Kearney Lake Campground

During our recent stay at Mew Lake Campground, we decided to take advantage of the timing to check out more of the Algonquin Provincial Park campgrounds.

After all, we’re more about camping in the spring and fall - usually outside of the open seasons for many of the campgrounds in Algonquin Park. (Mew Lake is open year-round!)

Who says that “exploring” the park has to solely be about the lakes and hiking trails, after all?

Besides, snooping around all the other campgrounds could net us info on a suitable spot to pull up our RV for next camping season!

Anyway, Kearney Lake Campground is a small campground towards the center of the main strip of campgrounds.

It’s got a small lake to swim in or canoe on, and its central location provides easy access to more of the Algonquin Provincial Parks in general.

The season is a bit weird - it opens for the May Long Weekend, then closes for another few weeks, before opening up again. (It closes after Labour Day, which seems pretty common in the smaller campgrounds).

Anyway, let us tell you all about what we observed there!

The Basics:

Campground Name: Kearney Lake Campground
Address: KM 36.5 ON-60, Unorganized South Nipissing District, ON K0J 2M0
Website: Algonquin Provincial Park - Kearney Lake Campground
Price: Ontario Provincial Parks uses a pricing matrix across all their parks. See 2024 Camping Fees for more details.
Reservations: Ontario Parks Reservations
Season: May 16, 2024 to May 20, 2024, and June 14, 2024 to September 2, 2024

Logistics

Some of the information you’ll need for trip planning purposes:

Registration and Check In

Algonquin Provincial Park has moved to a paperless permit setup.

This means you’ll need to register your license plate number(s) with the park. Personally, I like to do this by preregistering at the time of booking our campsite reservations.

That means we can go straight to our campsite, with no need to check in. (Unless we need a map or whatever!).

If you DON’T check in ahead of time, though, you’ll need to check in at a campground office. In the case of Kearney Lake, that actually means checking in at the nearby Pog Lake Campground office.

Maps and Signage

There’s not a lot in the way of signage in the park, but - as you can see from the map below - it’s a pretty small, straightforward campground.

That said, there was a bit of weirdness between the park and the map, with regards to the beach parking.

On the map, the parking location is clearly labeled as such. In person, though - the little road headed to that parking area isn’t labeled with anything about parking OR the beach, just a “dead end” sign.

Services

There is one main trailer sanitation station to service the majority of Algonquin Provincial Park. It’s about a kilometre west of the campground, just off Highway 60.

It’s a fairly tight loop - 2 lanes, no bypass lane - with 2 dump platforms, then 2 fill platforms. Definitely plan to leave a LOT of time if you’re going to use it in the summer - I’ve heard of waits of several hours to use it!

There’s another small sanitation station at the Rock Lake campground, which is 5 km east up the highway, then another 8 or so down a side road. Not terribly convenient!

Luckily, you don’t have to travel too far for a garbage and recycling center - there’s one right in the Kearney Lake Campground area.

Connectivity

As with the rest of Algonquin Provincial Park, cell phone coverage is spotty, and will depend a lot on your carrier.

Kearney Lake Campground isn’t super far from the Visitor Centre, though - that’s where we recommend going if you want some fairly reliable signal.

Accessibility

Kearney Lake Campground is definitely not one of the more accessible campgrounds out there.

They do have a single campsite labeled as having barrier-free access, and the comfort station is also labeled as such. The path up to the comfort station doesn’t seem especially accessible, but maybe there’s a parking lot that we managed to miss.

Beyond that, the beach is down a fairly steep trail, with a fair amount of water runoff damage / ruts. There are no accessibility measures in place at the beach itself - Rock Lake is probably the best beach for accessibility at Algonquin Provincial Park.

Finally, there’s the roads. The roads themselves are not wheelchair friendly in the slightest.

In terms of non-wheelchair mobility issues, the roads and paths to the beach can definitely be an issue for anyone with any kind of mobility impairment.

Pets

Pets are allowed at Kearney Lake Campground, there’s just not really anything to offer them. No dog beach, no exercise area, etc.

If you’re camping with a dog, Rock Lake seems like a much better option.

Parking

There’s some regular parking and “additional vehicle” parking near the entrance to Kearney Lake Campground, a small parking lot at one of the two sides of the beach, and a parking lot at the comfort station.

That’s about it - not a ton of parking - but the campground is tiny enough that it’s probably more than enough parking to support the campers.

