Bass Lake Provincial Park is a cute little Provincial Park, in a somewhat urban setting - near Orillia. Here's what we thought of our stay!
Bass Lake park is a popular spot, conveniently located in cottage country - Orillia, in this case.
We booked a larger-than-average first stay (for us, anyway), so we’d have a chance to check out a couple nearby provincial parks.
We enjoyed our stays at Mara Provincial Park and McRae Point Provincial Park, in between enjoying everything that Bass Lake had to offer.
The first few days of our stay were fantastic!
Apparently the parents got raptured or something, because they were nowhere to be seen as these feral kids were tearing up and down the roads - and way up into our campsite, at times - screaming like they were being tortured.
Very disconcerting - and that was before a large roving group of kids broke out into some kind of chanting song, all in unison, right outside our site.
Anyway, the park seemed fine with just letting this continue into all hours of the night, which sucked.
We’re going to try to not let that colour our review too much, but to be honest?
Our feelings about the park changed drastically from the first few days, to the last few days - directly as a result of this.
The Basics:
Campground Name: Bass Lake Provincial Park
Address: 2540 Bass Lake Sideroad E, Oro-Medonte Township, ON L3V 6H2
Website: Bass Lake Provincial Park
Price: Ontario Provincial Parks uses a pricing matrix across all their parks. See 2023 Camping Fees for more details.
Reservations: Ontario Parks Reservations
Logistics
Some of the basics you’ll want to know, to plan your trip.
Registration and Check In
We booked our stay about 5 months ahead of time, on the Ontario Parks website - as always, no issues to report.
Check in went quickly and easily as usual, with the same friendly service that seems to be the default at our Provincial Parks.
It took maybe 2 minutes to look up our reservation details, hand us a map, and send us on our way with a smile.
Maps, Signage, and Website
There were some weird discrepancies between the park map, the website, and - at times - reality.
Here are some of our observations about the information sources at Bass Lake Provincial Park:
Park Map
The park map is an 11x17" double sided, full colour map. One side has the whole park overview map, and the other has general info about the park.
We liked that the map had one way arrows indicated on the roads - we don’t see a lot of that, and it definitely made getting around a bit easier.
There were some notable absences from the map and/or reality:
1. The weird little murder shack cottage near the roofed accommodations does not appear on the map, and no mention of it on the park’s site. We later found out this was the “stone milk house”.
3. There are all kinds of little trails joining campground areas to each other, to the main road, etc - and none of them show up on the map.
This got kind of confusing when we were doing the higher portion of the hike - we’d get to a tangle of paths, and weren’t sure which was the actual trail we meant to be following.
Signage
The signage in the park was adequate to good, throughout the whole park.
They were the blue signs with white - I wonder if all the provincial park signs are being switched over to this style?
Last year - when we started camping - most were brown and yellow, which were hard to see in spring and fall. Loving these higher contrast ones.
My only complaint about signage was that we had no context at all for the numbered signs we saw along the trail. Were they points of interest?
Distance markers? I have no idea where they would have started, or which areas of the loops they’d be marking, so I’m guessing points of interest.
Services
The main trailer sanitation station is as you’re leaving the park, after you pass the registration office.
It’s really meant to be accessed via the park - if you need to use it on the way in, you may want to do a big U turn, just past the gatehouse.
Anyway, this station is a single trailer fill platform, then a single trailer dumping platform - no bypass lane.
It’s nice to see the fill station first - we KNOW so many people don’t wash their hands after using the washroom, it always feels gross to use the fill tap *after* the dump station.
Anyway, it doesn’t seem like a great setup for the size of the park, I bet it’s a bit of a wait on Sundays - and especially at the end of a long weekend.
This one is located in the loop with the garbage and recycling areas. There is no dump platform with this one.
Connectivity
While our internet connection in the RV got a bit slow on the weekend, in general we had really good connectivity, all the way through the park.
On the weeknights we were streaming new Doctor Who episodes - it only got glitchy on the Friday and Saturday nights.
There is no park wifi, as far as we know.
Accessibility
In terms of the basic amenities, the park is pretty accessible.
They have 2 electrical (#5 and #6) barrier free campsites in Eastside Campground, right next to the comfort station. There’s also a single non-electric campsite in the Lakeview Campground that’s a barrier-free campsite.
Each of the comfort stations and visitor buildings are also touted as being accessible.
In terms of activities, a short portion of the Waterview Trail is wheelchair accessible - extending out both directions from the boat launch parking area. (There is accessible parking available).
