Big Tub Lighthouse, in both of its seasons

A working light, not a monument

Big Tub Lighthouse is a hexagonal wooden tower, white with red trim, standing where Big Tub Harbour opens into Georgian Bay. It went up in 1885, the same year the schooner Sweepstakes sank at the far end of the same harbour, which tells you most of what you need to know about why somebody decided this entrance needed marking.

It is not tall and there is nothing to climb, no gift shop and no admission. What there is, is a limestone point, a lot of open water and one of the few places on this coast where the thing you drove to see is 2 minutes from the car rather than 45.

Getting there and parking

Big Tub Road leaves the village and runs along the harbour to the point. It is about 5 minutes from Little Tub and the last part is narrow, with houses and boathouses on one side and the water on the other. Drive it slowly and treat it as somebody's street, because it is.

Parking at the end is limited and it fills on summer afternoons, and there is nowhere else to put a car. Parking on the street outside the designated spots is not allowed, and neither is pulling onto somebody's driveway.

From May 15 to September 15 the lot needs a reservation, booked in 1 hour blocks at $5 through the municipal parking system. This is municipal parking rather than national park parking, so a Grotto booking does nothing for you here. Outside those dates it is first come, and if the spaces are gone the only real option is to come back at a better hour, which is a nicer visit anyway.

Summer, and the hour that matters

Late afternoon into sunset is the reason to come. The last of the light works its way down the tower and then goes, and nobody moves you along afterwards. People sit on the warm rock until it is properly dark.

Mornings are the quiet version. The harbour is glass before the wind finds it and the water off the shelf is clear enough to read the bottom a long way out. What you will not see from here is the wrecks. They lie at the far end of the harbour off private shoreline, and seeing them means a boat, a kayak or a snorkel.

Winter, which is the version we would pick

Between November and April the road often stops being plowed before the end. You park where the plowing stops and you walk the rest, which takes a few minutes and turns a drive-up into something you had to want. Boots, and something with grip if it has thawed and refrozen.

What you get for it is a white tower against snow, cedars bent under their own load and a harbour that is either frozen flat or steaming in the cold, depending on the year. There is a good chance the only footprints going in are the ones you make.

The light goes early, which is the part people misjudge. In January it is finished by 5, so a winter visit is an afternoon plan and not an after-dinner one. Dress for standing still rather than for walking, because you will not be walking much once you are there.

What to know before you go

• It is a 2 minute walk, not a hike. This is the one thing on the peninsula that works with a stroller, with grandparents or in the half hour before dinner.
• The rock is limestone and it is slippery when wet. Flat does not mean safe near the edge, and the water beside it is deep and cold.
• Sunset in summer, afternoon in winter. The tower faces the right way for evening light from roughly May to September.
• Washrooms in summer only. Mobile washrooms are out there through the warm season and gone by winter. Nothing is sold at the point in any season, so bring water. The village is 5 minutes back.
• It is residential. Park only in a designated spot, never on the roadside or in a driveway, and keep the noise down after dark.
• No launching from the point. Parks Canada lists the lighthouse as a restricted area for launching, so a kayak or paddleboard trip to the wrecks starts back in the village, not here.

What to pair it with

The lighthouse is its own errand. The wrecks are seen from the water, not from this point, and the shipwreck guide covers the 3 ways that work. Coming from the village it is 5 minutes by car from Little Tub Harbour, which makes lighthouse at sunset and dinner on Bay Street a sensible evening. In winter our winter guide covers what else is open once the village goes quiet.