Balsam Lake Provincial Park

Towards the end of our tour of south-central Ontario parks, we recently spent 4 nights at Balsam Lake Provincial Park.

Located in the Kawartha Lakes region, this was the largest of the provincial parks we stayed at in the area, and felt the most... complete?

It had a TON to offer - a fairly hardcore chain of hiking trails, great birding, a fantastic setup for boating and fishing, etc.

The weather wasn’t amazing during our stay - EXTREMELY hot and sunny one day, then rainy or cloudy the rest of the stay... which had us spending a fair amount of time in the RV.

Even still, we had a great time - let us tell you all about it!

The Basics:

Campground Name: Balsam Lake Provincial Park
Address: 2238 County Road 48 Kirkfield, ON K0M 2B0
Website: Balsam Lake Provincial Park
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: Recreational
Season: May 9, 2025 to October 27, 2025

Logistics

Some basic information to help you plan your trip to Balsam Lake Provincial Park!

Registration and Check In

As with all of our campsite reservations, we booked ahead of time on the Ontario Parks reservations portal. No issues to report, there!

Check in was at the Permit Office, near the front of the park. It was an indoor registration setup, with quick and friendly service, as usual.

Maps and Signage

The park map and the road signage through the park was wildly hit or miss.

Park Map

The park map is 11 x 17", full colour, and two sided. One side has the full park overview map - with campsite numbers and all - with the other side being some general info about the park.

In general, I like the map. It’s nice that they could fit so much information on ONE map, and still have it be mostly legible.

That said, there were some weird discrepancies between the map and reality. There are some areas - around Hawthorn - that show up as walking trails when it’s actually road.

The amphitheatre is not mentioned on the map at all... but a weird little “Park Store” - that doesn’t actually seem to be park of the park, and isn’t on park property - IS mentioned.

Signage

Where the signage is good, it’s great! Especially around the main traffic circle and the day use, everything was big, clear, easy to read, etc.

As you’re headed from the day use area towards the Elm and Oak campgrounds, the signage there is not super specific about which road goes to which campground.

In the Hawthorn campground, it’s just chaos. Very little in the way of signage, you basically have to guide yourself by referencing camp site numbers against the map.

Waste & Water Services

The trailer sanitation station is intended to be accessed while exiting the park, but it’s a *tight* turn to the right - not quite a U turn, but aiming in that direction. Definitely go wide if you need to!

It starts out with a single dump platform, with no bypass. After that, there are 3 fill taps - a traditional trailer fill setup on the left, and then two regular taps. (One of either side of the lane).

Connectivity

We had really good wireless connections most of the time, including at the campground, our on the trails, and in the day use area.

We actually had a good enough connection to be able to stream Netflix at night, no issues.

Accessibility

Weirdly, Balsam Lake Provincial Park makes no mention of accessibility on its website - which is an accessibility issue itself, IMHO.

That said, it’s actually a fairly accessible park.

Each of the campground comfort stations are marked as being accessible on the park map.

While the main hiking trail links aren’t wheelchair accessible, there’s the “Lakeshore Legacy Trail” - not mentioned on the website - that goes from the Oak and Elm campsites, down to the boat launch, then continuing on to the day use area.

This trail is wide, flat, and usually paved or well packed gravel - I’m guessing it’s wheelchair accessible. It’s definitely accessible enough for any of the mobility aids I’ve had to use (walking boot, cane, crutches, etc).

There aren’t any wheelchair accessible paths down to the beach.

In terms of mobility aid hiking... Lookout Loop, Woodland Loop, and Pond Loop are more or less accessible if you’re in a boot or using a cane, and feeling adventurous.

Definitely recommend doing it when the ground is DRY though - muddy + walking boot is a gross combo.

I wouldn’t do Lorie’s Link if I was using any kind of mobility aid, though.

An interesting note - the permits office has a long, wheelchair accessible trailer parking spot right in front of it. I don’t think we’ve seen that before!

