Lake St Peter Provincial Park is a cute little campground and day use area in SE Ontario. Here's what you need to know about camping there!
Like some of the parks we’d been to earlier on that road trip, this was a small park that we don’t tend to hear much about in online communities.
It’s located near the small, quaint town of Maynooth, partway between Algonquin and Silent Lake Provincial Parks.
We had mostly booked at Lake St Peter Provincial Park to give us a good base camp location to be able to finally visit the High Falls Trail nearby, in southern Algonquin Park... but ended up really enjoying our stay in the campground.
For being so close to Southern Ontario, it felt WAY more like a Northern Ontario campground than we expected - a pleasant surprise!
Lots to talk about, so let’s get to it!
The Basics:
Campground Name: Lake St. Peter Provincial Park
Address: 356 Lake St. Peter Road, Lake St. Peter, ON K0L 2K0
Website: https://www.ontarioparks.ca/park/lakestpeter
Price: Ontario Provincial Parks uses a pricing matrix across all their parks. See 2026 Camping Fees for more details.
Reservations: Ontario Parks Reservations
Park Classification: Recreational
Season: May 8, 2026 to October 13, 2026
Park warden: 613 334-7981
Logistics
Some basic information to help you plan your visit to Lake St. Peter Provincial Park:
Registration and Check In
As usual, we booked our site 5 months ahead of time, right at 7 am. As it turns out, for a weekday arrival in May... that might not have been entirely necessary. The campground was pretty empty during our stay!
Still, better to be safe than sorry, especially when “sorry” means you don’t have a campsite!
Anyway, I did the morning-of online check in, and it said to proceed directly to our site - as they usually do.
We did stop by the park office for a map and to check out the park store, and it’s good that we did - the park is still using printed permits for parking passes.
That is to say, the camping permit was paperless, but our driving vehicle still required a printed parking permit.
Check in was quick and friendly as usual.
Maps and Signage
Some information on finding your way around Lake St Peter Provincial Park:
Park Map
The park map was a bit weird - it was the fairly standard 11 x 17, full colour glossy handout that you see at many parks.
... but really poor resolution. Someone took a too-small map image and stretched it past its limits, so the text is really fuzzy.
I was worried that something was wrong with my vision, until I realized it was just the map image!
The thing is, it’s a small park. When you put a small park’s map on a large sheet, there’s NO reason for it to be difficult to read at all. Plenty of space for everything, etc.
Anyway, beyond the numbers being fuzzy (and some of the symbols looking like blobs!) my big complaints were a complete lack of accessibility information, and the fact that it just shows the entrance to the trails.
The trails thing isn’t a huge deal, I suppose - I just like when they include actual trail maps, to kind of get a feel for where we’re going.
Also of note: The one-way roads aren’t indicated on the map either. You’ll just know them when you come to the “do not enter” signs.
Signage
Unlike a couple of other parks we’d stayed at immediately leading up to Lake St Peter PP, they actually have the campground loops signed, with the numbers on each loop indicated from the road.
Wish the single trailhead was more like other Ontario Parks trail heads - with written information about the trail and such. This one had a map, though, so we can’t complain too much!
Overall, you’re not going to get lost in this park. It’s very small, and - aside from some weird groupings of numbers in some of the loops - a pretty simple, straightforward layout.
Some additional signage around the Trailer Sanitation Station would be a good idea, though...
Waste & Water Services
As you’re driving into the park, the trailer sanitation station will be on your right, almost immediately after you pass the park office.
It’s a small half-loop off the side of the road. There are trees on the inside of the half loop, so you can’t see the other side from the entrance, and vice versa.
It’s a single lane with no bypass lane, but - unlike with the campground roads - is not marked as being a one-way road.
Weirdly, the loop is set up to best be accessed on the way out of the campground, in terms of the dump platform placement... but the signs at the dump and fill posts are both angled to be seen when coming in from the other direction.
So, if you’re coming into the park and look into the loop, the interior signage will be facing you, but the dump station will be on your passenger side.
If you’re leaving the park, you’ll cross over the road to enter the loop and the dump platform will be on your driver’s side at that point, but the signage will be the other way.
Of course, most people don’t need that signage after the first or second time they use a trailer dump platform, it’s more just that the directionality sets you up for someone entering from the other side, as you’re doing your thing.