Misc

Kearney Lake Campground is in an area of VERY little in the way of light pollution, and is located on the north side of Highway 60.

The right side of the beach areas - as you’re looking out to the lake - is north facing.

All told, a great place for night sky viewing, astral photography, and Aurora Borealis / Northern Lights hunting.

The campground is small, and the entrance to that beach is down a bit of a path... so you won’t even be dealing with car lights.

Campground Amenities & Info

We didn’t actually stay at Kearney Lake Campground, but we spent a good amount of time there, during our stay at Mew Lake Campground this summer.

Definitely enough to get a feel for it - here’s some basic information about what the campground has to offer:

Creature Comforts

There’s a single comfort station in Kearney Lake Campground, with showers, flush toilets, and laundry facilities.

Beyond that, there are a handful of vault toilets throughout the campground - 1 in the loop with the comfort station, and 3 in the other campground loop.

Park Store

The Lake of the Two Rivers Store is run by Algonquin Outfitters, and is located about 6 km west of the campground.

There’s a café and grill there, and the store itself carries groceries - including some relatively bougie options - basic camping supplies, souvenirs, etc.

Beyond that, you can buy firewood at the Pog Lake Campground wood yard, across the highway from Kearney Lake Campground.

Visitor Centre

Algonquin Provincial Park has a few facilities that serve the function of a Visitor Center - or at least “visitor centre - adjacent”.

First, there’s the actual Visitor Centre, located less than 10 km east of the campground. It has a café, bookstore, museum type exhibits, and a couple of lookout points over the surrounding forest. (Pictured below)

Then, there’s the Logging Museum - which is about 20 km east of the campground. Home of one of the two easy trails in the park, it’s a great place to take a nice leisurely walk.

See our Canisbay Lake Campground Review for photos and details on both the Visitor Centre and the Logging Museum.

Finally, there’s the Art Centre, located at km 20. It sounds really cool... but we haven’t gotten around to checking it out yet!

It was closed for our last two trips, and we just didn’t get around to making the drive out there, this summer. Next time!

Day Use Area

Like many of the smaller campgrounds in Algonquin Provincial park, there’s no picnic shelter in the Kearney Lake Campground.

The park recommends going to the nearby East Beach area if you need a picnic pavilion, though we’ve never actually been able to find it in there - really terrible signage!

Other than that, there’s a nice little picnic area on Lake of Two Rivers, right on the side of the highway.

Campsite Details

As is the case with the majority of the Ontario Provincial Parks, there are no sites with full hookups.

For that matter, there aren’t any electric hookups either - All of the 104 sites in Kearney Lake campgrounds are non electrical campsites.

They do all have the fire pit / picnic tables setup that most Provincial Park sites have, though, and there are a few water taps throughout the small campground.

As a note, the park’s site says “can accommodate a range of equipment types”, but none of the sites seem to go over an 18' trailer, looking at the reservations site.

The roads are very rough and in generally terrible condition - and the sites are REALLY not very even or level - so I guess that’s for the best.

A couple of site-specific notes:

#118 had a water tap right up in their site, at the front. If you’re not a people person, probably best to avoid this one.

#140 has an amazing open view of a marshy area. Several of the sites on either side also had a view of it, but 140's view really stood out!

Entertainment and Activity

There isn’t a ton to do in Kearney Lake Campground itself, but it is located close to a lot of places that DO have more in the way of activities. Here are your main options:

Hiking

There are 15 named trails along the Hwy 60 corridor in Algonquin Provincial Park, ranging from easy to difficult, and from 1 km to over 10 km... and that’s aside from the backpacking trails, which are even longer!

The trails closest to Kearney Lake Campground are:

Hemlock Bluff Trail, 3.5 km, moderate. Located at located at km 27.2, it takes you through some woods to a view over Jack Lake.

Bat Lake Trail, 5.6 km, moderate. Located at km 30, this one sounds really cool - it takes you to Bat Lake, which is an acidic lake!

Two Rivers Trail, 2.1 km, moderate. Located at km 31, it’s a loop trail that takes you up to a cliff.

Lookout Trail, 1.9 km, moderate. Located at km 39.7, this is a steep, rough trail that takes you up to a great view over Algonquin Provincial Park. Apparently you can see several hundred square kilometres of it, from that vantage point.

Spruce Bog Boardwalk, 1.5 km, easy. Located at km 42.5, we’ve done this trail a few times - including on snowshoes, in the winter. This time around, part of the boardwalk was flooding, so be sure to wear appropriate footwear.

