MacGregor Point Provincial Park

This season, we got it in our heads that we would give winter camping a try.

MacGregor Point PP stood out as an attractive option right from the start - it was a relatively easy drive for us, was stretched along Lake Huron, had a north facing beach, and more.

It offered a lot to do - a diverse variety of hiking trails, the potential for cross country skiing, snow shoeing, and an ICE SKATING TRAIL (!!!!) in the winter. It’s also a well-known spot for bird watching, on account of its location on a popular migratory path.

Our inaugural winter camping trip took place over the Christmas holiday, with a couple more stays following that up in early and late February.

... and with that, it became our most visited of the provincial parks!

... and we have yet to even experience it during the main camping season!

The bulk of this review was written after our first time visiting. Though it was Christmas, we didn’t really get the winter RV camping experience - it rained most of our trip, and mostly stayed above freezing!

We did update certain sections after subsequent trips, though.

If anything seems disjointed, that’s why - the review was written at different points, after different trips. Rain on one trip, snow on another, basically spring on the third!

That made for wildly different experiences - and we’ll probably have to update this once again, after our upcoming spring trip!

Anyway, tons to talk about, so let’s get to it!

The Basics:

Campground Name: MacGregor Point Provincial Park
Address: 1593 Bruce Road 33, RR#1, Port Elgin, ON, N0H 2C5
Website: Ontario Parks - MacGregor Point
Price Ontario Provincial Parks uses a pricing matrix across all their parks. See 2025 Camping Fees for more details.
Reservations: Ontario Parks Reservations
Park Classification: Natural Environment
Season: January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025

Logistics

Some basic information to help you plan your stay at MacGregor Point Provincial Park:

Registration and Check In

Registration, as always, was super easy via the Ontario Parks reservation portal. No complaints at all, for any of the trips.

Check in was also quick and easy, friendly service, went smoothly.

We get the feeling that this might not be the same place that check in happens during the on-season, as there were multiple buildings that seemed to serve the same purpose.

The others were closed during our visit, and the main road had barricades in both directions, forcing traffic off to a little loop with this registration building.

As a note, the staff here was WAY more easy to reach by phone, than many of the other parks we’ve been to. Very responsive!

Maps and Signage

Park Map

I was a bit disappointed when I saw the park map - just a single page thing, when I’d been hoping this one had one of the more comprehensive booklets.

They packed an AMAZING amount of info onto that one sheet, though - I think it might be my favourite one, to date!

The overall park map, the campground map, details on all of the trails, information on all of the amenities -including seasons and hours - local radio stations, and more.

Awesome!

Signage

The signage in the park is MOSTLY adequate. Could definitely be better, but could be worse, too.

On our first trip, we had a bit of a hard time getting around without a map on hand, but when one was reading off directions to whoever was driving, it was mostly ok.

There are a LOT of loops and offshoots to navigate in this park!

We did have a much easier time on subsequent trips, once we had a feel for the lay of the land.

The big problem with signage was when it came to the big main trail through the park - Old Shore Road Trail.

The map makes it look well laid out, but when you get out on the trail, every sign you see is pointing multiple directions for the same trail. Some the offshoots from the main trail are also just called “Old Shore Road Trail”, with no differentiation.

If you don’t have a map / navigation app on you, it can be easy to lose track of where you are on the trail, or take the wrong turn.

Waste & Water Services

As with most provincial park campgrounds, MacGregor offers both electrical and non-electric sites, but no water or sewer.

There is a single trailer sanitation station in the park - near the entry to the first set of campgrounds - with 2 dump platforms and 2 fill platforms.

There’s also a set of fill platforms in front of the park office, where we signed in.

That’s part of why we’re assuming it to be a seasonal thing - if that’s where check in normally happens, I imagine it’s a total zoo to get through, in the summer.

As we visited in the off season, the fill platforms were all turned off, with only dumping being available.

They recommended using the laundry room in the Birch Boulevard comfort station for filling jugs, saying that there were large tubs there to make it easier.

