Fifty Point Conservation Area is a beautiful campground on the shore of Lake Ontario, near Hamilton. Here are our thoughts on our stay!
Fifty Point Conservation Area is a magnificent 80-hectare park on the shore of western Lake Ontario.
It’s a popular spot for beach goers and boaters, and a beautiful place to take in some fresh air, in general.
Aside from being able to boast about having some of the cleanest beaches on Lake Ontario, it’s also a great place to set up your RV for a few nights.
Host to a relatively large RV park, it’s a beautiful place to take your family camping!
Anyway, let’s get look at the details and get to our review!
The Basics:
Campground Name: Fifty Point Conservation Area & Campground
Address: 1479 Baseline Rd. Winona, Ontario,
Website: Conservation Hamilton Website
Price $51-54 / night, plus 13.27 reservation fee.
Reservations: Hamilton Conservation Authority Reservations
Campground Amenities & Info
The campground is part of an 80-hectare conservation area, just off Baseline rd in Winona. (Just outside of Stoney Creek / Hamilton.)
Overall, the campground and areas we visited seemed clean and well maintained, though we did not visit the comfort station.
Logistics
Booking our reservation online went quickly and easily, with a user-friendly website.
We did receive a bit of a discount on our booking, as we have a Hamilton Conservation Authority membership, which was a nice surprise - we found the regular price to be reasonable.
The front gate staff was friendly and helpful, with one slight mis-communication. We were able to sign in quickly and easily from our truck window, low contact.
As for the mis-communication, when directing us to the camp site, she’d said something like “3rd on the right after you pass the comfort station”, so we started counting roads at the comfort station.
It was 3rd on the right from when we turned on the road, and was the road right after the comfort station.
No big deal, we realized the mistake and continued the loop around the pond and marina, to try again. It did give us a good chance to see more of the area!
It was raining during our stay, so we can’t speak much to light pollution. It’s close enough to Hamilton that I wouldn’t imagine it being a great place to star gaze or look for Aurora Borealis though.
Entertainment and Activity
Water is the main attraction of this campground, with many things to see and do, in that respect:
Beach
Fifty Point Beach is a gorgeous stretch of sandy beach, known for its cleanliness and water quality. It’s located just under a km from the camp sites, and has parking available.
There are change rooms located in a nearby beach house, which also has a beautiful terrace.
Anyway, let’s just let the photos speak for themselves!
Boating
On our impromptu drive along the interior roads to get to the camp site area, we marveled at the boating in the area - it seemed large and well-appointed.
The superb marina facilities at Fifty Point Marina include a double boat launch, space for well over 300 boats, a fully serviced gas dock with pump-out station, visitor docks, hydro hook-ups, laundry facilities, washrooms, and even winter storage facilities.
It’s a pretty little inlet, opening out onto Lake Ontario, and there are plenty of vantage places to boat-watch, if that’s your thing.
Also, the marina has a Diamond rating under the clean marine program, which is the second highest rating that can be earned under the Ontario program.
Its purpose is to recognize Ontario businesses that follow best practices when it comes to preventing the pollution of land, water, and air.
Fishing
Fishing is available both in Lake Ontario, and in a large fishing pond in the middle of the park.
The province used to stock the pond with rainbow trout, a practice that was discontinued in 2018.
A few years after that change, the conservation area reported that the pond was turning around into a natural fishery area, reporting the presence of bluegill, yellow perch, rock bass, and even some largemouth bass.
Hiking
There are a lot of beautiful natural areas to walk through, throughout the park, and the area is known as a great place to go birding.
From the camp ground, there’s a ~1 km walk to the beach. It’s mostly just on the side of the road, with picnic areas on the other side of the trail.
Once you come to the beach areas, you can continue forward and up a couple of trails that go up a small hill to end at a fabulous lakefront view, or take a trail to the left to walk along / just above some secluded rocky beach areas.
From there, there’s a sort of ... breakwater?.. of large rocks, which jutted out into Lake Ontario, as part of the entrance to the marina. There’s a lighthouse towards the end of it.
On the other side of the marina - just past the boat launch - there’s a short little path out to the other side of the marina entrance, with some more great views.
It would also be a pretty place for a shore side picnic, and we’ll definitely be going back to do just that!
Anyway, here’s an easy and relatively flat 4 km loop around a pond, the marina, and alongside Lake Ontario, on AllTrails.
As always, in this general area, you’re going to want to coat yourself in tick spray - ticks are EVERYWHERE, and yeah - they do carry lyme disease.
GUESS HOW I KNOW.
(To clarify, not from Fifty Point specifically, but not far from it. It’s a thing in the area, in general.)
Dining
There are picnic areas sprinkled throughout the park, able to accommodate groups of any size.