Beaver Pond Trail - 2 km, moderate. Located at km 45.2, this trail takes you around a couple of beaver ponds, including several beaver lodges.

See our Canisbay Lake Campground review for more details on those last two trails!

Biking

There aren’t any bike trails in Kearney Lake Campground itself, but access to the Old Railway Bike Trail is easy to get to. You’ll find an access point across the highway, on the far end of the Pog Lake Campground.

There’s a bike trail running through the campground itself, and that meets up with the main Railway Bike Trail just on the other side of the dam.

It’s an abandoned rail trail... so it’s generally wide, flat, and level, with relatively slow changes in grade. It’s over 16 km long, and goes from Rock Lake to Mew Lake, with a relatively new extension that goes out to the Track and Tower Trail.

Birding, Wildlife, and Nature

We didn’t manage to see or hear many birds during our visit to Kearney Lake Campground.

There were a few “Screamy Boy” Blue Jays making their presence known, and a few Red-Eyed Vireos that were apparently in stealth mode, and that’s it.

That said, Algonquin Provincial Park in general is fantastic for birding - it’s a destination for birders from across Canada, the USA, AND overseas!

Check out our Mew Lake Campground review for details on what birds we saw during that particular stay - they just weren’t at Kearney!

Swimming

Kearney Lake Campground beach is divided into two beach sections, one on either side of the mouth of a creek.

The beach on the right side of the creek - when looking at the lake - has a small parking lot, and a bouyed, roped-off little swimming area.

This beach had more shade, at least during our visit:

The other beach doesn’t seem to have parking - at least, per the map - but there is a small, weird little beach access in front of it. Not listed on the map, no real parking, no signage - right in front of site #118.

There’s a path from that point, down to the beach:

This one was more open and sunny, with the same hard packed sand - maybe with clay in it? - that the other side had.

It didn’t have a roped off swimming section, and was more marshy along the edge, than the other beach.

Both of the beach areas had a great view, though!

Boating

Motorboats aren’t allowed on Kearney Lake - and there’s no real boat launch, as a result - but it’s a popular spot for canoeing and kayaking.

Nearby campgrounds Pog Lake and Lake of Two Rivers are also great for canoeing and kayaking.

Fishing

We didn’t see anyone fishing on Kearney Lake while we were there, and - from everything I’ve seen it’s not really known for fishing.

You can fish there - and you might catch something - but it’s not known for big fish, and people seem pretty “meh” about it.

That said, Algonquin Provincial Park is really well known for fishing, especially with regards to trout fishing. Literally hundreds of the lakes in the park have Brook Trout and/or Lake Trout, and a bunch of the lakes along Highway 60 are stocked with Splake.

Discovery Program

Summertime means a robust Discovery Program at Algonquin Provincial Park, and there were all kinds of cool activities and presentations available during our stay - usually at least 2 per day!

Hikes guided by park naturalists, a show with live raptors, a play, and more.

The schedules are posted throughout the park, and updated weekly or so. In the case of Kearney Lake Campground, there’s an information board near the comfort station.

Niantic Games

The information sign near the front is the sole Ingress Portal / Pokemon Go stop in the campground.

There are a few more across the highway in Pog Lake, but really... if you need to get your dailies in, your best bet is to head to the Visitor Centre.

Good cell reception, something like 10 Portals / Pokestops / Gyms, lots of spawns/energy, etc.

Final Thoughts

It’s a cute little campground, but - unfortunately - not for us.

We’re not tent campers, and we definitely need electricity, both health-wise and to be able to get work done.

Even if not for the electricity issue, the sites just aren’t set up for RVing, and I really wouldn’t want to bring anything bigger than a popup through those campground roads.

It’s too bad, because that beach is absolutely perfect for northern lights viewing! It’s also just a really cute beach in general, but when nighttime hits... it just really ticks off every possible box of the old “aurura hunting” wish list, you know?

Well, aside from “suitable camping (for us) nearby”, I guess!

More Algonquin Provincial Park Campground Reviews

Want to read some more of what we have to say about the campgrounds and attractions in Algonquin Park? Here are some more reviews!

Canisbay Lake Campground, Algonquin Provincial Park
Mew Lake Campground, Algonquin Provincial Park
Provoking Falls, Algonquin Provincial Park

Interested in seeing our other Provincial Park reviews? We've got a huge - and ever-growing! - list of them here: 2 Nerds in a Truck Campground Reviews