There’s a large garbage and recycling loop next to the sanitation station, and plenty of large garbage bins throughout the campground areas in general.

Connectivity

There did not appear to be any Wifi option - at least at the camp sites - and no information about potential for wifi on the park map / info sheet.

Cell reception was decent to good throughout our stay.

We seemed to have plenty of signal strength at our campsites and during our walks near the Visitor Centre parking lot, but it got sketchy at times while out on some of the longer walks, like the Tower Trail.

Weirdly, we had major connectivity issues on our first trip into Port Elgin! Subsequent trips went much better, though.

Accessibility

I was having a bad time with my tendons when we arrived for our first stay there, so I was pleasantly surprised at how accessible the park actually is!

First off, the basics: They have a few barrier-free campsites and yurts, as well as barrier free showers and flush toilets at the comfort stations - pretty standard stuff.

The visitor center is apparently also barrier free, but it was closed during our stay.

On our first full day at MacGregor, we did the Tower Trail. It was actually fairly easy to do!

The park says that the first section - as far as the tower - is wheelchair accessible. There were some small roots and bumps that made me question that, but then again - I’ve never had to use a wheelchair.

The tower itself was relatively accessible - there was a ramp up to it, with an accessible platform on the base level.

You won’t get the same panoramic views if you can’t scale the stairs, but at least an effort was made to accommodate to some degree! It was a nice view even from that base level.

Beyond that, the rest of the trail was relatively flat, with the big barriers being muck. If it was dry, I’d say you could do it with a cane, in a boot, with crutches, etc.

The muddy spots definitely would make it more difficult for anyone using mobility aids, though.

Then, there’s the Huron Fringe Trail that borders the visitor centre. That one is super accessible - boardwalk all the way, with a short ramp or two, if I remember correctly.

Also, both trails had a fair amount of benches and such for rest stops.

Pets

This is a little confusing.

According to the web site, there is a pet exercise area next to the day use area - and that’s all that’s said about it.

Per the park map, there’s a second pet exercise area on the beach at the end of the Huron campground.

... but neither area is actually marked with signs, when you get there. We’re used to seeing signs that designate where the dog beach is, both at the actual area, and to help guide people TO that area.

So I guess go by the map and hope for the best?

As a followup note: While the road through to the Huron campground beach was open during our December trip, it was blocked off for our subsequent trips.

The day use area was blocked off (the road plowed across) for our 3rd trip, so there really wasn’t any access to any of the dog areas at that time, so keep that in mind if winter camping with your furry friends.

Parking

There’s a good amount of parking throughout the campground, for the most part.

The camp sites all seem to be able to accommodate at least one extra vehicle, and there’s parking near each major destination - the beaches, the trail heads, etc.

If it was a normal beach - more on that in a bit - I might side-eye the size of the parking at those areas, but I’m guessing it’s not TOO much of a problem.

Still, if you’re planning to use the day-use area on a hot summer day, I could see a case being made for arriving early.

Miscellaneous

While our stays were mostly under heavy cloud cover, I’ve seen photos taken at the beaches here - it’s a spectacular place for photographing the northern lights.

Beyond aurora borealis hunting, I bet it’s amazing for star gazing, as well. The beaches more or less face north, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of light pollution, etc.

All of our visits to date occurred during the off season - and one was specifically over a holiday - so many of the regular campground amenities were closed for the season.

Here’s some basic information, though:

Creature Comforts

MacGregor Point has a LOT of comfort stations, for the number of camp sites - depending on which campground you’re in.

Each campground is set up as a series of loops, each with multiple loops of campsites off each main loop.

In the campground we stayed at - Algonquin - there were 3 “loops of loops”, and each one had its own comfort station.

Wherever you stay in the Algonquin campground, you’re only a short walk from a full comfort station, with showers, laundry, and flush toilets. Only 2 vault toilets in the whole campground, though.

The next campground over - Nipissing - there are 3 “loops of loops”, with 2 comfort stations for that campground, as well as 5 vault toilets.

Both of these comfort stations have laundry facilities.

