Vaughan to Grand Bend and the Pinery: Lake Huron's beach town and its dune park

Grand Bend, and the park beside it

Grand Bend is the beach town of southern Ontario's Lake Huron shore: a main street that runs straight down to a broad sand beach, a strip of restaurants, bars and ice-cream stands on either side of it, a summer crowd from London and the GTA, and — the thing that makes it more than a strip — the Pinery Provincial Park on its southern edge, ten kilometres of beach backed by dunes and an oak savanna that is one of the rarest ecosystems in the province, with the Old Ausable Channel's still water for canoes between them. The sunset from the beach is the town's signature — Grand Bend has claimed a place among the world's best sunsets for decades and the beach fills for it at nine in July. For Vaughan it is nearly three hours, which makes it a weekend, and the chauffeured version is the Sauble one moved south: the drop at the sand, the park's permit, and a drive that nobody does twice in a day.

The main beach and the strip

Grand Bend's main beach is at the foot of Main Street with the boardwalk, the lifeguards, the volleyball courts and the harbour's pier on its north side; the strip behind it is the restaurants, the bars with their patios, the surf shops and the arcade, and the town's parking is the metered lots that fill by eleven on a summer Saturday. A chauffeured family is dropped at the beach's boardwalk with the chairs, umbrella and cooler and the vehicle is gone; the family has the sand, the strip's lunch and the pier's walk, and the Luxury SUV is back at the boardwalk at the hour they named. The town's tourism site has the summer's calendar — the Canada Day fireworks, the beach volleyball tournaments, the August's Bluesfest.

The Pinery

The Pinery is the reason the weekend has a second day: ten beach-access points along its length with day-use lots that Ontario Parks caps on summer weekends and sells advance permits for; the dunes behind the beach with their boardwalks; the oak savanna's trails — the Cedar Trail, the Riverside Trail, the Wilderness Trail — through a forest of white pine and red oak that is home to the park's deer and its rare species; the Old Ausable Channel's canoe and kayak rentals on flat, warm water; and the visitor centre's exhibits. A chauffeured family holds the permit, is dropped at a mid-park beach access at ten with the kit, and has the sand until the chauffeur's collection — or does the channel's canoe in the morning and the beach in the afternoon with the SUV moving between the rental dock and the beach lot. The Pinery's campground is the family camping week, and the Sprinter drops the load as it does at Killbear.

The sunset

The beach faces west across the lake with the pier on its right, and the sun goes into the water at nine in July with the strip and the beach watching; a chauffeured day is timed for it — the collection at half past nine, the drive home in the dark, Vaughan by half past midnight — and a weekend does not need the clock. The Pinery's beaches have the same sunset with the dunes behind it and no strip, which is the version the photographers book.

The route

Two roads, and the chauffeur chooses by the day: the 407 and 401 west to the 402 at London, the 402 west to Highway 21 at Forest and 21 north up the lake to Grand Bend — the fast road; or the 401 to Highway 4 at London and north through Exeter to Grand Bend, the country road through Huron County's farms. Two and three-quarter hours from Woodbridge or Kleinburg with the 407, three from Thornhill; the routing estimate's three hours ten is the no-toll version. London is the stop on either road, an hour from the beach.

The weekend, in shape

Friday: pickup at 2 p.m., the 401 with a London dinner at Covent Garden Market, the motel or rented cottage at Grand Bend by seven, the sunset. Saturday: the Pinery's beach with the permit from ten, the channel's canoe at three, the strip's dinner, the sunset. Sunday: the main beach in the morning, checkout at noon, home by four with a Highway 4 stop at Exeter's bakery. Two days of daily hire for the vehicle staying, or a return pair for a family that keeps to the town, priced in the booking engine before Friday; the travel desk holds the cottage and the Pinery permit.

Which vehicle

An SUV for a family with boosters at $25 each and a cargo area for the beach kit; a Sprinter for two families sharing a cottage and a fare, or for a group of friends doing the strip's August weekend with the chauffeur as the driver; a Premium Sedan for a couple's September weekend when the water is warmest and the strip is quiet.

