Rene Brunelle Provincial Park is a cozy little campground in Northern Ontario. Here's everything you need to know about camping there!
It’s located in the Cochrane district, just outside the small town of Moonbeam. We’d actually passed through Moonbeam on an earlier trip through Northern Ontario.
Somehow we missed that the road we pulled over on for a quick rest - memorable for the little spaceship on the highway - was actually a road to another campground.
Named after a former Member of Provincial Parliament, this northern gem is located along the shore of Remi Lake.
Specifically, the La Vigilance Trail is named after Ontario’s first bush plane - basically a flying boat. It crashed in 1922, was recovered and refurbished, and is now housed at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa.
The history of the aerial timber patrols in the area - both as forest fire rescue operations, and their origins in fighting Nazis - is fascinating. Ontario Parks has a blog entry about it - La Vigilance: Ontario's First Bush Plane.
Anyway, we had a fantastic camping experience at what ended up being an incredibly serene natural retreat for us.
Let us tell you all about it!
The Basics:
Campground Name: René Brunelle Provincial Park
Address: Unorganized North Cochrane District, ON P0L 1V0. Click here for the Google Maps location.
Website: https://www.ontarioparks.ca/park/renebrunelle
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: Recreational
Season: May 16, 2025 to September 21, 2025 (Camping & Day Use), May 16, 2025 to October 14, 2025 (Roofed Accomodation), December 12, 2025 to March 22, 2026 (Winter Day Use).
Park Warden Phone Number: 705 372-5965
Logistics
Some basic information to help you plan your stay at Rene Brunelle Provincial Park:
Registration and Check In
While we usually plan all of our camping trips 5 months in advance - at the computer and ready to go at 7 am, to get the best possible site - we ended up booking our stay at Rene Brunelle Park about 2 weeks in advance.
We’d had a trip all planned out and ready to go, but those plans ended up plagued with disaster.
One campground was destroyed in a catastrophic weather event, forest fires started up, roads were closing, and more. We ended up deciding to go an entirely different route for our summer trip, and headed straight north.
Luckily, it’s a lot easier to find a spot at Northern Ontario parks, than Southeastern Ontario parks!
We lucked in to an electric site with a little waterfront access - score!
Anyway, I preregistered at the time of booking - as always - and did the online check in on the morning of our arrival.
Though the park message said to check in with staff to obtain a printed permit upon arrival at the park, it turned out to not be the case. The park is on a paperless permit situation.
Check in was fast and friendly, as usual.
Maps and Signage
Rene Brunelle is a really small, very simply laid-out park. You really don’t need much in the way of directional info to get around, but here’s what you need to know:
Park Map
We were given 2 maps upon check-in. One was a large 12.5 x 18.5 full colour map sheet. Weird, non-standard size, but it was a welcome change from the crappy, low-res photocopies we’ve seen lately!
One side had the map, along with trail information, while the other side was more park information.
No complaints about the park maps: Good quality print, nice degree of contrast, everything neatly laid out, no BIG omissions.
The only thing I’d point out is that one distance marker is a bit misleading - There’s a second on the top of the main campground road map that points off-map, indicating that the day use area is 2.5 km that way.
In reality, it was more like 1 km. We wonder if maybe the entire main road - from entrance to day use - is 2.5 km. Either way, I’d rather be “mislead” by a shorter distance than planned, than a longer one!
Anyway, the Rene Brunelle Provincial Park Map is available on the park’s website as a .pdf download (linked), but the topographical lake map is not.
Signage
The signage in the park is great - well placed, clear, large enough print, and good contrast.
The only issue at all is that the campground entrances aren’t marked facing both directions. If you’re coming back from the day use area, a map comes in handy the first time through, as it can be easy to miss your exit.
Waste & Water Services
The Trailer Sanitation Station is a half loop off to the right side of the road, shortly after you enter the park.
The entrance to the loop can be easily accessed from either direction though, so it’s no hassle to get in there on the way out of the park.
The dump and fill platforms are on a center strip between two lanes, with an un-threaded fill station first, then the dump platform.
There was a boil water advisory in place at the time of our visit. This was both at the fill station, and at every tap we saw through the park - the signage looked to be long-term, if not permanent.
Also: There’s a garbage and recycling depot in the trailer sanitation station loop, but that’s not noted on the park map.
Connectivity
While everything we’d read before headed to the park indicated that there was NO cell reception at Rene Brunelle Provincial Park, we were pleasantly surprised with very good connectivity at our site.
