Sioux Narrows Provincial Park

Sioux Narrows Park was the second park on our “Journey into the Unknown” loop of Northwestern Ontario Parks, located only about 45 minutes from our first stop - Caliper Lake Provincial Park.

Part of the Ontario Parks system, both are located in the township of Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls, in the Lake of the Woods region of Northern Ontario.

We’d never been to the Lake of the Woods area before (Aside from the times I’d drive through in my youth, en route to Ottawa!), so we were looking forward to it!

It’s a MASSIVE 1 million acre lake that spans across 2 provinces AND part of the USA, with over 14,000 islands in it! It always seemed like a great location to visit, we’d just never had the opportunity to.

As it turns out, we ended up having to truncate our stay, significantly - we spent only 1 night at the park!

Massive forest fires in Manitoba at the time caused not only a fire ban (which we were easily able to work around), but covered the whole area of both parks in smoke.

We woke up on our second last morning at Caliper Lake to see that the outdoors was sepia tone, and decided that we should probably limit our stay in northwestern Ontario, both of the good of our own lungs, and those of our cats.

Sioux Narrows is a really small, recreational class park, though... with really short drives to the RV parks we stayed at before and after it.

So, we went HARD, and managed to explore the entire park in just 24 hours.

It was a bit of work - but fun! - and we’re ready to share the highlights of the park with you.

The Basics:

Campground Name: Sioux Narrows Provincial Park
Address: ON-71, Sioux Narrows, ON P0X 1N0. Click Here for Google Maps location.
Website: https://www.ontarioparks.ca/park/siouxnarrows
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 October 14, 2025

Logistics

Some basic info to help you plan your stay at Sioux Narrows Provincial Park:

Registration and Check In

We booked our campsite reservations 5 months ahead of time, on the Ontario Parks website, right at 7am. This turned out to be wholly unnecessary for our stay, as the park was pretty empty when we showed up.

We showed up at 4:03, and the office was closed. I guess we’re so used to coming in at or before 2, I didn’t realize some offices close that early! So, we went to our site and registered the next morning.

Check in was fast and friendly at the park office. As a note: Check in is done inside a small building, but there’s very little in the way of parking there. It’s a small, fairly remote park, though... so maybe that’s not so much of an issue, even in summer.

Maps and Signage

The park has two maps - the official Ontario Parks handout, which is the same one as at Caliper Lake Provincial Park - an 11x17 page, shared between the two parks.

There’s also an 8.5 x 11" single page, full colour map that’s done as a trifold brochure style - this one looks to be put out by town of Sioux Narrows, rather than Ontario Parks.

It’s super cute - has a whole cottage country vibe, while also being very visual and conveying a lot of information. Love it!

One annoyance: The park’s website lists 3 hiking trails (Well, 2 trails and a campground path to the office), but one of the actual trails aren’t represented on the map. We think?

Either the map is WILDLY not to scale (I mean, not even close), or the length of one trail was wildly overstated, and it’s actually the loop on the end of the trail that IS shown.

The thing is, it doesn’t line up with trail maps we’ve seen from other sources, that make it look like there’s a trail circling the park.

In terms of the signage, it’s ... OK. Not a lot of it, what’s there isn’t necessarily big or high contrast, but really... it’s a small, pretty straightforward park. The signage they have is mostly adequate for the space.

Waste and Water Services

As with the vast majority of Ontario Provincial Parks, the campsites themselves don’t have water or sewer connections, so those functions are dealt with at the Trailer Sanitation Station.

At Sioux Narrows Provincial Park, the trailer sanitation station is a small half-loop pull off from the main campground road, adjacent to the gatehouse.

If you’re planning to dump and/or fill on the way in, you’ll need to turn left after the gatehouse, basically U-Turn to access the platforms, then loop back through the gatehouse entrance lane.

Accessing it on the way out of the park is just simply pulling off to the right, just before you get as far as the gatehouse.

There’s single dump station on the left side of the lane, then - sort of? - a fill platform.

The fill platform was a weird setup - we saw the same “potable water” box type setup in a few other areas of the park, with a tap off the side of that box. Next to that was the usual blue fill platform, and THAT had a note saying not to drink the water.

The park’s website did not mention a boil water advisory, and the staff members in the office had no idea what the situation was, but one said that she *thought* it was safe.

We decided not to take our chances on “I THINK it’s potable?”, and decided to fill up at the next stop.

