Camping Near-North Ontario's Provincial Parks: Grundy Lake, Killbear, and Killarney.

Have you discovered your own backyard yet?

Canada is well-known for its incredible nature - from the top of the Rockies, to the teal-blue waters of Lake Louise, to the Bay of Fundy coast. But Ontario never seems to be on the list of "must-sees" in this beautiful country, and we're not sure why. With Covid still very present and changing most people's summer plans, we went out on a quest to explore more of this (huge) province and see what it has to offer, and boy are we glad that we did. 

We started in Stratford, loaded up our Northern Lite truck camper from Camp-Out RV and hit the road for Grundy Lake, a provincial park that we knew very little about but read some reviews and liked the photos, plus there were sites available (which was scarce at this point) so we decided to spend the first night there. When we arrived, we were surprised at how private and spacious the campsites were. We set-up our home for the night and headed out for the lake. One really nice thing about this park is that there are actually 3 lakes, Grundy Lake, Gurd Lake, and Gut Lake, so regardless of which campground your site was in you were always walking-distance to at least one of them. None of them sound all that pretty, but they were. Our first swim was in Gut Lake; the water was warm and clear. Across from where we were we could see people cliff jumping and decided to join in on the fun. It was spectacular, the views of the Canadian Shield were breathtaking and jumping off of the rocks into the warm water made for a fun afternoon. There were families canoeing, couples kayaking and kids paddle-boarding. It was a picture-perfect Canadian scene. After our afternoon in the water, we made some dinner over the fire and decided to head out for an evening swim before calling it a night. This time we checked out Grundy Lake. We found a small entrance/boat launch and had it to ourselves. It had a sandy bottom and again the water was quite warm. It may have been the 40+ degree weather, but all the lakes we were in were perfect temperature. We swam in Grundy Lake for a little while, enjoying the sunset over the tree-line and enjoying the crackle of campfires from the sites nearby. 

From Grundy Lake, we continued to travel North to Killarney, a park that I had heard lots about but hadn't been able to experience for myself. The drive up was beautiful, the highway was lined by pink Canadian Shield which made for incredible scenery the whole way up. After turning off of highway 69, the route takes you down an overgrown gravel road for about half an hour or so. Don't rush this portion of the drive as you can see tons of wildlife if you look into the brush. Deer, bears and moose are all locals up here! We arrived at Killarney and the first thing on our list was The Crack Trail, a must-do hike of the area. 

At the beginning, the trail was easy and we walked leisurely. As we continued, the trail became more and more difficult - this is the type of hiking we LOVE. The trail is about 3.5km one way, during this time you'll pass beautiful foliage, fields of wild ferns, untouched rivers and lakes. We passed the occasional hiker  but otherwise it really didn't seem to populated. We felt alone in this serene place, it was pretty incredible. The trail was lined by wild blueberries, making for the perfect little snack along the way. The final kilometre of the trail is the hardest and involves a bit of a scramble. You'll have to do some rock climbing, jumping, and a little more intense hiking to get to the lookout. The last 10 minutes is the hardest but also the most fun part of it all, it's a nearly vertical climbing through fallen rocks wedged between two escarpments, this is where the name "the crack" came from. Pictures from "The Crack",  scrambling through these fallen rocks were the only way to the lookout.

The lookout was better than we expected. As you approach the top of the escarpment, you see miles of trees and forestry and a glimpse of Georgian Bay in the distance, you think to yourself "wow, this is pretty cool" and then you turn around. Behind you is the most serene view of the La Cloche Mountains, beautiful rolling mounds of Canadian Shield surrounded by rivers and O.S.A. Lake. In the distance, you could see hundreds of little islands for portage and canoe trips. It was breathtaking. view from the lookout point of The Crack Trail, Killarney PP.

We had some lunch from the lookout, an apple, granola bars and some hummus and crackers really hit the spot after that scramble up the rocks. Afterwards, we made our way back down (which was not as easy as going up). This trail is difficult, there are many warning signs as you approach the trail head but it's important to reiterate, this hike is NOT for children or pets. Unless your dog can scale up a rock face like a mountain goat, it's best to leave him at home for this one. We did see one family with a dog, and halfway up the rocks they were carrying him over their shoulder, it made for a long and unpleasant looking ascent for both the people and the pooch. 

When we arrived back at the trail head, we were hot and ready for a dip. We ventured further into the park to George Lake. The beach front was really nice, it was a nice sandy entrance into the water with beautiful pink escarpment along the other side, the scenery in this park is unbeatable. There were small white rocks emerging from the crystal clear water that almost made it look like a scene from the Mediterranean. We swam the entire lake from one end to the other, stopping at rocks to rest on and jump from. Again, in the distance you could see families canoeing, kayaking and swimming, it was a picture perfect scene of Canadian summer, this is really what it's all about. 

