Ontario Provincial Parks

[itat]

We had a 50A site at Awenda. Sites 94, 407 and 409 in the Hawk campground all have 50A. I haven’t personally seen a 50A site anywhere else but we only have 30A so I never look for that.

It looks like there are 3 sites in Presqu’ile that have 50A. I didn’t see any in Pinery, Rondeau or Inverhuron that all have decent sized sites.

[Kaadk]

The Flagstaff was only 30A, so I never used to worry about it before either. We don’t have the new one yet so I’m not really sure if we ‘need’ the 50A sites, but if we don’t have adequate air conditioning then the trip can get pretty miserable. I’d like to plan ahead and grab one of the one’s if I can to make things easier.

[itat]

Well congrats on getting the 5er, Mike. What are you getting for the 5er and truck?

[Kaadk]

Ordered a 2018 F250 CC 6.75’ Lariat and tow packaged the hell out of it. Tow tech bundle, 5er prep, ultimate tow camera, etc... Also got an order in on a Demco Autoslide that fits the Ford pucks.

For the 5er we’ve got a deposit down on a new but still on the lot 2016 Surveyor 275BHSS. Just waiting on getting word about when the truck will be in to do the PDI on the trailer. Dealer’s got it winterized right now and I don’t want to have them de-winterize it too early just for the sake of the PDI if we can’t use it right away anyways.

If I’ve done all my math correctly this combination should just fit our 47’ 10” of driveway hooked up. No more having to always unhook because my truck sticks 10-12’ into the road. No more early morning hookups for early morning starts, or having to run the whole rig around the block to park the hooked up combo in front of the house blocking the driveway while waiting for the kids to get home from school. And hopefully, now when the missus says “Can you move it over 2 feet so I can squeeze by to the garage, I might just have enough runway to actually do that instead of getting frustrated that I’ve run out of road to cross before the trailer follows.

[Dave Lyon]

Originally Posted by Dave Lyon

I've booked Silent Lake for Victoria Weekend and that's been it so far. I'm thinking about Finlayson Park in Temagami in July. I've posted looking for feedback on the park, but, have not received any.

We sat too late and I couldn't find anything available at Finlayson Point for late July, so we booked a week at Grundy Lake. We haven't been there for 10 years. Maybe take a side trip up to Killarney for some canoeing.

[Littlehouse]

Originally Posted by Restcure

We've got ten days at Sandbanks in June/July of this year. We'll also be at Sandbanks at Thanksgiving (it's an annual thing). No other bookings just yet.

We are also fans of the Parks of The St Lawrence and will likely end up at one of the many campgrounds there.

We usually do Riverside-Cedar. Meet up with my uncle from Morrisburg and do a run for fresh bread from Upper Canada Village.

[B and B]

Originally Posted by itat

We had a 50A site at Awenda. Sites 94, 407 and 409 in the Hawk campground all have 50A. I haven’t personally seen a 50A site anywhere else but we only have 30A so I never look for that.

It looks like there are 3 sites in Presqu’ile that have 50A. I didn’t see any in Pinery, Rondeau or Inverhuron that all have decent sized sites.

There are couple site at Inverhuron with 50 amp, we are booked in one for a week in July. There are 2 site at Pinery too namely couch sites in Riverside 1.

Arrowhead has 10 RV sites with 50 amp. We were booked there for second week in August but got into Havelock with 50 amp for a week instead. I will cancelling this in April.

[B and B]

Originally Posted by Kaadk

DW finally decided she's wanting to do some 'real' camping this year, so I've been scrambling to pick a PP to target for our end of August trip. With the 5 month mark approaching next week, I need to narrow it down to something soon.

Biggest concern I'm having is that we're getting a new 5er this year (once my 3/4 ton I've got on order comes in). With our Flagstaff, I didn't have to worry so much about things like the height of branches, or access to 50A power, and I kind of knew how it handled and could predict where I could fit it. With the new one on the horizon, I'm trying to find a PP that has big open, easy access sites that people haven't already booked out under the 23 day window.

