McRae Point Provincial Park

As with Mara Provincial Park, we decided to check out McRae Point as day trip, during our recent stay at Bass Lake Provincial Park.

Also like Mara, McRae is also located along the north shoreline of Lake Simcoe, very close to the town of Orillia.

In fact, they’re just a few minutes up the road from each other!

Anyway, the similarities don’t end there. They’re both really small parks, with most everything being walking distance from anything else.

The both have a beach as the main attraction, and are great places to spend a few sunny hours on a warm day.

Unfortunately, they both had to clear a ton of trees - in the thousands - recently, due to Emerald Ash Borer infestation.

In fact, a lot of this review is probably going to sound similar to our Mara Provincial Park review - though McRae does have a bit more to offer.

Anyway, let’s just get right to it!

The Basics:

Campground Name: McRae Point Provincial Park
Address: 4366 McRae Park Road Ramara Township, ON L3V 6H7
Website: McRae Point Provincial Park
Price: Ontario Provincial Parks uses a pricing matrix across all their parks. See 20235 Camping Fees for more details on reservation fees.
Reservations: Ontario Parks Online Reservations
Park Classification: Recreational
Season: May 9, 2025 to October 14, 2025

Logistics

Like Mara, McRae has one weird issue to note, that doesn’t really fall into any logistics category.

When using the Facebook app, the park’s page is entirely in Swedish. I’ve... never seen that before. It wasn’t a setting on my app, no other page was displaying in a foreign language.

When I click the link from the official park page - on my laptop - it’s in English.

Anyway, just a minor bit of weirdness to note. Here’s some more important / relevant info, to help you plan your visit:

Registration and Check In

We visited McRae Point as day users, with our camping pass from Bass Lake Provincial Park - we didn’t register or reserve anything online for this visit.

We registered when we arrived, via window service. It took about a minute or so, just to check in and get a park map.

As always, the staff member was friendly and efficient!

Maps and Signage

The park’s map is an 11 x 17", 2 sided, full colour map. One side has a map of the entire park - including campsite numbers! - and the other side has general information about the park.

The scale of the map is either weird, or the information on the trail is off. Using the map scale, half of the trail would be OVER 1 km... when the entire trail is supposed to be 1.2 km.

Other than that, the map is clear and easy to read. Unlike Mara, it does have the orientation noted with a “north” pointer.

In terms of the signage, most of the signage is good.

There’s no sign when you’re coming out of the north campground, though, so if it’s your first time there, you may miss the quick turn right to get to the beach and boat launch.

Also, we weren’t able to find any signage on the small peninsula to point out where the dog exercise area is supposed to be.

Other than those minor issues, the park is SO small and straightforward, that signage is almost not even needed.

Waste & Water Services

Each of the two main campground areas has a trailer filling station.

In the north campground, this water fill station is a long stretch of parking with 2 taps on the side - they don’t have hoses, though.

The south campground has a single fill tap - in this case, there is a hose. (Not pictured). I don’t see a lot of these in parks - I would imagine it eases some of the lines at the main loop, especially on a long weekend.

The main Trailer Sanitation Station is located on the road going into / out of the park, just beyond the Registration Office building.

It’s a large-ish loop - the dump platform is first, then the fill platform.

At this location, there’s only 1 platform each, but that seems reasonable for the size of the park.

While there’s no bypass lane around the platforms, you can bypass the fill platform, via a short exit road.

Connectivity

We had decent to good reception throughout the park, including the beach, the campground areas, and out on the trail.

Accessibility

The site says that there are barrier free washrooms in both the north and south campgrounds, but only the one in the North Campground is actually shown on the map.

I’m not sure which of the three washroom facilities in the south park are barrier free (which, really, is a barrier itself).

Of the two comfort stations in the north campground, only one is wheelchair accessible. There are two accessible campsites - #51 and #53 - near the accessible comfort station.

The trail doesn’t appear to be wheelchair accessible, and neither are the beach or boat launch.

The park is fairly accessible to those with other mobility issues, though. Small enough to be “walkable”, relatively flat, etc.