The Huron Campground has 3 loops of loops, with only 1 comfort station for the lot of them (No laundry at this one)- so a bit more of a walk, depending on where you’re staying.

That section also has 5 vault toilets throughout.

Park Store

The main park store was closed for the season on each of our trips, but carries all the regular items you’d expect when it is open - firewood, souvenirs, snack food, ice cream, ice, some basic groceries, etc.

It looks like they have bikes available for rent, during the regular camping season.

A mini park store was open at the park office when we checked in - you could buy the park stickers, a small selection of sweatshirts, etc.

We didn’t notice anything about buying firewood when we signed in - we didn’t do a fire during our stay - but there was a campground host set up across the road from our site, and they had a sign about selling firewood.

Visitor Centre

There’s a small visitors centre located in the middle of the park. It’s open May to September, so we missed it by a few months, LOL.

During the summer, this is where they host their interpretive programming (children’s programs, nature walks, etc), as well as offering amenities such as a library of field guides, brochures, and displays.

The building also hosts the Huron Fringe Shop, which is operated by the Friends of MacGregor Point Park - not sure what all that entails, though.

We’ll have to come back during the summer, clearly!

Day Use Area

There’s a small day use picnic area and rocky beach, shortly after entering the park - before you reach the campgrounds.

This has one of the two dog beaches indicated on the map, and connects to the walking trails that go through the park.

Campers can use the day use area with their camping permit.

Also, day use visitors are able to make use of the visitor center, playground, and trails at the camper’s beach, by displaying their daily vehicle permit.

The day use section of the park is theoretically open year round, but was completely inaccessible on our third trip. The entry road to the area was plowed across, and looked to be intentionally so.

Rentals & Loans

The park offers loans of extension cords, with the explanation that some of the electrical pedestals are a fair distance from the site.

We did not make use of this program - which involves a refundable deposit - as ours was pretty conveniently located.

That said, they do ask that you hang up your electrical cords and keep them visible during the winter months, as to not interfere with snow removal.

... this was not something that we had to worry about on our first Christmas visit, though. It was above 0 and raining for most of our trip!

Campsite Details

We’ve always visited during the off season, so that may have influenced what we’ve seen, for better or for worse. Also, most of the campgrounds were blocked off, so we had limited access to base our review on.

Overall, the campground was clean and seemed to be well maintained. There were some areas in Huron with downed trees in the road (first stay), but I’m not sure what the camping situation was there, at the time.

One disappointing thing was how much work was being done, at the beginning of our first stay. It seemed like the commercial truck traffic right outside of our camp site was near constant.

Big utility vehicles, warning beeps when backing up, that kind of thing. It was jarring to sound like we were outside a construction zone for the first few days of the trip.

Once the weekend - and the Christmas holiday with it - hit, things were much more quiet, and what I would expect from a stay in a provincial park.

We think that they’re building some new cabins, so they probably just timed the work for when there would be few people staying here.

MacGregor Point Camping

The park has 3 main campgrounds - Algonquin Campground, Nipissing Campground, and Huron Campground, as well as a group campground (Juniper Woods).

So far, we’ve stayed in Algonquin on each of our trips, in the Birch Boulevard section. The Cedar Lane section was closed during all of our trips to date, and I think Ash Woods was blocked off on at least one of the trips.

Algonquin seems to be all electrical sites, while Nipissing and Huron have a mix of electric and non-electrical campsites.

The sections with non-electric sites seemed to be all closed off during our stay.

Two of the 3 “loops of loops” in Huron Campground (Iris Grove and Grouse Landing) are both radio and generator free areas.

Anyway, as far as we could see, each campsite came with a picnic table and fire pit. Most / all seemed to be pretty level, as far as we could see.

Quite a few of the sites in Algonquin are pull through sites, and it looks like a fair number of the other sites are double sites.

Going on our walks through the park, I bet these are really beautiful campsites in the summertime!

Our site for 2 of the trips - 43 - didn’t have a ton of privacy, with us able to see through both to the main road, the entry to this loop, and the main loop of this section. Some of that may be due to seasonality - I bet it fills in a bit, when summer foliage is in play.

