Pinery Provincial Park

We first visited Pinery Provincial Park back in the late winter.

As one of the few Provincial Parks in Southwestern Ontario that are open through the winter, it seemed like a good place to get our feet wet (frozen?) with winter camping, close to home.

We hadn’t researched it first, and it ended up MUCH bigger than we anticipated.

Unfortunately, winter never really happened, so the closest we got was a bit of ice washed up on the lovely beaches that Pinery is known for!

(We did get to enjoy some of the gorgeous sunsets that the park is also known for, on that frozen beach though!

When booking our spring camping, we decided to give it a second go, and experience it in a more traditional sense - with all the trails open, the 10 km stretch of sandy beach actually being used as a beach, etc.

After all, we’d speculated that the long drives between the areas of the park would be a great opportunity for biking!

I managed to not really pay attention to the calendar when booking it, though... and accidentally booked our stay on the May long weekend.

Yikes. Yiiiiikes.

We’d heard the stories of how wild the park can get on summer weekends, and had NO idea what to expect.

We’ve mostly done fall, winter, and early spring camping up til this point, and have ZERO experience with big parks on one of the busiest weekends of the year.

As we’re covering 2 stays at a HUGE park - with lots to do - this ended up to be an absolute beast of a post, so let’s just get to it.

The Basics:

Campground Name: Pinery Provincial Park
Address: 9526 Lakeshore Road RR2, Grand Bend ON N0M 1T0
Website: https://www.ontarioparks.ca/park/pinery/
Price Ontario Provincial Parks uses a pricing matrix across all their parks. See 2024 Camping Fees for more details.
Reservations: Ontario Parks Reservations

Logistics

Pinery is a logistical nightmare, on several different levels.

From everything we’ve seen in Ontario camping groups on Facebook, this is a BEAST of a park to get into during the busy season, with people reporting 2-3+ hour lines just to get in.

Oh, and if you leave the park after checking in, apparently you have to wait in line to get back in... so that’s fun.

As a bonus, you have to go through a second checkpoint, after waiting in line at the main gate. Each campground also has its own gatehouse, and we saw lines at a couple of them, during the beginning of our stay.

Considering you have to leave and re-enter your campground if you’re going to ANY of the trails or attractions... It can add up to a lot of waiting.

At least with the second checkpoint, you mostly just have to show your pass and they wave you through.

Registration and Check In

Booking our campsite - on both occasions - was quick and easy on the Ontario Parks website.

With forgetting that the weekend I was booking for was May long, I guess we got lucky in the Ontario Parks Booking Hunger Games!

Check in is a drive up kiosk - there are 2 or 3 of them - with no trailer parking or anything up front.

While checking in on our first trip was quick and easy - as they tend to be at all parks - check in on the second trip was just weird.

You’d think on the Friday of a long weekend, they’d be pushing to move people through.

The guy we got seemed to be going out of his way to stall, and asked a million questions that we’re never asked when signing in.

He even wanted to take information down off my accessible parking permit! Generally speaking, it only gets a quick glance, as to confirm that I have one.

It really started the trip off on a weird vibe.

2 minutes later we were pulled over by a park employee - with flashing red and blue lights - to let us know we had something hanging off our car, so we were a bit rattled by the time we got in to our site!

Maps, Signage, and Website

The main sources of information were overwhelming, and tended to be at odds with each other.

Park Map

This park has a main map - 2 sided, with one side being an overview map, and the other side being park information.

This map is mostly decent, especially given the size of the area it’s covering, and the amount of information included.

Then, there’s a second map for the campground you’re in - 2 sided 11 x 17" map, with the various sub-campgrounds listed all over it.

Riverside (our first trip) had its campground map divided up into 3 different maps across both sides of that paper. It was a bit much to juggle, especially considering we had a third sheet of map - the winter map.

Dunes was similar.

Juggling the maps was pretty annoying. Certain things would be on one map and not reflected on the other, despite being the same area.

As an example, you may be passing or going through a campground you’re not staying in, to get somewhere else. (For us, this was Burley). If you aren’t staying there , you don’t have that area’s specific map.