Connectivity

On Rogers Wireless, we had poor cellular reception throughout the park on the first day, then decent to good reception on the second day.

There were a few points where we didn’t have any reception, but that was just a blip. At our site, we seemed to have great speed on our phones, but it turned out we didn’t have enough download speed to stream anything on TV that night.

Accessibility

Both comfort stations - as well as the toilets building at the beach, and the park office - are designated barrier free.

The main campground comfort station is not labeled as such on the map, though - both of the other comfort stations feature accessibility symbols.

There are also a couple of barrier- free campsites.

Unfortunately, that’s about where accessibility ends in the park. I was especially disappointed to see that I would not be able to access the beach - the end of the road to the beach is gated off, with a narrow path around the gate.

The road down is long - about ¼ km to the beach - and steep. It was more than I’d be able to handle, and it was not wheelchair accessible, either.

Call me crazy, but given that the washroom building for the beach is labeled as barrier free, it would nice if there wasn’t a giant barrier to even getting there in the first place!

Pets

There are no off-leash dog areas in the park, and dogs are very specifically NOT allowed on the beach. (The caps are a quote, from the park brochure!).

Other than that, there’s no information about dogs posted, other than they must be kept on their leashes at all times.

Be sure to pick up after your dog and properly dispose of it, though!

Parking

There’s a relatively large parking lot up the hill from the beach, but that’s the only designated parking spot in the park, aside from at the campsites.

Both campground comfort stations have a bit of room where you could park, just not marked spots (and they’re not marked as having parking on the map).

Also of note: While it’s not represented on the map, there’s a parking lot for cars with trailers up the hill from the boat launch.

Basically, head back towards the front office, and where the road from the boat launch meets the main road, the parking is across the street, in with the secondary park office.

Miscellaneous

This is where I usually end up talking about light pollution, and aurora conditions. Unfortunately ... I’m not sure what to tell you.

In theory, there should be little in the way of light pollution at Sioux Narrows Provincial Park. I’d imagine most of the Lake of the Woods area would be fantastic for night sky viewing, with maybe some light pollution to the north-ish, from Kenora.

The wildfire smoke was too heavy during our stay, to be able to see the stars OR the Northern Lights, which probably would have been visible otherwise.

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 some basic information on the amenities at Sioux Narrows Provincial Park:

Creature Comforts

There are two comfort stations at Sioux Narrows Provincial Park. One is near the center of the main campground area, and has flush toilets, laundry facilities, and showers. The laundry facilities are outside - but covered.

The second is smaller - with flush toilets and showers only - and located next to the waterfront group campsite.

Both comfort stations - as well as the toilets building at the beach - are designated barrier free.

There are also quite a few vault toilets located through the campground - a really high toilet-to-campsite ratio. Including the comfort stations, there are 9 washroom buildings for just over 50 campsites!

Visitor Centre

There is no Visitor Center at Sioux Narrows Provincial park.

Park Store

There’s no actual park store in Sioux Narrows Provincial Park, but they have a really small selection of items available for sale in the gatehouse.

They didn’t seem to be set up for it, during our visit, but there was an empty fridge for drinks, a chest freezer labeled “minnows”, and then a small bookshelf with tampons, women’s disposable razors, wet wipes, sunscreen, and a few bug repellant products.

Day Use Area

As with the beach, the day use area is accessible by walking maybe 300m down a steep road, as it’s gated off to vehicular traffic.

There are a couple other trails that go directly from the area at the bottom, up to the parking lot:

It’s a cute area - kind of sprawling - that seems well-designed (for able bodied people, anyway).

There’s a playground and picnic shelter (the shelter is for rent), though there weren’t many picnic tables in the area.

There’s a bit of tree line between the grassy area and the lake, but the beach had at least one picnic table - the view there makes that a GREAT option for a picnic lunch, IMHO!

Rentals

Sioux Narrows Provincial Park rents canoes, which are theoretically available at the park office. We didn’t see any during our trip, so we may have been too early in the season.

There’s also a picnic shelter available for rent in the day use area, and a large BBQ you can rent to go with it.

Campsite Details

There are just over 50 car campsites in Sioux Narrows Provincial Park. About ⅓ are electrical sites, a few of them are (sort of) pull through sites, and there’s a handful of walk-in sites.

