• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About Us
  • Food
  • DIY
  • Gear
  • Maintenance
  • Life
  • Campground Reviews
  • Contact Us
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • About Us
  • Food
  • DIY
  • Gear
  • Maintenance
  • Life
  • Campground Reviews
  • Contact Us
  • Join Us On Social Media

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • TikTok
  • ×
    Home » Campground Reviews

    Sandbar Lake Provincial Park

    Published: Jul 1, 2025

    Note: This site is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for the site to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.

    Sharing is caring!

    • Reddit
    • Email
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • Tumblr

    Sandbar Lake Provincial Park is a cute little campground in Northwestern Ontario. Here's our review, along with a complete visitor guide!

    A foot bridge extending towards a beach. Overlaid text says Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.

    Sandbar Lake Provincial Park was the final stop on our first-time loop of northwestern Ontario, and marked the end of the most chaotic trip I’ve ever been on.

    We blew two tires out at Caliper Lake Provincial Park, had to shorten our stays there and at Sioux Narrows Provincial Park to get to Rushing River Provincial Park, as Kenora was where we’d be getting our new tire.

    We ended up stranded there for something like a week and a half, waiting for the tire. Our plans for 3 nights stays at each of Aaron Provincial Park, Blue Lake Provincial Park,
    Ojibway Provincial Park, Pakwash Provincial Park all ended up pretty jumbled, with some parks being visited as a day use thing, and Ojibway ending up with both a day use visit AND a 4 night stay.

    WHEW.

    We set out on our now-shortened, 2 day stay at Sandbar Lake Park after a late night of aurora watching at Ojibway, absolutely wrecked.

    We spent the afternoon exploring the park, then taking a 4 hour nap to get ready for the potential aurora that night... and the rest of the stay ended up on weird schedules as a result.

    That said, we had a great time - and collected a lot of great information for you - so let us tell you all about it!

    Anyway, Sandbar Lake Provincial park is a short distance from Thunder Bay - under 3 hours - and it seems to be a popular choice for families from that area.

    It’s got lush forests, a super cute day use area, a long stretch of sandy beach, a few nature trails... something for all kinds of nature enthusiasts.

    Here’s what you need to know:

    A picnic table on the Sandbar Lake Provincial Park beach.

    The Basics:

    Campground Name: Sandbar Lake Provincial Park
    Address: ON-599, Ignace, ON P0T 1T0. Click Here for the Google Maps location.
    Website: https://www.ontarioparks.ca/park/sandbarlake
    Price: Ontario Provincial Parks uses a pricing matrix across all their parks. See 2025 Camping Fees for more details.
    Reservations: Ontario Parks Reservations
    Park Classification: Natural Environment
    Season: May 16, 2025 to September 21, 2025

    The Sandbar Lake Provincial Park road sign,

    Logistics

    Some basic information to help you plan your stay at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park:

    Registration and Check In

    We had booked our original stay 5 months ahead of time, at 7 am. As it turned out - and this was a running theme in the northwestern parks - that was wholly unnecessary.

    We had to rebook our stay at the last minute. Even though it was over Father’s Day weekend, we had no problem securing a site.

    Check in at the park office was quick, easy, and friendly as usual, not really anything to report on that front.

    The park is entirely paperless as far as the camping and vehicle permits go, though.

    The park office at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    The Park Office

    Maps and Signage

    Some basic info to help you find your way around Sandbar Lake Provincial Park:

    Park Map

    The park map is mostly good - it clearly lays out where everything is. The scale is a bit off - the campground area seems much longer in reality, than on the map.

    Also, it gives a stated scale of 1 cm = 20 m... but the 0.5 km long trail is shown as being about 6 cm long... or 120 m. Just a lot of weird inaccuracies.

    Then, there’s the matter of the trails and dog beach. This is both a map and signage issue.

    The pdf map online has wording over the beach, pointing to the right and indicating that’s where the Rockcliff Trail and Pet Exercise Area is.

    In reality, there’s no signage over there indicating a pet area - though there IS signage at the boat launch, indicating THAT to be a pet area.

    Anyway, the two main hiking trails aren’t indicated on the map at all. The Silhouette Trail has it’s own little hand drawn map as a photocopied handout that you can ask for, but there’s nothing for the Rockcliff Trail.

