small shady spot while I quickly took some pictures of some wildflowers I spotted.

My last shot before we headed back into the forest was of this dragonfly resting on a rock in the blazing sun.