For other mobility issues, the trail is generally flat, wide, and well packed. All of the trail on the lake side of the main road is easy, and could be handled on crutches, with a cane, or in a boot.
The trail on the other side of the main road goes up hill and through forest. I was having a good tendon day, but could have done that section in a walking boot if needed. Cane might be ok, would not recommend it on crutches.
That half of the trail might also be difficult if you have lower back issues - mine certainly wasn’t very happy about it, LOL!
Pets
Pets are allowed at Bass Lake Provincial Park, but - unlike some others we’ve been to - there doesn’t seem to have been much effort to *welcome* dogs.
There is one small on-leash dog play area, and that’s it.
It’s not in particularly great shape, and definitely feels like it was just sectioned off to meet a request, rather than to craft a nice space for dogs to use.
They’re not allowed on the beach at all, must be leashed at all times (even in the off season), and owners are expected to pick up after their dogs, as always.
Parking
There seemed to be plenty of parking in Bass Lake Provincial Park, both in the campsites themselves, and at the main attractions and activities.
The beach parking area was smaller than we tend to see at provincial park beaches, but then again... so is the beach!
The only parking lot that was too small was the one at the boat launch. It serves as the trail head for the main hiking trail, so it was definitely busy at time.
Miscellaneous
The beach is west facing, and the boat launch is more or less facing west as well. These areas are great for watching the sun set over Bass Lake.
Between the orientation and the light pollution, this park isn’t a great choice for viewing then Northern Lights or stargazing in general.
Campground Amenities & Info
Here’s some basic information on the park amenities:
Creature Comforts
The three main campgrounds in the park - Eastside, Hilltop, and Lakeview - each have access to full comfort station, with showers and flush toilets. (Eastside and Hilltop share one).
There are also vault toilets throughout the campgrounds, day use area, and by the roofed accommodations.
Park Store
There’s a small freestanding park store in the day use area.
During our stay - beginning of June - it had very limited hours, just Friday through Sunday.
The website says it’s open from the last weekend in June until Labour Day, so maybe that means daily?
Anyway, we went in on the Friday, and it was cute. It had a good selection of snacks, souvenirs, and camping essentials.
Loved the little display of travel sized toiletries and necessities, too!
Day Use Area
Picnicking seems to be a big draw of this park.
There are THREE picnic shelters that can be reserved between Victoria Day and Labour Day, and then are first-come first-served on the off season.
One can hold up to 100 people, the other two are a bit smaller and hold about 4 people each. Each has a charcoal BBQ included.
There are also some cute, secluded picnic tables right near the water (accessed via the Waterview Trail):
... and then a whole bunch more in the grassy area near the beach.
The recreational area is at the far end, with a smallish beach, some open area...
And a fun looking playground, right near the beach.
Rentals
I laughed a bit at the use of “small fleet” used to describe the canoe rentals, but they were not kidding - there are a TON of canoes and kayaks available for rent at Bass Lake Provincial Park.
Each comes with everything you’d need, including personal floatation devices (PFDs), oars, and an emergency kit.
They also loan PFDs, available with a $30 refundable deposit.
Now here’s the cool thing - and I hope our photo does it justice.
Just behind the canoe rental area, there’s another dock that seems specifically designed for canoes and kayaks.
Rather than loading the canoe directly into the water and getting in that way, it has a kind of chute to hold the watercraft, as you get in.
I’m not sure of the mechanics involved, but I’m assuming that once a person is in, that side of the launch dips into the water enough to be able to push off.
What a cool idea - we’ve yet to try kayaking, but I would be 100x more comfortable with getting in THAT way!
Campsite Details
There are 3 main camping areas for car camping - or tent camping! - at Bass Lake Provincial Park, as well as a little mini campground area.
The different campgrounds are:
Cedar Campground: A mini loop of 6 campsites, down by the lake. They all non-electric sites, with no flush toilets or showers in the immediate area. Very uneven sites, from what we could see.
Eastside Campground: All electrical sites.
Hilltop Campground: Has both electrical and non-electric campsites. One row of this campground backs onto the highway, and there was a fair amount of traffic noise from it, when we drove through to check it out.
Lakeview Campground: non-electrical sites, but no actual lake view! We did see a Cooper’s Hawk just hanging out in this campground, though! This one had the cutest sites of the campground, IMHO.
In general, the sites all seemed pretty big - ours was huge! - and have relatively easy access to the water taps located throughout the campgrounds.
