Here's an opportunity to explore these stately sentinels - lighthouses - right here in Ontario.
The Bruce Coast bills itself as the "lighthouse destination in Great Lakes Canada" with 15 distinctive lights and marine heritage sites along Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.
The coast is dotted with rocky shoals that contributed to the demise of hundreds of ships and led to the building of warning lights.
Stretching from Point Clark to Tobermory, the Bruce Coast Lighthouse Tour covers 210 kilometres.
It's where tourists can climb a 150-year-old imperial light tower, become an assistant keeper at Cabot Head or Flowerpot Lightstation and tour the Marine Gallery at the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre.
The Canadian government recently said about 1,000 unstaffed lighthouses and light stations are being declared surplus property and could be replaced with simpler cost-effective structures.
"The good thing is that most of our lighthouses are either historic sites or owned by the municipalities," said Chris Hughes, Bruce County manager of tourism.
One of the best ways to experience the Bruce lights is by car, motorcycle or bicycle.
"Some sites are very accessible (Point Clark, Kincardine and Big Tub) while others are either a boat ride or a scenic drive to get there," Hughes said.
A good place to start is at the museum in Southampton with an expanded marine gallery and where visitors can get a sense of all the sites.
Southernmost point is the Point Clark light and then "meander along the Lake Huron shoreline," a trip that could take two to three days to properly experience the lights and communities.
After touring the Tobermory sites, head back down the peninsula along the Georgian Bay side and end the tour at the Cape Croker light, another two to three days.
"Combining lighthouses with some of the regions other attractions such as the Rural Gardens of Grey Bruce, more than 100 beaches and great local restaurants makes for a spectacular one-week journey," Hughes said.
Fathom Five National Marine Park is the "crown jewel" of the tour" with a glass-bottom boat cruise over shipwrecks.
Or, take a hike on Flowerpot Island with a sunset dinner overlooking the marine park at the Grandview in Tobermory, Hughes suggested.
Here's a look at some of the light sights to see:
- Big Tub Lighthouse is a six-sided wooden tower with a red iron lantern room at the entrance to Tobermory.
- Cape Croker Lighthouse, an octagonal structure of reinforced concrete, is at the northern entrance to Colpoy's Bay.
- Cabot Head Lighthouse is a wooden structure with an automated signal beacon atop a steel tower on a cliff near the Wingfield Basin nature reserve in Georgian Bay.
- Chantry Island Lighthouse, near the mouth of the Saugeen River at Southampton and with 115 narrow steps leading to the lamp room, is located on a bird sanctuary.
- Cove Island Lighthouse on Gig Point, near Tobermory, is best viewed by boat.
- Flowerpot Island Lighthouse, built of hand-hewn timbers in 1897, is accessible only by boat from Tobermory.
- Griffith Island Lighthouse, just outside Colpoy's Bay, is an imperial tower that can be seen by boat with its white flashing light visible for 18 kilometres.
- Kincardine Lighthouse at the inner end of the harbour is a white wooden structure built in 1881 with an eight-sided tower on a stone foundation.
- Knife Island Lighthouse and Lyall Island Range Light warn ships of the rocky shoals and islands around Stokes Bay, with best access by canoe or kayaks.
- Lion's Head Lighthouse, a replica of the original from 1903, guides boats safely into the harbour from its spot on the wharf.
- Point Clark Lighthouse, warning mariners of a dangerous shoal extending three kilometres into Lake Huron, was the first Ontario lighthouse designated a National Historic Site.
- Range Lights at Southampton are lantern-like structures along the Saugeen River and at McNab Point offering points of reference for those out on the water.
Other lighthouses to view include the Stokes Bay light that was relocated to the museum last fall and a replica of the Big Tub light at Vaughan Mills shopping centre north of Toronto.
"One of the best times to experience the lighthouses is on the stormiest days when you can relive what the mariners might have been going through out on the lake -- truly a humbling experience," Hughes said.
Jim Fox can be reached at onetanktrips@hotmail.com
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