Pets

Balsam Lake Provincial Park is another one of the parks in the area where the dog friendly areas are small, inconvenient, and leashed.

The only place where dogs are allowed to access the water are at the canoe launch (which isn’t a great setup for it, TBH), and at the far left end of the beach - as you’re looking at the water.

You access the dog beach area via a bit of a trail from the #1 parking lot.

Dogs are supposed to be leashed at all times in the park.

Parking

This park has a TON of parking - it honestly seems like way more parking than it could possibly need, for the size of its beach.

Lots #10 and #11 are boat trailer parking lots specifically, and #10 is HUGE.

As a note, lots 8-11 don’t access the beach directly. You’ll need to get onto the Lakeshore Legacy trail and walk down a bit until you come to an access point.

There’s also a fair amount of parking at the permits office - well laid out for RVs and trailers - and a decent amount of parking at both the Woodland Loop and Lookout Loop trail heads.

Miscellaneous

The beach faces almost straight west, so it’s good for sunsets. (In theory, anyway - too cloudy during our stay!).

Balsam Lake Provincial Park is in an area of relatively high light pollution, though, so it’s not a great option for aurora borealis or star gazing.

Campground Amenities & Info

Here’s some basic information on the amenities the campground has to offer:

Creature Comforts

Each of the campgrounds either has - or has access to - one of 4 main comfort stations. Each of the comfort stations have flush toilets, showers, and laundry facilities.

We used the comfort station between Oak and Elm campgrounds to do a few loads of laundry. It had 2 large washers ($3 per load, Loonies only) and 2 large dryers ($2.50 per load, Loonies and quarters only).

There are no vending or change machines, but they have nice work tables to use for sorting and folding.

In addition to the comfort stations, there are vault toilets throughout the campgrounds and day use area.

There are no washroom facilities near the main hiking trail chain, but there is an outhouse next to the permits office.

Park Store

The park store situation at Balsam Lake Provincial Park is a bit weird.

In BIG letters on the map, there’s the “Ontario Parks Store” near the boat launch - it looked long abandoned, even on a weekend in June.

As you exit the park, there’s a big sign advertising the “Park Store” as being next to site 300. I had managed to miss this on the map - it’s on there, but tiny.

There’s a parking lot for that store in the park - next to site 300 - but you have to go through a fence and cross Parkside Rd to get to this store - it’s not on the park property.

It was closed and there were barricades up during our visit, and we couldn’t find ANY information about it online - it wasn’t even represented on the Google map.

Bizarre.

All that said, there’s a small park gift shop at the permits office. They sell park souvenirs, a few grocery items, some toiletries, ice cream, and firewood.

Day Use Area

There is a relatively large day use area at the beach.

In addition to the sandy beach, you can find a whole bunch of picnic areas. These are on the grassy area, right in the woods near the beach, on the beach itself, and in clearings near the boat launch.

Rentals

There is a Watercraft Rentals area, right near the beach.

This is a decent sized building, where you can rent canoes, kayaks and stand up paddleboards.

As a heads up: you can only access this building via the beach.

Campground Details

Car and Tent Camping

There are a bunch of campgrounds at Balsam Lake Provincial Park. A few notes:

Ash Campground: Electrical campground, all out in the open - no privacy. Has a bunch of pull-through sites.

Cedar Campground: Split into two sections, one with electrical sites, and the other all non-electrical sites.

Elm Campground: Small, non-electric campground. Grassy sites, not a ton of privacy. The sites around the border are cuter and have a bit more privacy than the sites in the middle lanes.

Fir Campground: Tiny, kind of weird campground. The main area is wide open and has a trailer park feel, with electric sites. There are a few little offshoot roads from it that have cute sites with much more privacy, and nice tree cover - those are mostly non-electric sites though.

Hawthorn Campground: All non-electric sites, and a radio free / generator free campground. Absolute mess to get around, really poor signage.

Maple Campground: Mostly non-electric campsites, but has a few electric sites in the area where it connects up to the electrical section of Cedar.