Our Campsite
Like I’d mentioned, our campsite was HUGE - it was also really cute. Set back a ways from the road, a nice tree canopy, good privacy... it seemed perfect!
And then I noticed a swingset right on the other side of the trees.
It looked really old, and - because I hadn’t seen anything about a playground on the map - I wondered if it was out of use. The area looked to be where the maintenance building was, after all.
I hadn’t seen the “adjacent to field” notation when booking our site. Even if I had, I would have been surprised to see the swing set located RIGHT next to the tree line.
Hearing kids playing in the field was one thing.
I was definitely not a fan of how these families seemed to think that our being next to the play area - completely separated with trees and bushes, mind you - entitled them to be *in* our space.
“Privacy” goes right out the window, when people let their kids run right up into your site!
Roofed Accommodations
Bass Lake Provincial Park has 5 soft sided shelters as their roofed accommodation offerings.
These are wood framed canvas tent buildings - “prospector-style”.
While this style of camping isn’t really our bag - especially because you can’t bring cats with you! - these were really cute.
They had some landscaping done, wildflowers everywhere - it was a nice vibe.
There were no comfort stations anywhere near them, but they did have a couple of vault toilets close by.
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Entertainment and Activity
For such a small park, there’s a surprising number of things to do!
Here’s what you need to know, in terms of the recreational opportunities at Bass Lake Provincial Park.
Hiking
The park doesn’t have a ton in the way of hiking, and information on distances are confusing. Let me see if I can lay this out in a way that makes sense.
First of all, the park mentions having “A 2.8 km hiking trail”, but then elsewhere mentions a “4 km trail network”. Neither of those distances lined up with us doing the main trails in the park.
Basically, there’s a large, irregular loop that goes along the water for a while, then cuts across the main road and goes up by the campgrounds, before crossing back over the road and looping up by the roofed accommodations. This is the Waterview Trail.
There’s also a short “bypass” type trail, a short distance from the boardwalk on the main trail. (Edgar Walker Trail).
By our measurements:
The Main Loop, skipping the Edgar Walker Trail: 3.13 km.
The Main Loop, but using the Edgar Walker trail and skipping the small loop that goes through the Roofed Accommodations area: 2.13 km.
JUST doing the small loop and the Edgar Walker Trail: 0.93 km.
Edgar Walker Trail: 0.14 for the trail itself, plus a little bit to get there.
Waterview Trail
This was a relatively easy trail for the most part, with a bit of steep uphill areas as you left the beach area and headed towards the campgrounds.
It’s generally flat, well packed ground, but paved in some areas, grass in others, and with a boardwalk in another area. Very ADHD friendly!
The section that goes up along the campgrounds was a little boring, but the trail on the other side of the main road had plenty to look at.
The boardwalk was great for birding - more on that in a bit - and there were large sections of wildflowers.
There’s the stone milk house, and - not far away - a silo.
The trail gets a bit confusing in areas, especially up by the campground. There are a few places where it splits off from itself, without making it obvious which trail you’re supposed to be on.
At one point, you exit the trail onto one of the roads that go up into the campgrounds, and you have to walk down that road a bit to find where the trail picks up on the other side.
It was a nice enough trail, overall - maybe a bit misleading with the name. Only a small portion of the trail has a view of the water!
The Edgar Walker Trail
We didn’t see any signage about who Edgar Walker was, or why the trail was named after him.
As I mentioned, this was just a really short bypass kind of trail. Straight, mostly grass covered, and relatively low land.
It was VERY spongy and wet when we did it, despite all of the other trails being dry. It also included a relatively large muddy area to navigate.
It was pretty enough - walking through a bunch of wildflowers, mostly - but if the ground is really wet during your stay, I’d probably skip it.
There are enough wildflower areas on the main trail, that you’re not really going to miss much by staying dry!
Biking
We didn’t get around to cycling during our stay, but biking is allowed on park roads.
Also, a portion of the hiking trail is bicycle-friendly - mostly everything on the trails that are on the water side of the main road.
Swimming
There is a very small, somewhat sandy beach at Bass Lake Provincial Park.
The water has a rocky base, but is generally clear and seemed fairly clean.
... there were a LOT of geese, especially for such small area. And yes, all those geese at the beach means exactly what you think it does.
If you’re going to lay out on the sand, be sure to have a blanket or towel to lay on... and just realize that this park does not have laundry facilities.