    That Silhouette Trail map - AND the description on the website - are wildly inaccurate, btw. The website says it’s a 2 km trail. Even if you only take the smallest loop, it’s going to be just over 2 km - and that’s assuming that the distance marked on the cut-through is even accurate.

    IMHO, saying a trail is 2 km when that’s ONLY even close to being the case if you skip the bulk of the trail is ridiculous. The using the second cut through made for 3.5 km, and going the full outer ring of the trail was a 5 km trail.

    The Sandbar Lake Provincial Park map.

    Signage

    Sandbar Lake Provincial Park is a very small, very straightforward park - they really don’t need much in the way of signage.

    That said, we found their campground signage to be adequate, mostly. There usually seems to be signage where warranted, and it was easy enough to see, even if not necessarily high contrast.

    The only real issue I saw was at the beach. There’s a hiking symbol sign at the parking lot, pointing towards the beach... then nothing. It drops you off at the beach without any further instruction.

    One funny thing we noticed - there’s a post with a poop baggie dispenser right near a sign telling you that dogs aren’t allowed in the area, LOL!

    The trail signage is a completely different story, and is just woefully inadequate in every way.

    The trailhead for Rockcliff trail either doesn’t exist or is invisible, the turn off sign from that is well after the actual turn, there’s next to no trail signage on Silhouette Trail. Also, there’s no signage on the main road, telling you that’s where the Silhouette Trail even is!

    A blue and white campground road sign.

    Waste and Water Services

    There’s a single trailer sanitation station at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park, and it’s thoughtfully located.

    It’s a half loop off to the left, as you’re entering the campground. It’s easily accessed from either direction, with no sharp turns needed.

    The dump and fill platforms are on a center island, with a single lane on either side. When you’re coming in to the park, it starts with a threaded fill tower, then the dump platform.

    2 part image showing the trailer sanitation station at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    The trailer sanitation station.
    Aside from that, there are water taps located throughout the campground and day use area.

    There’s also a centrally located garbage and recycling station, on the side of the main park road as you exit the campground area.

    The garbage is located up a set of steps.

    Finally, there’s at least one campsite cleaning station, though it wasn’t indicated on the map. It had a rake, poop bag dispenser, and one of those backpack fire hose things that we first saw at Blue Lake Provincial Park.

    You know, something that would DEFINITELY be handy to have indicated on the map! (It’s located across from site #35.)

    A stand with a rank and a fire suppression backpack, next to a garbage bin.

    Connectivity

    We’re on Rogers Wireless, and we generally had little to no cellular reception at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.

    I could sometimes get a bit of signal at the day use area / beach, and could load a weather or space weather report on occasion at our campsite, but most areas of the park had no signal at all.

    Accessibility

    The main comfort station wasn’t wheelchair accessible and had no accessible facilities, despite CLEARLY being the newer building. It’s silly, too - there’s definitely room on the side to add a ramp.

    There’s a steep, rough gravel path up that’s not wheelchair accessible, and no accessible parking spots there, even for those who don’t use a wheelchair.

    The one barrier free shower building was out of order and barricaded during our stay, and clearly the lesser of the two buildings. It also had no parking.

    Sandbar Lake Provincial Park’s website also mentions there being a ramp at the day use area - we did not see one.

    Also, the main garbage / recycling area is not accessible - the dump is located up several steps.

    2 part image showing a garbage hut with steps up, and a rough trail to a comfort station.
    The garbage dump and the main comfort station.

    Pets

    The dog situation at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park is a little weird.

    One map says that there’s a pet exercise area off to the far right side of the beach, pointing off the map. In reality, we didn’t see any signage down there that indicated where that dog beach may have been.

    The dogs aren’t allowed on the swimming beach, though, so it would be nice to know where that restriction actually ends.

    There IS a dog sign at the boat launch, so - presumably - that’s a dog exercise area... it’s just not indicated as such on the map.

    Aside from the one note on ONE map - pointing to a potentially non-existent dog beach - there are no mentions of pet areas on any of the maps or on the park site.