Oak Campground: All electric sites, mostly - maybe all? - pull through sites. Big sites, but more square than long. No privacy, it’s very open. There are a few waterfront sites that are SUPER cute and have good privacy, but may the odds be ever in your favour, should you want to book one!

Poplar Campground: Gated off during our stay, but they were mowing in there. All non-electric sites.

Eco-Sites

In addition to the more standard campsites, there are 6 “eco sites” at Balsam Lake Provincial Park.

These are walk-in camping sites, accessed via a trail from a small parking lot across from the Maple campground. There’s a water tap at the parking lot, and a vault toilet out by the campsites, and that’s it.

It’s also a radio free, dog-free camping area.

Group Camping

There’s a section of 3 group campsites near the beach - and it has a trail from the area, going to parking lot #2.

It was gated off during our stay, so I can really only tell you what I see on the map - each of the 3 group sites has their own water tap and vault toilet.

Also, the group camping is a radio-free campground.

Roofed Accommodation

In addition to actual camping, there’s a single roofed accommodation cottage.

It’s accessed via a small driveway extending from parking lot 11, and backs out onto the Lakeshore Legacy trail.

This one sounds WAY more my style than most of the roofed accommodations at other Provincial Parks - it has central air conditioning! And its own washer and dryer!

Still, pets are banned, so that’s a deal breaker for us.

Entertainment and Activity

There is a TON to do at Balsam Lake Provincial Park, here’s what you need to know:

Hiking

The trail system is a bit weird. There are only two trails listed on the site - Woodland Trail and Lookout Trail - but then each of those two mentions being able to continue on to another trail.

Basically, the two main trails each have a trail head and then another trail connected to it, and THOSE two trails access each other across a road - so the 4 actual trails are a chain:

Beyond that, there’s a trail listed on the map that’s not listed among the trail information on the site - Lakeshore Legacy Trail (I’ll talk about this in the biking section) - AND a trail that... doesn’t seem to exist?

While on the Woodland Trail, we saw some directional signage for Upper and Lower Plantation Trail, but that seemed to just be the Pond Loop?

Maybe it got renamed at some point, I don’t know.

Anyway, we did the full chain of trails, and got creative with it - walking together for the first bit of Lookout Trail, splitting up to cover the whole trail, met up at the start of Lorie’s Link, and spit up again for the Pond Loop and Woodland Trail.

The only part of the trail we didn’t do was the little connection trail that turns Woodland and Pond into a figure 8, rather than a big loop.

We met up again in the Woodland parking lot, and just walked the short distance up the road to get back to the trailhead and parking for the Lookout trail.

Here are some more specific bits of info for each of the hiking trails:

Lookout Trail

Done as a loop by itself, this trail is listed as being 2.1 km long, with a suggested completion time of 1.5 hours.

The description mentions walking through “Eskers and kames” - I had to look the terms up. They’re ridges and hills created by receding glaciers.

Anyway, we found most of the trail to be relatively easy - even path, with some rocky areas and the odd tree root on the path.

As the trail gets closer to the actual lookout point / where Lorie’s Link starts, it goes pretty steeply uphill, and gets quite rocky.

As I mentioned, as did this trail in two parts, separately, and compared notes later.

Heading in from the parking lot, if you take the trail to the left, you’ll gradually walk higher, and have a much drier walk than if you go to the right.

It’s also slightly longer than if you go right at the split, and forest pretty much the whole way.

If you go right at the split, you’ll come to a pretty wetland outlook pretty quickly, then forest almost to the lookout point.

As a note, this half of the trail was extremely muddy when we went.

The forest off to the right side of the trail was pretty open, though, so for the most part I was able to get creative about avoiding the mud pits by veering off the trail.

Whichever direction you go, as you get closer to the Lookout point, your path will pretty suddenly get very steep, going upwards. It was a WORKOUT!

The clearing has a wooden Lookout stand, that gives you a panoramic view of the area. Because you’re looking out over the trees, it’s a great place for birding!

