Grundy Lake Provincial Park

It’s a larger campground, and provided a different camping experience than some of the other near-north campground we’ve been to. It felt more like one of the cottage country, “closer to Toronto” campgrounds than I expected it to!

Anyway, its size and setting make it a great campground for the whole family - there really is something for everyone there. Several beaches, a few challenging hiking trails, many different settings for canoeing and kayaking adventures, and more.

We were there for 3 days in early September 2024, right at the end of the Labour Day long weekend.

We had a great - though bumpy! - time, and returned in early 2026. Let us tell you all about it!

The Basics:

Campground Name: Grundy Lake Provincial Park
Address: 20400 Highway 522, Britt ON, P0G 1A0
Website: https://www.ontarioparks.ca/park/grundylake
Price Ontario Provincial Parks uses a pricing matrix across all their parks. See 2026 Camping Fees for more details.
Reservations: Ontario Parks Reservations
Park Classification: Natural Environment
Season: May 8, 2026 to October 13, 2026
Park Warden: 705 346-0908

Logistics

Some information to help you plan your visit to Grundy Lake Provincial Park:

Registration and Check In

On both occasions, we booked our stay online at 7 am sharp, 5 months before our stay. We lucked into a waterfront site, both times!

Like most Provincial Parks, they had moved to a completely paperless permit system by the time of our spring 2026 visit.

We did stop in to the front gate anyway - we wanted new maps! - and they checked us in again. I have no idea why all the parks are doing that, when the online check in tells you to go directly to your site!

Anyway, in-person check in at the main gate was quick and easy as usual, with friendly park staff.

Maps and Signage

Some information on getting around the park, once you get there.

Park Map

In 2024, the park map was the larger, newspaper format that you see at some of the larger parks... and the map sprawled across two pages of it.

For our 2026 visit, the newspaper was gone and we were given an 11 x 17 print of just the map... and it still had some of the issues we’d noticed with the earlier version:

Even with all of that space to work with, parts of the map run off the end of the page, and aren’t shown elsewhere. Most of the Beaver Dam trail, everything north of the Poplar campground (including several lakes), and Gut Lake Dam trail are completely cut off.

The annoying thing about the Gut Lake Dam trail is that there’s no info on the site about that trail - so we have no idea what to expect for distance or difficulty.

(We ended up skipping it in 2024, but did it in 2026 - we have the info further down this post, in the hiking section!)

Signage

The signage is ... not great... in Grundy Provincial Park. Where there ARE signs, they’re really good... but there are a lot of occasions where there aren’t signs at all.

After driving around the park a few times, you’ll get the hang of it... but in 2024, it sure was easy to miss the turnoff to the road our campground was located on, when returning from the main section of the park.

There’s also no sign pointing to the comfort station in our area, so it was easy to miss that turnoff as well - it just looks like another unlabeled campground road, you can’t see the comfort station when driving up.

Within some of the campgrounds, the way towards the exit isn’t really signed anywhere but RIGHT at the exit!

Waste & Water Services

There is a Trailer Sanitation Station, as well as a separate Trailer Fill Station at Grundy Lake Provincial Park.

The Trailer Sanitation Station has the fill platforms first, and they’re almost as soon as you turn into the Poop Loop from the main campground road - no room for lining up behind whoever is filling their tanks.

To make matters worse, the fill stations are on either side of a single lane - no bypass. So, only one person can fill, and they will block the way to the dump platforms.

I bet that gets fun on long weekends!

Anyway, it spreads out a bit to 2 lanes for the dump platforms, but still no bypass lane.

This was paved sometime between our two visits, and looks much nicer now - clearly marked lanes, directionality, etc.

It’s two lanes, both headed the same way - it’s definitely meant to be accessed on the way INTO the park. Getting into it on the way out would be a very tight U-turn to the left.

Anyway, it has two posts on the center island of that section, which was kind of a weird choice. As both lanes go the same way, that puts the fill posts on one driver side, and one passenger side... but most (all?) RVs that we’ve ever seen all fill on the driver’s side.