    So, as always, I’d assume the standard Ontario Parks rules apply - keep dogs leashed at all times, never leave them unattended, don’t let them harass other campers or wildlife, etc.

    Also, pick up after them and properly dispose of the droppings. As previously mentioned, there’s a poop bag dispenser in the parking lot at the day use area.

    2 part image showing a rocky dog exercise area with a bench at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    The Dog Exercise Area at the Boat Launch

    Parking

    Overall, the sites seem plenty big to accommodate an extra car or two, for the most part.

    In terms of other parking lots:

    1. The day use area has a large parking lot, as does the boat launch. The boat launch parking lot has a section that prohibits parking, to allow for turn-around room - love that!

    2. The main comfort station - near site 63 - has plenty of parking. The other one does not.

    3. The parking lot for the Silhouette Trail - up the highway a little bit - is NOT marked from the highway. Once you get in there, the trailhead parking lot is very small and pretty overgrown... I’m not sure how many people use it.

    Green, Pink, and purple aurora borealis over sandbar lake.

    Miscellaneous

    Sandbar Lake Provincial Park is located in an area of very low light pollution, so it’s a great place for night sky viewing and astrophotography in general.

    In terms of northern lights, you’ve got two main options - the beach and the boat launch.

    The boat launch area offers the best northern view in the park. At the beach, you’ll need to look straight up the length of the beach, to the right. It’s not as wide open of a view as you’ll get at the boat launch.

    We got a little bit of a show during our stay. Unfortunately, there was a bit of cloud cover - we saw the lights OVER the clouds!

    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.

    A wild purple Iris.

    Campground Amenities & Info

    Some basic information on the amenities at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park:

    Creature Comforts

    While the park only mentions a single comfort station, there are actually 2 - sort of?

    There’s a large, really nice looking one next to site #63. It looks like a library or something, and the outside is much nicer than the vast majority of comfort stations we’ve seen. Landscaped, a nice flowering bush - there’s a whole vibe there.

    It’s not barrier free, which is odd - not only is this the newer, nicer of the two comfort stations... but the site mentions “the” comfort station as having barrier free access.

    Anyway, that comfort station has flush toilets, laundry facilities, and showers.

    A few sites down from that one, there’s a second comfort station on the side of the road - a mini comfort station, really. That’s the one that’s supposed to be barrier-free.

    That one is much smaller, older, and doesn’t seem to have designated parking available. It was barricaded off at the time of our stay, but it looked to have flush toilets and showers.

    4 part image showing 2 comfort stations and a vault toilet at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    The comfort stations and a vault toilet.

    Visitor Centre

    There is no visitor center at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.

    Park Store

    There’s a cute little camp store at the park office, and it actually had a pretty good selection for such a small park.

    Aside from the usual ice and firewood, you can buy some camping supplies, ice cream treats, souvenirs, some fancy cocoa and ground coffee, etc.

    If you need any other groceries or supplies, the town of Ignace is about 10 minutes south of the park, on the main highway.

    2 part image showing the Sandbar Lake Provincial Park store.
    The Park Store.

    Day Use Area

    For being such a small park, we were surprised at how nice and well appointed the day use area is.

    There’s a cute little beach, a fairly large playground - split over two levels, with a nice view over the water - a picnic shelter, water taps, and vault toilets. There are also picnic tables both on the grassy area, and on the sand along the beach.

    I could DEFINITELY see this being a popular spot to hang out at, on a warm summer afternoon.

    6 part image showing various aspects of the day use area at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    The Day Use Area
    The picnic shelter is SUPER cute. It’s located right next to the parking lot in the day use area, and is next to a large field on one side, the playground on another, and the beach just down from it on the last side.

    There’s a large grill and food prep area - just a really nice set up in general!

    3 part image showing various aspects of the picnic shelter at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    The Picnic Shelter

    Rentals

    Sandbar Lake Provincial Park is interesting in that not only do they rent canoes and kayaks, they have MOTORBOATS available for rent!

    We saw one at the front office - I’m not sure how that works, if you’ll need a truck with a hitch in order to rent, or if there’s another way of getting the boat you rent into the water - but it’s a cool option. First time we’ve seen THAT at one of the Ontario Provincial Parks!