Which would be fine... if major waypoints (like Comfort Stations) were reflected on the main map that everyone gets. It made it difficult to tell how far along the road you are.

There were little trail access points to the beach that didn’t show up on either map, etc. Just a lot of little frustrations.

We got waved over by someone who was completely lost *on the main road*, so we weren’t alone in our frustration!

Signage

Starting off with the first trip, the signage around the first dump area left a bit to be desired.

It wasn’t just a straightforward loop, there was an offshoot to one side, with no indication of where we were supposed to go.

In the campgrounds, the signage could definitely be improved - we drove past the sign for our row of campsites on the first trip, because we couldn’t see it at all.

On the second trip - in Dunes 1 - we turned into the campsite on the road that said “Sites 1-116", thinking this must be the only entrance to the area.

There were 4 more shown on the map, but - not knowing the situation, and driving our RV with a trailer - we couldn’t just pull ahead and hope for the best.

They very easily could have been trails, one way roads, etc.

So, we ended up having to drive the entire perimeter of that massive campground loop, as there were no cut-across points or anything.

It would have been really nice to know that we could have entered much closer to our site - 115 - on a subsequent lane.

Also, there’s a spot where you’re approaching a fork in the road, and there’s a sign that says 98-104 pointing to the right, with NO indication of where any of the sites over 104 were.

... they were down that same direction.

So, you definitely need to be referring to the map. Driving through the park as a first-timer is definitely a 2 person job!

Website

On our first trip, only 2 hiking trails were open, and this wasn’t noted on the site. Kind of an unpleasant surprise, as we’d been looking forward to checking most of them out!

Lookout Trail is on the website, but not on the map. Not sure if it's actually the 1 km extension off Cedar trail? Would be weird to refer to that section of trail as “an extension” under one listing, but as a named trail on its own.

Sassafras Trail isn't listed on the website at all. I like knowing the difficulty, terrain, and key features of a trail in general (accessibility!).

When there’s a ton of trails in a park and we have to prioritize which we’ll do, the descriptions really help.

Finally, the trail distances don't all match between website and map - and sometimes, neither of them match up with actual walked distance, per MapMyWalk!

Services

As with almost all of the Ontario Provincial Parks, there are no water and/or sewer hookups at the sites, so there’s a couple of trailer sanitation stations with potable water.

On our first visit, only one dump station was open - the one at the front. On our second visit, they both were.

The dump station at the front of the park is only single platform. When we visited in the off season, there were no water hoses to rinse, just the one dump platform. There was a functioning fill platform during our May trip, though.

The other dump station - near the Riverside campground - is also a single platform each, for 1 dump and 1 fill. There is no bypass lane.

Given that there are over 1200 camp sites in Pinery Provincial Park, it’s WILD to only have 2 dump and 2 fill platforms in the whole park. No wonder we’ve seen lines at both, each time we’ve passed them!

If you’re planning to stay during busy season - especially on long weekends - you may want to plan accordingly!

We thought we were being slick by leaving at 9 am, but we still had a half hour wait at the Riverside dump platform - and the one at the front of the park looked FAR worse, by the time we got there.

Also: The lineup was such that if you were going to the Riverside dump station from anywhere other than Riverside or Burley, you’d have to pull into the entry of Riverside and turn around, to be able to access the trailer sanitation station.

Connectivity

There was sometimes a bit of cell signal on the beach - moreso up at the top of the dune walkways - but reception was generally between poor to completely nonexistent for us through most of the park.

Some of the mornings, we’d have enough signal for some notifications to get through, but that was about it.

I’ve seen reference to there being free Wifi at the Visitor Centre, but it didn’t show up for us when we went to try that.

Accessibility

This park is one of those instances where I think someone had a list of “barriers” and ticked off areas as being “barrier free”, without a lot of actual thought into what presents a barrier.

Barriers aren’t always a physical obstruction - like a squared curb - sometimes it’s the complete lack of something.

The park lists several campsites and yurts as being barrier free, as well as the comfort stations adjacent to those sites - not ALL of the comfort stations are barrier free.