Lorie’s Link Trail

Lorie’s Link is the only trail in the chain that’s linear, rather than a loop.

It’s 1.7 km, with a suggested completion time of 45 minutes. We’d call this one moderate, leaning a little towards difficult.

The majority of the trail was though hilly fields of wildflowers. The path was very narrow, and it got VERY steep and rocky at times.

The first part of the trail is very much out in the open, and there were a TON of dragonflies and butterflies to enjoy along the path. We saw a few Monarch Butterflies, and one gorgeous Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly.

It was also pretty decent for birding.

Eventually you’ll leave the fields and come to a planted pine forest. All the trees were growing in very orderly lines, about the same age.

This section of the trail calms down a bit - mostly a bit wider, well packed trail with more gently rolling hills in places, before ending at the main park road.

As a head’s up, the Lorie’s Link part of the trail chain made it really clear how important bug spray is.

In the open fields, you’re brushing up against tall grasses the whole way - there’s no way to avoid it. Be sure to take all the tick precautions you can!

When we got to the forest section, the mosquitoes were ... next level.

They completely ignored the big spray and ate us alive! My legs were covered in bites for several days, despite having been covered in thick leggings AND sprayed well!

I’ve never seen anything like it.

Pond Loop Trail

After crossing the road to get onto the pond loop trail, we split up again to see the whole thing.

As with the Lookout Trail, you’ll be rewarded with a nicer walk, if you go the longer route - to the left.

Going to the right is a fairly boring walk - well packed pine forest floor for the most part, full tree cover most of the way. (Some places got more narrow and rocky, though).

Some wildflowers, but not a lot to see - and there were NO birds at the time.

Unless you count the mosquitos. They were almost the size of birds, anyway!

Going to the left, though, will reward you with a good view of the pond that you will NOT see at all, if you go to the right at the split.

Other than the pond, the rest of the walk on this side is similar to the right side - A bit more hilly, some clearings, and some birds though.

After comparing notes, it was pretty clear that the overall walk on the left was nicer.

At some point - on either side - you’ll come to a split in the trail, where you can either continue the loop (1.8km, if done as a standalone loop) and head back to the road, or continue straight onto the Woodland Trail.

Woodland Trail

Woodland Trail is 4.2 km when done as a standalone loop, and has its own trail head and parking lot. It’s listed as being moderate, but we didn’t think it was quite that difficult.

It was slightly hilly in areas, but generally more or less flat, wide trail, etc.

There WAS one part where I came around a corner and mistook a weird tangle of tree roots as being a ball of garter snakes or something (took a few years off my life with that stress, LOL!), but it was generally pretty easy.

The longer side of the trail (to the left as we did it, to the right if coming from the parking lot) did get fairly muddy in places, though.

This was a pretty basic walk through the woods, no specific views of note or anything.

We did see a few White Admiral butterflies, though - gorgeous!

Biking

The park’s website invites campers to cycle on the campground roads and nearby cottage roads, but we found the nicest cycling in the area to be along the Lakeshore Legacy Trail.

It’s a relatively short mixed use trail - about 1.25 km from where it starts at the Oak campground, to where it ends at the far park boundary, but it’s nice.

Wide and mostly flat the whole way. Well packed gravel, ground, or paved - depending on the spot - with a short foot bridge in one spot.

The trail is mostly self contained, though you’ll cross the boat launch parking lot at one spot.

It follows along the water, though you don’t really get much in the way of a water view. There are glimpses, though, and you’ll pass all the beach paths that can bring you to the water views.

It was mostly well maintained, aside from some asphalt that was not in the best shape - totally not an issue though.

Swimming

There’s a moderately large sandy beach in the day use area.

We didn’t go swimming ourselves, but it seemed like a nice enough area to take a dip. The water looked mostly clean, with a minor amount of some sort of algae here and there.

Birding, Wildlife, and Nature

The birding opportunities during our stay were fantastic, even though the weather wasn’t ideal for it.

It started with the lookout platform of the Lookout Loop trail, and the great view over the tree line.