    They also loan Personal Floatation Devices (PFDs) out, with a $25 refundable deposit.

    Overall, it’s a really nice rental setup. The rental items are located in and around a little shack next to the park office building, and it was open and neatly displaying everything at the time we checked in.

    2 part image showing the rentals shed at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.

    Campsite Details

    Sandbar Lake is a pretty small campground, but there’s a fair amount of campsite options for everything from tent campers, to large trailers and group camping.

    As is standard in most Ontario Provincial Parks, each campsite comes with a picnic table and fire pit. Beyond that, here’s some information for you:

    Car Camping

    There are about 75 campsites in Sandbar Lake Provincial park, and about ⅓ of those are electrical sites.

    All of the car campsites are located along a narrow loop.

    The first row of sites on the right - odd numbers from 2 - 45 - all back on to a very rustic trail, though most don’t have direct access to it. Some of these sites also have the smallest glimpse of the water... nothing to write home about, though.

    Anyway, most of the car camping sites are fairly large sites. There’s not a lot of privacy, some sites have that well-packed gravel base, while others were more natural looking. Most seemed more or less level, though.

    If you’ve been to Inverhuron Provincial Park, that’s kind of the vibe it was giving us.

    8 part image showing various campsites at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    Some of the Campsites We Saw
    A few notes:

    1. Several campsites had park benches beside the fire pits, which we found to be VERY cool.

    2. Site #39 has a really cute staircase down to the trail that runs behind the campsites.

    3. Site #47 has stairs from the parking area, up to a raised platform of a camping area - SUPER cute!

    4 part image showing a campsite with steps to a trail, a vaulted campsite, and a fire pit with benches next to it.

    4. Our campsite’s picnic table had a metal grate attachment on the end of it, presumably for hot pans and such. Great idea, loved this! It could also function as a barrier-free picnic table.

    2 part image showing a campsite, and a picnic table with a metal extension.
    Our campsite.

    Group Camping

    There are two campsites at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park - with VERY different vibes - and the site says that they can accommodate 15 to 100 people. Weirdly, the reservations park lists both as having a max party limit of 30 people / minimum of 7 people.

    Both have water taps and vault toilets right on the site.

    The first group campsite we saw - #102 - is one of the absolute nicest group campsites we’ve ever seen!

    It’s HUGE, has 2 electrical posts, it’s own beach, and a large, raised central fire pit area with park benches. The grass and sand areas were both really well manicured, and the whole area was wide open and sunny.

    Most of this site is gravel, and is one of the few instances we’ve ever seen where a group site seems to have adequate parking for the max number of people allowed.

    Probably WAY more parking, really - although, it does allow a maximum of 4 trailers. I don’t think we’ve ever seen one like that - really cool!

    4 part image showing various aspects of a waterfront group campsite at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    The Waterfront Group Campsite
    The second group campsite we saw - #101 - is located right across from the trailer sanitation, and is a non-electric site. It allows up to 8 tents and one trailer.

    This one is represented as a loop on the map, but it’s a bit more complicated of a layout than that, and it’s hard to describe.

    The main camping area - with a fire pit circle and grassy area - was nowhere near as manicured as the other side. It was also heavily sheltered from trees, and felt a lot more dark than the first.

    There were kind of pockets of space that could have been either parking areas or more private camping nooks, but weren’t labeled either way.

    4 part image showing various aspects of a forested group campsite at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    The Other Group Campsite

    Share the Love!

    If you’ve made one of our recipes, be sure to take some pics of your handiwork! If you post it to Bluesky, be sure to tag us - @2NerdsInATruck, or you can tag us on TikTok, if you’re posting video. We're also on Pinterest, so you can save all your favourite recipes and park reviews to your own boards!

    Also, be sure to subscribe to our free email newsletter, so you never miss out on any of our nonsense. Well, the published nonsense, anyway!

    Entertainment and Activity

    Sandbar Lake may be a pretty small provincial park, but there’s still a pretty decent variety of outdoor activities you can engage in. Here are the details:

    Hiking

    There are 3 hiking trails - of varying length and difficulty - at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park. In the header, we list the park’s description for distance and difficulty - they aren’t really reflective of reality.