Just weird and not really thought out.
Anyway, it’s a single dump platform, and 2 - threaded - fill platforms. There is one water filling station on either side of the lane.
Garbage and Recycling
The garbage and recycling situation in the park is a bit weird - you need to use clear garbage bags.
You can get the clear garbage bags - and transparent blue recycling bags - at the gatehouse. When they’re not open, they leave a few on the side of the building, in with the extra maps.
Anyway, the garbage and recycling depot is next to the parking lot for the comfort station. It’s a couple of bins for used propane canisters, bins for cardboard/paper/fibre recycling, plastic/cans/glass recycling, and a small garbage bin.
Then, there’s also a trailer with a sign saying "All TIED bags of garbage and SORTED bags of recycling go inside trailer".
Connectivity
We had really good cell phone reception pretty much everywhere we checked. We’re on Rogers Wireless, and it was early in the season.
Your mileage may vary on different carriers, or when the park and general area is busier.
Accessibility
First of all, there’s no accessibility information on the map. You’re not missing MUCH with this, as there are very few barrier-free facilities at Lake St Peter Provincial Park.
The comfort station has a single accessible shower that has a toilet in it. In addition to that there, is a large wheelchair accessible stall in the multi-stalled gendered washrooms.
The outhouse in the day use area has a barrier-free stall as well - it was the only outhouse we saw that did.
Row 2: The Toilet at the Day Use Area
The beaches did not have MobiMats at the time of our visit, and the camper’s beach requires going down a steep, narrow trail or a set of stairs to access it.
In terms of barrier-free camping, there’s a single barrier-free campsite. It’s #28, and is located behind the comfort station - with a wide, flat, direct trail to the comfort station from across the site.
It has a regular fire pit, and a wheelchair accessible picnic table - the kind where the extension is a metal grate.
The really interesting thing about this campsite is that it actually has a bit of a view. It’s not a wide open view of the water, but it’s something - I have never seen a barrier-free site with a view. They always seem to be then most basic sites ever.
This one even has a trail down to the water - obviously not wheelchair accessible, but something for the other people in any camping party that would stay there.
Pets
Dogs aren’t allowed on the beaches... and that is the entirety of the info we saw about dogs during our stay.
There’s no dog beach or dog exercise area, though. The first loop of the hiking trails - at least the area near the end - seemed to be popular with dogs.
There’s a spot about 100 meters in that seems to serve as an unofficial dog beach.
Beyond that, we’re assuming all the usual Ontario Parks rules apply - that dogs must be leashed at all times, and not allowed to harass people, other animals, or wildlife.
They’re not to be left unattended at any time, and aren’t allowed to make excess noise. They also have to be picked up after, and the droppings properly disposed of.
Parking
There's a decent amount of parking at the day use area, and I think it's probably appropriate for the size of the day use area and beach.
Beyond that, the park is very much designed to be walked.
There’s no parking at the campers beach or anywhere near the boat launch - I’m not sure where trailer parking would even be, but the only place that makes much sense is at the day use area - clear at the other end of the park.
Miscellaneous
Lake St Peter Provincial Park is in an area with INCREDIBLY low light pollution, and no real sources of *overall* light pollution anywhere to the north.
Well, not until you get WAY north, anyway - but I’m talking up by Temiskaming. Nothing that’s going to impact night sky viewing at Lake St Peter PP!
That said, your best bet for a north facing view - in case of Aurora Borealis activity - is from the camper’s beach, or the areas below sites 46 and 46.
If you don’t want to walk down to the beach at night, there’s another great spot just past it - that little clearing with a picnic table, between the camper’s beach and the boat launch.
If you’re interested in possibly seeing the northern lights, check out our posts: Aurora Hunting, How to Photograph the Northern Lights, Can I See the Northern Lights Tonight?, and Where to See Northern Lights in Ontario.
Bottom: North View from the Picnic Area
Campground Amenities & Info
Here’s some basic information on the amenities offered at Lake St. Peter Provincial Park:
Creature Comforts
There’s a single comfort station, located more or less in the middle of the campground.
It has 4 regular showers, one barrier-free shower, 2 multi-stall gendered washrooms, and a laundry room. The laundry machines - at the time of our visit, anyway, were $2.50/wash, and $2/dry.
One interesting thing: The hand dryers in there were the Dyson Airblade - I don’t remember seeing those in any Provincial Park before.