I’d surprised they didn’t have a third platform, on the other side of the left lane - that would have made the lane usable by everyone.

All the fill hoses were threaded, by the way.

As a note: back in 2024, this was the first time we’d seen a warning about elevated levels of sodium in the water supply. That warning was still there in 2026, so it doesn’t seem to be a temporary thing - good to keep in mind, when planning your trip!

It’s huge - several garbage and recycling dumpsters, plus bins for spent propane canisters, and a hut for booze bottle empties.

Connectivity

On our first visit, we had decent internet pretty much everywhere in the park. Not GREAT connectivity, mind you, but more or less consistently having some degree of connection.

It got very slow at times, but never cut out entirely.

On our second visit, we had really good connection pretty much everywhere.

Not sure if the difference was a matter of time of year (it was not busy during our second visit), or if a new Rogers Wireless cell tower got installed at some point.

There IS a tower very close to the park, but we hadn’t noted whether or not it was there, last time.

Accessibility

Grundy Lake Provincial Park is a mixed bag in terms of accessibility.

In reality, it’s got a lot of accessibility features going on... but it really doesn’t do so well in disseminating the information about its accessible features. All the site says is “Barrier free is available at the park office and all comfort stations”.

The map is a little better - it has the barrier-free campsites, comfort stations and outhouses marked, but misses other info. Let’s break this down in sections:

Barrier-Free Camping

There are two sets of barrier-free campsites in the park, with 2 in the Poplar Campground (Sites #358 and #360), and 2 more in the White Pine Campground (Sites #520 and 521).

It’s a weird set of pros and cons, across the two sets of sites.

The Poplar Campground accessible sites are big, flat, and much nicer than the White Pine Campground sites. They have wheelchair accessible picnic tables, and elevated fire pits.

They’re located near the beach, and right next to a set of vault toilets that are designated as barrier-free, but not really anywhere close to a comfort station - you have to leave the campground entirely and go down the main road.

The White Pine Campground sites are... not great. Very uneven, and the campground roads to get to them are terrible even for cars - definitely not somewhere I’d want to take a wheelchair down.

Each of these two sites have the accessible picnic table, but a regular fire pit. They each also have a path directly to the nearby comfort station from the back of each site*.

Aside from the comfort station, they’re not located all that close to anything... though I suppose you could cut through the comfort station to get to the main road / main beach area.

* In theory, anyway. #520 had the picnic table pulled to block the path so I'm not sure what that's about!

Barrier-Free Facilities

As mentioned barrier-free access is provided at the park office. They actually have a designated TRAILER parking spot for disabled people, something I’m not sure I’ve seen before. It’s definitely not common!

They also have a regular style designated parking spot on the back side of the park office, accessed on the way out of the park.

In terms of washroom facilities and such, the main comfort station - next to the day use area - has the most accessible features.

To start, it has probably the largest wheelchair accessible shower I've ever seen, and it has a button option for opening the door - definitely not common.

There are also two single-stall barrier-free washrooms. They're both marked with the baby symbol, though only one of them had a changing table in it.

Note: Unlike most comfort stations, this one does not have an accessible stall in the multi-stall washrooms.

The laundry room also has a door opening button outside, and is marked as being barrier-free.

Then, several of the outhouses are marked on the map as being barrier-free facilities.

... this isn’t always accurate, though.

In 2024 we noted that “At least one of those “barrier free” vault toilets is absolutely NOT wheelchair accessible in person, so take that with a grain of salt.”.

I didn’t note which one I was talking about, but in 2026 we noticed that the ones near the entrance to the Balsam Campground/ Beaver Dam Trail / the Dog Beach were marked as being accessible, but were not.

Barrier-Free Activities

First of all, none of the listed trails are wheelchair accessible. Beyond that, they WILDLY understate the distances at some of those trails. As someone who has to budget their mobility... having a surprise ½ km or more tacked on without notice can be an issue.

(Accurate!) information is an accessibility issue!

In terms of other trails, Pakeshkag Lake Trail is the only *named* trail that would be suitable for someone with other mobility issues.