Also, the “barrier free” comfort stations involve going over several inches of height difference between the main sidewalk platform, and the gravel parking lot leading up to it. There is no ramp to buffer difference in elevation.

In addition to the comfort stations, the site lists the Visitor Centre, Ampthitheatre, Park Store, Rental Building, and Canoe Dock as being barrier free.

The visitor center involves a LONG ramp to get into. Wheelchair accessible, sure - but can be really difficult if you’ve got other mobility issues.

Same goes for the amphitheatre - you’ve got to walk at least ¼ km up a relatively steep hill. Sure, it’s a smooth trail - doesn’t make it barrier free.

The canoe dock doesn’t have anything *in the way of using it*, but it also doesn’t have a single railing, bench, etc to help out.

A couple employees at the park store were really standoffish and rude with me, and definitely seemed to be side eyeing my N95 mask. That’s a first for us at any campground - no one has ever bat an eye over us masking up to go indoors.

As a cancer patient, yeah, I find that to be an accessibility issue. It’s definitely an ableism issue.

Note: The Visitor Center staff the next day were LOVELY, with not a hint of weirdness.

Anyway, you can rent a three-wheeled chair at the rentals building, which is supposed to be good for rugged or sandy terrain.

You have very few options to get the wheelchair TO the beach, though. Almost all of the trails to access the beach that we saw were wildly inaccessible.

The far end of the parking lot at Burley Beach is the only beach entrance we saw that was in any way accessible.

A paved road cuts straight through the dune, then ends at a much more reasonable slope to get to the beach.

There’s no indication on the map of this being an accessible entrance, though. We just happened across it.

I feel like any beach entrance trails that are more accessible should be noted - There are 9 access points in the day use area alone.

No one wants to drive from one to the next to see if MAYBE one is accessible.

In terms of the trails, Cedar Trail, Heritage Trail and Riverside Trail are listed as being “accessible”.

The accessibility of Heritage trail should be taken with a grain of salt - it’s VERY narrow.

It was definitely accessible for almost anyone not in a wheelchair though - but crutches might be difficult, given how narrow it is.

The viewing platform on that trail is not accessible, though.

Cedar Trail actually is accessible, aside from the extension trail on it.

As mentioned elsewhere, it would be nice if they’d have some parking where the extension trail cuts across the campground road.

While the trail from there to the overlook still wouldn’t be wheelchair accessible, it would be a lot more accessible for those with other mobility issues.

The Riverside Trail, also, is very accessible. Flat, even trail, with wide boardwalk areas. Gorgeous, too - definitely prioritize this trail!

Pets

The dog beach - in the day use area - is actually the nicest beach area we’ve seen in this park. Much more sandy and beautiful than the campground beaches, that’s for sure.

There’s also a pet exercise area listed as being at the P1 section of the dog beach, but we didn’t see it.

Heads up: there’s a cute plank boardwalk type thing leading up to the P1 dog beach - the boards aren’t secured well, so be careful if you have any balance issues.

Parking

There’s a fair amount of parking at the beach, but I’m guessing it gets pretty full in the summer.

Some of the trail heads have generous parking lots, others have a few spots. Plenty of parking at the store parking lot and Visitor Centre, though no trailer/RV type parking in either.

It would be nice if the bridges over the Old Ausable Channel had a couple of parking spots, as people use them for fishing, bird watching, etc.

One of the bridges is a short walk from Riverside campground, but the others are pretty far from anything.

Also, there’s a weird little loop of road between the Cedar Trail and its extension, along the road going through the Dunes / Burley campgrounds.

There’s no PARKING anywhere near there, though. The loop - we think it’s a drop off loop? - easily could have been 4 parking spots - seems silly.

Miscellaneous

The roads are in desperate need of grading, and there were a lot of pretty scary potholes - the kind that are wide, full of water, and of completely unknown depth.

The stated speed limit was 40 in some areas, but we didn’t want to drive even close to that, even when driving our little car. Thankfully, we didn’t have to take the RV over the worst of it.