Usually it’s those godawful Xlerator abominations!
The outhouses looked the same as most - on the outside - but seemed a bit more tolerable on the inside.
Row 2: Random Outhouses
Visitor Centre
There is no visitor center at Lake St. Peter Provincial Park.
Park Store
There’s a park store located in the gatehouse / park office, as you’re coming into the park.
They’ve got a decent selection of stuff for such a small campground - beverages, camping supplies, clothing, firewood, ice, ice cream treats, snacks, souvenirs... even a small coffee bar!
Day Use Area
The day is area is cute - it definitely feels way more like a Northern Ontario park than it should - in a good way.
Located just inside the park entry, it’s an enjoyable area with lots of space for picnicking and just enjoying a nice day.
There’s a moderately sized grassy area that’s heavily treed, then it opens out into some sandy area with picnic tables, and finally out onto the beach itself.
Aside from the picnic tables and beach, there’s a beach volleyball net and a water tap.
Rentals
Lake St. Peter Provincial Park has canoes and kayaks available to rent.
This can be arranged at the parked office, and picked up at the day use area. (Which is RIGHT across from the park office - convenient!)
Campsite Details
Lake St Peter Provincial Park is a really small campground - only sixty-five camp sites!
Most of the campsites are electrical sites - including almost ALL of the waterfront sites, which is a welcome change from the norm.
We stayed in site #48, which was super cute - relatively large, with some degree of a view along the water, around the whole back end of it. There were trees in the way, but we could see through them.
At the back of our site was a little trail down to the water’s edge, which was really nice. Always great to be able to get an electric site with those kinds of features!
1. If you value your privacy at all, I would aim for one of the outer edges of the loop type campgrounds.
The sites in some of those inner sections of a loop seem more crammed together. This might be fine if you're camping with friends or whatever. but they just don't seem as nice as the ones that are on the outside of each loop.
3. One loop in particular runs right alongside a road, and this is NOT reflected on the map. The sites that are most affected are #52, #54, #55, #59, #60. #61, and #62.
It probably won’t be a TON of traffic - the road seems to be just to a few cabins - but there’s nothing really cute about those sites anyway.
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Entertainment and Activity
Some information on the things you can see and do while staying at Lake St Peter Provincial Park:
Hiking
There are 2 hiking trails in the park, with one looped off the back of the other.
We had assumed the provided distances to be cumulative - ie, doing both would be 6.5 km). As it turns out, they’re not - the distance given for the offshoot trail includes the trail needed to get to it.
Would love to see this kind of HONEST trail distances happen more often!
It’s especially bad at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, where you’ll read a description for what’s listed as a short, easy trail... before realizing that it leaves out the fact you have to walk 10+ km on a difficult trail just to get there!
Anyway, as both trails were rated “strenuous”, Porter did them himself. Here’s what he had to say about them:
Lookout Trail: 2.5 km, Strenuous
The trail starts off going up and down small rolling hills, somewhat narrow, but easy for single file walking. Roots and rocks on the path make this section into the moderate category, but not by much.
After a short distance it cuts over into thicker, more lush forest and at that point I hope you like climbing, the path goes up a moderate incline for approximately 700 meters.
At approximately 0.94 km into the trail, you've arrived at the lookout.
Just 20 meters or so beyond that is the split where you can choose the Cabin Trail, or to continue on to the lookout trail.
I chose the Cabin Trail, which I'll write about separately. The Cabin Trail is a loop that joins up again with the Lookout Trail.
At the point where the Cabin Trail re-joins the Lookout Trail, the path is still pretty narrow, but it's well-worn and dry. Normally I don't comment on this, but after finishing the Cabin Trail, this was a welcome relief!
It's much more pleasant to walk on, but the trail immediately begins descending pretty steeply down a very rocky path.
Because the path is dry here, the mosquitoes aren't too bad. After the descent, you come upon a beautiful view of a marshy area, there's a small access path to even get to the water's edge.
There's a sign directing you to the right to get to the campground. You follow the road just over 400 meters back to the trailhead.
Walking on the road at the end is a little anticlimactic, but at least it's not a busy road.
I clocked it at 4.20km back to the trailhead, going on the Lookout Trail and taking the extra Cabin Loop.