Pets

McRae Provincial Park doesn’t strike us as being particularly pet friendly.

They have two leashed pet play areas - one next to the boat launch, and one on a small peninsula at the far right side of the beach (as you’re looking at the water.)

There was no real signage at the peninsula to say exactly where the dogs are allowed, and it was a bit difficult to get to - a fair amount of the area leading up to it was roped off with caution tape.

Dogs are required to be leashed at all times in the park, including off-season. Mara specified the same thing - and that was the first time I’d seen that!

As always, though, owners are expected to pick up after their dogs. There’s actually a nice little baggie post thing over by the fishing dock.

Parking

There seems to be plenty of parking for each of the main “attraction” type areas in the park, especially at the beach.

Miscellaneous

The beach is south west facing, so probably gets some nice sunsets.

The park is in an area of high light pollution, so it’s not great to stargazing or Aurora Borealis hunting.

Campground Amenities & Info

We visited the park as day users, but made a point to check out all the amenities to be able to report on them. Here are our observations:

Creature Comforts

There are two full comfort stations in the north campground, with both showers and flush toilets. One is wheelchair accessible, the other is not.

The south campground doesn’t have a full comfort stations, but has a couple buildings with flush toilets - just no showers.

Apparently some of the washrooms in the south campground are accessible, but they’re not indicated as such on the park map.

Beyond the actual comfort stations / flush toilets buildings, there are also a few vault toilets throughout the park.

The one we used seemed fairly new, and was well maintained.

I really, really hate using outhouses, and this one (north side of the north campground) was not a problem at all.

You KNOW it’s good if I don’t have a problem with it, LOL!

Park Store

McRae Provincial Park doesn’t have a full camp store, but sells a few basics - firewood, ice, novelty ice cream, and souvenirs - over the counter, at the registration office.

They also offer loans of Personal Floatation Devices - with a $30 refundable deposit.

Day Use Area

The day use area seems to be the big draw of the park, and daily vehicle permits can be booked online, ahead of time.

It’s a small park, so booking in advance may be a good idea during peak times. It has a decent sized parking lot, but I have no idea how busy it gets.

Weird note: the day use area smelled faintly of weaponized cinnamon during our visit. That’s definitely a first for me, and it DEFINITELY confused me.

Wrong time of year, and definitely the wrong venue for that kind of thing. I have no idea where it came from.

Anyway.

It’s a relatively large picnic area, with picnic tables all along the grassy area that overlooks the beach.

There’s also a large, modern looking playground that looks to be well maintained.

The beach itself... uh ... was not a selling point of the park. I’ll get to that in a bit, though.

Campsite Details

The campground area at McRae Point Provincial Park is divided into two campgrounds, which have ENTIRELY different feels from each other.

All the campsites in both have the usual “fire pit and a picnic table” set up. Beyond that:

North Campground

The north campground is aimed toward car camping, and has a bunch of pull-through sites, many allowing for extra large equipment.

All of the sites in north campground are electrical sites.

This campground is mostly wide open, with no privacy at all - it kind of had a trailer park vibe when we visited.

Many of the sites had a gravel base, and some of them looked like the gravel had been dumped and just left there - big waves / mounds of gravel.

South Campground

The south campground has more of a campground vibe than the north one, and is more like what we tend to see at other provincial park campgrounds.

The sites in this area are split into two loops, with one being electrical sites, and the other being non-electrical sites.

These sites - in both loops - seem to be bigger than the sites in the north campground. They’re definitely spaced further apart and are more private than the north campground sites.

A lot of the south campground sites are REALLY cute, and a few of them even have a bit of a lake view.

There are also some really NOT cute ones, so pay attention to the photos when you’re booking.

Also, heads up: Some of the sites on the south side of the south campground have WILD slopes down toward the shore.

We saw a few people in these sites, basically parked sideways across the entry to the sites, to avoid that slope.

Entertainment and Activity

While it’s only slightly bigger than Mara, McRae Provincial Park has a bit more to offer in terms of variety of activities, and facilities.