Anyway, another bit of miscellaneous info: We’ve noticed a lot of bike racks at trail heads.

This is something we haven’t really seen in other parks, but is a great idea!

Campground Amenities & Info

Here’s an overview of the campground amenities offered at Pinery Provincial Park:

Creature Comforts

Each of the campgrounds have a central comfort station, with laundry, flush toilets, and showers.

The comfort stations in Dunes and Riverside are listed as being accessible, but - as mentioned - there’s a drop from the main platform to the parking lot, with no ramp to ease the transition.

In addition to the campground comfort stations, there are a few more comfort station type buildings in the day use area, and near the park store, each with flush toilets.

There are also vault toilets throughout the campground, and the park in general. The ones we saw all seemed to be in good condition and well maintained.

Park Store

There are two stores in Pinery Provincial Park.

The Pinery Park store is basically a general store, located centrally in the park. It has groceries, camping gear, souvenirs, etc.

Oh, and ice. SO MUCH ICE.

There’s also a small restaurant located in the main store building, with ice cream being sold at the rentals building across the parking lot from it.

Then, there’s the Savanna Shores Nature Store in the Visitor Centre - a little souvenir and gift shop, run by the Friends of Pinery Provincial Park.

This gift shop has very limited hours: 10-4 on weekends only.

Visitor Centre

We were lucky enough to visit the park over a weekend - the visitor center has very limited hours, only 10 am- 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays. (I’m assuming it’s open more during the summer, though)

The Visitor Centre is gorgeous - a big open space with several museum quality displays, as well as habitats for a few types of live turtles.

We’d actually seen a giant - and ancient-looking - turtle the day before, and asked a staff member about it.

She was SUPER sweet, and excited to tell us more about the turtles. I love that - it was almost “autistic special interest” level of infodumping, and that’s one of my favourite things ever.

She KNEW turtles, and wasn’t just reciting some canned script.

There’s also a small gift shop inside, and some bird watching areas - with feeders - and a gazebo outside.

Really gorgeous and well appointed!

Rentals

Pinery Provincial Park offers a variety of rental items, out of a rentals building near the main camp store.

Several different types of bikes are available: children’s bikes, coaster bikes, mountain bikes, and tandem bikes. You can also rent bike attachments and trailers for the young ones.

Then, there are also several options in terms of watercraft.

You can rent canoes, Corcls, Kayaks (both single or double kayak), and stand up paddleboards.

Bonus: The rental building is walking distance from a boat launch at the Old Ausable Channel.

During the winter, they also rent skis and snowshoes on the weekends.

Day Use Area

Pinery has a bunch of day use areas, spread along a long swath of the beach, as well as along the Old Ausable Channel.

There are 9 day-use beaches (well, sections of the same beach!), with the first two - P1 and P2 - being Dog Beach.

P9 has a super cute picnic shelter area, complete with a big outdoor grill setup.

All along the Old Ausable Channel - on the side where the road is close to the channel - there are individual little picnic nooks.

These are super cute, and most seem pretty private. They all seem to have enough parking for maybe 1-2 cars, a picnic table, and at least some of them have grills.

Also, most of them have access down to the channel - a lot of people were fishing from the base of these areas - or at least a view of it. What a great place to have a meal!

Campsite Details

There are over 1200 individual campsites spread across 3 campgrounds - Burley Campground, Dunes Campground, and Riverside Campground.

As with most Provincial Park campgrounds we’ve seen, every site seems to have its own picnic table and fire pit.

Riverside Campground

On our first trip, we stayed in a pull-through site in Riverside Campground - it was the only campground open at the time.

There was no one else there when we arrived, so the lack of privacy wasn’t a big deal - I could see it being an issue for some in the busy season though.

The pull through sites are the smallest we’ve seen yet, we had to get out of the car to make sure we were entirely in our camp site. There was only a few feet to spare - and we don’t have a big set up.

Our site was walking distance to one of the bridges over Old Ausable Channel, so that was a bonus.

Note: Area 3 of Riverside is designated as a radio-free campground.

