White Lake Provincial Park in Northern Ontario is known for its boating and fishing opportunities. Here's everything you'll need to know!
Located on the north shore of White Lake, it’s pretty close to White River, which I was surprised to see refers to itself as the hometown of Winnie the Pooh.
Total aside here - as a Winnipegger, I’d grown up under the “knowledge” that Winnie the Pooh was named after a bear in a Winnipeg Zoo.
As we were driving up the Trans-Canada Highway, I Googled - as it turns out, it was a lot more convoluted than that.
A soldier from Winnipeg bought the bear in White River, and named it after his hometown. Then he brought the bear to war with him (Like one does???), and eventually gave him to a London Zoo, where he inspired the name of the character.
Anyway...
Know for its fishing opportunities, I thought for sure THIS would be the park where I’d finally break out the fishing tackle we bought for the trip.
On our initial drive though, I was really impressed by the fish cleaning station, in particular, and was looking forward to trying my hand at fishing the next day.
It seemed like a great park... but that opinion, uh... changed... over the hours that followed.
We ended our stay after only one night. Yeaaah.
Anyway, let’s tell you all about it!
The Basics:
Campground Name: White Lake Provincial Park
Address: P.O. Box 280, 1004 Hwy 17 Terrace Bay, ON P0T 2W0
Website: https://www.ontarioparks.ca/park/whitelake
Price: Ontario Provincial Parks uses a pricing matrix across all their parks. See 2024 Camping Fees for more details.
Reservations: Ontario Parks Reservations
Park Classification: Natural Environment
Season: May 17, 2024 to September 22, 2024
Logistics
Some basic information to help you plan your trip to White Lake Provincial Park:
Registration and Check In
As was the case for all of our camping this summer, we booked our stay 5 months ahead of time, at 7 am. As usual, no issues at all - the Ontario Parks booking system is generally foolproof, IMHO.
Though we did pre-registration at the time of our booking, we did still need to go into the gate house to actually register, as White Lake Provincial Park still uses paper permits.
The staff member that checked us in was super friendly, and obviously very enthusiastic about working for the park.
Maps and Signage
The park map seemed very good - 11 x 17", full colour, very detailed. One thing to note: When it says “not exactly to scale or distance” on there ... it MEANS it.
You can more or less get around, but certain things - like the dump and fill stations, as well as both dog areas - either aren’t marked at all, or only have a small sign facing one direction on the road.
In terms of other signage, there was a sign board in the day use area with all kinds of great info, including a rental fees chart, safety information and how to identify bear prints and scat.
Waste and Water Services
We had checked out the park alerts listing before leaving Lake Superior Provincial Park, and learned that they were under a boil water order.
Sort of. It said that the comfort station and fill station had potable water, but everything else needed to be boiled.
We asked when we arrived: it’s because all other water sources aren’t filtered - including all of the tap water sources. Ok, fair enough.
The thing is, the trailer sanitation station has both a dump and a traditional trailer fill platform, but that fill platform isn’t filtered for some reason. To fill your trailer’s water tank, you have to go find the trailer fill station in the Woodlily Campground.
Pro tip: It’s on the map, but has no signage pointing to it, from either direction.
If you’re coming at it from the main campground road, it’ll be on your passenger side, if you’re coming at it from the Woodlily Campground road, you can access it on the driver’s side. There is a second lane as a bypass.
There’s a single dump platform in between two-ish lanes. To the right of it is pretty wide, so that may or may not be enough room for a secondary bypass lane - not sure it would be needed, though.
Beyond that is the fill platform, with the boil water notice and map of the potable water sources.
Helpful, just... weird.
Connectivity
When we first got to the park, I was happy with our network connectivity.
There seemed to be plenty at the front office, when we set up at the campsite, and while we did our big drive-through to scope the whole place out.
Then... there was next to none for the rest of the stay. Not sure what happened, but we went from decent cell phone reception, to seeing the crossed out circle more often than not.
Accessibility
Overall, not the most accessible park.
The comfort station is marked as having barrier-free toilets and sinks, but makes no mention of the showers being accessible. (We cut our stay short and didn’t end up using the comfort station at all).
There IS actually a ramp to get up to the comfort station, though, which - depressingly - already makes it more accessible than a lot of them.
