Driftwood Provincial Park

Continuing right along in our big tour of provincial parks in Northern Ontario...

After one of the longest day road trips we’ve taken so far, we pulled up to Driftwood Provincial park, which would end up being an ideal base camp for us, for the following few days.

The drive in was beautiful - loads of gorgeous views of the scenic landscapes that lead up to the park.

The fall colour opportunities were just starting to present themselves - especially after we passed North Bay.

The pristine forest vistas that lined the highway seemed to go from mostly green, to big bursts of flaming colour, right as we left that specific town!

With all of the Northern Lights activity we’d been tracking lately, we were definitely looking forward to our stay at Driftwood.

Stretching along the south shore of the Ottawa River, the majority of Driftwood’s campsites are waterfront campsites!

During our first stay, we thought this just might have been the best place for us to view the aurora, had anything happened during our stay.

... it did not. Boo!

Anyway, lights or not, we had a fantastic stay. We returned and did get to see Aurora, right from our campsite!

Lots to talk about - especially for such a small, understated park! - so let’s get right to it!

The Basics:

Campground Name: Driftwood Provincial Park
Address: 39520 Highway 17 Stonecliffe, ON K0J 2K0
Website: https://www.ontarioparks.com/park/driftwood
Price: Ontario Provincial Parks uses a pricing matrix across all their parks. See 2024 Camping Fees for more details.
Reservations: Ontario Parks Reservations
Park Classification: Recreational
Season: May10, 2024 - October 15, 2024

Logistics

We’ve now visited Driftwood Provincial Park twice. The bulk of the information below was written after our fall trip - we’ve updated anything that changed between then and the summer trip.

Registration and Check In

As always, booking our site was quick and easy through the Ontario Parks online portal.

Signing in when we got to the park was fast and friendly. Something interesting here - it’s a permitless park.

If you do pre-registration online, you can go straight to your camp site and be done with it.

I’m not sure if this also applies to the advanced daily vehicle permits that you can book for the day use area, though.

Maps and Signage

A bit of information on finding your way around the park:

Park Map

In the fall, the park map was a black and white printout. Not great print quality, but at least everything was represented on this one.

It certainly wasn’t the giant middle finger of a “map” we got at MacLeod!

When we returned in the summer, we actually got two maps. One was a newspaper style, that included both Driftwood Provincial Park and Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park.

The other was one of the 11 x 17" glossy, full colour park maps.

Signage & Getting Around

The signage throughout the park was fine. Clear, informative, easy enough to see.

Really though, there didn’t need to be much in the way of signage, given the size and layout of this park.

The roads are in decent shape. If staying in the Ottawa campgrounds, you’ll have to take a relatively steep hill to get there... but our RV & towed car made it, just fine.

Services

The camp sites are a mix of electrical and non electrical. As with the vast majority of Ontario Provincial Parks, none of the sites had water or sewer hookups.

There is a dumping station / fill station just before you get to the park office, as you’re entering the park. (That is, it’s just past the office - to the left - when you’re leaving.)

You want to enter from the side facing the park office, and there are 2 fill platforms / 1 dump platform.

The garbage area is near the dump station, but on the other side of the road.

It was definitely set up to access from the end that’s closest to the park, on your way OUT of the park.

There are a few recycling bins, and a trailer for your garbage.

Connectivity

Cell reception was somewhere between “Just OK” and “Acceptable” for the bulk of our stay. Sometimes we didn’t have much / any connection, but that usually just lasted a few minutes.

Accessibility

None of the trails are at all wheelchair accessible, but the 200 m trail from the Ottawa River East campground to the day use area would probably be ok with other types of mobility aids, like a boot or cane.

The comfort station is barrier free, as long as you access it from the upper parking lot. (There are stairs from the lower parking lot). There is designated accessible parking at the comfort station.

The washer and one of the dryers were on the ground, the second dryer was stacked on top of the first dryer, and would probably be out of reach to a wheelchair user.

There is also a barrier-free campsite near the comfort station.

Finally, at least one of the other toilets in the campground had an accessibility symbol on it - but I forgot to make note of which one! I THINK it was in the Brumm campground, though.

Pets

So far as we could tell, the general rules about keeping dogs leashed at all times probably apply in Driftwood Provincial Park.

Really, the only mention we saw of dogs was a sign at the beach saying they WEREN’T allowed there.

We didn’t see any off-leash dog areas in the park, but we DID see plenty of happy doggos.

Two of our neighbours had Very Good Bois (or Girls!), that would come over to visit us... much to the chagrin of our neighbours.

They thought the dogs were bothering us, but we enjoyed the very flouffy company!