Secondly, I've come across a couple of parks that offer some 50A sites (Arrowhead and Presqui'lle so far) but there doesn't seem to be anyway to know ahead of time which ones might offer it. I was hoping to find a site that maybe gave me a list of which parks might provide them, but I haven't found one yet. Instead, it seems I have to go through every park, every campground, and then every site one by one on the reservations maps to determine which ones are offered.

Anybody have any ideas of where we should be looking?

Thanks,

Mike

Mike,
There is usually a 50 % chance I can used my double 30 amp connection in many provincial parks. I either book a site with a power pedestal to myself or hope that a person next to me uses the 15 amp and use both 30 amp connections to be able to run both AC's.
Congrats on the new truck and trailer. Only a F 250 though? I traded my F 250 for a F 350 to get our CCC up.

Brian

[Kaadk]

Originally Posted by B and B

Mike,
There is usually a 50 % chance I can used my double 30 amp connection in many provincial parks. I either book a site with a power pedestal to myself or hope that a person next to me uses the 15 amp and use both 30 amp connections to be able to run both AC's.
Congrats on the new truck and trailer. Only a F 250 though? I traded my F 250 for a F 350 to get our CCC up.

Brian

Thanks, trailer’s only pre-wired for the second AC, I have no idea what it’s actual draw will be though until I get a chance to actually use the rig. Here’s the panel:



At a minimum, this rig has a slightly larger fridge, an outside fridge and a fireplace more than the old trailer. And I’m not sure about the soundbar yet, whether it’s 110 or 12v. (The dealer didn’t have it reinstalled for our first PDI.) The old trailer was fine on 30A, and none of this seems high wattage other than the fireplace so we should be fine.

And yeah, only went with the 250. The 250 is projected to be about 3x the CC than my Ram, in the low 3k range (so I’m hopeful it’ll be in the upper half of the 2k range) and the dry pin is only 1100. Should be plenty of room for bad assumptions.

[Dave Lyon]

Originally Posted by B and B

There are couple site at Inverhuron with 50 amp, we are booked in one for a week in July. There are 2 site at Pinery too namely couch sites in Riverside 1.

Arrowhead has 10 RV sites with 50 amp. We were booked there for second week in August but got into Havelock with 50 amp for a week instead. I will cancelling this in April.

FYI- those 50 A sites in Arrowhead each have their own dedicated water tap on the site.........take a water thief for direct water hook up.

[Kaadk]

Originally Posted by Dave Lyon

FYI- those 50 A sites in Arrowhead each have their own dedicated water tap on the site.........take a water thief for direct water hook up.

Oh, good to know. That’s not shown on the map on the reservations site. Now it just makes me want to go to Arrowhead even more.

[Dave Lyon]

Originally Posted by Kaadk

Oh, good to know. That’s not shown on the map on the reservations site. Now it just makes me want to go to Arrowhead even more.

Yes, the map's deceiving. Each of those sites it says "adjacent to: water tap". One would assume that the tap is on the road like most water taps, but these are on each site.

[itat]

They don't have any pictures of the drive-through sites? I couldn't find any on the CampsitePictures.com website either. But the reservations site says they are have good privacy?

[Dave Lyon]

You're correct- for whatever reason there are no pictures, but, the sites are private. I was there last Thanksgiving.

[Kaadk]

Originally Posted by Dave Lyon

You're correct- for whatever reason there are no pictures, but, the sites are private. I was there last Thanksgiving.

[derek6669]

Presquille Prov Park is an excellent park on Lake Ontario near Brighton Ontario. The park books up quickly so reservations are advised. Algonquin along the Hwy 60 corridor has a number of CG and some have electricity and there are many great hikes to take. Mew/Lake of Two Rivers camp grounds puts you within walking distance of Bat Lake Trail, The Rail Trail which also crosses the old airfield the rich and famous used to fly in back in the 30/40s. You can also hook up to the Track & Tower trail walking distance from your site. Charleston Lake just east of Kingston is another good choice. I have made many reservations in PP and have never had to pay to view pictures of the site I'm considering.

[itat]

I thought I’d revive this thread now that we’re into another camping season.

