Written By Alan Good
TRAVEL - Do you like choices for vacations? Want to stay in Ontario? Consider Parks Ontario. With over 340 to choose from, they are as close or as far away as you want.
Clean, well patrolled and safe, and providing a variety of some of the best scenes this province has to offer, what more could you want for an inexpensive holiday, compared with a cruise or stay at most hotels.
Most people think of camping when they think of a park, but you can rent cabins as well as camping spots. The variety of activities and facilities available may outnumber your plans for your trip. Over 100 of these parks feature visitor facilities, such as swimming, hiking, and boating, even renting equipment, the choices are almost endless. The system also includes nearly 300 conservation parks reserved for day use.
In numbers, Ontario is second to British Columbia, which has the most provincial protected areas and parks in Canada, boasting over 1,000 total sites.
What’s the park that comes to mind when thinking about the largest Ontario Park?
Fun fact: The biggest park in Ontario is Polar Bear Provincial Park, covering a massive 24,000 square kilometres in the far north along Hudson Bay. But you can only get there by plane. The scenes are spectacular, and of course, polar bears rule.
While many people mistakenly think Algonquin Provincial Park is the largest, Algonquin is actually third, at 7,635 square kilometres. Wabakimi Provincial Park is the second largest, boasting 8,921 square kilometers of remote boreal forest and canoeing routes in Northwestern Ontario. As with Polar Bear, access to that park is limited.
Our trip this year was first at Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park. The drive took less than five hours, and we could park at the site (i.e., no canoeing or portaging to reach it). The park didn’t disappoint. Clean water, quiet, and a variety of things to do abound. We chose to fish and canoe. Our camp spot was clean and at the end of a road which provided for a quiet time.
Some people may get turned off by this next item. Chipmunks were plenty and very tame. Most would come through our campsite and feed from our hand. A racoon also paid a visit on our last night.
For kids, swimming and beaches are available. Some parks provide teaching, such as the parks officials who come from Grundy Lake each Thursday to demonstrate trail lore, such as animal tracks. The instructor provided lots of information on types of animal tracks and how to tell if the animal was large or small, running or walking, using plastic molds they brought for kids to touch.
Look up Ontario Parks for maps and links to their many parks and what each offer. Reservations are easy and include a picture of the site in question. Next stop, Algonquin Park.