The Gurd Lake Dam trail is another trail of easy difficulty that should be good for most people with mobility issues - it might even be wheelchair accessible-ish during the dry season. Then thing is, the park provides NO information about this trail, other than the fact it starts at the White Spruce campground.

See our hiking section for all the details, though.

In terms of beaches, the Main Beach is the only one with designated disability parking spaces, and most of the rest don’t have parking anywhere nearby. The Red Maple beach involves steps down from the campground road, to get to the beach.

The beaches in Poplar and Trailer campgrounds have the easiest access from the nearby campground roads, but Trailer Beach doesn’t have a parking lot nearby.

We didn’t see any Mobi Mats on any of the beaches during either of our visits, but the park does have a beach wheelchair available to borrow, at the park office.

Update: I called and asked the park office about MobiMats. The first employee I talked to had never heard of such a thing, so asked - apparently they don’t have them.

Finally, in 2024 we noticed a single wheelchair friendly picnic table at the Pet Beach by the Balsam Campground.

It wasn’t noted on the map or the website, and the area it was on was pretty rocky. Fantastic view at that picnic table, though!

Anyway, in 2026 we drove around to check all the beaches.

Both dog beaches have a single accessible picnic table each. The one at the Balsam Dog beach is no longer super scenic, and was placed kind of off to the side, in an overgrown area.

This was kind of a running theme. Aside from the dog beaches, the trailer beach also had one, but it was pulled to the back by the trees, and appears to be used as a barricade to block a trail to a campsite.

The only place we saw an accessible picnic table that wasn’t thrown off to the side like an afterthought was at the main beach.

These 4 might not be an exhaustive list, but it’s what we saw when looking for them. Again - would be nice to see them on the map!

Pets

Grundy Lake Provincial Park is a really pet-friendly campground, with two gorgeous dog beaches.

The far beach - near Balsam campground - is a leash-free pet exercise beach... and I forgot to check if the other one (on Gurd Lake, between White Spruce and Hemlock campgrounds) was as well.

Anyway, both areas are spacious, with convenient parking, great views, garbage cans, and picnic tables. Note: The Gurd Lake one doesn’t show parking on the map, but there’s a small lot right there.

As a note, the Balsam dog beach is really close to the highway, so it’s pretty noisy.

The Gurd Lake Dog Beach also has a canoe rack and several turtle nests (In 2024, anyway!), btw.

In 2026 - as pictured below - it also had a Stella. Stella was very happy, and proud of a giant stick she had found! (Yes, I know this is the news you’re here for, LOL!)

Parking

In general, there seems to be a ton of parking available at the park, both in the campsites themselves, and at the major points of interest (trail heads, comfort stations, etc).

The parking is a bit sparse in the area of the main beach, so if there’s a popular program going on at the Discovery Centre, you may need to park down by Smokey Point and walk back up.

Note: There’s no parking indicated on the map for the dog beach on Gurd Lake, but there IS a small parking lot right there..

Miscellaneous

Some random information you may need:

The Roads

We’d previously written that the at Grundy Lake are TERRIBLE.

At the time of our 2024 visit, driving through the park - at slow, campground speed! - in our car had us feeling like we were going to whiplash ourselves from all of the potholes tossing us everywhere.

The park was desperately in need of re-grading the roads, and I’d made the comment “Be sure your car has a good suspension, just know that it may not anymore, after driving at Grundy Lake Provincial Park.”

It was bad enough that we weren’t planning to come back, despite loving the park! The roads were literally bad enough to be a deal breaker - a first for us!

We received a comment on this post about the roads being fixed, and here we are - and can now update this info.

The MAIN road through the campground was completely redone at some point between our visits, and is now really nicely paved.

... but some of the campground roads are still absolutely terrible. White Pine and Trailer campgrounds seem to be the worst, with potholes, washout damage etc.

Aurora Borealis

Grundy Lake Provincial Park is in an area of relatively low light pollution itself, though Sudbury is located north of it.

It’s a good place for stargazing, and *should* be a good place to view the Northern Lights - but there was no aurora activity during our stay.