Car Camping

Overall, the campsites could use some mowing and weed-wacking, though nothing anywhere near as bad as Caliper Lake was.

There’s not a lot of privacy, visually, but - at least at the time of our visit - the park was pretty empty, so you had *proximity* privacy, if that’s a thing.

With our site, we thought we’d booked a pull-through, but when we pulled up, it didn’t look to be the case. We weren’t going to just trust the site description after the Caliper Lake debacle, so we unhitched the car and backed in.

As it turned out, it WAS a pull though. The pad was pretty overgrown, but looking out the back window... it’s clear people have driven through at some point, anyway!

Walk-In Camping

There are eight or nine walk in campsites, all situated on the rocky outcrops along the shores of Lake of the Woods.

From what we can see, they all involve a short, rustic walk down to the site, and have amazing views. One of them - site #4- is out on its own little peninsula. AMAZING.

It’s another one of those FOMO situations that make us wish we could do the tent camping thing. Absolutely gorgeous camping option!

Group Camping

There are two private group sites, located clear across the campground area from each other.

One of the group campsites is located between that front office and the boat launch (on the way to the campground section), and one is located at the far end of the campground section.

The one near the front office is completely surrounded by woods and has a little platform and its own outhouse, and is suitable for 20-30 people.

The other group site is a waterfront site with its own dock AND outhouse, and is suitable for 30-40 people.

Entertainment and Activity

Here’s some information on the recreational activities you can engage in while visiting Sioux Narrows Provincial Park:

Hiking

Sioux Narrows Provincial Park has 2 hiking trails, and two campground paths. Porter did all the trails himself, as I was barely able to walk at the time. Ugh!

Anyway, here’s what he has to say about each of them:

Beach Path Trail - ~200m, Easy

This is just a short trail connecting the boat launch area to the beach and day use area. It’s not mentioned on the website or named on the map, though it’s shown on the map. “Beach Trail” is just what we refer to it as.

“It really feels like a maintenance service path that allows for a shortcut to the beach, with a short boardwalk section in one area.

It ends at an open grassy field, and you see the playground up the hill and the beach further ahead.”

Deer Path Trail - 600m, Easy

This is a weird little path that connects the main comfort station to the Gatehouse.

“It starts out next to the gate house, though there is no parking here. I had just finished the Fern Trail so it was a short walk up the road to the Deer Path Trail.

This also felt like a cross country ski trail that they allow hiking on in summer, wide trimmed with tall grass growing on the trail.

I did see a very narrow path off to the side at one point, which I presume was a deer trail, though I wasn't lucky enough to see any wildlife on my visit.

The trail ends at a grassy area behind the comfort station, and I passed another sign pointing to the trail for those coming from the comfort station.

I walked to the road and when I turned around I saw a sign stating "Please Keep Off Grass".

I don't understand why there's a sign stating it's a trail, but you're not supposed to walk on the grass to get there when there's no actual trail that isn't grass.”

Fern Valley Trail - 1.6 km, Easy

“After the Lookout Point branches, this trail follows very close to the road. You can see the playground and even a private farm next to the trail. It's an odd feeling walking next to a fence and seeing broken down farm equipment to the side of a trail.

There's a boardwalk section for perhaps a hundred meters that looks fairly new. Unfortunately it's poorly constructed. They used only one screw on each side of the board, and many have pulled out. So in effect you're walking on loose boards over some sturdy beams.

There are a lot of grassy sections with tall grass. They've trimmed the trees back well, it’s a fairly wide path.

It really felt like a cross-country ski path, which was confirmed when I met the Aspen Trail branch and saw a sign asking people not to walk on the groomed cross-country ski trails.

Overall the Fern Valley Trail is a bit underwhelming as a hiking trail, lots of straight sections and little variation along it.”

Lookout Trail - 1.5 km, Moderate

This is either 1.5 km or 2 km, depending on which part of the site’s trail description you’re looking at.

“This trail starts out at the beach, in deep woods going up a modest incline. The loop is a well-labeled branch off the Fern Trail. I didn't realize it at the time, but it's intended for clockwise travel, as the trail markers are only noted in that direction. The path is worn well enough that the trail markers aren't needed.

After it branches off the Fern Trail, the path is very rocky and rough, with some short hills.

I give this trail a moderate rating - the park has it as easy - because you definitely have to watch where you're stepping on most of the trail.