A lot of the other campsites seemed to have better privacy, though.

Cabins & Yurt Camping

The Algonquin Campground also where the cabins and yurts are located - inside each of the 3 offshoot loops of the Birch Boulevard Campground.

The MacGregor Point yurts are 16 feet across, and house up to 6 people over 2 sets of bunk beds.

There are also 10 cabins, which each sleep 5 people.

The yurts and cabins all have a bunch of restrictions - including on pets and smoking - so you’re best off looking to the park website for more info on those.

We just use our RV - the yurts and cabins aren’t really our thing!

They are super cute though - the yurt setup here looks better than a lot we’ve seen.

Group Camping

MacGregor Point has a really interesting setup in their two group camping sites.

Most parks we see have seen are tent-only, and just one big open site. One of the two sites here offers camper access, just without electrical hookup.

Also, there are different sections and enclaves to the group camping sites, rather than just one big communal area.

So, you could camp with a bunch of other families in a group setting, but then also have your own little space. Nice!

The group sites have outhouses and water taps, but are NOWHERE near the closest comfort station. Also, the closest one is the one without laundry, so it’s even further to access laundry facilities.

So make sure someone in your group has a car!

Entertainment and Activity

There is a LOT to do in MacGregor Point, at any time of year! Some of your options:

Hiking and Biking

One nice thing about MacGregor Point is that it has several hiking trails that can accommodate people of any skill level - including a few boardwalk trails!

Most of the MacGregor Point trails are multi-use, so we’re just going to cover the bike trails and walking trails in one section here.

Note: The park prefers that people make use of the biking trails, rather than bike on the main road.

Deer Run Bike Trail - Biking

The Deer Run Trail is a 3.7 km linear trail that runs parallel to the main road through most of the park, splitting off to go through the Algonquin campground.

It’s rated easy, and is intended as the main thoroughfare for cyclists to get through the park.

Huron Fringe Trail - Walking

This is an easy 1.2 km loop that encircles the visitor center.

It’s wheelchair accessible - a boardwalk trail - and a great way to get a walk in, even when the other trails are too mucky.

For being such a short walk, there’s a great variety of views. You’ll walk through forested area through part of it, alongside a turtle pond for another.

The boardwalk goes right out across the ash swamp at one point, and along the shoreline of Lake Huron around the halfway point.

This is also where it connects to 7.5+ km of trails, as it crosses over the Old Shore Rd trail, which meanders along the Lake Huron shoreline along the whole length of the park.

Unlike most places we’ve been, btw, they actually encourage you to hand feed the birds here!

Kempfs Trail - Biking and Walking

This is an easy 0.8 km linear trail (so 1.6 return) that’s less a destination, and more just a connecting trail to get from the main road (and parking near the Tower Trail), to the Old Shore trail at that end of the park.

That said, it’s a nice walk.

Not super challenging, a few different types of environment to walk through, etc. Mostly fairly flat - I wouldn’t call it wheelchair accessible, but you could definitely do it in a boot, with crutches, using a cane, etc.

Most is packed forest floor, with a short span of boardwalk when passing a pond. The trail ends where it connects up with the Old Shore Road Trail.

If you walk a few metres to the left when you hit the connection point, you’ll come to an opening to a secluded rocky beach.

Lake Ridge Trail - Hiking

This is a 4 km hiking trail that’s rated moderate, and does not allow bikes. Sturdy shoes are strongly recommended, as the terrain is rough.

We didn’t do this trail on any of our trips to date, but it sounds interesting. The description says it takes you out to a boardwalk overlooking a former beaver pond, complete with an abandoned lodge.

Old Shore Road Trail - Biking and Walking

As previously mentioned, this is a long trail that follows the shoreline up the length of the park. It’s either 6 km (per the website), or 7.5 km if you’re looking at the park’s map.

... yay for consistency?

Anyway, it’s marked as being easy. For the sections we have been on - about half the length of it - we’d agree with that.