Hiking

The Water’s Edge Trail is the main hiking trail through the park. It’s described as being a 1.2 km nature trail.

It was too hot to do the whole thing on the days we visited, but we checked out a bit of it for the highlights.

The start of the trail is technically by the boat launch, but we spent more of our time on the areas of the trail that open out into the campground - especially by the fishing dock.

From what we could see, it’s a cute trail, just a bit confusing in terms of distance (I mentioned this with the map section), and ... what is going on when it comes to the north corner of the campground.

It’s supposed to be a loop - I guess? - but the trail just sort of stops at one edge of the map and says “follow loop and return”. NO idea what that’s supposed to mean.

Anyway, the trail picks up again near the north vault toilet, cuts across the entry road to the park, and loops down along the lake to go to the trail entrance by the boat launch.

We enjoyed how the water came RIGHT up to the trail in a section near the fishing pier - it really lived up to its name!

We’re definitely going to have to check out the rest of the trail sometime.

Biking

The park allows visitors to bike along park roads, but doesn’t have any dedicated cycling trails.

Swimming

The beach area is described as being a large beach, but it was pretty small. Very narrow, and kind of rocky - be sure to bring water shoes.

After seeing Mara’s beach, this one was kind of a letdown, gotta say.

Birding, Wildlife, and Nature

The birding at McRae was pretty spectacular.

We started in the area near the fishing dock, where there were a TON of birds singing.

There were several Scarlet Tanagers hanging out right at eye level!

In addition to those, we saw and/or heard American Redstart, Cedar Waxwing, Chipping Sparrow, Red-Eyed Vireo, Redwinged Blackbird, Song Sparrow, Warbling Vireo, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, and Yellow Warbler.

When we were driving up from the main boat launch, there were a bunch of Yellow Warblers flying around, right at the side of the road.

Then as we headed into the south campground, there were Baltimore Orioles everywhere!

Pretty sure that the only birds we didn’t see or hear were the two actually mentioned on the official park website: Pileated Woodpecker and the Yellow-Throated Vireo!

Boating

While the park is one of the few we’ve seen lately that does NOT seem to offer boat rentals, there is actually a boat launch.

Located near the beach, it’s suitable for small boats.

Anything bigger can be launched onto Lake Simcoe... just not from within the park itself.

As a note: the road down to the boat launch area is VERY bumpy.

Fishing

There’s a small fishing dock on the north side of the campground, which ends in fairly shallow water.

That whole area is really nice - the grass was short and well maintained, and there was a bench there to enjoy the nice view - maybe even a beautiful sunset!

Just watch where you step - it seems to be popular with the Geese 🙂

Anyway, if you’re able to get out on the lake to fish from a boat, Lake Simcoe is known for Lake Trout, Lake Whitefish, Perch, Smallmouth Bass, Sunfish, and Walleye.

Discovery Program

As with most Provincial Parks, McRae Point runs a Discovery Program during the summer months.

We didn’t see any information posted about it during our stay, but I’m guessing it’s mostly centered around the Discovery Activity Book.

Niantic Games

There are a small handful of Pokestops / Gyms / Portals in the park, fairly spread out.

The cell phone reception in the park is great, so you’ll at least be able to get your daily tasks in, should you wish to play.

Nearby Attractions

McRae is just over a 10-minute drive from Mara Provincial Park, should you want a nicer beach.

It’s also about a 15 min drive from Orillia, with all the amenities you may want - restaurants, shopping, gas stations, convenience stores, etc.

The big draw to the surrounding area is probably Casino Rama, which is something like a 15 minute drive away from the park.

Final Thoughts

This one was kind of a mixed bag for us.

With only one short trail - and a not-great beach - it’s not really the kind of park we’d aim to camp at, in general.

The birding was surprisingly fantastic, though, and some of the sites in the south campground were really cute.

I could see maybe overnighting at the park, or going for a couple nights or so if we were en route somewhere else.

So... yeah. Kind of a weird mixed review. Not a lot that was overly offensive or anything, just not really our style.

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
MacGregor Point Provincial Park
MacLeod Provincial Park
Mara 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