There are multiple interior paths and an outer loop. I stayed on the outer loop because I didn't want to miss any water views. I didn't see any reason to follow the interior trails, there didn't appear to be an elevated lookout for example.

There's no specific designated lookout point on the trail, but there are a few points with a break in the trees that offer a great view over the water.”

Biking

Like with Caliper Lake, there are no dedicated cycling trails at Sioux Narrows Provincial Park - and the park offers the park roads up for cycling.

Unlike Caliper Lake, a lot of the campground roads more closely resemble actual roads, rather than mountain biking trails!

As a very small, open, quiet park - I can see campground cycling being decent here, especially as an option for little kids.

Swimming

There’s a relatively long sandy beach in the day use & swimming area.

The sand is kind of course - not fully gravelly - and the water looked VERY clean and clear. (Unlike a lot of the “sandy beaches” we see on lakes!)

Aside from the walk to get down to the beach area - which excluded me from being able to - Porter said it looked like a great place to spend a hot summer day.

I’m assuming that warm waters are still a few weeks away, but this is one of the few non-Great Lakes beaches that actually looks kind of enticing to me!

Birding, Wildlife, and Nature

While the birds were really active during our short stay, they basically stayed way up in the trees. We could SEE them - and definitely hear them - but there weren’t really any good photo opportunities, in those conditions.

Overall, we encountered:

American Crow, American Goldfinch, American Redstart, American Robin, Black-and-White Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Black-Throated Green Warbler, Blue Jay, Broad-Winged Hawk, Canada Goose, Chestnut-Sided Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Common Merganser, Common Raven, Eastern Phoebe, Least Flycatcher, Mourning Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Ovenbird, Pine Warbler, Red-Breasted Nuthatch, Red-Eyed Vireo, Scarlet Tanager, Song Sparrow, Veery, Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Yellow Warbler.

Also a LOT of Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies. (And horseflies... SO many horseflies. Those were less cool!)

Also note: apparently there are black bears in the area.

Boating

Proper exploration of Lake of the Woods requires some sort of boat, and Sioux Narrows has a suitable spot for you to start that adventure.

There’s a boat launch and floating dock near the front of the campground... but no parking right there. As mentioned earlier, the parking for vehicles with boat trailers is at the top of the road, basically where that campground road meets the road coming into the park / from the gatehouse. It’s pretty well marked, though.

Anyway, apparently there’s a pictographs site within 10 minutes of the park, but it doesn’t specify if that’s 10 minutes of power boating or 10 minutes of canoeing. Also no information on WHERE.

I’m sure the staff would help you with a canoe route, though - I can’t imagine they’d list that info on the site and not be able to tell you how to get to it!

Fishing

The whole Lake of the Woods area is known for its exceptional fishing opportunities.

In general, Lake Trout, Muskie, Northern Pike, Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass and Walleye seem to be the most popular species to fish for.

Also, the Northern Ontario Sportfishing Centre is located only 5 minutes from the park.

Discovery Program

The park’s website offers no information about any Discovery Programming, nor did we see anything posted at the time of our stay. It might just be too small of a park for it?

Niantic Games

There are 3 Ingress Portals / Pokestops / Pokegyms / etc within the park, but cellular reception is almost non-existent.

I wouldn’t plan on getting your daily tasks in while at the park, much less participating in any events that may coincide with your visit.

Misc

The park is closed in the off-season, but visitors are welcome to ski in during the winter months.

There’s apparently a cross country skiing trail route that will take you around the park itself, as well as into the surrounding areas.

I’d imagine ice fishing is big in the area, also... too bad there’s not more in the way of winter camping options in the northern Ontario region.

I bet the whole area is gorgeous in the winter!

Final Thoughts

This park is going to be a wildly different experience for those who tent camp, vs those in an RV, like us.

The tent campers have access to AMAZING sites - direct water access, amazing views, swimming and canoe launching right from their sites, falling asleep to the sound of loons... I can’t even imagine!

The rest of us... have a pretty basic park. Not a lot of great views, fairly “meh!” campsites, etc.

So, for us... Sioux Narrows is a “Stopover” park. It’s generally non-offensive, but it’s also not so much of an attraction, you know?

If you’re a tent camper, though? GET ON IT. Get up to be ready for that 7 am (5 months ahead of time) Hunger Games to fight for one of the waterfront sites - #4 in particular.

Then... send us photos of your glorious stay, so we can live vicariously though you!

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
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
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!