None of the trails are wheelchair accessible, but 3 of the 4 are marked easy - I thought this was a nice change from the parks where everything is out of range for my mobility!
Wrong: Deer Lake Trail is moderate overall, with difficult areas.
Clearwater is more or less easy, and Fitness is easy though.
The beach is not wheelchair accessible, but should be accessible for anyone with other mobility issues.
Pets
Dogs aren’t allowed on either of the swimming beaches, but are allowed to swim in the area of the boat launch.
There are also two pet exercise areas: an off-leash dog park, and an off-leash dog beach. Both are on the map, both are pretty lacking in the signage department.
When you turn down the road that goes to the dog areas, you need to turn left right away for the off-leash dog park. The turnoff doesn’t have a sign, but there is one ON the turnoff road.
It... honestly looks like a prison yard. The fencing was clearly intended for barbed wire, though none of that is present.
As a heads up : the dog beach access road isn’t marked at all - just go to the general area and park in front of the gate. The road beyond the gate will go there, it’s about half a km walk to the beach from the gate.
Parking & Roads
For the size of the park, there seems to be ample parking. There are decent sized parking lots near the main attraction areas - beach, amphitheatre, etc - and a few random small parking lots for additional vehicle parking in the campgrounds.
The park roads are not great.
At one point, there was the road sign with the tipping semi, something we haven’t seen in another campground before.
We thought it was just for a tight curve - nope, it was a tight curve, that was banked, AND had the inner section of the curve sunken like a pothole. Yikes.
It’s a two way street, but you’ll definitely want to take that curve WIDE - especially in your camping rig!
Other than that, the roads are generally really narrow in the campground areas, and are really high centered in places.
Luckily, Porter brought his welder - he had to re-attach the muffler, after doing our drive through.
Miscellaneous
White Lake Provincial Park is in an area of low light pollution, which is great for night sky viewing - and aurora hunting, when conditions are good for that.
In particular, the main beach is north facing, with a great view over the lake and a horizon that’s set fairly far back.
Then, there’s the issue of the train. Our campsite seemed like a great place to relax, until the train.
We’ve stayed in parks where people have warned about train noise before, this wasn’t one of them. I guess I don’t really see people talking about White Lake Provincial Park in the camping groups often, though.
Sitting at our campsite shortly after setting up, we were shocked when the train horns started up. It was *ear splittingly* loud - it sounded as if we were literally metres away from the train.
In actuality, it was across a narrow channel of water, but DAMN - that sound carried.
The engineer leaned on that horn, several times - super obnoxious, but I assumed maybe someone was on the tracks and needing the warning. It kept up, repeatedly, over several minutes.
... and it happened again 15 minutes later... then something like 30 minutes later... and several times throughout the night.
Yes, we had a water front site facing that area, but it was so loud... I can’t see any way that it *wasn’t* heard throughout the rest of the park.
Campground Amenities & Info
Here’s some basic information on the amenities at White Lake Provincial Park:
Creature Comforts
There is a single comfort station - for the entire (almost 200 campsites!) campground.
It is listed as having flush toilets, laundry facilities (2 washers, 4 dryers), showers, sinks, and a vending machine for cold beverages.
Note: as mentioned earlier, we cut our stay short and did not end up using the comfort station at all.
Beyond that, there are vault toilets located throughout the campground.
Park Store
There’s a really small campground store located at the gatehouse. They have a small selection of Ontario Parks souvenirs, a limited selection of camping supplies, firewood, ice, beverages, and a freezer for ice cream items - they were out of those, though.
They also handle the rentals of canoes and mountain bikes.
Visitor Centre
There is no visitor center at White Lake Provincial Park.
Day Use Area
The White Lake Provincial Park day-use area is actually pretty nice.
There’s a sprawling picnic area, a nice sandy beach, a LARGE - and in really good condition - playground, play field, etc.
There’s also a volleyball area - it’s not on the map, and is just two posts without a net, near the playground.
Finally, the site mentions a horseshoe pit, but we didn’t see it, and it’s not on the park map.
Rentals
You can rent canoes, fishing equipment, mountain bikes, tents, and even trailer storage out of the front office.
Campsite Details
There are almost 200 car campsites across 3 White Lake campgrounds: Moccasin Flower Campground, Sundew Campground, and Woodlily Campground.