White Birch Beach would probably be the best bet for viewing, though Main Beach could also work - you just may have some lightinging from the campgrounds along the water, to the north of it.

If you’re interested in possibly seeing the northern lights, check out our posts: Aurora Hunting, How to Photograph the Northern Lights, Can I See the Northern Lights Tonight?, and Where to See Northern Lights in Ontario.

Campground Amenities & Info

Here’s some basic information on the campground amenities you’ll find at Grundy Lake Provincial Park:

Creature Comforts

There are 3 comfort stations at Grundy Lake Provincial Park, each with flush toilets, laundry facilities, and showers. 2 are pretty similar, and one has more amenities than the other two.

Also, for some reason, the laundry prices were all over the place.

Anyway, none of the comfort stations are really IN any of the campgrounds, they’re just sort of near the entries to multiple campgrounds, right off the main roads.

The 3 comfort stations are covering 9 campgrounds worth of campers, so you may find a bit of a line for showers, on busy weekends.

The Jack Pine and Poplar Comfort Stations are pretty similar:

Each has several regular showers, a wheelchair accessible shower, two gendered, multi-stall washrooms (each with a single wheelchair accessible stall), and a laundry room with two washers and two dryers.

Jack Pine has 5 regular showers, Poplar has 4. The other main difference was laundry:

Jack pine is $2 per load (Loonies only) for both the washers and dryers.

The machines in then Poplar comfort station were $2 per load for the washers and $3 per load for the dryers - again, Loonies only. Weirdly the dryers didn't look any bigger than the ones in the Jack Pine laundry - but I could be wrong on that.

It has 7 regular showers that seemed (maybe?) a bit larger than usual, as well as the largest wheelchair accessible shower I've seen at a Provincial Park.

There are also two gendered, multi-stall washrooms with changing tables, and two single-stall accessible washrooms. They're both marked with the baby symbol, only one of them had a changing table in it though.

The laundry room has two washers and two dryers: The washers are $2.50 per load and the dryers are $3.25 per load. These machines take Loonies and quarters only.

There are also vault toilets located throughout the campgrounds and the day use area. - some of which are barrier-free outhouses.

Grundy Lake Park Store

There is a small park store at the front office, mostly carrying Ontario Parks souvenirs.

If you need ice, groceries, camping supplies, etc... the Grundy Lake Supply Post is located right across the street from the park entrance.

Along with the store, they also have “The Pinecone” - a bit of a snack bar / café, with ice cream, hamburgers, poutine, fish & chips, etc on the menu.

Visitor Centre

The Visitor Center is kind of a small, shack type building near the Grundy Lake Main Beach area, and next to the road down to Smokey Point.

We didn’t go inside - if you can go inside? Not sure if it’s more of a supply closet situation, as they were hosting programming just outside of it.

Anyway, there’s also an amphitheater just down the road, at Smokey Point. It sounds like that’s where most of the programming takes place.

Day Use Area

The day use area is kind of spread over a few sections in the middle of the campground, with more picnic tables randomly scattered throughout the entire park.

Main Beach and Smokey Point each have a good picnic area, and Smokey Point actually has a picnic shelter there. Across the street from the main beach is another little nook - beside Nesbit Creek - with a beach volleyball setup.

There’s also another volleyball net - on the grass, not a beach volleyball pit - by the far parking at Smokey Point. This one isn’t on the map, though.

Rentals

The park’s website mentions that canoes and kayaks are available to rent “nearby”, so I assume they mean outside outfitters - we didn’t see any rental racks during either of our visits.

They do have Personal Floatation Devices (PFDs) available to borrow - there’s just a $25 refundable deposit to do so.

Beyond that, they also have canoe caddies - to help with portaging - and extension cords (both 15 amp and 30 amp) - those options have a $200 refundable deposit.

Finally - as previously mentioned - they have a beach wheelchair available to borrow.

Campsite Details

Grundy Lake Provincial Park has 9 campground areas for car camping, as well as 1 group camping site, a private cabin, and several backcountry camping sites.

