What an incredible kick start to summer we’ve had on this first week of summer holidays. It’s truly funny how God can work things out in such a funny way. I recently wrote about how my husbands job came to a surprise ending at the end of May and all the uncertainty that lies ahead for us. But somewhere in the midst of that chaos, there has been a huge and unforeseen blessing: daddy gets to be home for the whole summer with the family! Never in my husbands adult life has he ever had this much time off and we’ve decided to take full advantage of it and enjoy summer to the fullest…all five of us together!
So we’ve decided to launch a summer series called “Get Out of Town” where we will go on a day trip, somewhere in Ontario and take you guys along with us. There are SO many amazing spots to discover around the Greater Toronto Area and we want to experience them and share them with you!
To start this series, we decided to head to the Elora Quarry in Elora, Ontario. This place has some significance to us as we used to live in this area. Elora-Fergus are two small towns that are side by side, located about 10 minutes north of Guelph, Ontario in Centre Wellington. We lived in Fergus for about three and half years, and this is not only where we bought our first home, but where our first child was born! Needless to say, it’s a special place to us.
So it was really fun to drive around and show our kids the hospital where our daughter was born, the homes we rented and then eventually purchased and the place where we worked. We ended the tour at the Elora Quarry, which is a part of the Elora Conservation Area.
This quarry is tucked away and to be honest, we only went there ONCE while we lived there (SHAME!) It’s basically a limestone swimming hole that spans two acres with amazing cliffs surrounding it that are about 40 feet high! The water is this incredible emerald green/turquoise blue color and is the perfect spot to cool off for the day.
The beach area isn’t huge, so it does get a little bit crowded, but we spent most of our time in the water so it didn’t bother us at all.
Because it is part of the Elora Conservation Area, you do have to pay a small fee to get in. For our family of five, it was $15 for the day.
While there is no jumping allowed from the super tall cliffs, you are allowed to jump off the smaller cliffs. Not only did my husband and I do this, but our oldest loved jumping too!
We brought our donut float and literally spent about three solid hours in the water before coming in for a little snack and sunscreen reload and then hit the waters again.
There was such a fun vibe on the beach too. Loads of other beach goers had various food-themed floats, which was a fun conversation starter (if you are looking to jump on that wagon, make sure to check out my top favorites here). There was music playing, bbq’s cooking and people playing games on land. A group of young adults even started up a game of frisbie with our kids that last a solid 20 minutes while we packed up. So much fun!
This is truly an incredible hidden gem that is just over an hour outside of Toronto and makes for such an awesome day trip with the family! To learn more about the Elora Quarry, including park schedule, fees and other activities, click here.
Stay tuned for more awesome day trips coming this summer!
Love & Blessings,