Then, there were the birds hanging around near our actual campsite - There were constantly sparrows, Red-Eyed Vireos, and more - sometimes in nearby trees, sometimes right overhead.

Finally, there was the day use area. We wouldn’t have thought it was a suitable spot for birding, just based on the traffic it gets... But it was actually the best birding we had during our stay.

TONS of birds, huge variety, and all through the day. Our best birding actually happened in the middle of one afternoon, all along the day use area!

All told, we saw: American Crow, American Robin, Black Capped Chickadee, Blue Jay, Carib Grackle, Cedar Waxwing, Chipping Sparrow, Common Grackle, Eastern Phoebe, European Starling, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Towhee, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Great Crested Flycatcher, Grey Catbird, House Wren, Northern Cardinal, Pine Siskin, Purple Finch, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, Red-Eyed Vireo, Song Sparrow, Veery, White-Throated Sparrow,

... And we heard: American Goldfinch, American Redstart, Dark-Eyed Junco, Pine Warbler, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Warbling Vireo, Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Yellow Warbler

Boating

Water sports seem to be a big thing at Balsam Lake Provincial Park.

Their rental set up seems to be one of the biggest we’ve seen yet, with Canoes, kayaks and paddle boats being rented from a dedicated building out by the beach.

There’s also the dedication to boat/trailer parking, with TWO parking lots of that - one of them being huge.

Finally, there’s all the different boat launches and docks in the park.

At the main boat launch area, you’ll find 2 boat launches and 3 docks:

Fishing

Fishing happens both out on the lake, and from any of the little docks in the park.

Balsam Lake is known for both Small and Large Mouth Bass, as well as Muskellunge and Walleye.

Discovery Program

As with most of the provincial parks, Balsam Lake Provincial Park runs an educational program during the summer months - July and August.

We didn’t see any information about it during our stay, but it sounds like they post the calendar of events week by week, as they’re happening.

Niantic Games

There are a few portals / Pokestops / gyms in the park, though mostly spread out. Your best bet is the day use area, where there are a few concentrated in a small area.

Our cell phone reception was great, so actually playing wasn’t an issue at all. Also, there were plenty of spawns at our campsite, and we were in range of a stop.

Final Thoughts

Has a great time at this park, overall.

The campground sites in the area we stayed - Oak Campground - are a bit overwhelming, just on account of the lack of privacy.

The size of the site makes up for that a bit, though, as does the fact that our stay was entirely on weekdays. I’m not 100% sure we’d feel the same if we stayed over a weekend, but who knows?

In general, we like how walkable this park is, and the variety of things to do. The birding, in particular, was fantastic.

We also liked having the option of either doing a rugged hike... or taking a nice walk on an easy, scenic trail.

There’s pretty much something for everyone, or whatever mood you’re in. Easy stroll, bike ride, hanging on the beach, boating, strenuous hike - it’s all here.

Pretty sure we’ll be coming back, but aiming for one of those gorgeous little lake view campsites next time!

More Provincial Park Campground Reviews

Want to read some more of what we have to say about the campgrounds we've stayed at? Here are some more reviews!

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Bass Lake Provincial Park
Bon Echo Provincial Park
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Chutes Provincial Park
Driftwood Provincial Park
Earl Rowe Provincial Park
Emily Provincial Park
Inverhuron Provincial Park
Killbear Provincial Park
Lake Superior Provincial Park
Long Point Provincial Park
MacGregor Point Provincial Park
MacLeod Provincial Park
Mara Provincial Park
McRae Point Provincial Park
Neys Provincial Park
Pinery Provincial Park
Point Farms Provincial Park
Port Burwell Provincial Park
Quetico Provincial Park
Rideau River Provincial Park
Rock Point Provincial Park
Rondeau Provincial Park
Sauble Falls Provincial Park
Selkirk Provincial Park
Sibbald Point Provincial Park
Sleeping Giant Provincial Park
Turkey Point Provincial Park
Wheatley Provincial Park