Balsam, Red Maple, White Pine, and White Spruce were all closed and gated for the season, during our visit.

Car Camping

The 9 Grundy Lake Campgrounds Are:

Balsam Campground: All non-electric sites, very close to one of the dog beaches, not very close to any of the comfort stations.

Hemlock Campground: A mix of electric and non-electric sites, not super far from a comfort station. This is a radio-free campground.

Jack Pine Campground: A mix of electric and non-electric sites - some waterfront - has a small canoe launch, is near a full comfort station.

Red Maple Campground: All non-electric sites, a bit of a hike to the nearest comfort station. This campground is radio-free and pet free.

Trailer Campground: All electric sites, exclusively for RVs and trailers. Near a comfort station, has a a canoe launch and horseshoe pit.

White Birch Campground: A mix of electric and non-electric sites, this is the campground we stayed in. Several of the sites are waterfront, and this campground is near a comfort station.

White Pine Campground: Mostly non-electric sites, with a few electric sites on one side of it. Has a path at one end, that’s a short walking distance to the closest comfort station.

White Spruce Campground: Really small campground, all non-electric sites. Feels a bit more secluded than the rest of the park campgrounds.

Our Campsite

Our campsite - 653 - was fantastic.

Large, relatively good privacy, not TOO far from the front of the park (an important feature, given the road conditions there!), and with a little path to a small beach!

The beach had a north facing view over Grundy Lake, and would have been PERFECT for Northern Lights.

Unfortunately, there was no activity during either of our stays.

Still - a great site!

Backcountry Camping

Grundy Lake Provincial Park has a number of backcountry canoe-in sites, and you can apparently reserve specific sites at this park. Aside from the reservation, you’ll also need a backcountry camping permit.

Each of the back country campsites has a box privy, fire pit, food locker, and picnic table. All of them are accessible by canoe, and some seem to be accessible via the Pakeshkag Lake Trail.

Group Camping

On our first visit, we were a bit confused by the group camping situation - the website had mentioned there being 3 group campsites, though we could only find one on the park map.

I looked at the reservations website, and - again - I can only find the one that was on the park map.

By our 2026 visit, the site had been changed to only mention a single group campsite - so I’m guessing the other two were retired at some point. Weirdly, there’s still main road signage indicating group sites 2 and 3 being somewhere in the vicinity of the main beach!

Anyway, we had a chance to peek in at the group site on that first visit, as it was unoccupied. It’s a generator free campsite - and also pet free. It has its own water tap, as well as a path to the Red Maple campground beach.

It doesn’t have its own vault toilets, but it’s pretty close to a comfort station.

Roofed Accommodations

There is a single roofed option at Grundy Lake Provincial Park - “White Birch Cabin”.

It’s right on Grundy Lake, and next to a short trail that takes you to the main beach.

It sleeps 5, with a queen bed and a twin/double bunk bed that sleeps 3.

Entertainment and Activity

There are a number of activities you can take part in, in Grundy Lake PP. Here’s some info about what you can choose from:

Hiking

There are a few great hiking trails in Grundy park, and we made a point of doing each of them during our stay. Here’s what we saw and thought:

Beaver Dam Trail: 3.6 km, moderate to difficult

Porter did this trail by himself, as I had a rough go of hiking the day before, and was still recovering the next morning. I’ll let his describe it:

“Overall, this trail is much more foresty and marshy than the other trails in the park with only small sections of it being rocky.

There are several areas of boardwalk, including one very long section that is also incredibly narrow. Boardwalks definitely seemed to be kind of a running theme with this one.

Note: It was designated as being 3.6 km long, it ended up as 4.45 km for me.”

Gurd Lake Dam Trail: 1.24 km, Easy

This trail isn’t on the park website - and is only partially shown on the park map - so there was very little info about it.

Porter did this trail himself in spring 2026, here’s what he had to say about it:

“The Gurd Lake Dam Trail starts out from the White Spruce Campground between sites 22 and 24. There's no parking nearby, the Gurd Lake pet exercise area is the closest parking.