As we explored the park that first day, we had no issues with cell reception at all. This continued throughout our stay, and we were even able to stream some Netflix on a rainy evening.
We’re on Rogers Wireless, btw.
Accessibility
So, a bit of good and bad here.
It’s not the most accessible park for wheelchair users, but it’s actually pretty accessible for those of us with other mobility issues.
There is a single barrier-free site, which is located next to the comfort station. The comfort station itself is actually barrier-free - more so from the campground side, than the parking lot on the main park road, though.
The hand-held shower head is mounted awfully high for a “barrier-free” shower, though.
Beyond that, none of the trails are barrier free, and I wouldn’t say that the day use area is very wheelchair friendly either. There are no wheelchair accommodations in place for the beach, either.
That said, I actually got to see a lot more of this park than some others we’ve been to lately. The trails are all rated easy (though they’re more easy-moderate if you have mobility issues), and the sprawling day use area wasn’t TOO hilly for me.
Pets
There is no information about pets on the park website or on the park map / information handout. There are no dog beaches or exercise areas, either.
That said, we saw lots of dogs during our stay - they seemed to love the trails, in particular!
Beyond that, expect that all the usual Ontario Parks rules apply - dogs must be leashed and attended at all times, not allowed to harass people/animals/plants, and must be picked up after.
Parking
The parking situation at Rene Brunelle Provincial Park is generally adequate to good.
The sites all seem HUGE, with plenty of room for an extra vehicle. Good thing, as there doesn’t appear to be any overflow parking at either of the main campgrounds.
There’s plenty of parking at the day use area and the camper’s beach, though.
One note: The park map has a symbol for parking at the gatehouse, which is actually located off-map. We’d been hoping there was parking for the Moonbeam Trail System, basically next to the park entrance, but there was not.
They let Porter park there for his run, but said that would not be an option at busier times.
Miscellaneous
Some random info that you might like to know about Rene Brunelle Provincial Park:
The Road In
As a heads up, the road from the Trans Canada Highway is about 10 or 11 km to the park, and really rough for 9 km+ of that drive.
We had the misfortune of losing our muffler shortly before turning off the highway (We fixed it once we got to our site!), so that drive was MISERABLE for us!
Night Sky Viewing
Rene Brunelle Provincial Park is in an area of VERY low light pollution, so it’s a great place for stargazing.
Part of the day use is directly north facing over a large body of water, so that’s an ideal place for northern lights viewing, should the conditions present themselves.
As a bonus, there doesn’t seem to be any cottages or anything on the north shore of Remi Lake, so no artificial light to mess with your aurora photography!
Unfortunately - though things were looking like we had a CHANCE of auroral activity during our stay - the only actual substorms happened during periods of rain. Boo!
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.
Campground Amenities & Info
Here’s what you can expect in terms of the amenities at Rene Brunelle Provincial Park:
Creature Comforts
There’s a single comfort station, located in the north half of the East Bay Campground. You can access it via either the campground side, or via the main road.
The comfort station has a playground outside, with the usual flush toilets, laundry facilities, and showers inside.
The laundry facility there looks to be in good shape, with what looked to be two washers and two dryers.
I liked how the park’s website additionally specified that it has hand dryers, hand sanitizer, mirrors, and sinks as well. The hand sanitizer is always a nice tough, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a comfort station that didn’t have sinks and mirrors, at the very least!
Another interesting thing about this park - apparently ALL of the outhouses are flush toilets, ALSO with sinks and hand sanitizer!
Visitor Centre
There is no Visitor Center at Rene Brunelle Provincial Park.
Park Store
There’s a small park store inside the gate, and it has a surprisingly large selection of goods for sale!
Beyond the basic firewood, ice, and Ontario Parks swag (a LOT of clothing items!), they also sell candy, coffee, ice cream, snacks, and some basic camping supplies.
Day Use Area
The day use area at Rene Brunelle Provincial Park is HUGE - sprawling, well-manicured grassy areas with all kinds of picnic and recreational possibilities.
There’s a large picnic shelter that’s available for rent, as well as a fair number of picnic tables throughout the area.
There is a large playground - in good condition - right next to a volleyball net. Two beaches flank the tip of the day use area - Phipps Point, and the La Vigilance Trail sets out from the day use parking area.
Rentals
Much like at Kettle Lakes Provincial Park, Rene Brunelle Provincial Park has a pretty robust offering of rental items.
Like many parks, you can rent canoes, kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, and the aforementioned picnic shelter.
