Take a trek from Windsor, Ontario, along river and lake shores to Point Pelee National Park.
By Phyllis Hinz & Lamont Mackay, F175089
August 2019
Did you know the southernmost part of mainland Canada shares a parallel of latitude with Northern California and the area just north of Rome, Italy? In fact, 13 U.S. states lie entirely north of this unique Canadian region, one of the sunniest and warmest places in Canada. It is an area rich in award-winning wineries, craft breweries, fruit and vegetable stands, greenhouses, vineyards, museums, bird and butterfly migrations, and interesting American-Canadian history.
For RVers entering the region from the United States, the adventure begins at the Ambassador Bridge. High above the Detroit River, this 7,500-foot-long structure between Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, is one of the busiest international crossings in North America. United States citizens enter the “sunny south” side of Canada from the north.
Point Pelee National Park occupies the southern tip of Ontario.
An alternate entry point, although the bridge is easier with a large RV, is the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. It also is a busy crossing and exits immediately into downtown Windsor, close to Caesars Windsor casino. Almost a mile long, the tunnel runs 75 feet below the surface of the river. It is the only underwater tunnel in the world where people can drive their own vehicles across an international border.
Windsor’s Riverfront meanders along the Detroit River and provides an across-the-water panorama of Detroit’s newly developed downtown. It’s a public strolling area with benches and flower plantings. Stop in a restaurant along here to take a break. A free sculpture park is located near the Ambassador Bridge. Dieppe Gardens, with ponds and water features amid the plantings, is near where the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel emerges.
The city of Windsor is an amalgamation of several villages. Three of these are Walkerville, Ford City, and Sandwich. Walkerville was the original home of the Canadian Club brand of whiskey. Hiram Walker established a distillery here in 1858. In nearby Ford City, the fledgling Ford Motor Company of Canada opened in 1904 and turned a quiet village into a boomtown. Old Sandwich Town was the first territory to be invaded by American troops following the declaration of the War of 1812.
Begin your southern explorations on Essex County Road 20, which follows the Detroit River out of Windsor. In about 30 minutes, you will arrive in Amherstburg, where the British Fort Malden was established in 1796. It was a stronghold on the Detroit frontier during the War of 1812. In 1813, in anticipation of American patrols crossing the river, soldiers destroyed the fort and retreated. The Americans rebuilt the place and stayed in the area for 21 months, the longest period of American occupation on Canadian soil.
Today visitors get a free, 20-minute guided tour of the buildings and can participate in musket or cannon firings. Special events include an 1812-style lunch at the soldiers’ cookhouse.
Fort Malden National Historic Site has a small entry fee of between $3 and $4 Canadian for those 18 and over. All Canada parks offer free entry for ages 17 and under.
Migrating monarch butterflies take a break at Point Pelee.
The town of Amherstburg boasts wineries and restaurants, plus other buildings of historical importance. The 1848 Nazrey African Methodist Episcopal Church was built by hand by people from the American South who had fled slavery. The stone church was a safe haven and, for some, a final landing point along the route of the Underground Railroad, a secret network of abolitionists who helped slaves escape to Canada. Now a National Historic Site, the church is a part of the Amherstburg Freedom Museum. The building no longer functions as a church, but you can step inside and see the original wooden chairs, pulpit, and pews.
Next, continue southward to the shoreline of Lake Erie and you will be driving the Epic Wine Route as you follow County Road 50 east. Here, as in California’s Napa Valley, the moderate breezes off the water combine with summer heat to produce award-winning wines. This is where you want to slow down the pace to visit wineries that offer tasting rooms, dining rooms, and picnic sites with views of Lake Erie.
Depending upon the season, roadside stands offer apples, asparagus, pumpkins, tomatoes, sweet corn, honey, lavender, cut flowers, as well as homemade jams, jellies, pickles, and baked goods. You might even catch a glimpse of a shoebox-shaped Lake Erie commercial fishing boat hauling in its catch of perch and pickerel.
If you prefer breweries and distilleries over wineries, the Barrels, Bottles & Brews Trail also meanders from Windsor through Amherstburg and along the northwest Lake Erie shoreline. For videos and details about the wine trail and beer trail, visit https://visitwindsoressex.com/22424-2/.
The culinary route concludes at Kingsville. On the outskirts of town, stroll through time at the Canadian Transportation Museum & Heritage Village. This enormous display showcases varying modes of North American transportation. Wagons, bicycles, motorcycles, and automobiles sport gleaming chrome and perfectly polished paint that you don’t dare touch.