    4 part image showing various views along the Silhouette Trail at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    Silhouette Trail

    Silhouette Trail: 2km, Moderate

    The Silhouette Trail is the only trail in the park with its own trail brochure and map. You’ll need to take the map with a grain of salt. Not only does it contradict the site’s description, it doesn’t line up with reality, and some of the numbers don’t make a ton of sense.

    For instance, the map says that the first cut-through (with the bear silhouette and a picnic table is 0.7 km in - it’s at 1.14 km in. The second cut-through is supposed to be at 1 km in, it’s actually 1.58 km in.

    The map has the distance of the route I took - getting to the second cut though, across to the road, and back to the front - as being 2.7 km, it was 3.5. It showed the full outer loop as being 3.9 km - Porter did that one, and it was exactly 5km.

    A black and white photocopy of a hand drawn trail map.
    The Silhouette Trail Map
    The trailhead is located down the highway from the park entrance - turn left when you leave the park, cross over the open wetland area, and take the first right. There is NO signage there, aside from one that just says “Sandbar Lake Provincial Park Boundary”.

    Anyway, about the actual trail...

    The trail was described as going though Jack Pine Woods, Aspen Forests, and Wetlands, with a bunch of wildlife silhouettes along the way, so it sounded interesting to us.

    The trail starts out fairly overgrown - it didn’t look like it had been used anytime recently.

    That ended up being a wild understatement - there were several downed trees to crawl over/under, multiple orchids and little tree babies growing right in the path, a bridge that had collapsed - with no signage warning about that- etc.

    From the trail head to the bridge is relatively easy, aside from the few downed trees you have to get over/under. Wide, well packed trail, relatively flat.

    Once you cross the bridge -IF you can, it was definitely on its last legs when we crossed it - the terrain definitely goes moderate, with some steep climbs up, rocks and roots to get over etc.

    Once you past the first cut-through point - where the picnic table is located - the trail goes back to being that wide, well-packed trail. It looks to have been a dirt road at one point.

    4 part image showing various views along the Silhouette Trail at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    Silhouette Trail
    We split up at the second cut-through, which was NOT marked at all. The cut-through actually looked more like it would be the main trail to stay on!

    I took the shortcut, skirting under Savitsky Lake with some nice views of it, while Porter went around that lake, and along the edge of Crocker Lake.

    Both of our sections ended up on the same dirt road that took us back to the front.

    Along the way, there were a LOT of educational signposts about the vegetation we were seeing, as well as animal-shaped silhouette cutouts with information on those animals.

    The trail was a cute idea, but DESPERATELY needs some maintenance, better trail signages, and more accurate trail information / map.

    4 part image showing various views along the Silhouette Trail at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    Silhouette Trail

    Red Pine Trail: 0.5km, Easy

    Porter did this trail himself. He says:

    “This trail is almost an easy trail, it's mostly flat but the trail is narrow and there are enough roots and boulders that you need to watch your feet a bit, pushing it into the moderate category.

    A little way in you can tell why they named this trail the Red Pine Trail - you're completely surrounded by these massive pine trees, I can't even guess how tall they are.

    This is definitely a fun little trail to see, very short and easy to get to from the camp sites.”

    4 part image showing various views along the Red Pine Trail at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    Red Pine Trail

    Rockcliff Trail: 4km, Moderate

    All that’s said about this trail on the site is “This trail will familiarize you with some of the unique natural and historical features of the park.”

    It’s not on the park map, and there is no trail map for it. At first, we thought that it must be the trail that runs between the row of campsites and the water, just by process of elimination.

    It definitely didn’t match up with distance, though, so we did some digging.

    There doesn’t seem to be an actual trail head or trail signage anywhere for this trail, but AllTrails said you turn right at the beach, follow the beach “until ten metres before the sign”, then turn to the right and up a short, steep trail to an overlook ~40 metres above the beach.

    In reality, the sign was about 3 metres after the trail exits the beach, and the entire trail - starting from the day use beach - was 5 km, return. The only trail marker is the one directing you to go into the woods.

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

    4 part image showing various views along the Rockcliff Trail at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    Rockcliff Trail
    “This trail seems to start out from the beach, and quickly comes to a cute little walking bridge, in a scenic area of the beach. From there, it was more than a km before I came to the point where the trail headed up, off the beach.