Beyond that, you can also rent bikes, pedal boats, and even motorboats! I wanted to rent a pedal boat, but the weather really wasn’t great for it, during the time of our stay. 🙁
Campsite Details
There are 4 ways you can camp at Rene Brunelle Provincial Park: Car Camping, Walk-In Camping, Group Camping, and Roofed Accommodation.
Well, I suppose 5 ways, if you count the seasonal site rentals - I think that’s basically just car camping, though.
Anyway, here’s what you should know:
Car Camping
There are two campgrounds - Owl’s Nest Campground, and East Bay Campground.
Owl’s Nest is a tiny camping area, just 10 non-electrical sites. Given the location, we’d assumed that the sites all had a water view- that was not the case. Just one - which IMHO is the best site in the park - has a water view.
I hate that #88 is the best site, BTW. I felt a bit dirty renting it for a day’s worth of food photography shoots!
Anyway, East Bay Campground is mostly made up of electrical sites, with many of the occupants at the time of our visit appearing to be seasonal.
Interestingly, the reservations page said that it had a moderate pad slope - there was only the most minor of slope here. CERTAINLY less of a slope than the supposedly slight slope of the site we’d booked at Kap-Kig-Iwan Provincial Park!
Walk-In Camping
Near the Camper’s Beach is a short string of 5 walk-in sites, all of which had open access to the water, and a great view.
There’s not a lot of privacy between them - some even have a connecting path between them - but they're all really beautiful sites right on the waters edge.
I think it would be really cool to use as a group camping if you rented multiple sites together.
Anyway, at the beginning of the short trail, there were a few little wagons - presumably to help you cart your stuff to your campsite.
Group Camping
The group camping situation at Rene Brunelle Provincial Park is one of the nicest we’ve seen, right up there with Sandbar Lake Provincial Park.
It’s a LARGE site, very much separated from the rest of the camping area. It actually allows for trailers, and can accommodate 20 or more of them, depending on size and space needs.
Best of all, it has its own private, north-facing beach!
We’re not close with other Aurora hunters, but if we were... that could be a really fun retreat!
Anyway, aside from the beach, there’s a volleyball net and field area, a large campfire circle, PLENTY of garbage cans, and their own set of flush toilet outhouses.
Roofed Accommodation
There is a single Rustic Cabin located at Rene Brunelle Provincial Park, on its own little road near the campers beach.
Unfortunately, it was booked the entire time we were at the park, so we weren’t able to go get a closer look. As a result, all we know about it is what we read on the site:
It’s a single room cabin that sleeps up to 5 people, between a queen bed and a bunk bed with a double/single setup.
There’s a kitchenette with a coffee maker, counter, dining table and chairs, microwave, and mini fridge. There’s a gas BBQ and picnic table outside for cooking on, and a propane/electric fireplace inside to keep you warm.
There’s an outhouse not far from the cabin - maybe about 1 minute walk - between the cabin and the camper’s beach parking lot.
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Entertainment and Activity
While it’s a small park, René Brunelle Provincial Park offers a few different activities you can participate in:
Hiking
The park’s website mentions 2 hiking trails, though the René Brunelle Provincial Park map has 3 named trails. There are also several unnamed walking paths connecting different areas of the campgrounds and park in general.
As far as the named trails go, these are:
La Vigilance Trail - 1.5 km, Easy
The park’s website says this trail is 1.5 km, the park map says 0.8 km. In reality, it’s 0.86 km - it did feel longer, though, on account of the terrain.
It's rated as being easy we'd say it's more easy to moderate, as the ground is a little rough. There's a lot of roots, a really steep section in there, and a fair amount of sloping along the way. I was able to do it on a not great tendon day.
It’s a really cute and interesting trail, especially for being so short. There were a lot of different views, and a lot of different kind of vibes along the way.
It’s a beautiful boreal forest, with several lake views along the way. There are a couple interpretive signs that talk about a bush pilot plane crash in the early 1900s.
It was a nice little workout first thing in the morning, and a great spot for birding.
Spruce Lowland Trail - 1.6 km, Easy
The park’s website says 1.6 km, the map says 1.4 - It’s actually about 1.32 km, per MapMyRun. That’s for both the main loop, and an offshoot trail section - Porter did this trail alone.
This trail is easy to moderate, with some sections with a lot of tree roots and rough footing. There are also sections that are pretty easy and cleared wide, a lot of boardwalk sections, and only a couple of hills that are somewhat steep.
It had rained the night before, and the boardwalk areas were VERY slippery - Porter almost fell twice, despite wearing nice hiking boots!
He really liked the section that felt like a “tunnel” of trees, and that there was a lot of lush vegetation around.