About ⅓ of the campsites offer electrical service - these are all in Mocassin Flower and Woodlily campgrounds. (Note: The section of Woodlily that offers electrical seemed to be mostly / all seasonal campers.)
In general, the campground roads are narrow and rough, and the campsites seem to be fairly bumping and unlevel. Each has a fire pit and picnic table, as usual, and most sites are fairly thickly surrounded by pine trees.
Our Campsite
Our campsite - #86 - started out AMAZING. It was large, had great privacy, our own private stairway down to the beach, and a gorgeous view of the sunset over the lake.
... but the trains. THE TRAINS.
Just near-constant noise from the trains - including sustained blowing of the horns - had me losing my mind before the first 24 hours there was up.
Gorgeous view, sure... but sensory hell.
Group Camping
The group camping site situation at White Lake Provincial Park is a little ... odd.
There are two smallish group campsites available, and they’re supposed to be able to accommodate 50-60 people each.
There’s a parking area with vault toilets located between the two of them, and each has picnic tables and their own beach.
On the map, it looks like the beach is adjacent to the group campground, not PART of it.
So, if you’re renting there... I wouldn’t be surprised if you end up with confused random campers walking into your site, looking for the beach.
The trail running between the group campground and the parking lot is really steep, narrow, and rough.
That said, I could see that group campsite being perfect for a youth group or something similar.
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Entertainment and Activity
While we ended up only spending about 24 hours in the park, we did our best to experience as MUCH of the available activities as possible!
Here’s some info on the offerings:
Hiking
There are 4 nature trails in White Lake Provincial Park, and we managed to walk 3 of them completely, and one of them partially:
Deer Lake Trail - Easy / Moderate, 1.5km (small loop) or 2.5km (full loop)
First off, this trail is officially listed as being easy/moderate, but it’s definitely more of a moderate trail, with some difficult areas.
It’s a very ADHD friendly trail though, with a lot of changes in terrain and view.
From there, you head into boreal forest, then walk a loop around Beaver Pond.
There are some really, REALLY steep areas, some incredibly narrow sections (alongside a dropoff!), and one spot of the trail where a big tree completely blocks it, to the point where you have to go off trail and walk around the mass of tree and brush that have grown over it.
Definitely wear some bug spray, and tick check after this trail!
Tiny Bog Trail - Moderate, 4.5km
This is the one trail that we didn’t do too much of, only walking a few hundred meters in from the Tiny Bog trailhead.
It’s supposed to take you out to a boardwalk over a bog, with carnivorous plants and everything - we just didn’t have the time.
Clearwater Lake Trail - Easy, 2 km return
The somewhat-narrow trail winds through the woods without major obstructions.
It's in the category of "a nice hike through the woods" - lovely views but not a major attraction like a waterfall.
This was marked as a 1km trail each way, but it ended up to be 2.4km total for me. I wandered a bit at the outlook and clear lake, so that extra distance was probably on me.
... you could definitely see where the lake got its name, btw! The water is indeed very clear, I could see the bottom well off into the distance.
Fitness Trail - Easy, 500 m
This was a cute little trail, though not at all what we expected. I guess I’d been picturing more of an open space, with modern fitness stations like the ones we saw at Pancake Bay Provincial Park.
This was a heavily wooded trail - a bit uphill at the beginning - with 8 VERY old exercise stations along the way.
Cute idea, and it was probably great back in the day... totally looks like splinter central, now.
Biking
Though the campground rents adult mountain bikes (but not helmets, bring your own!), the only place campers can really use them are on the campground roads.
Bikes aren’t allowed on any of the hiking trails in the park, and there are no actual bike trails.
Swimming
Aside from the private beaches for the group campsites, there are two sandy beaches that everyone can enjoy - though only one has parking.
The main beach is in the day use area, and the secondary beach runs along a section of the south end of the campground, between Sundew Campground and Moccasin Flower Campground.
The main beach is really nice - shallow, warm waters and a really clean, well maintained swimming area with fine sand.
The second beach - I don’t think it has a name - is much smaller. It’s definitely intended more for campers, as there is no parking anywhere near it.
Note: As is generally the case with Ontario Parks, neither of the beach areas are staffed with lifeguards - you swim at your own risk.
Birding, Wildlife, and Nature
We heard Common Loons at our campsite and the Main Beach, as well as some Black-Capped Chickadees and a Hairy Woodpecker.