Parking

This is a really small park, with very few campsites. The parking at the day use area is pretty small, but - even in the height of summer - we never really saw many people there.

The campsites mostly seem big enough to accommodate an extra vehicle or two, and there is some overflow parking nearby.

Miscellaneous

The park is in a relatively dark area of Ontario, with very little light pollution.

Fall Visit: Had there been any activity on the Aurora Borealis front, we would have had an AMAZING view from the back of our campsite, which was more or less facing north over the water.

Summer Visit: We lucked into a clear night with auroral activity, and got to enjoy the show from the shoreline right on our own campsite!

We also got to spend some time practicing shooting the Milky Way.

Campground Amenities

Overall, the park and its amenities seemed to be clean and well maintained

Creature Comforts

The comfort station looked really nice - it has showers, flush toilets, and laundry facilities.

It had two parking lots - one at the bottom of a set of stairs as you approach the building from the west side of the campground, and another up and around from there.

To get to that parking lot - which does not involve going up any stairs - you have to drive past the comfort station, past 6 camp sites on your right, then turn right on that loop and come back.

The laundry facilities were clean and in good condition. There was 1 washer and 2 dryers, available for $3/load.

There are also flush toilets in small buildings throughout the camp ground.

I’m not sure if they’re all flush, though - some definitely looked to be vault toilets, though my ~allergy~ to outhouses stopped me from taking a closer look 🙂

Camp Store

There’s a cute little camp store at the park office. It was kind of “TARDIS” - looked much bigger on the inside!

You can buy all the usual Ontario Parks souvenirs, along with firewood, ice, and a nice selection of junk food. This is also where you can arrange to rent a canoe, or borrow PFDs.

Day Use Area

There’s a decent sized day-use area on the east end of the park, accessible by a road that goes straight out from the gate house.

Note: There’s a separate road at that intersection that takes you down to the Ottawa campground areas.)

The beach was closed due to blue green algae for the duration of our first stay, but was open during our second stay.

There was a posting about elevated bacteria levels on the park alerts page during our second trip, though.

Campsite Details

The park is a mix of electric sites and non electric sites, spread out across 3 small campgrounds.

Ottawa River West and Ottawa River East campgrounds are non electric, laid out in a long line along the bank of the Ottawa River. Most have waterfront access, and all are non-electric sites.
These sites make up the bulk of the campground, with about ⅔ of the sites located between the two sections.

The Brumm campground is a small cluster of electrical sites in the woods. Most are a short walk from the beach, but none have a waterfront view.

Clearly, we chose a non-electric campsite 🙂

Either way, all camp sites have a picnic table and a fire ring. They’re also all within an easy walk of the vault toilets and water taps, located throughout the park.

We saw a good mix of different RV sizes, campers, camper vans, pop-ups, and tents during our stay.

Some of the sites in the Brumm Campground are HUGE pull-through sites that look like they could accommodate basically anything.

Our Campsite

Our first campsite - #8 - was absolutely perfect!

It was huge, waterfront, and had very easy access to the shore - an easy slope down from the main area of the site.

(Some of the other waterfront sites - especially to the west of us - had more obstructed views).

We enjoyed spectacular panoramic views of the Ottawa River, along with several beautiful sunsets during our stay.

... though I could definitely go without hearing another “I can see Quebec from my yard!” from my husband, ever again. LOL!

On our second stay, we were a little up from that site, at #14. Still nice, but not quite AS nice. A bit of a weird layout / orientation.

Group Camping

There are two group campsites in the park - one just off the road to the day use area, and one at the top of the first loop in the Brumm campground.

Entertainment and Activity

Driftwood Provincial Park may be small, but it offers a number of recreational activities to partake in:

Hiking

There are several hiking trails surrounding the park.

I’d been looking forward to exploring all of them on our first trip, but was still dealing with a knee that had other ideas, after being blown out in Lake Superior Provincial Park.

On our second visit, I’d overdone it at Bon Echo a few days before - but Porter was finally able to check them all out!

See below for his thoughts on each trail:

The Chevrier Creek Trails - Moderate

The Chevrier Creek Trail starts as a 1.3 km (there and back) trail originating near from the road going to the day use area.

From the end of that section - near the road to the Ottawa campgrounds - it turns into a chain series of 4 joined trail loops:

Chevrier Creek Trail, Loop 1 (1.8 km)

This is a narrow path, but has a wide area cleared of tall vegetation - with the exception of ferns, which encroach on the trail in some areas.

As the loop heads away from the river, you're met with a pine forest with a high canopy, filled with ferns on the ground.

The trail is moderate in difficulty - mostly easy but some portions of this trail are steep. Part of the trail extends on the top of a ridge, providing an amazing view of the forest on either side.