Dunes Campground

We stayed in Dunes over the May Long weekend, and it’s open May-September. The sites were bigger and a little more private than the Riverside ones were (not a high bar, but still!), though I wouldn’t call them *private* sites.

There are several paths and boardwalks from Dunes campground to the beach, and our site - 115 - was almost as close to one of them as you could get - very convenient!

As a note: section 4 of Dunes is a dog-free campground.

Here are a few of the camp sites we saw across Dunes and Burley Campgrounds:

Burley Campground

Burley campground is also very seasonal - May to September - and seems to be intended for tent campers.

The sites are small ones - located along a fairly chaotic series of loops - and I don’t think any of them have electrical hookup.

The road leading from Dunes through Burley is ROUGH, so it’s probably a good thing that it doesn’t seem to cater to RVs or trailers.

Those sites seemed a bit more private than the ones in Dunes area one, even if only because the loops were much smaller and more sequestered.

Group Camping

There are several group campsites in Pinery Provincial Park, located near the Day Use area in a series of 3 sections.

Group Areas 1 and 2 have three camp sites each, and Group Area 3 has 4 camp sites.

Each area has a centrally located vault toilet - each with a cold water cleaning station.

Each of the sites will allow for up to 35 campers, and has a fire pit and picnic tables.

Roofed Accommodation

Pinery Provincial Park has 8 “Rustic Cabin” rentals, as well as 6 “Soft Sided Shelters” (they’re heated and furnished tent like structures), and 12 yurts.

We didn’t see any of them during our stays, though - and they’re not shown on either the main park map, or the Dunes park map.

Entertainment and Activity

As an all season park, Pinery prides itself on providing excellent year-round opportunities for outdoor recreation. Here are some details about what you can do in the park.

Hiking

Pinery has somewhere between 9-11 hiking trails (depending on your source of information!), and most of them are at least somewhat accessible trails!

All are fairly short - the longest trail is 3 km - with most being rated as easy.

On our first trip, only two walking trails were open - Cedar and Heritage. The extension on Cedar Trail was also closed, so we decided to leave that one for the second trip.

I love that each of the trails has a big informative sign at the trail head, with distance, difficulty, elevation change, and points of interest listed on it.

They each also have a QR Code for obtaining trail info - not super helpful, given the lack of connectivity throughout the park. Great idea though!

Anyway, here’s some information about the trails:

Bittersweet Trail

This one is listed as being either 1.5km (website) or 1.2km (at the trailhead), mostly flat, with some stairs and a viewing platform. It goes along the Old Ausable Channel, and the main draw is animals.

The park notes that the best time to view animals on this trail is in the early morning, or in the evening.

We went first thing in the morning, but didn’t see much in the way of animals at all.

This is a very narrow trail, with packed ground. The big standout to us was the poison ivy.

OMG SO MUCH POISON IVY.

I’ve never seen so much of it in my life, it edged the trail for long sections of it, and grew higher than I’ve ever seen. In places it was up to my hips!

So. Don’t wear flip flops, and I’d probably recommend against wearing shorts, too. It definitely grew into the trail, which was already narrow to start.

There are a couple benches on Bittersweet Trail, then another on the viewing platform.

Also as a note: While the description mentions going along the channel, only a very short section of the trail actually has any kind of view of the water.

Carolinian Trail

This is a 1.8 km long trail, with hilly terrain and some stairs and viewing platforms, and it’s one of the few we didn’t do.

The trail goes through a floodplain forest, so be sure to use waterproof hiking boots.

As a note, the trail head and parking area for this trail is right near the Burley Bridge, so be sure to walk over there and check it out, when you’re in the area!

Cedar Trail

This trail is 2.3 km long and has a 0.8-1km long extension off it, depending on the source of information.

The trail - minus the extension - is marked as being wheelchair accessible, and the trail head shares parking with the Visitor Center.

This one takes you through a fragile oak savanna on the main trail, and out to a beautiful view of the long shoreline via the extension.

We did this trail late on a weekend morning - it was super busy.

Fairly basic walk through the woods - well packed gravel trail, only very small inclines / declines, etc.

