Ontario Provincial Parks: Best Campsites and Reviews: February 2016

Back in the summer of ought 15, our first stop was Sibbald Point Provincial Park and one of the easiest camping trips ever. The reasons why are numerous and tedious.

Are you sure you want me to tell you?

Fine. Sibbald Point is only 70 kilometres north of Toronto so you could come with your family for half a day or a weekend. It only took us an hour to get there on a Saturday morning after a leisurely breakfast and a lazy morning.

All set up at site #2... Now what?

While there you could swim, and I think that is why most people come to this park. Unfortunately for us it was the start of June and the water was only fit for children under 10 years old and the Finns. The beach was the most popular place even in early June with students of all ages playing beach sports and sun bathing.

All this beach and no one in the water.

If hiking is more your thing, you could do the one easy hike named the Maidenhair Fern Trail that would take you about an hour travelling at a leisure pace. Again because we were there at the start of June there were no trail guides at the trailhead, so we looked at numbered posts and made up our own stories about what we were seeing.

#5 At this location there are five distinct layers: underground; ground; shrubbery and ferns (look for Maidenhair ferns); immature trees that stay up all night partying; and far above your head the canopy and then the sky, then space. I guess there are seven layers. You may feel your head squishing due to improper camera usage.

There are massive amounts of picnic area you could relax in while the kids play in the park, fishermen could fish the shallows of Lake Simcoe or large groups could get a game going in the huge play field. For Bev and I in order; no kids (our fault?), no poles (our fault) and, no large group to play a game with (your fault! and ours for not inviting you).

In hindsight this would be a great place for a Frolf course.

Lastly there is Sibbald Memorial Museum where you could see how early pioneering farming families lived. Eildon Hall named after Susan Mein Sibbald's (1783-1856) Scottish home is a rural estate that stayed in the Sibbald Family until 1952 and in 1957 opened as Sibbald Point Provincial Park. The museum is open in July and August so visiting in June you see our problem with this one.

This ole house is closed!

Since Beverley and I went in early June we got to see what teenagers do nowadays. I was lucky enough to gab with a gent in the comfort station shortly after we arrived. He was fresh from Ireland so I asked him what he thought of Sibbald Point Provincial Park hoping to get a completely different perspective and an outsiders look at something I love. What I received in a lovely Irish brogue was, "Not really sure. I got proper Irish drunk last night." It seemed like he and his friends were there... to well... enjoy nature with a beer in your hand. And on that note, the best laugh I had at Sibbald after an afternoon libation.

Actual warning on Henninger Premium Lager from Germany. Poor Puerto Rico.

The best sites at Sibbald Point Provincial Park are 3, 9, 16, 19, 29, 35, 37, 55, 57, 64, 66, 69, 71, 80, 86, 87, 94, 96, 100, 102, 106, 130, 135 to 138, 142, 221, 229, 251, 252, 261, 265, 273, 275, 279, 285, 287, 294, 297, 305, 311, 329, 331, 347, 351, 354, 355, 357, 358 (Bev’s Favourite), 359, 906, and 962. Funny enough when we were there in June the only sites that were open were 1 to 50, the 400s and the 900s so there were only 9 sites that would have met our criteria and we didn’t get one of them. There was one thing that made my eyes pop wide open and giggle like a mushroom loving school girl.

Now normally people never tell you where they saw a Morel mushroom, but I found one here. Too late, too old, but it's still a Morel!

All in all we just chose the wrong time of year to go to Sibbald Point because if we could have swam, fished (still our fault), gone to the museum, gotten the trail guide, or had more choices for campsites I’m sure we would have had an amazing time, but as it was this was not the time for this campground for me.

Site Cleanliness: Really good. As with every year at the start of the season the sites are immaculate.

Privacy: 53 sites out of hundreds. Many of the sites I didn't mention could be made private with the proper placement of your tent and car.

Hiking and Activities: The hike was really easy and there wasn't anything new that we could see. What is cool about this park is the sporting opportunities. We saw a group playing cricket in the playing field

Park Class: Recreation

Beach Quality or Ease of Getting to the Water: Excellent. The beach is fantastic even though it was too cold for us to go for a dip. From our site it was a 5 minute walk to the beach and I think from the furthest site to the beach would be 15 minutes.

Recommended Length of Stay: A weekend would be long enough to do and see everything at this park. I would suggest to either go on a really hot weekend or from July to early September.

Overall Impression: For our first camping of 2015 it was a nice ease in. This park is just above middle of the road, but with being so close to Toronto I'm surprised it's not packed at all times. The beach is great, but the hiking isn't -- there is a museum in the park, fishing, and loads of space to play games, but none of these were we able to do. I truly like this park, but we didn't get the best out of it.