Most of it is a wide path of packed gravel, with some sections of boardwalk, a few little foot bridges, some view platforms, etc. One section involved going down onto a rocky beach.

This is a fantastic trail in general - gorgeous views out over Lake Huron, easy enough to be mostly wheelchair accessible, etc.

As previously mentioned, signage was an issue. There are a lot of little offshoots and connecting trails, many of which are all labeled as being Old Shore Road Trail. You have to get up close to see secondary designations - Visitor Centre, etc.

Best to bring a trail app, IMHO.

Also, keep an eye on the weather - it had been raining for most of our first stay, so there were sections that were flooded out.

Still made for a nice jogging trail!

Tower Trail - Biking and Walking

This is an easy 3.5 km loop, and it was the first trail we did during our first stay.

This trail takes you along one of the coastal wetlands in the area - a Ducks Unlimited Canada Wetland, per the map.

It was an easy walk, with most of the trail being either compacted gravel or boardwalk. Several areas were pretty muddy, so we recommend waterproof hiking boots.

Early on in the walk, there’s a long boardwalk off to the left, ending at the observation tower.

The nice thing about this tower is that it offers you two wildly different views of the area - a nice big panoramic view from above, and close-up wildlife viewing from closer to water level.

Later on in the trail there’s another boardwalk off to the left, with a bird blind at the end of the boardwalk.

This is a nice wooden structure that hides you from the various species of birds, letting you view them in their natural habitat, mostly undetected. (Just don’t make a lot of noise, they can still hear you!)

There are also information boards along the trail, giving you interesting facts about the area, or inviting you to take a moment and experience something.

There were a lot of different “feels” to the trail, different types of wooden areas, marsh, etc.

Loved it!

Swimming

The park offers swimming along its seven-kilometre stretch of coast.

There’s a bit of sandy beach at the camper’s beach, but - for the most part - these are very rocky beaches, both in and out of the water.

I’d definitely recommend having durable - and grippy - water shoes if you want to go in.

Anyway, the day use area has a comfort station with change rooms, but it isn’t even designated as a swimming beach, on the map.

The campers beach doesn’t have change facilities, but there is a vault toilet near the parking lot.

The beach at the end of the Huron Campground doesn’t have any changing or washroom facilities.

Anyway, while I wouldn’t be looking at this as a swimming destination, myself... the beaches are really pretty, especially as a foreground for sunrises and sunsets!

Really fantastic to walk along, and there are trails along each of them.

Birding, Wildlife, and Nature

MacGregor Point advertises itself as being one of the most ecologically diverse natural places along the Lake Huron shoreline, and that really comes across in the flora and fauna.

When it comes to the birds, they note that more than 200 species of birds have been observed here, including the Black-Crowned Night Heron, American Egret, and the Great Egret.

The shoreline is recognized to be a migration route in both spring and fall, with this area being the crossover point - either the northernmost or southernmost limit - for nesting points of a number of different northern and southern species of birds.

Of course, for all those birds being known in the area, we saw a handful of chickadees - and a nuthatch - during our stays, and that was about it!

Anyway, there’s a 10 day long songbird festival in the spring - the Huron Fringe Birding Festival.

Beyond the birds, there are all kinds of little sections of the park that offer chance to learn about its complex ecosystem, and the unusual inhabitants it plays host to.

There are cattail marshes, bogs, silver maple swamps, and even a pitcher plant marl - accessed via the Cedar Lane campsites loop in Algonquin.

The marl had information about the rare plants that grew there, including several varieties of carnivorous plants.

Pitcher plants, bladderworts, and sundews can be seen from the observation platform - we were able to identify a few of them, even off season.

The park is also known to be home to rare Dwarf Lake Iris plants.

Boating

There aren’t any boat launches at MacGregor Point Provincial Park, so your in-park boating opportunities are limited to canoeing or kayaking on Lake Huron.

It doesn’t sound like that’s a super popular activity in the park, probably at least in part due to how volatile the conditions on Lake Huron can be.