Most of the walk was wooded, but there was a viewing platform over the Old Ausable Channel.

Heritage Trail

This is the one trail we walked on our first trip, at the end of the winter. It was the only trail in the entire park that was *fully* open on that trip, despite the snow being long gone at that point.

This trail is 2.5 km long, and winds through another Oak Savannah. There’s a 0.6 km extension that takes you to a viewing platform on Old Ausable Channel.

As a note: the Heritage trail was marked wheelchair accessible, but take that with a grain of salt. It’s very narrow.

It was definitely accessible for almost anyone not in a wheelchair though - but crutches might be difficult, given how narrow it is.

If you can get to that viewing platform, though, it’s a really nice view!

Hickory Trail

Hickory Trail is across the main road from the Bittersweet Trail, and shares a parking lot with it. As a note, there’s a vault toilet there, and it was in good condition.

Anyway.

The description of this trail mentions Shagbark Hickories and Bladdernut - we have no idea what either are, and had no connectivity to Google.

This starts out as a wide, flat trail through the woods.

As you come around the loop for the second half - near the water - the trail becomes very narrow and more uneven - and VERY muddy in places.

You can get pretty close to the water - we managed to see a couple small turtles sunning themselves on a fallen tree!

My husband decided to get VERY close to the water in order to get a better photo, and ended up stuck in the mud - almost lost a shoe.

This trail had a lot more birds than Bittersweet did, but very high up in the trees.

We finished off the trail and then walked a little way up the road to see the bridge, and take in the views from the viewing platforms and docks there.

Lookout Trail

This trail isn’t shown on the park map, but is mentioned on the site.

It might be the 1 km extension trail off Cedar, or it might be Sassafras - that trail is also 1 km long, but it’s not mentioned on the website at all.

It does have a lookout platform, though... so maybe it just got renamed, and no one informed the webmaster?

Nipissing Trail

This is the second longest trail in the park, at 2km. It’s also the most difficult trail, with multiple areas of hills and stairs, areas where roots form makeshift steps, etc.

There are some variations in type of forest, going from lightly wooded to heavily wooded, and a lookout over the forest.

The lookout is neat, but nothing spectacular - mostly just looking out over farmland and tree canopy.

It’s what we’d consider in the category of “a nice walk through the woods”. Good exercise, decent scenery... not necessarily a standout for us.

Pine Trail

This trail was marked as being 0.8 km on both the website and the trail head, MapMyRun says it was 0.9. Not a big deal.

... but the trail head also claimed that the elevation change was only 2.5 meters, which was wildly inaccurate. I have no idea how they calculate it, but there were two big sets of staircases that each were WELL over 2.5 meters high.

Anyway.

This trail stood out to us for being a different type of forest than the rest of the park, so we were hoping to see different types of birds and other wildlife, as well.

A relatively easy walk, but I wouldn’t suggest doing it with any kind of mobility aid. Had I been in a boot, it would have been pretty difficult.

This trail was basically a nice walk through the woods - and past a kind of dunes area at one point - but not really anything to write home about.

Riverside Trail

This was far and away my favourite trail in the park.

It’s about 1 km long, wheelchair accessible, and has a long boardwalk section along - and out over - the water.

There were a lot of benches and viewing platforms along this one, and the scenery was gorgeous - especially with the early morning lighting.

10/10, definitely recommend!

Sassafras Trail

As this one wasn’t listed on the website, we ended up skipping it in favour of the trails we had descriptions for.

We did end up grabbing a quick photo of the sign on the way out of the park, so we had the information from *somewhere*!

The sign describes it as going through Sassafras and Oak forests at the base of the elevated Nipissing beach ridge, then ascending to see a canopy over an ancient shoreline.

They recommend 45 minutes for the trail, which is open to dogs, and involves a lookout point and some stairs.

Wilderness Trail

This is Pinery’s longest hiking trail, coming in at 3km. It’s described as taking you through old forest growth - both Red Pine and Oak-Pine mixed forest - to a viewing platform over the shore of Lake Huron.