In the morning, a Bald Eagle flew right over the beach at the bottom of our campsite!
Outside of our campsite, we either heard or saw: American Crow, Blue Jay, Blue-Headed Vireo, Black-Throated Blue Warbler, Common Raven, Golden-Crowned Kinglet, Red-Breasted Nuthatch, Spruce Grouse, Swamp Sparrow, White-Throated Sparrow.
We did see a Beaver swimming on Deer Lake, and a TON of fungi along the Deer Lake Trail:
We’d noticed a ton of funguses - and BIG ones - during our initial drive-through, but I was honestly shocked with how many mushroom photos we ended up with.
Boating
Boating is a big draw on White Lake, and the park is set up as a great base of operations for doing so.
There’s a boat launch in the day use area, with a relatively large parking area for trailers. This boat ramp seems to be generally suited to small boats, but the park recommends going to north of the park if you’re using larger rigs.
White motor boats aren’t allowed on Clearwater Lake or Deer Lake, people are welcome to paddle on them - away from heavier boat traffic.
No canoe? No problem - the park has some available for rent.
Fishing
White Lake is a popular fishing spot, as are some of the smaller lakes in the area.
The main species available in the park lakes are:
Clearwater Lake: Speckled Trout (AKA Brook Trout).
Deer Lake: Northern Pike and Walleye.
White Lake: Lake Whitefish, Northern Pike, Walleye, and Yellow Perch.
I haven’t seen many of them out there, and the few we have seen have been ... kind of scary. Like abandoned old shacks you’d expect to feature in horror movies, to be honest.
This one was large, clean, modern, and seemed to be well appointed.
There was a generous work space, freezers, good lighting, etc - kinda made me sad I didn’t get to go fishing there!
You know, assuming I would have even caught something, LOL!
Discovery Program
Our trip took place in September, so after the park’s Discovery Programming season.
There was an older calendar of event still posted during our stay - in addition to the Exploration Station / Discovery Activity Book thing, they also had a few interpretive programs and such on the 17th and 18th of August.
Usually we tend to see calendars as a week of events, so I wonder if that means their summer programming is limited to weekends?
Anyway, the park’s site mentions that programming tends to cover the cultural heritage of the area.
Niantic Games
While we had enough internet to load up the game at a few points on our initial drive through of the park, there didn’t seem to be any Pokestops / Gyms / Ingress Portals / etc in the entire park.
Weird.
Even places with no cell coverage to speak of tend to have SOMETHING in terms of game stops!
Misc
The park closes its gate for the season, but allows people to walk in for winter activities: skiing and snowshoeing.
Final Thoughts
The best way I can sum up White Lake Provincial Park is “This is a weird little park”. There were just so many instances of “well that’s weird” during our stay.
The water situation? Weird.
Apparently being one of the few parks to rent mountain bikes, but only allowing biking on park roads? Weird.
The whole situation with the group campsites and beaches? Weird.
If you’re a deaf, mycologist fisherman, though? Absolutely the park for you!
We cut our stay short, leaving after only one night.
That, however, was a blessing in disguise - it let us spend an extra night at Pukaskwa National Park, which may just end up as one of our favourite destinations.
THAT one is a gorgeous park, everything in really good condition... and no train noise!
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!
Agawa Bay Campground, Lake Superior Provincial Park
Arrowhead Provincial Park
Awenda Provincial Park
Balsam Lake Provincial Park
Bass Lake Provincial Park
Bon Echo Provincial Park
Bonnechere Provincial Park
Bronte Creek Provincial Park
Canisbay Lake, Algonquin Provincial Park
Chutes Provincial Park
Darlington Provincial Park
Driftwood Provincial Park
Earl Rowe Provincial Park
Emily Provincial Park
Fairbank Provincial Park
Ferris Provincial Park
Grundy Lake Provincial Park
Inverhuron Provincial Park
Killbear Provincial Park
Long Point Provincial Park
MacGregor Point Provincial Park
MacLeod Provincial Park
Mara Provincial Park
McRae Point Provincial Park
Neys Provincial Park
Pancake Bay Provincial Park
Pinery Provincial Park
Point Farms Provincial Park
Port Burwell Provincial Park
Quetico Provincial Park
Rabbit Blanket Lake, Lake Superior 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
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