Put on your bathing suit, pack a picnic and take the family to this popular sandy beach on Lake Superior just north of Sault Ste. Marie.

Spanish River is a favourite for canoeing. Take the east branch of the river for a week of whitewater fun. Or take the train to Biscotasi Lake to start your trip on the wilder, west branch of the river. Or you can simply stay on the huge island-studded lake for weeks of flat-water paddling.

Natural springs enabled reforestation of this area, once a wasteland due to logging. Now this all-season park north of Barrie is a pleasant setting for family picnics, games and walks – or skiing – in the woods. Come to see the live bears, wolves, owls and swans in the wildlife display areas.

Wabakimi is pure northern grandeur - dense boreal forest and Canadian Shield. It is larger than Prince Edward Island and home to woodland caribou, moose, eagles and wolves. Visitors can fly in to remote lodges and camps to sport fish, or enter the park by train and more quietly by canoe. Please also visit the Armstrong Resources Development Corporation website (www.wabakimi.on.ca) for further park and area information.

From bluffs high above Lake Erie, you can see lake freighters, fishing tugs, sometimes a bald eagle and migrating hawks. Woodland trails blooms with unusual flowers in the spring -- yellow mandarin, stiff gentian, beech fern. Nearby the Backus Page museum celebrates the history of the Talbot settlement.

Lake on the Mountain is a natural curiosity: it has a constant flow of clean, fresh water, with no apparent source, 60 metres above Lake Ontario. Mohawks offered gifts to its spirits and settlers thought it was bottomless. Come for the view of the Bay of Quinte.

Once a woodlot on the Burnham estate, this park near Peterborough was bequeathed to the province as a quiet spot for a walk in the woods. Stop for a picnic or follow trails that meander through majestic stands of maple, beech, elm and hemlock – among the oldest in Ontario.

North Beach protects one of the several baymouth sandbars in Prince Edward County. The 1.2-kilometre ribbon of sand shelters tiny North Bay from Lake Ontario. Spend a day at the beach or go fishing and sailing.

This sheer-walled canyon shelters rare Arctic-alpine plants along its boulder laden floor, where snow often persists until late spring. From two platforms and a network of boardwalks and trails, view this spectacular gorge and feel the air rising from the depths.

Deep within a forest northeast of Peterborough is the largest known concentration of aboriginal rock carvings in Canada. Carved into the white marble rock face hundreds of years ago, the 900 petroglyphs depict turtles, snakes, birds, humans and other images. Hiking trails meander through surrounding forests, wetlands and rocky ridges. Explore The Learning Place interpretive centre.

Stop for a picnic, a swim at a sandy beach, some fishing or boating at this waterfront park in the village of Port Bruce on Lake Erie.

This nature reserve east of Wawa gets its name from glacial potholes and troughs scooped out of bedrock forming the riverbed of the Kiniwabi River. Stop for a picnic, soak up the scenery or follow a short interpretive trail for a close look at the potholes, and sedges and forbs (flowering plants) growing along the riverbank.

This 14-kilometre, safe sandy beach on Georgian Bay attracts thousands every summer. So do the park’s other features: hiking and cross-country ski trails through sand dunes or pine-oak forest; a historic site that tells Wasaga’s colourful naval history; jazz concerts and military re-enactments. Wasaga Beach Provincial Park is the first provincial park in Canada awarded the Blue Flag designation for its efforts to manage Wasaga’s shoreline according to international environmental standards.