What the chauffeur replaces

Five and a half hours of the 401 in a weekend; the strip's metered lots on a Saturday; the Pinery's gate closure for a family without the permit; the walk from a far lot to the sand with a cooler and a toddler; and the drive home after the sunset. For a family of four it is a comfort purchase and the site says so; for two families in a Sprinter it undercuts two cars, two permits and two tired drivers.

Seasons

July and August for the swim, the strip and the sunset crowd; September for the warm water and the empty sand; May and June for the Pinery's savanna in bloom and the deer on the trails; October for the park's oak colour, which is a different park. The Pinery is open year-round with winter cross-country skiing on the trails; the strip closes with the season.

Pairing it

Grand Bend pairs with Bayfield and Goderich up the coast for a two-town lake weekend, with London for a parents' weekend that adds a beach day, and with Stratford for a Festival matinee on the way home.

The weekend, in order, for two families

Two families from Woodbridge sharing a rented cottage on the town's south side in an Executive Sprinter: Friday at 1:30, the 407 and 401 with the bay full of coolers, chairs, a tent and a paddleboard; London's Covent Garden Market at 3:45 for an early dinner; Highway 4 north through Exeter with the country's fields; the cottage by 6:30; the main beach's sunset at nine on foot. Saturday: the Pinery's Burley beach access at ten with the permit and the drop — the chauffeur and the fathers carrying the kit through the dune boardwalk — the sand until two; the Old Ausable Channel's canoe rental at 2:30 for the older children with a parent while the Sprinter shuttles the younger ones and the grandparents to the strip's ice cream; everyone back at the cottage at five; the strip's dinner at six on a patio; the beach for the sunset. Sunday: the main beach from ten, the cottage's loading at noon, Highway 21 and the 402 home with a stop at Forest's bakery; Woodbridge by four. Two days of daily hire, one number in the booking engine, split two ways.

The Pinery's trails and the savanna

Behind the dunes the Pinery's oak savanna — an open forest of oak and white pine on sand that is one of the largest remaining in the world and home to the park's deer, its wild turkeys and its rare plants — is crossed by ten trails from a kilometre to three, the Cedar Trail's boardwalk and the Riverside Trail's channel views the family ones, and the Wilderness Trail's three kilometres the walk before the beach for a family that came for more than sand. The visitor centre's exhibits explain the savanna; the park's site has the trail map and the channel's rental hours. In October the oaks turn and the park is a colour drive with empty lots.

The strip, honestly

Grand Bend's strip is the town's Saturday night in July — the patios full, the bars loud, the beach's volleyball courts lit, the ice-cream lines long, the metered lots turned over by the hour — and a family with young children eats early and walks back to the cottage by eight; a group of friends from Thornhill books the same Sprinter for the strip's August weekend with the chauffeur as the driver between the cottage and the bars, which is the version of Grand Bend that the town's summer reputation rests on. The town's site has the summer's events and the beach's rules.

Pickup notes

The 407 and 401 from every Vaughan community to London, then Highway 4 or the 402 and 21; a Woodbridge or Kleinburg pickup joins the 407 at Weston Road. Give us the cottage or motel, the Pinery permit and the beach access, the seats, the kit and the canoe, and whether London's stop is wanted; the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the weather on it.

Packing, and the dunes

The Pinery's beach accesses are a walk over the dunes on boardwalks — two to four hundred metres from the lot to the sand — and the beach kit is carried, which is the small thing that the chauffeur and the fathers do in two trips while the mothers take the children down; a wagon with wide wheels helps and the Luxury SUV's cargo area takes one. Water, shade, sunscreen and sandals for the hot sand; the park's beaches have washrooms at the lots and nothing on the sand, so the cooler is the lunch. The strip's beach has the stands, the boardwalk and the lifeguards, and the kit is lighter there.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the weekend with the cottage or motel and the Pinery permit, or an hourly day timed for the sunset; tell us the seats, the kit and the canoe, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the weather on it.

Book the Grand Bend weekend