So far this year we’ve camped at Sandbanks, Bon Echo and Mikisew.

At Sandbanks we stayed on site 866 in the West Lake campground for the May long weekend. It’s a very new campground, very few trees yet but almost all the sites are drive through. Sites are fairly level and that campground is close to a beach and the Dunes trail. The brand new dump / water filling station at the West Lake campground is the best we’ve every seen, anywhere. Really enjoyed our stay at Sandbanks. We’ll definitely go back.

At Bon Echo, we were on site 131 in the Sawmill Bay campground from May 28 to June 1. There were very few people there and the boat that takes you over to the trail to climb the rock was not operating. Couldn’t rent a canoe either. I guess we were just there too early in the season but its very difficult to get a site in July and August. We upgraded to a 35’ 5er this year so there are very few sites at Bon Echo that can accommodate such a larger trailer. There were several trees with branches hanging down that might hit a 5er. I’m not sure we’ll go back because of the lack of larger sites which is unfortunate because we’ve been to Bon Echo many times any always enjoy it. This year the black flies were terrible and many of the trails were covered in water due to the amount of rain we’ve had. I suspect that’s a problem everywhere this Spring.

At Mikisew we were on site 354 from June 16 - 24. It was their first week being open. There are more sites there that can handle larger TTs and 5ers but there were some roads that had branches that needed to be trimmed up for my comfort. The tall pines don’t provide much privacy but it wasn’t bad. In that respect, its similar to Awenda. The yellow pollen covered everything, so if you have allergies, stay away from this park at that time of year. Interestingly, they had about a half dozen campers there who have reserved their sites for the entire season - until October 15th. I’ve never seen that at an Ontario PP. The beaches were quite nice but again, some of the trails were water covered in some places. The mosquitoes were plentiful but bearable. The firewood was the best I’ve ever bought at a PP. Nice, dry birch and my new Fiskars X25 splitting axe cut through it easily. We like to sight see in the local area of the parks we visit and since some of the the trails were not passable we wanted to do that instead, but there wasn’t a lot to do close by. The dump / filling station really needs some improvements. Its a loop with a single entrance and exit that will easily be some overloaded on a summer Sunday morning. It desperately needs a separate exit. It was a nice park but I’m not sure if we’ll go back.

[Littlehouse]

Hi. We just got back from Pinery, Inverhuron and MacGregor Point PP. Awesome trip and no bugs. Water is high but the lake is still cold so I wasn’t going in. Tip for Pinery, stay in Dunes. Riverside is dealing with tent caterpillars falling everywhere. Bring bikes, lots of long trails. The Ausable Channel is nice and easy for paddling. The beach there is like a giant rock tumbler, many well rounded stones. You can hear the Bruce Nuclear Plant at Inverhuron, but the sites...we had a pull through...were nice.
MacGregor Point has the nicest beaches. A little more protected bays and more sand. Nice trails and natural features. Definitely going back to that one, with bikes.

[Dave Lyon]

We've been to Bass Lake and McRae Point. Both are okay and were close to home - the only reason we chose these two parks. Dump stations were in need of refreshing and I provided comments to Parks Ontario.

Our next outing is Finlayson Point (Temagami) end of July. I can't wait.

[itat]

Originally Posted by Dave Lyon

We've been to Bass Lake and McRae Point. Both are okay and were close to home - the only reason we chose these two parks. Dump stations were in need of refreshing and I provided comments to Parks Ontario.

Our next outing is Finlayson Point (Temagami) end of July. I can't wait.

The blackflies and mosquitoes should be much better by then! With Spring being so wet in 2017 and again this year and likely in the future, we're probably going to avoid heavily wooded campgrounds in the Spring from now on.

Mikisew was the furthest north we've ever camped. I don't think my DW would be interested in going farther north.

With this new larger 5th wheel we're finding we're much more limited in the availability of campsites at Provincial Parks. We've been to Pinery and may consider Inverhuron since they have large sites. We've been to Rondeau on Lake Erie and it has sites plenty big enough. Of course, Mew Lake in Algonquin also has nice big sites we can fit in.