    The beach is mostly sand, with some more gravelly areas. It’s easiest to walk right along the water’s edge, so that’s what I did.

    The beach trail ended up getting a bit monotonous, so I was definitely looking forward to reaching that trail split off!

    When I did, there’s a couple boardwalk areas, then it hits some narrow, somewhat steep inclines. Here’s where it becomes a more moderate trail, just the last little bit of it.

    You reach a large boulder that you have to scale, and that’s where the trail goes difficult. A few feet after the boulder, the trail splits in two directions, with no indication of where to go.”

    4 part image showing various views along the Rockcliff Trail at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    Rockcliff Trail
    “To the right, I found some cool caves. I was about to investigate when I remembered Marie mentioning comments on AllTrails urging hikers to bring bear bells, because the top of the trail is REALLY known for a lot of bear activity. (And I did see bear scat).

    So, I carefully grabbed a few pictures up there - enjoying the view down on the beach. The trail continued into the woods, and it was OBVIOUSLY an animal path, and I had no real desire to encounter a bear by myself.

    SO, I turned around to check out where the left path went. That one leads up more boulders to another split. The left side leads up to an outlook that isn’t very interesting, so I recommend going right there. That way, you can stand up on a rock and basically see close to 360 degrees.

    From there, I headed back... occasionally looking back to make sure I didn’t have any bears following me!”

    4 part image showing various views along the Rockcliff Trail at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    Rockcliff Trail

    Campground Trail

    Finally, there’s a trail running up the length of the campground, but it’s unnamed on the park map and website. This is what Porter had to say about it:

    “This is a narrow trail following between a row of campsites and the lakeshore. It's moderate difficulty, with some areas being soft and muddy, and lots of tree roots.

    Every fifty meters or so you pass branches on the left and right, which are little trails connecting each site to the water. Many of these have great lake views with at the rocky shoreline. A few have a good view but a steep section at the end, making it more difficult to access the water.

    At one spot there's a trail sign pointing to the side, if you skip it you arrive at a small shed with a portable toilet behind it.

    This is a fun way to get from your campsite to the water, or to the boat launch, but that's about it. Think of it more like a connecting path that has much better views than following along the campground road.”

    4 part image showing various views along the Campground Trail at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    Campground Trail

    Biking

    There aren’t any cycling trails at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park, but the park invites campers to bike through the campground roads.

    The roads were actually in really good shape overall, with relatively low traffic.

    On the website, the park reminds kids to wear their helmets - it’s the law. I’d like to personally add “please supervise your young ones”.

    On the first day of our stay, someone was seconds away from having a REALLY bad stay - and we probably lost a few years off the ends of our lives - when a little girl came flying down the embankment of one site and into the road in front of us as we drove to our site.

    Luckily we were driving WAY under the speed limit - but the trees blocking the view until the last second, combined with her absolutely not watching where she was going? Oof. Scary!

    A footbridge extending towards a beach.

    Swimming

    Sandbar Lake Provincial Park prides itself on its beautiful sandy beach. It’s a bit bigger than we expected, for the small size of the park.

    While the swimming area isn’t huge, the sand beach itself extends out from the area for a fair distance.

    The water looks to be clean, but definitely has some of the “small, inland lake” kind of stuff going on. Still, less offensive on that front than most, IMHO (Yes, I know I’m a princess about beaches).

    Also of note: IF the beach is popular with geese, you wouldn’t know - the sand definitely seemed groomed, and really stood out for how clean it was!

    4 part image showing the beach at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    The Beach

    Birding, Wildlife, and Nature

    There are black bears in the area - as we knew from researching the Rockcliff Trail - and we saw a bear trap off to the side of the main campground road.

    Beyond that, this was a weird park for us, in terms of wildlife photography. We had a variety of wildlife encounters... and the circumstances of each were such that we didn’t get any photos.

    1 - Happened across our first Sharp-Tailed Grouse on the side of the road, it ran off too fast.

    2 - Had a Pileated Woodpecker fly RIGHT over my head... after Porter and I had split onto different trails, and he had the good camera.