Bird-watchers get excited about beauties like this Blackburnian warbler at Point Pelee.
Outside in the Heritage Village, more than 20 original buildings provide a glimpse of life from the 1700s to the 1930s, with a barbershop, a general store, a one-room schoolhouse, a church, and original family homes. One of the houses was built in 1889 by Jack Miner, known as the father of the North American conservation movement. Miner popularized the practice of banding wild birds to determine their migratory paths, and he provided sanctuary to bobwhite quail, ring-necked pheasants, and Canada geese.
From Kingsville, follow Essex County Road 20 east to Essex Road 33 south to Point Pelee National Park. This park occupies the southernmost point of mainland Canada, which is just south of the 42nd parallel.
It may be in Canada, but this park is part of the Carolinian forest ecosystem, which extends from the coastal Carolinas northward between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains. You can spot tulip trees, sassafras, Kentucky coffee trees, cucumber trees, and others normally found south of here.
Two migratory bird flyways converge at Point Pelee, so many of the birds rest here while migrating north in the spring. Most of them cross Lake Erie in the middle of the night to arrive at dawn in southwestern Ontario. Humans who appreciate these avian warriors do their own flocking to the annual Festival of Birds, which takes place here during the first three weeks of May.
As novice birders, we quickly learned that bird-watchers are a special species. They speak quietly and sparingly. Bird chirping holds priority over human conversation. Whenever we came across a cluster of binoculars or cameras pointed in the same direction, we knew we were about to enjoy a flickering yellow wing or a brushed red throat. Sometimes, even, the trill of a song.
At the visitors center, bird and flower sightings are posted as they happen. Special programs offer specifics of bird identification and secrets to successful birding. Butterflies frolic here, too. For a few days each autumn, thousands of migrating monarchs, with their brilliant orange and black markings, make a rest stop at Point Pelee National Park before their trip across Lake Erie to the mountains of central Mexico, 1,800 miles away. At night they fill trees and shrubs, turning them into butterfly bushes.
If you are hungry, before entering or after exiting Point Pelee National Park, you’ll want to stop at Birdie’s Perch. The double-decker red bus is difficult to miss. Whenever we visit the park, Birdie’s Perch is one of our favorite stops for Lake Erie yellow perch and fresh-cut fries. This mild-flavored fish, lightly battered and fried, is on most menus in the area.
Just when you think you can’t travel any farther south in Canada, Pelee Island appears, 20 miles offshore. It is not a big island. If you get chatting with someone on the 90-minute ferry ride, you are apt to run into them again on the island. From early spring to late fall, the year-round Pelee Island population of nearly 300 swells to 1,500, to include bird-watchers, bicyclists, and butterfly enthusiasts.
With lots of sun, good soil, off-the-lake breezes, beaches, and very little commercialization, Pelee Island is a great getaway as a day trip or an overnight at a bed-and-breakfast. We suggest that you leave your RV on the mainland, because camping facilities are primitive on the island. Whether you take your towed car or board the ferry as a foot passenger, a tour of the island with Explore Pelee, a locally owned company, will reveal hidden treasures that are sometimes difficult to find on your own, such as Lighthouse Point and Vin Villa, the ruins of Canada’s first commercial estate winery. You also can rent a bike. It takes about four hours to pedal around the isle’s perimeter. Try making pit stops at the pubs, a bakery, a vineyard, and at hiking trails that thread the forest.
Ferries to Pelee Island dock at Kingsville and Leamington. Check the ferry website for schedules and fares: www.ontarioferries.com; (800) 661-2220. If you’re taking a vehicle, you’ll need reservations.
When it comes to finding an RV adventure overflowing with sunshine; good driving conditions; American-Canadian history; and plenty to see, do, and eat, we suggest you follow the birds and the butterflies to Canada’s sunny south.
Further Info
Tourism Windsor/Essex/Pelee Island
(800) 265-3633
Email: info@tourismwindsoressex.com
www.visitwindsoressex.com
Explore Pelee
(519) 325-8687
Email: info@explorepelee.com
www.pelee.com/explore-pelee-island
https://explorepelee.com
Phyllis and Lamont’s 10th cookbook, On the Road with The Cooking Ladies: Let’s Get Grilling, is available from Amazon and wherever books are sold. Learn more at www.thecookingladies.com