He’d managed to completely forget that the big draw of this trail was an abandoned bear den. As it turns out, that’s located at the end of that offshoot trail - it’s roped off, you can’t really see the den.
Waterline Trail - 1.1 km, Easy/Moderate
This is a weird one - it’s not mentioned on the park’s website, but it’s on the map. On the map, it says 1.1 km long... but it’s running next to a section of road (campground to day use) that says it’s 2.5 km!
As it turns out, the trail is 0.87 from the day use area to the north side of the Owl’s Nest Campground.
You can access the trail from anywhere in the areas, though - there’s a trail going from the campers beach, past the cabin, through the East Bay Campground, across a little bridge to the Owl’s Nest campground, and through that campground.
Anyway, we started out at that northernmost point of the camping area. It started off very wide, flat, and easy.
Pretty soon after starting, the main trail veered right, with a rough looking offshoot to the left. We had thought it was just a short offshoot trail to see the water, but it turned out to be the actual Waterline Trail, continuing all the way to the day use area.
There's no trail signage at all, or blazes that we could see.
Anyway, this is a cute trail overall. There’s a fair amount that’s flat and easy, but also a fair amount that we’d definitely consider more moderate - very bumpy, lumpy, soft and spongy, getting marshy in areas. There are also lots of roots, and a couple of fallen trees across the path.
Based on the campground map, I'd been hoping that this trail gave some good water views.
You can catch glimpses of the lake through a bunch of trees, but there aren't any little lookout points or side trails or anything like that to get to the water.
Overall, though, a nice little morning workout!
Biking
There are no biking trails in the park, though campers are welcome to ride their bikes on the park roads.
That said, there’s a series of municipal nature trails - Moonbeam Nature Trails - that have an access point just outside of the park entrance.
These trails alternate between being paved and being packed gravel. It seems like it had been paved initially, but the areas where old pavement was repaired, have been replaced with gravel.
The signs say that the mixed-use trail is appropriate for skateboarding and roller blading as well - we’d take that with a grain of salt.
That said, the trail system is really nice. It has side branches to water views, all kinds of different scenery, just a pretty, winding trail to bike or jog on.
Swimming
The park’s website mentions there being 4 sandy beaches ... I’d take the number with a grain of salt.
In reality, there’s 2... 3 if we’re being really generous.
First off, there’s the campers beach, soon after you enter the park. This is a cute little beach, with a roped off swimming area, a small sandy beach, and a few picnic tables. There’s also a small playground there - this isn’t noted on the park map, though.
This also seems to be where all the rental watercraft are located.
On the north side is a long, sandy beach with a bouyed swimming area.
The south side... I mean, there’s a long open access to the water. Very, VERY narrow “beach” - maybe a foot or so - before the sand turns into a more rocky base under the water.
The last beach probably shouldn’t be counted as one - it’s located in the group camping area. A sign at the entrance to the group camp area makes it clear that it’s not intended for anyone other than those who’ve booked it.
Anyway, the water seems fairly shallow, pretty far out - and very clean/clear looking.
Top: North Side
Bottom: South Side
Birding, Wildlife, and Nature
We were excited to explore the park’s natural habitats, as we’d seen that the park was home to moose, black bears, wolves, foxes, and more.
We didn’t see any of them, just some squirrels and chipmunks. Boo!
That said, the birding at Rene Brunelle Provincial Park was WILD.
So many Bald Eagles - even flying over our campsite fairly frequently, as I cooked. There were also a ton of loons on the water, and quite a few Spruce Grouse along the roads.
Overall, we heard and/or saw:
American Crow, American Herring Gull, Bald Eagle, Belted Kingfisher, Black-Capped Chickadee, Blue Jay, Bonaparte’s Gull, Common Loon, Common Raven, Cooper’s Hawk, Downy Woodpecker, Golden-Crowned Kinglet, Hairy Woodpecker, Hermit Thrush, Northern Flicker, Northern Parula, Pine Siskin, Red-Eyed Vireo, Redhead Duck, Ruffed Grouse, Song Sparrow, Spotted Sandpiper, Spruce Grouse, Turkey Vulture, White-Throated Sparrow, Winter Wren, Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker.
Row 2: Belted Kingfisher, Bonaparte's Gull, Chipping Sparrow
Row 3: Common Loon, Cooper's Hawk, Downy Woodpecker
Row 4: Northern Parula, Red-Breasted Merganser, Ruffed Grouse
Row 5: Spotted Sandpiper, Turkey Vulture, Winter Wren
Of particular note, we were shocked to see what looked like stems of tiny little orchids - similar to cymbidiums, but smaller than the tip of my pinkie finger.