The trail looks to be a service road to the dam, it's about two meters wide and well-packed. I could see what looked like four-wheeler tire marks on the trail as well.

There's a slight amount of washout right at the beginning, but other than that I think this trail would be borderline wheelchair accessible. There are some slight-to-moderate elevation changes, and small roots, but the trail remains very easy to walk the whole way to the dam.”

Just before the dam, there's a portage trail off to the right, and when you get to the dam, there's a portage at the left side.

The view from the portage is really nice, but the dam is underwhelming. It's a very small dam with only a little trickle of water going past it.

I measured the dam at 0.62km in, meaning it's 1.24km return distance. There’s a lot of changes in scenery along the way - especially for such a short distance. It’s a very ADHD friendly trail!”

Gut Lake Trail: 2.5 km, moderate to difficult.

Porter did this trail the same morning as Beaver Dam trail, while I was resting my tendons.

This trail starts out at Smokey Point, crossing over a little footbridge there.

He knew that this trail followed the shoreline of Gut Lake, so he followed the paths in that general direction until he finally saw a trail marker. Says he:

“It’s not like you’re going to get lost, there’s just a lot of little paths where people have explored the rocky outcrops and such. The arrows and trail markers are set up for you to go clockwise, so I happened to choose well by following the side of Gut Lake.

Note: This was supposed to be 2.5 km long, it ended up being 3.36 km.”

Pakeshkag Lake Trail: 5.2 km , easy

This is listed as being a 2.6 km trail, so 5.3 km long return. In actuality, it’s only about 0.1 longer than stated - so FAR more accurate than the other trails.

This is a multi-use trail, and the only one in the park that’s really suitable for jogging or cycling on. It also gets used as a portage for accessing some of the backcountry camping sites in the park.

For the most part, it’s just a straight shot through the forest, but the view opens out into lake views in a few spots, including a Beaver Lake wetland, and overlook, and the trail terminus at Pakeshkag Lake.

Nice enough trail, not really anything to write home about.

Swan Lake Trail: 1.5 km loop, moderate to difficult

The day after we arrived at Grundy Lake Park, we decided to do an early morning hike, and hit up Swan Lake Trail shortly after sunrise.

This trail was pretty difficult, and involved crossing over rocky ridges, up to lookouts over Swan Lake. I’ve done some pretty wild things in a boot / with a cane, but there’s no way I would have been able to do this trail if I was having a “mobility aid day”.

The roots are frequent and very close together in some areas, and there are some rock faces that are probably 30 degrees you’ll need to walk up. You’ll definitely want some grippy, stable hiking boots for this trail.

It started out with a boardwalk over a marshy area of the lake, and continued on to just really showcase the landscape of the Canadian Shield, both in what you were climbing over, and what you could see from the lookouts.

This part of the park is a protected nature reserve, and the park’s site says it’s a good place for seeing amphibians, beaver, bitterns, deer, fish, moose, reptiles, etc.

We did, however, see a TON of birds. Right after crossing the boardwalk, and about ⅔ the way along the hike - up on that lookout ridge - were the best areas for birding that morning.

More on that in the birding section, though.

Also of note: That boardwalk is terrifying.

It floats... and doesn’t do a great job of it. Lots of movement, and at one point it’s flooded. You’ll want to wear sturdy, grippy boots for this trail in general, but waterproof would also be a good idea!

Finally: Expect a fair amount of road noise on this trail, it runs pretty close to the Trans Canada Highway.

Biking

There aren’t any dedicated trails in the park, but - as noted - the Pakeshkag Lake trail is a long, linear trail that’s mixed-use and suitable for cycling on.

Beyond that, we saw a bunch of people cycling on campground roads during our stay.

Update: There’s now a bike lane running almost the whole length of the park, starting at the front gate.

It takes you from the park entrance all the way to the comfort station between the Poplar and Trailer campgrounds, nicely paved and marked the whole way.

That end point is also where the Pakeshkag trail starts, so you can extend your cycling excursion from there - it’ll just be more on rustic trail at that point.