Rating out of 103: 69 the dumb joke. For all the fun loving kids at Sibbald Point.

The Ongoing list;

#2 Algonquin

#3 Quetico

#19 Sandbanks

#21 Neys

#22 Wakami Lake

#23 Nagagamisis

#26 Pancake Bay

#29 Chutes

#30 White Lake

#40 Mississagi

#43 Long Point

#49 Marten River

#51.5 Silent Lake

#52 Restoule

#53 Point Farms

#56 Inverhuron

#58 Rene Brunelle

#69 Sibbald Point

#82 Rainbow Falls

#91 Turkey Point

#92 Bronte Creek

The Robin's were the mascot bird of Sibbald Point Provincial Park.

Without actually counting them on a map, you might think it's funny that I have been talking for three years about seeing 108, then 103 overnight camping provincial parks. So today I counted and found out that the Internet is flawed.

Yeah. It's not me Internet, it's you!

It's always good to do your own homework, but I still might get an F because it's three years late. I'm still blaming the internet. I have now come to some interesting conclusions that may have an effect on what I write about and see in the future. Now everyone put your math hats on; my math hat is a pork pie. The "Parks Guide 2014" (I don't know why I never picked up a 2015 guide) lists a total of 110 separate parks, but 14 of them are day use only. I use the term separate parks because, not including interior or back country, there are 2 campgrounds/parks at Rainbow Falls, 3 in Lake Superior Provincial Park, and 11 at Algonquin for a total of 13 extra campgrounds. Hence we either have 110 separate parks to check out or 109 campgrounds to stay at -- I am choosing the easier task I think by visiting the 110 separate parks, we'll see what Beverley thinks. The first day-use provincial park I am going to talk about is Petroglyphs Provincial Park just south-east of Kawartha Highlands and straight south of Silent Lake Provincial Park.

Original Petroglyphs Provincial Park sign. I can almost hear the Hinterland Who's Who theme as I look at this. I think this episode would be about the Long Tailed Turtle

Petroglyphs Provincial Park houses the largest concentration of rock carvings in Canada. They were accidentally found by a prospector for the Industrial Minerals Department of Canada in 1954, how long they were lost for no one knows.

Everett Davis learning a thing or two while stepping on sacred stone and using black crayon to highlight the carvings.

Estimated to be carved in soft white marble 600-1100 years ago by the Algonkian speaking people, they predate European contact and are referred to as Kinomagewapkong or "The Rocks that Teach". In 1984 a building was constructed over the petroglyphs to protect them from weathering, frost shattering the carvings, and the growth of algae over the carvings.

No photographs are allowed inside the building like a Mennonite carriage thus you'll have to go see it for yourselves.

Petroglyphs Provincial Park is open from 10am to 5pm daily from the second Friday in May until Thanksgiving.

I think this carving is about an elder whose eye exploded because the children were being too loud while he was telling a story.

Now that the lesson is over, Beverley and I went to PPP on the way home from Silent Lake Provincial Park and we spent around two hours exploring the grounds, petroglyphs, and Learning Place. There are four hikes at this 1643 hectare day-use park and if you did them all it would take you at most 6 hours. We didn't do any of them, but the only thing I would have wanted to see is McGinnis Lake a meromictic lake where the water at three different levels never mixes and in the bottom 12 metres of the lake it's 5-6 degrees Celsius and has zero oxygen.

Instead of hiking, we spent about an hour looking at the petroglyphs and then tracing a couple that we liked from casts provided.

I suggest to do what the researchers did and fill in what's carved, don't do a rubbing like a grave stone. Yes these are the ones Bev and I did.

After soaking it all in, we then went to the Learning Place where you can watch films and read more on the petroglyphs. The weird thing is no one knows exactly what the rocks are trying to teach, but it is still very interesting especially when you make up your own teaching stories to go along with the carvings. Taking everything into account this is a worthwhile spot to stop if you are camping at Silent Lake, Kawartha Highlands, Lake St. Peter, or anything on the east end of Algonquin because your entrance is free with your camping permit. Lastly because there are only 14 of these day-use provincial parks I have to create a new system for ranking, so here it goes:

Hiking and Activities: Hiking yes, but no swimming at this day-use park. Many spots to have a picnic lunch on your way home from another park.

Park Class: Cultural Heritage

Recommended Length of Stay: One hour if you want to see the Petroglyphs, 6 hours if you want to do absolutely everything.

Overall Impression: This Provincial Park should be on your bucket list of things to see in Ontario if you are interested in cultural heritage.

Rating out of 14: Well so far it's #1. Since we haven't really seen any day-use PP I'd have to say this is the best one we've seen... out of one.

Perfect thing to do on a rainy day when your umbrella is upside down like this.

For those Campgrounds who are keeping track;