I didn’t think orchids were still blooming in mid August. I don’t know a ton about wild orchids, but I was pretty sure that they’re a May/June thing, for the most part.
I Googled it - we were definitely looking at orchids! At least 2 different colours of them, at that!
Boating
There are a few options for boating at the park, and in the surrounding areas. Remi Lake IS a really big lake, after all!
In the park, you can set your canoes or kayaks in the water from any of the beaches, or from the boat dock located near the entrance of the East Bay Campground.
Be forewarned: This is a floating dock... and by “floating”, I mean the most extreme possible version of that term. During our stay, it was pretty violently rolling on the waves - we would have been thrown off, had we tried to walk on it!
I wish the weather had been a bit better, it would have been fun to rent a kayak and maybe headed out to Airplane Island to check it out.
A little bit further along the parking loop, there’s another ... well, more of an access point than a launch. I’m assuming people put in their canoes there, when the boat launch area is busy.
Heads up: There are turn-off signs to the boat launch - on approach from either direction - that are a bit misleading. They give you a LOT of notice to turn - with some other driveways before the actual entrance to the boat launch area.
Fishing
Remi Lake is known as a place to fish for Lake Whitefish, Northern Pike, Small-Mouth Bass, Walleye, and Yellow Perch.
We didn’t do any fishing during our stay, but we saw people fishing from shore both on the La Vigilance Trail, and from the small dock in the East Bay campground.
The dock area is nice, because there’s a fish cleaning hut right there.
Well, in theory anyway - it was padlocked with an “out of order” sign at the time of our visit.
Discovery Program
I was surprised to see that Rene Brunelle Provincial Park has a Discovery Program at all, given how small and quiet it is. I don’t think we saw a single kid the entire time we were there!
Anyway, the program runs on weekends in July and August.
We visited over the weekdays that week, though, so we missed out on the programming. The previous weekend’s schedule was still up, and had a small but diverse set of topics available.
Winter Activities
While the park is closed for camping during the winter months, it IS open as a day-use only park.
I think this is the first Provincial Park we’ve seen that offers downhill skiing.
Oddly, the park’s ski hill is completely separate from the rest of the park, and information about the skiing is via the Municipality of Moonbeam’s webpage, rather than Parks Ontario.
Anyway, beyond that, the park maintains some snowshoe trails, and has Fat Bikes available for rent.
Niantic Games
There two spots at Rene Brunelle Provincial Park with Niantic sites - one at the front gate, and a few more in the day use area.
The day use area was definitely the best place to play. 2 Pokestops and a Pokegym, plus a TON of spawns. We also had excellent cell phone signal there, so that was handy!
Final Thoughts
This park ended up being a surprise hit for us!
We hadn’t heard much about it at all, it never seems to come up in discussion on the various Ontario camping groups... but we loved it!
We loved the small size and the QUIET. So few people, and those that were there, were not obnoxious party types. It was so peaceful, being lulled to sleep by the sound of waves below our site, and the loons calling out.
The trails are gorgeous, the water is beautiful, and the birding opportunities were fantastic. All around, just a really great park - we’ll definitely be back!
More Northern Ontario Provincial Parks & Places to See
Want to read some more about the parks we've camped and at places we've seen in Northern Ontario? Here are some more posts!
Northern Ontario Campground Reviews:
Aaron Provincial Park
Agawa Bay Campground, Lake Superior Provincial Park
Blue Lake Provincial Park
Caliper Lake Provincial Park
Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park
Kettle Lakes Provincial Park
Lake Superior Provincial Park
MacLeod Provincial Park
Neys Provincial Park
Ojibway Provincial Park
Pakwash Provincial Park
Pancake Bay Provincial Park
Pukaskwa National Park
Quetico Provincial Park
Rabbit Blanket Lake, Lake Superior Provincial Park
Rainbow Falls Provincial Park
Rushing River Provincial Park
Sandbar Lake Provincial Park
Sioux Narrows Provincial Park
Sleeping Giant Provincial Park
White Lake Provincial Park
Northern Ontario Places to See:
Aguasabon Falls & Gorge
Amethyst Mine Panorama
Batchawana Bay
Chippewa Falls
Kakabeka Falls
Mink Creek Falls
Old Woman Bay
Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park
Potholes Provincial Park
Roy Wilson Suspension Bridge
Sand River Falls
Scenic High Falls
Temagami Fire Tower
Terrace Bay Beach
Want to explore beyond Northern 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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