    3 - A few minutes later, I watched a couple Broad-Winged Hawks flying overhead, while calling Porter and telling him that he might want to hurry up if he wanted to see a show!

    4 - At the same time, Porter startled a Ruffed Grouse and her babies, and was too close to get any photos with the birding camera before they got away.

    5 - Same thing, but it was a few American Woodcocks (minus the babies, anyway!).

    6 - I saw a handful of Painted Turtles JUST in time to watch them slip into the water.

    ... and so on, and so on.

    6 part image showing the various wildlife listed in the caption.
    Row 1: Canada Tiger Swallowtail, Killdeer
    Row 2: Least Fycatcher, Lesser Yellowlegs
    Row 3: Ruffed Grouse, Spotted Sandpiper
    Overall, we heard and/or saw:

    Alder Flycatcher, American Redstart, American Robin, American Woodcock, Bay-Breasted Warbler, Black-and-White Warbler, Black-Billed Cuckoo, Blackburnian Warbler, Black-Capped Chickadee, Black-Throated Blue Warbler, Black-Throated Green Warbler, Blue-Headed Vireo, Blue Jay, Broad-Winged Hawk, Canada Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Cedar Waxwing, Chestnut-Sided Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Common Loon, Common Yellowthroat, Golden-Crowned Kinglet, Greater Yellowlegs, Hermit Thrush, Killdeer, Least Flycatcher, Magnolia Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Northern Parula, Ovenbird, Pileated Woodpecker, Pine Warbler, Purple Finch, Red-Breasted Nuthatch, Red-Eyed Vireo, Ruffed Grouse, Sharp-Tailed Grouse, Song Sparrow, Spotted Sandpiper, Swainson’s Thrush, Swamp Sparrow, Tennessee Warbler, White-Throated Sparrow, Winter Wren, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Yellow Warbler.

    A canoe pulled up on shore at Sandbar Lake.

    Boating

    Sandbar Lake Provincial Park seems really well set up for various water activities.

    Several people were launching canoes and kayaks from the main beach when we first pulled up, and the park is an access point for a few longer canoe routes.

    One - Canoe Route 79 - is supposed to take 4-5 days, and takes you through “some of the finest fishing lakes in Northern Ontario”.

    The other - Sandbar-Press Lake Canoe Loop - is 160km long (ONE HUNDRED AN D SIXTY KILOMETERS!!!), and takes 9-12 days. The description mentions that it takes you past several pictograph sites, which is cool.

    Anyway, there’s also a boat launch for motorboats.

    As previously mentioned, it’s got a huge parking lot. The launch and dock seem to be in decent shape, with the launch extending pretty quickly into relatively deep water.

    There’s also a set of vault toilets in the boat launch parking lot - something we don’t see often.

    2 part image showing the boat launch and dock at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    The Boat Launch.

    Fishing & Hunting

    The park is known as a great fishing spot, and - as with Ojibway’s site - the park website mentions the lakes “teeming” with a variety of fish species. (Northern Pike, Smallmouth Bass, and Walleye).

    Anyway, there’s a little fish cleaning hut next to the boat launch, with cutting tables, lights, and running water. There’s also a set of vault toilets right next to that fish cleaning station.

    Also, heads up: They allow hunting in certain areas of the park.

    After waking up to the sound of echoing gunfire at 6am every morning during our stay at Rideau River Provincial Park ... I’d keep that in mind when booking during hunting season!

    2 part image showing the inside and outside of the fish cleaning station at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
    The Fish Cleaning Station.

    Discovery Program

    As with most of the Ontario Parks that offer Discovery Programming, the events at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park scheduled during July and August, exclusively.

    We didn’t see anything about specific events that might happen, but it sounds like they do the whole Exploration Station / Discovery Activity Book thing.

    Niantic Games

    There is a single Ingress game point (Pokestop/ Gym / Ingress Portal/etc) in the park. It’s located at the highway sign - not SUPER far from the campground, but not super convenient either.

    Given the lack of cellular reception we encountered ... we wouldn’t recommend planning on even getting your daily tasks done, if staying at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.

    4 part image showing various wildflowers.

    Final Thoughts

    Sandbar Lake Provincial Park is a super cute park!