Swimming

There are 6 sandy beaches in Grundy Lake Provincial Park:

Balsam Campground - Accessible via the canoe launch parking lot, even though the Balsam Campground was closed. The perfect place for watching the sun set.

Main Beach - Has two small parking lots on either side of the main campground road. This beach area was super popular for launching canoes during our visit.

Poplar Campground - Has a decent sized parking lot right next to the beach. A great place for watching the sunrise.

Trailer Campground - Did not have any parking nearby, very small.

White Birch Campground - Has a small parking lot with a short trail to access it. Really great place to watch the Aurora Borealis, if conditions are right!

IMHO, the Poplar Campground has the nicest beach of the ones we saw, with sandy-sand and a clear lake. The White Birch and Trailer Campground beaches are small and more private - great beaches for a more quiet experience.

Slippery Rock and the Jumping Rocks

In addition to the actual beaches, there are two more popular water features - “Slippery Rock” at Red Maple Campground Beach, and the Jumping Rocks at the end of the White Spruce Campground:

We were able to check out both in late May 2026, though Red Maple wasn’t even open, and no one was swimming at the time - too cold, I guess!

Anyway, apparently when the Red Maple beach is open, a large, partially submerged rock face on the right side of the beach gets covered in moss and acts like a natural Slip N’ Slide.

It didn’t look mossy at the time of our visit. Also, we’d read that there’s usually a rope there to help people pull themselves out of the water - didn’t see that, either.

In terms of the Jumping Rocks, they’re accessed via a short trail in between sites 22 and 24 in the White Spruce Campground.

It’s a set of a few jumping rocks of varying heights, with the shortest being maybe 3 feet off the water (Gut Lake), below.

Birding, Wildlife, and Nature

This is a great park if you’re a bird watcher!

The Swan Lake Trail, and the beginning of the Gut Lake Trail - near Smokey Point were far and away the best areas for birding during our stay.

Also of note: Beaver Dam Trail has views of a Great Blue Heron rookery, which is apparently active in the spring.

Beyond that, the area near the far dog beach / Beaver Dam Trail was also really great - a few loons came right near the shore, and the trees were alive with a bunch of American Goldfinch and Yellow-Rumped Warblers the evening we got in.

American Bittern, American Crow, American Robin, American Goldfinch, American Restart, Baltimore Oriole, Belted Kingfisher, Black-and-White Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Black-Capped Chickadee, Black-Throated Green Warbler, Blue-Headed Vireo, Blue Jay, Broad-Winged Hawk, Brown Creeper, Canada Goose, Cape May Warbler, Caspian Tern, Cedar Waxwing, Chestnut-Sided Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Common Grackle, Common Loon, Common Raven, Common Yellowthroat, Dark-Eyed Junco, Downy Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Golden-Crowned Kinglet, Great Blue Heron, Gray Catbird, Hairy Woodpecker, Hermit Thrush, Least Flycatcher, Mallard Duck, Nashville Warbler, Northern Cardinal, Northern Flicker, Northern Parula, Northern Waterthrush, Northern Yellow Warbler, Ovenbird, Palm Warbler, Pine Warbler, Red-Breasted Nuthatch, Red-Eyed Vireo, Red-Winged Blackbird, Ring-Billed Gull, Rock Pigeon, Ruffed Grouse, Solitary Sandpiper, Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, Tennessee Warbler, Veery, White-Throated Sparrow, Winter Wren, Wood Duck, Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, and Yellow-Rumped Warbler.

... we haven’t been so lucky! Some frogs, toads, a couple snakes, and a bunch of squirrels.

We have enjoyed the wildflowers, though. In late May, there were Trillium flowers EVERYWHERE. We’ve never seen so many pink Trillium in one place!

Boating

Motor boats aren’t permitted on any of the lakes in Grundy Lake Provincial Park, so there aren’t any standard boat launches in the park.

There are, however, 9 small canoe launches throughout the park, spread across the major inland lakes.

Weirdly, the park doesn’t offer canoe or kayak rentals - you can get those at nearby businesses, though.