Keep an eye - and ear - out for woodpeckers.

Chevrier Creek Trail, Loop 2 (3.7 km)

Although this trail walks parallel with the river for a good distance, you don't get a good view of it. You can see water through the thick forest of trees, but expect this to be woodsy hike, not a water hike.

More ferns blanketing the pine forest is seen for part, and many species of fungus can be seen on this trail.

Several portions get close to the highway, expect to hear road noise on the half that is further from the river. You can actually see the highway and cars going by in some areas!

This sort of pulls you out of the nature experience and is a bummer.

Terrain is more rough in some areas but still a moderate difficulty, with lots of small up-and-down sections.

Chevrier Creek Trail, Loop 3 (2 km)

This trail has a completely different feel from the other loops.

The forest floor is lush with a variety of vegetation. Large moss and lichen covered boulders form the path in many areas and outlooks.

You're provided with stunning views of the river at a rocky shoreline in multiple outlooks.

I could spend an hour there just enjoying the view!

Near the end you follow along a creek and can hear the rushing water over the rocks for some distance. Next you realize the trail crosses the creek and your only path across is to follow the large boulders in the creek!

The rock path earns this trail a moderate to difficult rating, IMHO

Chevrier Creek Trail, Loop 4 (1.8 km)

Much of this trail follows closely to the river, with some good river viewpoints.

There are an amazing amount of fungi on this trail, try to see how many different varieties you can spot!

Right around the furthest point from the campground you come upon an outhouse. It looks old and I didn't dare look inside. I imagine this would be a great filming location for a horror movie, except for the difficult access.

Like loop 3 you find yourself at a rushing creek over large boulders, again realizing you must cross to proceed.

This one is significantly more difficult than loop 3's crossing though. The rocks are entirely wet, and slippery with growth.

I was a little nervous crossing it carrying my camera, but I managed to cross without an issue.

This is a difficult trail, but worth it if you're up for the challenge!

The Oak Highland Trail - Moderate

The Oak Highland Trails consist of two loops - a 2.3 km Beaver Pond Loop, and a 1 km Riverview Loop:

Beaver Pond Loop

This trail takes you through a lush forest with tall trees and dense forest floor growth. Moss covers logs and boulders throughout the trail.

Watch for a variety of fungus species, I saw several dark black mushrooms which were particularly interesting to me.

Also keep an eye out for quartz deposits in the boulders, creating cool patterns on your path.

The beaver lodge has a descriptive plaque that is very old and difficult to read. There are actually several "stations" with information along the trail, some missing the text entirely and all needing a refresh.

The beaver lodge stop is a nice outlook, but unfortunately, dense growth on the hill meant that I could not even locate the beaver lodge.

The path goes up and down a lot, over rocky sections that require you to watch your step quite a bit. This earns it a difficult rating in my opinion.

As the trail gets close to the river, watch for outlooks which are sometimes marked as part of the trail and sometimes not. Through the pines you get a great elevated view of the river and surrounding area.

At one point I lost the trail, it went to an outlook and stopped, so it seemed.

By loading Pokemon Go - which bails us out of these sort of issues all the time - I found that the trail continues around a large boulder. It's difficult to find!

Riverview Trail (1 km)

Since I started with the Beaver Pond trail, I had to choose which path of the Riverview walk to start with. I chose to go to the right, looking for more great river views.

This path is extremely hilly and rocky, it's definitely a difficult trail. If you have good hiking shoes and good balance you won't need to use your hands to climb or get balance, but with lesser shoes I would have needed my hands for assistance.

There are indeed several outlooks to the river, with great views of a little island not far from the shore.

The trail conditions are similar to the Beaver Pont Trail, with moss covering much of the rock and wood.

Quartz and copper colors pop out from boulders, creating almost a sparkling effect against the greens.

The trail ends at the boat launch of the day use area, requiring you to walk up the steep road back to the parking.

I chose to check out the other leg of the Riverview trail as well. Steep hills and rock paths continue to a small stream.

The trail is pretty tricky with steep rock steps and roots popping up into the trail.

Biking

The hiking trails aren’t really suitable for biking on, but campers are welcome to bike on the main park roads.

Some of them - such as the road from the front office down to the Ottawa campgrounds - would actually be kind of challenging, IMHO. It gets pretty steep!

Boating

The calm, clear waters of the Ottawa River - and the sheltered bay that the campground borders - make for some excellent boating! We watched a number of canoes, kayaks, and even a sailboat during our stay.

The park makes a great basecamp for those wanting to explore the Dumoine River - popular as a wilderness canoe route - or the canoe routes in nearby Algonquin Provincial Park.