Birding, Wildlife, and Nature
When the weather was nice, birding at Bass Lake Provincial Park was FANTASTIC!
There were Black Throated Green Warblers, Chickadees, Red-Eyed Vireos, Scarlet Tanagers, and even a Blackburnian Warbler hanging out right in our campsite at times, and we saw a Coopers Hawk on our first drive-through of the park.
That one was particularly memorable. He was right in front of us, flew a short distance off - clearly in view - and seemed to pose for photos.
Then a Blue Jay landed on the branch over top of him, and defecated on him.
What a very Blue Jay thing to do, IMHO.
What we saw: American Goldfinch, American Robin, Black and White Warbler, Black Capped Chickadee, Black Throated Green Warbler, Blue Jay, Coopers Hawk, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Phoebe, Grey Catbird, Great Crested Flycatcher, House Wren, Indigo Bunting, Northern Cardinal, Ruby Throated Hummingbird, Red-Eyed Vireo, Scarlet Tanager, Song Sparrow.
What we heard (In addition to what we saw!): American Crow, American Redstart, Blackburnian Warbler, Chestnut Sided Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Ovenbird, Swainson’s Thrush, Veery, Warbling Vireo, White Throated Sparrow, Wilson’s Warbler, Yellow Bellied Sapsucker,
...And there may or may not have been a Golden-Crowned Kinglet. It showed up on our Merlin App, but we didn’t notice hearing it.
2nd Row: Eastern Kingbird, Grey Catbird
3rd Row: Great Crested Flycatcher, Indigo Bunting
Boating
Boating seems to be a big thing at Bass Lake PP.
There’s a centrally-located boat launch - in great condition! - as well as a smaller fishing dock, and the canoe/kayak launch by the rentals area.
This seems like a great park to START canoeing or kayaking at, between the number of rentals available, and that specialty dock.
Kinda wish we’d had more time, and finally tried it out!
Fishing
Our stay happened a few weeks before the smallmouth bass season - it starts on the last Saturday of June.
Anyway, there’s a cute little fishing dock a short way down the trail from the boat launch parking lot.
We saw people fishing off it - and someone caught something! - but I have no idea what it was, or what was available for dock fishing.
Discovery Program
Bass Lake Provincial Park runs a Discovery Program, but only during the months of July and August.
There was no information posted at the time of our stay, but it’s safe to assume they have at least the Discovery Activity Book based activities.
Misc
The park is physically closed after the fall closing date (the Tuesday after Thanksgiving), but people are welcome to walk in for cross country skiing, dog walking, snowshoeing, and winter hiking.
The trails are ungroomed but open for all of those activities, along with the park roads.
Niantic Games
There were several portals / Pokestops / gyms located throughout the park, mostly fairly spread out.
Your best bet is to park by the boat launch (2 Pokestops), and walk along the trail to the beach. There are a ton of spawn points, and a fair amount of stops/portals/gyms along the way.
There are also a few in the actual campgrounds, but not necessarily in reach of all the sites.
If you want to brave being next to a swingset, our campsite - #46 - was on a portal / pokestop.
Nearby Attractions
The park is located only a 5 minute drive from a signficant retail area, with convenience stores, gas stations, groceries, movie theatres, restaurants, shopping and more.
Final Thoughts
I feel like we had two wildly different stays - during our ONE stay - and very different opinions of the park for each.
During the first half of our stay, the park was lovely - I definitely could have seen coming back. The site was pretty, the birding was fantastic, and it was relatively peaceful.
I feel bad holding the actions of the group of families against the park, but really... nothing was done.
We called after there were several hours of endless screaming - and we were getting ready for bed - and they didn’t do anything.
The next morning, it was back to the same as the day before - endless screaming, packs of kids running in the roads, kids coming right UP into our site and making noise next to our camper, etc.
To be clear, this went WAY beyond normal childhood excitement and noise. I suspect this was a group of friends who wanted time away from their kids, hung out together at THEIR site, and left their feral gang of miscreants to just run wild.
I’ve NEVER seen or heard anything like this, it was unhinged, and it definitely ruined our stay.
As every provincial park we’ve been to has some sort of rule about no excessive noise at any time... I really feel like something should have been done. This was absolutely inhumane.
So... we won’t be back. The park itself was nice enough, but the lack of enforcement really made things miserable.
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!
Awenda Provincial Park
Balsam Lake Provincial Park
Bon Echo Provincial Park
Canisbay Lake, Algonquin Provincial Park
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
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