    We love how much is packed into such a small area, and how well maintained it is - mostly. Almost everything - aside from the accessible comfort station and trails, anyway - seemed to be well appointed, in great condition and just really well taken care of.

    We love the idea of a rental motorboat - I can think of quite a few parks that would have come in handy for.

    All the map, sign, and trail nonsense... was a bit much. I hope that they invest some time and money into fixing up the Silhouette Trail at the very least - it’s such a cute idea!

    Overall, it’s too bad that we had to cut our planned stay short, before we even arrived. We’re definitely going to have to come back sometime, and spend more time birding, enjoying the beach, etc!

    A pond at Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.

    More Northern Ontario Provincial Parks & Places to See

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

    Northern Ontario Campground Reviews:

    Aaron Provincial Park
    Agawa Bay Campground, Lake Superior Provincial Park
    Blue Lake Provincial Park
    Caliper Lake Provincial Park
    Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park
    Lake Superior Provincial Park
    MacLeod Provincial Park
    Neys Provincial Park
    Ojibway Provincial Park
    Pakwash Provincial Park
    Pancake Bay Provincial Park
    Pukaskwa National Park
    Quetico Provincial Park
    Rabbit Blanket Lake, Lake Superior Provincial Park
    Rainbow Falls Provincial Park
    Rushing River Provincial Park
    Sioux Narrows Provincial Park
    Sleeping Giant Provincial Park
    White Lake Provincial Park

    Northern Ontario Places to See:

    Aguasabon Falls & Gorge
    Amethyst Mine Panorama
    Batchawana Bay
    Chippewa Falls
    Kakabeka Falls
    Mink Creek Falls
    Old Woman Bay
    Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park
    Potholes Provincial Park
    Roy Wilson Suspension Bridge
    Sand River Falls
    Scenic High Falls
    Temagami Fire Tower
    Terrace Bay Beach

    Want to explore beyond 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!

    A rocky outcrop next to a wooden dock.

    Thanks for Reading!

    If you loved this post - or have any questions about it - please leave a comment below! We'd also love it if you would consider sharing the link on social media!

    Tall red pine trees.

    A sandy beach on Sandbar Lake.

    A footbridge over some water, going towards a sandy beach.

    A rocky shoreline on Sandbar Lake.

    More Campground Reviews

    • Sunrise over a marshy lake at esker lakes provincial park.
      Esker Lakes Provincial Park
    • A trail through boreal forest, with remi lake in the background.
      Rene Brunelle Provincial Park
    • Hughes Lake, with lilypads in the foreground.
      Kettle Lakes Provincial Park
    • 2 waterfalls at Kap-Kig-Iwan Provincial Park.
      Kap-Kig-Iwan Provincial Park

    Reader Interactions

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Primary Sidebar

    The 2 Nerds in a Truck logo - a cartoon RV, wearing nerd glasses over the headlights.

    2 Nerds in a Truck


    Two Nerds buy an RV... Hilarity ensues!

    Well, maybe not hilarity... but a lot of DIY, camp cooking, travel, and general fun!

    More about us... →


    Join us on Social Media

    Youtube Logo. Pinterest Logo - White on red background. BlueSky Logo - White on Blue background. TikTok Logo Icon

    Most Recent Posts

    • Several Sesame ginger Chicken and Pineapple Kebabs, with juicy marinated chicken pieces, pineapple chunks, green bell pepper, and red onion.
      Chicken & Pineapple Kebabs
    • A skillet and plate of camping bananas foster.
      Bananas Foster
    • A pan and a plate of bagel breakfast strata with sausage and cheese.
      Bagel Breakfast Strata
    • A grilled calzone stuffed with cheeseburger ingredients.
      Campfire Calzones

    Footer

    About

    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

    Newsletter

    • Click here to sign up for emails and updates

    Our Other Blogs

    • Celebration Generation
    • Beyond Flour
    • Low Carb Hoser
    • Spandex Simplified
    • Marie Back on Ice
    • Autism Rants

    Note: This site is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for the site to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites. While we’ll only ever link to items that we, personally, wholeheartedly recommend, we do need to put that disclosure out there!

    Copyright © 2024 Foodie Pro on the Foodie Pro Theme

    We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.