I particularly like the terrace type area just off the beach, with the change rooms and washrooms.
It reminded me of some of the Greek restaurants we’ve been to in the past, just... abandoned. Really pretty!
Aside from that, as I mentioned, some of the areas along the trails would make for amazing picnic sites, with stunning lakefront views.
In particular, there’s a little bench to the left of the lookout point, when you go up that “straight ahead” hill trail I mentioned earlier.
That secluded rocky beach to the left of that area would also be a great spot, IMHO.
Anyway, there’s also a big restaurant at the Marina - Limani at Fifty. It has a lot of outdoor seating, and I bet the views from up there are amazing!
Apparently they serve Greek and Italian food, unfortunately their online menu is... offline.
Sports and Play
We didn’t see any playgrounds or sports fields, either in-person or on the map... but apparently there’s a ball hockey rink in there, near the beach?
Wild. Canadians will play some form of hockey, literally anywhere!
Pokemon Go and Ingress
There are two Pokestops / portals near the opening of the camping area / comfort station.
Though we were only a couple spots away from the entrance, we were not in range of either. It was just a short walk - barely out of our site - to reach them, though.
If you play either game, you may want to book a site close to the entry, in case of rainy weather!
In total, there are 7 or 8 stops and 2 gyms in the park - but most are pretty spread out.
Creature Comforts
Though we didn’t make use of it ourselves, the camping area has a comfort station with laundry facilities, washrooms, and showers - both individual showers, and an accessible shower.
Big note here: Fires aren’t allowed at this park, and as a result, they do not sell firewood.
Campsite Details
Fifty Point has 76 fully serviced individual sites.
Though I can’t find mention of it on their site, we did walk past an area that appeared to be a group camping site, on one of our walks. (Between the main camp site, and the beach.)
It may have just been another picnic area, though.
We saw a mix of Class A, Class B, and Class C motor homes of all lengths.
Most of the campsites appeared to be back-in sites, though I seem to recall pull-through sites being mentioned as an option at some point.
The camping area is big and wide open, so there’s not a ton of privacy in that sense.
That said, the lots felt spacious, and I did NOT feel like the other campers were all up in our business *at all*.
Services
The sites all have sewer, water, and hydro. Unlike with Conestogo Lake, we experienced no issues with the power - or anything else - while we were there.
There was wifi at the park, which seemed acceptable for the most part. We had good cell phone reception the whole time.
Accessibility
In general, aside from having to walk almost a km to get to the beach, everything seemed pretty accessible.
The camp sites are arranged in such a fashion that the comfort station isn’t far from anyone, and it’s a flat, open walk to get there.
For the most part, the trails around the park are paved and relatively flat.
Pets
Pets are allowed, but dogs are supposed to be on a leash at all times, and are not allowed on the beach.
We did not notice any dog-specific areas in the park.
Quiet Hours
Quiet time is 10:30 pm – 8 am, with the added specification that excessive noise is prohibited at all times.
Parking
The camp sites have ample parking for even big rigs, and we noticed that some people didn’t even disconnect their long trailers from their truck, upon parking.
There IS an additional parking fee for extra vehicles, though.
Nearby Attractions
Fifty Point Conservation Area is located in a weirdly residential area, but is an easy drive from all kinds of shopping and restaurants.
There are gas stations, banks, a dentist, and even a Costco within 3 km of the campground.
Given the location, I’m assuming that most of the food delivery apps would service the site, though I’m not sure how that works with park entry - you may need to meet the driver at the gate.
Final Thoughts
We’ve lived a pretty short drive from Fifty Point Conservation Area for 5 years, and - despite having a HCA membership for a few months now - we hadn’t checked it out, til we went looking for a local camping spot.
We will DEFINITELY be visiting this park frequently, going forward - whether as campers, or for day use.
What a gem!
More 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!
Conestogo Lake Conservation Area
Meaford Memorial Park
Port Burwell Provincial Park
Valens Lake Conservation Area
Selkirk Provincial Park
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Ray Thombs
Hello, nice review of Fifty Point. We have had a seasonal campsite at Fifty Point for a few years. We thoroughly recommend it.
If I may add a couple of campground features I saw missing in your review.
There is a dog beach just east of the break wall into the marina. Sandy and somewhat secluded. Our puppy loves it.
There are two campgrounds to choose from. The older, treed, full service campground has back in sites around the perimeter and three roads of pull through sites. I think you may have camped in the new open section just north of the old section which is off the first road on your right after leaving the gate house.
There is wifi in the campground, although spotty, but better near the comfort station.
They just added a large wetland area west of the north pond, and are in the process of bringing fibre cable to the campgrounds for better internet connectivity.
Keep up your RV adventures and passing on great reviews
Ray