I would do the Lookout Trail again, it was a fun little hike with some nice views. My favorite part was the marshy area near the end.
Cabin Trail: 4km, Strenuous
Splitting off from the Lookout Trail, there's an immediate shift in vibe.
It's not as well kept, there are some small bushes encroaching the trail and it is a bit more narrow. It also continues to climb up even more, over some rugged terrain.
At the time of our stay, the end of May, there were red Trillium all around me. Unfortunately, it was a little late in the season for them so the flowers were withering.
Despite climbing up some more, there were a lot of spots that were muddy. There's a cute narrow boardwalk in several sections, but it definitely could have used much more of that. Due to all the stagnant water, there are lots of mosquitoes on this trail. They are hungry. You are food.
The forest seems to be much younger here, many of the trees are very small and there are lots of smaller bushes as well.
I’d been assuming it would be an old, derelict shanty in the woods, but there wasn’t much left to it. Really just a bit of a hole in the ground with some wood timbers around it, and the remains of a wood stove in the middle.
I'll be honest, this doesn't really look like the best spot to have a cabin because there isn't really much of a view. On the other hand, since I noted this was a young forest, it may have looked much different many years ago.
At 1.5 km into the trail, you begin to descend down as you follow the trail. It isn't too steep, but noticeable. I measured the Cabin Trail distance as 2.36km long.
The trail isn't very interesting overall, the forest is lovely but the views are kind of monotonous and the muddy swampy spots are really frustrating.
There are very, very few trails that I don't like, since I think even a simple walk through a monotonous forest is nice.
I do not like the Cabin Trail.
It's poorly maintained, mushy wet, a mosquito haven, has a monotonous view of trees that don't offer anything particularly interesting, and doesn't offer an interesting historical landmark; it's just boring.
I couldn't wait to get back to the Lookout Trail, where the trail immediately became much more pleasant.
Biking
There are no dedicated bike trails at Lake St Peter Provincial Park, but it IS located only 2 km from what seems to be a fabulous option for biking - at least from the small sections of it that we saw from the road.
It’s called the Hastings Heritage Trail, and it’s a multi-use trail - ATVs, cycling, hiking, horseback riding... and in the winter, it’s open to dogsledding, skiing, and snowmobiling.
It’s a wide dirt road - an abandoned rail trail, from the looks of it. It passed through at LEAST a few different scenic areas in the short distance I could see from the road - different forests, along a gorgeous marshy area, etc.
You can hike, jog, and walk on it for free, but any other activity - including cycling - involves buying a permit. (Something not mentioned on the trail description on Lake St Peter Provincial Park's site, mind you!)
You can see the fees - which all have different prices based on activity, and whether you want a day pass, weekly pass, or annual pass - on the Hastings Heritage Trail Website.
Swimming
There are two sandy beaches at Lake St Peter Provincial Park - a large beach area at the day use area, then a tiny camper’s beach at the far end of the park.
The day use speech is a moderate size - it's not huge and it's not tiny.
It’s got a nice little buoyed swim area that looks pretty shallow, and the water looked pretty clean.
There were some bits of plant matter floating and on the sand, but it wasn’t slimy or anything - and we visited a little before the warmer swimming months.
Anyway, the sand is slightly gravelly, but it’s a sand beach. Not much to say about it - it’s a pretty basic interior lake beach for the most part.
Basically, there’s a set of stairs down to a tiny, narrow beach, also with a bouyed swim area.
There was also another walking path down - very narrow and rustic - but it ended RIGHT at the water, and didn’t join up with the main beach section.
This is why I was wondering about water level - it could be that the beach was normally bigger, but that high water levels might be cutting off actual beach from that second access point.
Anyway, a couple of things to note:
1. This beach seemed to be almost constantly under shade from the nearby trees, at least during our stay in late May.
2. There is no parking for this beach.
Birding, Wildlife, and Nature
During our stay, Lake St Peter Provincial Park - and especially right in our own campsite - was a great place to HEAR birds... just not so much to see them or photograph them!
They stayed high up in the trees and hidden, for the most part - we didn’t manage to get even a single photo worth sharing!