The park recommends going to Saugeen River - nearby, with several access points - for better canoeing and kayaking.

Fishing

As with boating, your fishing opportunities in the part are pretty limited. Also as with boating, the park recommends going to the Saugeen River for fishing - apparently it’s a good spot for Bass, Lake Trout, Perch, Pickerel, Pike, and Salmon.

Winter Activities

In theory, winter visitors have a ton of ways to have some winter fun at this park - it generally seems like the perfect place to spend some time during the winter season .

With Ontario experiencing the warmest winter on record, though... not so much.

Trust me, we tried - I kept obsessively checking the Ontario Parks Snow Report.

We managed to book a trip on a day when it FINALLY said there were ski trails open... and those were closed the next day.

It was WILD.

Anyway, some notes:

Ice Skating

The park - theoretically - has two main ways to ice skate: A skating trail (In the Algonquin campground), and a skating rink in the parking lot of the visitor centre.

The trail is a short trail - 400 metres - that gets lit up until 10pm every night, when it’s open.

This was a nice contrast to Arrowhead’s skating trail, which only does night skating on weekends.

The rink had potential to be really cute, but they’d definitely given up on it by the time we went - can’t say I blame them!

Cross-country Skiing

The 11 km Deer Run Trail is designated as the main trail for cross-country skiers, and it’s described as being good for both novice and experienced skiers.

They also say you can ski along “several kilometres of unplowed park roads that are not groomed but would be suitable for cross-country skiing.”

But, you know, that’s presupposing there’s actually snow on the ground!

Snowshoeing

The park advertises having snowshoe trails in the Nipissing Campground, as well as allowing you to snow shoe on any of the unplowed roads and non-track set trails.

Again, though ... you’ve gotta have snow, to snow shoe!

Snowmobiling

I was surprised to read that snowmobiling is allowed on park roads.

For reasons that should be clear by now... it’s not something we saw happening on any of our winter camping trips!

Discovery Program

As with all of the other parks we’ve been to, MacGregor Point offers a full summer program of activities through its Discovery Program.

Most of the offerings take place at or around the visitor center, including kids programming, guided hikes, and the Huron Fringe Birding Festival.

... we just weren’t there for any of it!

Niantic Games

We had enough connectivity to play during our stays, though we both had problems loading the game at times on the first trip. I think that was more of a game issue, than a connection issue, though.

There aren’t many stops and gyms at the park - a few at the trails, one at the main entrance, etc.

Your best bet to hit a couple gyms and a few stops is to play in the area near the Visitor Center, which has 2 gyms and several stops.

We tended to have regular spawns at the camp sites, and along the roads and trails.

Nearby Attractions

Port Elgin is very close to the park - maybe 10 minute drive? - and has pretty much any amenity you could want.

We did make use of curbside grocery pickup at the Walmart on one trip, and picked up some Swiss Chalet on another. You know. Roughing it.. LOL.

Anyway, of particular interest was the beach in Port Elgin.

There are several places in Port Elgin where you can access the shoreline, but Port Elgin's Main Beach is SPECTACULAR.

It’s a large, very sandy beach that stretches along a shallow area of Lake Huron.

On Christmas Day, I went wading in it - I had to go pretty far out to even get up to my calves. It was hilarious to do it at that time of year, and definitely made me look forward to visiting in the summer.

The bay had frozen a bit by our February trips, so wading would have meant walking across rough icy/slushy piles that had accumulated on shore.

I chose not to risk it those times... but that December wade was glorious.

Final Thoughts

Aside from a few minor annoyances - most of which were related to the seasonality - we really love this park.

There was a lot to do - even with everything being closed - and the lake views were gorgeous. We didn’t feel like we were really missing out on anything!

We’re definitely planning to come back at different times of the year.

For one, I LOVE the idea of winter camping, even if that’s something that managed to elude us on each of our trips.

I guess that’s what we get for moving to the tropics of Canada, LOL!

Anyway, we’d also love to see it in spring, to check out the carnivorous plants, the birds, and more.

Overall, a great experience!

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
Bass 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
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