This was another case of it being a decent walk through the woods, but not really a stand out hike.

The “viewing platform” was just another beach access platform, nothing higher or more interesting than the others ones up the day use and campground areas.

It was actually mostly being used as a beach access, at the time of our hike.

The parking lot of the trail head was crammed full of people, and we saw people carrying far more stuff with them than they tend to on other trails.

We later noticed - on the way out - that the day use parking #1 was full, and barricaded off. I guess this trail was being used as overflow beach access?

Biking

There’s a 14 km bike trail running through the park - the Savanna Trail. It runs along the road for the most park, and cuts through wooded areas in others.

It looks beautiful... but most cyclists seemed to eschew it in favour of biking 2-4 wide down the middle of the main campground road, during our stay.

Swimming

Pinery has 10 km of sand beach running along the shores of Lake Huron, and that seems to be the main draw of the park.

There are 9 entry points along the day use area, as well as a few separate paths from the Dunes and Riverside Campgrounds.

Day Use, Winter Trip

During our first stay, we only had access to one beach - P9 - and we were surprised at how far the walk to the beach was.

It was a nice, big, wide path to get there - great condition, at that - so easy for strollers and carts of beach gear and such - but it’s definitely a long one.

We parked right at the start of the trail, and it was about 0.3 km each way.

The path ends very abruptly, at the top of a sand dune type cliff.

You have to walk down a pretty steep sandy embankment over the sand dunes to get to the beach - so not in any way accessible once you get to the actual beach, at least at the P9 beach.

The beach itself was gorgeous - the really fine sandy sand, as far as we could see. We couldn’t see the actual shoreline during our visit, due to the buildup of snow and ice at the time.

It was definitely the perfect place to enjoy a frosty sunset, though!

Campground & Dog Beaches

On our second trip, all the beaches were open.

We checked out the dog beach, which seemed to be the nicest - and sandiest - beach of them all.

The beach at Dunes campground was a bit rockier, but was only a 5 minute walk from our campsite.

Most - if not all - of the trails to the beach from the campgrounds involve boardwalk, stairs, and platforms to get up over the rolling dunes, as well as a steep walk down to the beach from there.

In our area, it was a bit difficult to find a section of sandy beach to put our beach blanket down onto - there were rocks everywhere, as well as driftwood, etc.

The area in front of the water was all gravel, as was the lake floor. There was a pretty steep drop off, too - I was knee deep, just 3 steps out!

Birding, Wildlife, and Nature

On our first stay, we noted that the areas we visited seemed to have a shocking lack of wildlife - we saw one bird overhead at one point, and that was it.

We did try to see flying squirrels at the visitor centre at night - something Pinery is known for - but no luck. For reference, if you bring a black light flashlight, you’ll have an easier time seeing them - they glow neon pink!

The park is known for having extraordinary biodiversity - at least in part due to its provincially significant wetland - and is known to host over 300 species of birds, though, so we had higher hopes for our second trip, in the spring.

The park’s official website mentions Tundra Swans (March), Warblers (May and June), Red-throated Loons (Spring), Baltimore Oriole, Cerulean Warbler, and Scarlet Tanager (Summer), as well as Red-tailed Hawks and Tufted Titmice in the winter.

For the most part, we didn’t see any of these bird species, LOL.

We were surprised at how quiet the campsite was each morning - most provincial park camp grounds we’ve stayed in this spring have been super loud with singing birds every morning!

We determined that along the water channels would be a great place for bird watching, and had some luck at the Burley Bridge.

There, we saw an Eastern Kingbird, some Red Winged Blackbirds, a Turkey Vulture, and some other birds we were unable to identify.

We also saw a GIANT snapping turtle - we thought it was a very slow moving boulder at first!

On our second afternoon at the campsite itself, we were visited by a Grey Catbird, as well as a couple of warblers.

The third day - when we hit the trails in both the morning and the evening - was when we really started to see the birds, as well as a few pretty yellow butterflies.

Also of note: There are wildflowers throughout the park. Really pretty - some were varieties I’d never even heard of before!