Fishing

Grundy seems to be a pretty popular spot for fishing - I think we saw more people fishing from the shore on various beaches there, than at any other park we’ve been to!

The park map has each of the main inland lakes labeled with the species of fish you can find in it:

Clear Lake: Bass, Northern Pike, Panfish.

Grundy Lake: Bass, Crappie, Northern Pike, Panfish, Walleye

Gurd Lake: Bass, Brown Bullhead, Northern Pike, Panfish, Walleye.

Gut Lake: Bass, Crappie, Northern Pike, Panfish

As a protected wildlife area, there is no fishing in Swan Lake, or in any of the unnamed, small inland lakes / ponds that surround it.

Discovery Program

The first time around, we arrived a bit too late in the season to have a chance to attend any of Grundy’s Discovery Programming.

We were handed a calendar of events starting on Monday August 26th, with the last event ending several hours before our arrival. Um... thanks?

Anyway, lots of cool stuff happened just before we arrived, including guided hikes, a park “Spirit Night” in celebration of its 65th anniversary, art programs, nature demonstrations, and more.

There’s a nice amphitheatre at Smokey Point, right next to the entrance to the Gut Lake Trail - I’m guessing a lot of the summer programs happen there.

As is the case with many Ontario Parks... such programming is pretty much limited to the Summer months, ending after the Labour Day long weekend.

Niantic Games

For such a huge park, there actually aren’t a ton of Niantic Pokestops / Ingress Portals / etc in the area.

The best area is on Smokey Point, where there’s a concentration of 4 or 5 of them in a smallish area.

Other than that, there are plenty of spawns / energy throughout the park, and enough cell reception to be able to play.

Nearby Attractions

The only “field trip” we took during our stay at Grundy Lake Provincial Park was a short road trip to nearby French River Provincial Park.

This park is a set of countless inland lakes and waterways along 100 km of river, mostly only accessible by canoe or kayak.

There’s a small day-use area, and an award-winning Visitor Centre that covers the history of the French River area, the historical fur trade that used those waterways as trade routes, etc.

A nice little day trip - and only 17 minutes away from Grundy!

Final Thoughts

We really like Grundy Lake Provincial Park - in particular, the hiking trails. Good lord, those are some amazing trails!

Also: The birding can be fantastic!

We loved our campsite, with the easy access to a fairly private little beach. Our site was relatively level, has decent privacy, and is pretty big - what more could you ask for?

Oh, yeah... decent roads. You could definitely ask for roads that aren’t at risk of giving you a TBI just from driving on them!

We were glad to hear that the roads had been rectified since our first visit, and to see that was *mostly* the case. The campground road to our preferred site is mostly ok now, though... so the roads are no longer a deterrent to us returning.

The birding wasn’t as great in May as it was in September, though... so we’ll probably time our next visit to be later in the camping season.

Overall though, a great park!

More Near-North Ontario Provincial Parks & Places to See

Want to read some more about the parks we've camped and at places we've seen in Near-Northern Ontario? Here are some more posts!

Near-Northern Ontario Campground Reviews:

Arrowhead Provincial Park
Batman's Cottages & Campground
Chutes Provincial Park
Driftwood Provincial Park
Fairbank Provincial Park
Finlayson Point Provincial Park
Kap-Kig-Iwan Provincial Park
Marten River Provincial Park
Mikisew Provincial Park
Killbear Provincial Park
Oastler Lake Provincial Park
Restoule Provincial Park
Six Mile Lake Provincial Park
Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park

Near-Northern Ontario Places to See:

Big Chute Marine Railway
Bridal Veil Falls, Manitoulin Island
Cup and Saucer Trail, Manitoulin Island
Fielding Bird Sanctuary
French River Provincial Park
Hardy Lake Provincial Park
Hunter's Bay Trail
Misery Bay Provincial Park
Onaping Falls
Oxtongue River-Ragged Falls Provincial Park
Screaming Heads

Want to explore beyond Near-Northern Ontario? Check out our full list of Campground Reviews, Ontario Waterfalls, and other Places to See.

We also have a ton of Camping Recipes to cook up, while on your adventures!