Parkade Cleaning Day

Posted in Activities, birds, dog, dog walking, Grand Beach, Grand Beach Provincial Park, life, lockport, Manitoba, Nature, pictures, walking, weather, Wildlife, Winnipeg

The apartment building where I leave has underground parking, so once a year we are ordered to remove our vehicles for the day for cleaning. There is very little street parking in the area and what little there is has a maximum time of 2 hours. So, I decided to head north and visit Grand Beach.

Grand Beach is located in Grand Beach Provincial Park and since I now have a Provincial Park pass, I decided it would be fun to visit it. My parents had a cottage in Grand Marais, which is just outside the park and I spent many summers there. When they sold it and bought another cottage in the Whiteshell Provincial Park, I continued to visit them but at the new cottage.

The beach did not disappoint. The fine white sand is so soft to walk in. You sink in with each step and it makes walking a bit difficult, but good exercise (which I need).

  • We used to cross this water and walk over to the sign and down towards the East Beach.

I was happy to see that the big sand dunes were still there, even though the beach has more facilities than it used to. I went to the far east side of the west beach, where I used to go t walk my Irish Setter Red. Because it was marshy here, no one came to this spot to swim. Red used to disappear over the sand dunes, but would come back to check and see where I was before disappearing again.

  • Still lots of Gulls
  • I didn’t go up to check, but I guess this building is washrooms & change rooms
  • We used to lie in the sand dunes to tan.
  • Lots of foot prints
I took a random photo of more Gulls, but when I returned home and looked at the photos, I realized that one was not like the others. I cropped the 2 on the far right to show that one is a Tern.
  • Looking up a sand dune from the road.
Driving back towards the main west beach, I took some photos of the lake on the other side of the road, that had been a large marsh. Now it has a boat launch and sandy beaches too. I didn’t test it, but I think that channel on the other side is much deeper to allow boats to come and go.
  • The Boardwalk is back
  • West Beach from the boardwalk
  • Volleyball Net
  • Benches all along the boardwalk
  • Boardwalk goes right through the sand dunes.
These signs tell some of the history of Grand Beach.

I was ready for lunch after all that walking and decided I would slowly head towards home, but stop and have lunch at Skinners in Lockport. This is where a foot-long hot dog is actually a full foot. So, I had a hot dog, fries and a Dr. Pepper for lunch. It was pretty busy there, but nice to see this place doing well and everyone complying with social distancing.

It was still a little bit early to put my car away when I got home, so decided to pick up a couple of things at the nearby grocery store. After I made my purchases, I walked home and when it was ok to put the car back in the parking lot, I walked back and got it.

Published by mavimet

Hi - I'm Mavis. I love to travel, I love to take pictures and I love to write about whatever comes into my head. Follow my blog at mavimet.com