Overall, we heard and/or saw: American Crow, American Goldfinch, American Redstart, American Robin, Black-and-White Warbler, Black-Capped Chickadee, Black-Throated Blue Warbler, Black-Throated Green Warbler, Blue Jay, Cedar Waxwing, Chipping Sparrow, Common Grackle, Common Raven, Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Hairy Woodpecker, Mallard Duck, Northern Flicker, Ovenbird, Pine Warbler, Purple Finch, Red-Breasted Nuthatch, Red-Eyed Vireo, Red-Winged Blackbird, Ruffed Grouse, Scarlet Tanager, Song Sparrow, Veery, White-Throated Sparrow, Winter Wren, Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, and Yellow-Rumped Warbler.
The park is in bear country, and the park staff told us that they’d seen bears and moose LAST year, none this year so far. We didn’t see anything beyond a single squirrel, in terms of non-bird wildlife.
We did see some cute wildflowers though!
Boating
Lake St Peter is what we would consider a nice decent size cottager lake - good for a small motorboat or paddling on, but probably not so much the place for larger watercraft.
The boat launch at Lake St Peter Provincial Park lines up with that - you’re definitely not going to want to tow anything really big down there.
It’s a small, rustic launch with a floating dock next to it... and no trailer parking to speak of.
The water seems to get deep pretty quickly, though - I was surprised, given how shallow the beaches are at Lake St Peter Provincial Park!
On your way out, it’ll be just before the park office building - on the main road, just across from the trailer sanitation station.
The equipment spans that main campground road, with a pressure washer chained to a information board on one side, and a hose on the other side of the road.
Fishing
We saw a few guys fishing from the shore at the boat launch during our stay, but the park’s site mentions that you’ll want to fish from a boat or canoe for best results.
Up for grabs are Bass and Lake Trout, season and proper licensing permitting!
Discovery Program
The Lake St Peter Provincial Park website doesn’t even mention Discovery Programming, which is a bit weird - it might be too small of a park to bother.
That said, they did have a poster up offering rentals of a few different “Discovery Kits” that sounded like a cool option.
Also: The park is only about 45 minutes from Algonquin Provincial Park’s Visitor Centre, which would definitely be worth the drive!
Niantic Games
There are a handful of Niantic Game features - Pokestops, Pokemon Gyms, Ingress Portals, etc - sprinkled throughout the park.
The biggest concentration is between the day use area and the gatehouse / front of the park, but we’re talking like 4 - not a huge number of them!
Enough to get your dailies in, but you may need to go for a walk to do so.
Final Thoughts
Lake St Peter Provincial Park is a cute park ... and we’re kind of mixed on our feelings about it.
On one hand, it’s much more quiet than a lot of parks we tend to go to, which is nice. It’s a good park for relaxing at your campsite - especially if you snag one of the gorgeous waterfront campsites.
The thing is ... we tend to prefer campgrounds with a variety of trails, though.
Also, I can’t remember Porter ever actively disliking a trail, like he did at Lake St Peter Provincial Park. He can usually find SOMETHING to like about everything!
So half of the already small number of trails are just totally unpalatable to him. Wild.
Anyway, the park is nice enough, we enjoyed our stay... but we probably wouldn’t go out of our way to stay here again, at least not for the park itself.
It DOES happen to be the closest camping option for the High Falls Trail in Algonquin Provincial Park, which we LOVED - so we’ll probably end up staying at Lake ST Peter again, just for that alone!
While it may not be among our favourite parks, we can definitely see why some people are completely in love with it!
More Southeast Ontario Provincial Parks & Places to See
Want to read some more about the parks we've camped and at places we've seen in Southeastern Ontario? Here are some more posts!
Southeastern Ontario Campground Reviews:
Bon Echo Provincial Park
Bonnechere Provincial Park
Charleston Lake Provincial Park
Ferris Provincial Park
Fitzroy Provincial Park
Murphys Point Provincial Park
Presqu'ile Provincial Park
Rideau River Provincial Park
Sandbanks Provincial Park
Sharbot Lake Provincial Park
Silent Lake Provincial Park
Silver Lake Provincial Park
Voyageur Provincial Park
Winter Camping at Silent Lake Provincial Park
Southeastern Ontario Places to See:
Gariepy Creek Falls
Lake on the Mountain Provincial Park
North Beach Provincial Park
Want to explore beyond Southeastern Ontario? Check out our full list of Campground Reviews, Ontario Waterfalls, and other Places to See.
We also have a ton of Camping Recipes to cook up, while on your adventures!
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