Driftwood Provincial Park rents out canoes, with rental racks located both in the day use area, and between the two sections of the Ottawa Campground.

All rentals include personal floatation devices, paddles, and a boat safety kit. You can also borrow personal floatation devices - on their own - from the campground.

Many of the campers in waterfront sites had canoes and kayaks with them, and would launch right from the back of their camp sites.

For those who don’t have waterfront access, there’s a boat launch and small dock in the day use area.

Canoe Rentals

On our second trip - Summer 2024 - we finally got around to renting a kayak for the first time.

Porter had an absolute blast paddling up to the little island that he was obsessed with on our first trip, and all long the shore of the campground.

Being a newbie, he found it to be the perfect place to try it out - the water was very calm and shallow, and he found it very easy to get going on his own.

I’m looking forward to trying it myself sometime, if the tendons in my shoulder ever heal up. :/

Fishing

If you have an Ontario fishing license (and/or a Quebec fishing license, depending on where you want to venture!), this section of the Ottawa River has some great fishing opportunities.

Northern Pike, Smallmouth Bass, and Walleye are all available in the Ottawa River.

If you boat over to the mouth of the Dumoine River (In Quebec, hence the need for a Quebec license!), there’s even more walleye - the spot is known for it.

Swimming

While the sandy beaches of the park were closed due to blue green algae during our stay (Not to mention it being pretty chilly in late September!), this would be a great place to swim, at another time of year.

You know, when it’s not closed due to bacteria levels, as it was during our summer stay!

Anyway, the shores of the Ottawa River extend the full length of the park, with a lot of it being easily accessible to campers, right from their own sites.

For those without waterfront access, there’s a small, private sand beach in the day use area.

My husband was absolutely obsessed with a small island that wasn’t far from shore - pretty sure he’d swim out to it, in warmer weather!

Birding, Wildlife, and Nature

This park is known to play host to multiple species of songbirds, including the brightly coloured warblers that nest there.

We didn’t see or hear many birds during our first 3 night stay - the chipmunks were the stars of our wildlife show.

The little guys in this park are plentiful in number, and have plenty of attitude!

Be careful when you’re driving, as they DGAF about cars.

They’ll also sit up the trees and tell you off for hours on end - and I think they were actively terrorizing our cats, through the camper windows.

It was all very cute!

During our summer trip, we had much better luck with the birding.

We saw: American Crow, American Robin, Black-Capped Chickadee, Blue Jay, Downy Woodpecker, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Hairy Woodpecker, Hermit Thrush, Pileated Woodpecker, Purple Finch, Red-Breasted Nuthatch, Red-Eyed Vireo, White-Throated Sparrow, Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, Yellow-Rumped Warbler.

and we heard: American Redstart, Black-Throated Blue Warbler, Blue-Headed Vireo, Brown Creeper, White-Breasted Nuthatch.

Fungi!

The variety of fungi we saw at Driftwood was *wild*. Far more than we’ve ever seen at any other park!

In total, we saw more than 40 different types (so far as we could tell, anyway - visually different!). Very cool!

Discovery Program

As with other provincial parks we’ve stayed at so far, Driftwood PP offers a discovery program in July and August.

It sounds like a fairly standard - if limited - offering, mostly focused on the Discovery Activity Book.

There doesn’t really seem to be a central location for programming at this park, unlike the other parks with visitor centres, amphitheatres, etc.

Niantic Games

There are a couple Ingress Portals / Pokestops and a Gym, all located around the day use area.

Stops would are available from the end of the Brumm campground closest to the road, none are in range from the Ottawa Campgrounds.

The stops / gym in the day use area are all accessible from the parking lot, with enough cell phone coverage to be able to make use of them.

We also noticed a decent number of spawns reachable from our camp site, as well as along the length of the Ottawa campgrounds.

Final Thoughts

We really love the panoramic views of the scenic upper Ottawa Valley, viewed from the waterfront campsites!

It’s a small park, but nice and quiet - very serene. The layout of the campground - with the majority of the sites laid out in a line along the shore - made it feel really cozy and comfortable.

It was our first real time camping without electricity (we’re just going to look past that very short night at MacLeod Provincial Park!), it actually wasn’t bad at all - we’re sure the campground was part of that.

We’d definitely stay here again, if visiting the area!

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!

Arrowhead Provincial Park
Awenda Provincial Park
Balsam Lake Provincial Park
Bass Lake Provincial Park
Bon Echo Provincial Park
Bonnechere Provincial Park
Bronte Creek Provincial Park
Canisbay Lake, Algonquin Provincial Park
Chutes Provincial Park
Darlington Provincial Park
Driftwood Provincial Park
Earl Rowe Provincial Park
Emily Provincial Park
Ferris 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