Category: Camping

Why you should go north to camp this summer

If you’ve been looking on our reservation system lately, you’ll have realized this already – our southern provincial parks are SUPER busy this year!

This summer, the solution to finding your serene camping trip might be to head north.

There, you’ll find not only more space to camp in peace, but also opportunities to explore landscapes unlike anything in southern Ontario.

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7 reasons your family will fall in love with Bonnechere Provincial Park!

Looking for a new park to explore with your family? How about a park that offers great swimming, paddling, and hiking and will have your kids picking books from a tree?

Bonnechere Provincial Park — located in Killaloe, ON (just 2 hours from Ottawa) — is one of the Ottawa Valley’s hidden gems.

Here are some of the reasons your family will love this park:

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Reserve your Canada Day campsite early!

Does the cold weather have you dreaming of sunny days on the beach and warm nights by the campfire?

Thanks to our five-month advance booking window, you can lock down your July campsite early!

Here’s a list of 10 parks sure to chase away the midwinter blues:

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4 ways camping helps us slow down and enjoy life

Today’s post comes from Connor Oke, an Ontario Parks marketing intern. 

We live in a world that demands a lot of us.

Canadians work overtime at higher rates than they did 25 years ago. At the same time, we spend more hours in front of screens and on social media, which are linked to increased anxiety and distractedness. We also get less sleep than we did 15 years ago.

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Get a jump on June: summer camping in southwestern Ontario

It may be the middle of winter, but we’re daydreaming of summer in southwestern Ontario! How about you?

Get a jump start on planning your vacation. Book a campsite at one of these hidden gems today!

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Why Ontario Parks moved to 100% reservable car campsites

In October of 2019, Ontario Parks updated our reservation system and are offering new and exciting services to our visitors. One of the biggest changes is that all our car campsites are now fully reservable — no more first-come, first-served sites.

Most of our visitors are excited by this change, and so are we. We heard overwhelmingly that our customers prefer having a reservation in advance, so they know for sure that they have a campsite before they show up.

However, there have also been some questions from our visitors who enjoyed the first-come, first-served option, and what this change means for them.

Here are the most common questions we’ve encountered so far:

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True beginnings in nature: four generations of campers

Today’s post comes from Rebecca van Massenhoven, a Learn to Camp leader at Grundy Lake Provincial Park.

In 1951, at the age of forty, my great-grandmother crossed the Atlantic Ocean with her family on the ocean liner The Volendam. She wanted a better future for her family, and moved to Canada in search of this dream.

I can still recall her burning curiosity about the world around her. From spiders to birds, she loved learning about nature and often spent time sharing this passion with the family. As a child, I sat in her bay window watching the birds that came to her feeder as she told me about them as if they were her dear old friends.

My story truly began with my great-grandmother’s passion for the environment. In each of the four generations that have come to call Canada home, we continue to foster her love of the natural environment as our own.

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