Boating

Motorboats are prohibited on Old Ausable Channel, but you can use canoes, kayaks, and stand up paddleboards.

There are a few places to launch off the banks of the Old Ausable Channel, with the main one being across from the Visitor Centre.

The water in the area of the channel that runs along the day use area - and along Riverside - seems the cleanest and prettiest.

It gets more swampy has you head towards the other side of the park - near the Burley Bridge.

Fishing

The park website welcomes fishing anywhere on the Old Ausable Channel, aside from beside the canoe rental docks and the south side of Burley Bridge.

Weirdly, the south side of Burley Bridge was the only place we saw people fishing during our stay!

There’s also a sign there that tells people they need to stop fishing if they see a turtle in the area, rather than prohibiting fishing - so a bit of mixed messaging there.

Anyway.

Apparently the channel is home to almost 50 species of fish, including Bass, Catfish, Northern Pike, Perch, and Sunfish.

There were a TON of sunfish near the canoe launch, and literal swarms of what appeared to be some sort of carp on the south side of the Burley Bridge.

It was fun to watch them early on our second morning there.

Anyway, as a note - there’s a ban on baitfish, and catch-and-release is recommended, on account of several species at risk.

Discovery Program

While most campgrounds we’ve been to seem to keep their special programs to July and August, Pinery had a really robust offering, even in May!

Guided hikes every weekend, a bird banding demonstration the weekend we were there, an “ask a naturalist” series, and more!

They offer children’s programs during the summer, too.

Small complaint: We only knew about the programs because there was a printout taped up to the window of the camp store. When I asked if they had any copies we could take, we were told it was just the one.

Especially where cell reception is so bad there, it would have been nice to have a paper copy we could have referred to at our site.

Even just a little black and white photocopy of the basic info listing - doesn’t need to be fancy!

Niantic Games

The cell phone reception was so bad during our stay, that all I can tell you is that there were a few portals / Pokestops / Gyms near the Visitor Centre - and not enough reception for us to make use of them.

If you go right up to the Visitor Centre, you can sometimes get them to load - so, a good option to get a 1 daily in, but not if you need to be farming, or if there’s an event.

Sunsets

National Geographic has ranked the sunsets at Pinery Provincial Park as being among the 10 Best in the World - and we’ve definitely seen some amazing sunsets during our two stays there.

Best viewed from the beach, so you might want to get there early for a good spot - during our May stay, the beaches got really crowded just before sunset!

Also: During our late winter stay, sunRISE over the Old Ausable Channel (near Riverside Campground) was also gorgeous.

Winter Activities

As an all-season park, Pinery offers a variety of winter activities - when the weather cooperates - and is known for having some of the best cross-country skiing in the region.

Some of the park roads and nature trails are converted to ski trails - 38 kilometres of trails total, for beginner to advanced skiiers.

Snowshoeing, skating, and tobogganing are also offered.

We didn’t get much winter this year, so maybe next year?

Final Thoughts

After our first trip, our final thoughts were:

“Based on the stories we’ve heard about people trying to get in and out of the campground in the summer - and the way the roads and amenities are here - we will definitely be avoiding it in the summer.”

After staying in the park over May long weekend...

This is a great park if you’re into cycling. It is VERY much set up for cyclists, and there’s a lot of access if you’re on 2 wheels.

... given the one ways and parking issues, it’s probably easier to get around on a bike, than in a car - assuming you’re able bodied, anyway!

Honestly, I think I preferred the park in the winter, when half of it was closed down and it wasn’t so overwhelming and annoying to get everywhere.

Going forward, we think we’d come back in WINTER-winter. As in, snow on the ground and trails open.

Coming when there wasn’t snow on the ground was nice enough, but only having one trail open kind of sucked.

I’d like a better balance of “not overwhelming and annoying” and “there are things to do”. Active-trails winter seems the perfect way to get that balance.

In terms of spring / summer camping, though... with so many other amazing Provincial Parks in the area - along Lake Huron, or even Lake Erie - this one just doesn’t measure up for us.

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
McRae Point Provincial Park
Neys 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