George Lake, Killarney Provincial Park, Ontario

We stayed on the beach for a little while and took in the scenery, I mean, how could you not in a place like this? From there, we went into the town of Killarney to grab a bite. We scaled the waterfront and stopped in a little cafe/restaurant at the marina and ordered some dinner to eat out by the water, it was very tasty and really hit the spot after a busy day. We didn't have any reservation this night as the trip was planned last-minute and sites are pretty much all booked so our plan was to find some crown land to call home for the night. In this part of Ontario, about 80% of the land is crown land and if you're a resident of Ontario you can stay up to 21 days on any part of land before needing to move, at this point, you can find another piece of crown land to call home for another 21 days, and so on and so on. This is a little known fact but actually really cool, so if you're tenting/back country camping, you basically have your pick of the litter for where you want to call home. Before searching for our home-for-the-night, I wanted to stop in to Killarney Outfitters, a small shop we had passed on our way into the park that sells camping gear and Provincial Park memorabilia. As I was shopping, my partner was casually talking to the gentleman working the til, asking if he had any recommendations on places we could set up camp for the night. It was our lucky day, cause apparently the store had their own "Jamboree" space offered to customers renting canoes/kayaks to stay the night on before heading out for a morning portage trip. The space just happened to be vacant the night that we were there, and although we didn't rent any equipment they very kindly allowed us to park for the night. There was a huge campfire pit in the centre of a large field - it was absolutely perfect (and way better than our original plan of pulling off the side of the road somewhere). With full bellies and tired bodies, we called it an early night. 

The next morning, we woke up to do one more hike before leaving Killarney. This was another one on our list of must-do's, the Chikanishing Trail. This was a perfect way to start the day. The trail scaled along Georgian Bay with numerous lookout points, it also offered tons of wild blueberries to snack on during the trek, a delicious hikers breakfast. We were trekking on huge slabs of shield, and the pink stone lining the calm, clear water on this early morning was so peaceful. 

A calm morning hike along the Chikanishing Trail, Killarney Provincial Park. 

As we finished our breakfast (wild blueberries) we hit the road for Killbear, our third and final stop on this trip. On our drive back down, we stopped in French River Provincial Park. the park itself and all amenities were closed, but we walked through the area that was open to the public and walked across the infamous suspended bridge over the river. It was beautiful, with escarpment lining either side of the narrow river. 

French River Provincial Park, photo taken from the suspended pedestrian bridge .

After another gorgeous drive (+ a stop at the Trading post for fudge) we arrived at Killbear. It was instantly obvious that this park was a little closer to civilization as it seemed much busier and more populated than where we had been the past couple of nights. That aside, it was still wonderful. The sites were very large and each had two picnic tables which was more than we needed! The nice thing about Killbear is that although there are a few beach areas with sandy entrances to the water, the entire coastline is your playground. We opted to avoid the main beach because we were still a bit wary of covid, as well as we really like taking the trail less travelled. We trekked over the rock for a while (and almost stepped on a snake) and found a private area to go for a dip in the Bay. Georgian Bay is notoriously cold, but after this hot weekend, it was exactly what we needed. We jumped in and again the water was crystal clear, we had at least 15 feet of visibility underwater. In the distance we could see other swimmers and people heading out to scuba dive, but the really nice thing about this park is that you can make any part of the coastline your own private beach. We swam here for a few hours and headed back to the campsite for a flame-grilled dinner (and s'mores). The night was as you could imagine, pitch black with thousands of stars above. We ate, star gazed and called it another early night after all the adventuring.

The next morning, we squeezed in one more hike before heading for home. We did the Lighthouse Trail at Killbear and it was a nice, easy hike after a long, tiring couple of days. The lookout lead us to a lighthouse on the Bay, this was a more leisurely hike and we saw many families/small children doing it, we also saw a very friendly deer along the trail at one point.

The truck camper was perfect! We were able to stop for a night and set up camp quickly and efficiently. We were able to park at the trail entrances without any concerns, and easily found overnight accommodations with a breeze. The camper was spacious and had everything we needed, from a washroom to a full stove and microwave. We even had the pleasure of seeing the stars as we slept with the massive skylight over us, it was great. For those who love Algonquin for the backcountry and portage trips, Killarney is right on par and definitely worth a visit! For those not wanting to drive too far from the city, Killbear is a perfect spot, and for someone just looking to have a relaxing trip with great hikes and swimming options, Grundy is an underrated spot. I honestly loved all three of the parks we went to and am definitely hoping to go back again someday.