Ontario Provincial Parks: Ranked

This past weekend I packed Glosette Girl and Margot into the ol' roadster, threw on some tunes and drove up to Silent Lake Provincial Park for our first ever autumn camping experience. Although we were probably a week early for fall colours it turned out to be a great experience; no bugs, no hot tents (especially in the morning - ugh) and a lot less people!

Unsurprisingly, the park has a big lake in the middle of it!

That got me thinking, I've been camping for almost 20 years. Just how would I rank the parks I've visited? Are there any shining stars or obvious disappointments? One would think that from the glowing reviews travel writers give all these parks they would all be amazing. Unfortunately, they would be wrong.

Trekking the Silent Lake woods with my sis and her family

Hmmm here's my 100% objective-no-bias-at-all-list-of-Ontario parks that you can take to the bank. Full disclosure: I've only included parks where I've slept overnight. OK, let's go:

The Best of the Best

• Awenda: quiet beaches, nostalgia from visiting during my childhood days and beautiful Georgian Bay. Perfect!
• Charleston Lake: classic Canadian shield park with awesome hikes.
• Silent Lake: maybe my weekend visit is too fresh in my mind but this small park really impressed me.
• Murphy's Point: for a park that's barely over an hour from Ottawa this park hits the right notes. It has a mine that you can visit, nice geology and geography, and pretty vistas.
• Pinery: the only "beach" park on my "best of the best" list. Although it's a bit busy and not a nature park, the  Oak Savannah and long beaches on Lake Huron are too nice not to like.

The Middle-of-the-Road-sters

• Algonquin: whaa..? Alonquin is only average? Yup, for me, that's what it is.While I appreciate it's a quarter the size of Belgium, meaning it's great for the environment, in terms of scenery and facilities for me, your standard car camper, I just find it...OK.
• Silver Lake: the lake is nice but the park is small and a bit too close to the highway for my liking.
• Sharbot Lake: it's been awhile since I went to Sharbot Lake so my memory is hazy. The words "distinctly average" keep coming to mind though.
• Killbear: I debated whether I preferred Killbear or Murphy's Point and in the end I settled on Murphy's point. Maybe I just had too high expectations for Killbear seeing how it's supposed to be one of the highlights of Ontario's cottage country.
• Bon Echo*: has cool ancient petroglyphs so it's a potential "best of the best" but I was sick the last time I went and that's coloured my opinion...for now.

The Dregs

• Rideau River: OK, to be fair, I had a great late summer experience at Rideau River recently. And Margot had fun. But because it's only 30 minutes from Ottawa it's a bit too urban for my tastes. The heavy boat traffic in the summer on the river doesn't help.
• Fitzroy Harbour: a decent park but again, being so close to Ottawa it seems a bit overpopulated and not outdoorsy enough. The big dam within eyesight doesn't help.
• Sibbald Point: a park near to my hometown of Newmarket, Ontario, on the Shores of Lake Simcoe. Has some interesting local history but otherwise kindof "eh". A fun place to party when you're a teenager though!
• Six Mile Lake: I used to love going here when I was a kid but the Government ruined it unfortunately. First, they crammed a gazillion campsites into it. Second, a major highway now runs right by the park. I visited the park last year and was heartbroken!
• Voyageur: I made the mistake of visiting Voyageur, a somewhat dirty, uninspiring park on the shores of the Ottawa river, after visiting Maui so perhaps my perspective was a bit skewed at the time...but too bad! Other than Six Mile this is probably my least favourite Ontario provincial park. Sorry Voyageur!

Wow that's a lot of parks! Lots of great memories too - even in the "dregs" :)

Hopefully Margot will always have a connection with nature

* Oops in an earlier version of this blog post I forgot about Bon Echo.