Craigleith Provincial Park
The Blue Mountains, ON, Canada
Craigleith Provincial Park sits on the southern shore of Georgian Bay between Collingwood and Thornbury, Ontario, where the shoreline is made of flat plates of 450 million year old shale. The rocks are full of fossils, especially trilobites, and the shore is a protected Area of Natural and Scientific Interest. A mid-1800s attempt to pull oil from the shale is marked by plaques in the park.
A genuinely unusual fossil shoreline, though it's rock rather than sand for swimming.
How we score beachesLook closely at the flat shale plates for trilobite fossils, and leave what you find where it is.
Parking at the park off Highway 26; an Ontario Parks permit is required.
Short paths lead to the shoreline; the shale is flat but can be slippery when wet.
Summer is the camping season. Calm, low-water days are best for spotting fossils on the shale.
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