Review: Grundy Lake Car Camping

Location:  80 km N of Parry Sound

Website: Ontario Parks
Map: Google Maps
Camping Facilities: Car Camping with some pseudo backcountry
Grade: B+
Stargazing: Good, saw the Northern Lights both times I've visited.
Summary: Nice car camping with plenty of privacy and large sites
Thoughts: I was taking my chances when I pulled into Grundy Lake at 8pm on a mid-August evening. I didn't have a booking and I had planned to pull into one of the paddle-in sites on one of the three park lakes. It being as late as it was, my camping buddies and myself decided to take it easy and just grab whatever was available in the car camping areas. When you show up that late on a weekend in August with nothing booked, your expectations are low. Fortunately, Grundy PP doesn't do a lot of things wrong.

Huge car campsite in Radio-Free Area

The sites that we found were excellent. Not only were there sites in the radio-free area, those that were available were well-treed, sandy and private. We were stunned at the size of our site and that it was right next to the water. Lots of nice flat spots to set up a tent, amenities (water, toilets) were close by. And this was with zero planning.

View out on Grundy Lake from Radio-Free Area

The one problem the park seemed to be having at that time was a few rogue bears that were pillaging campsites. While there had been no dangerous encounters reported, the bears were having their way with any food that was improperly or semi-properly stored. It really just reinforces the need to ALWAYS lock your food away when you're done with it and keep your site free of food scraps and odors (including from toothpaste and deodorant).

We headed out on Grundy Lake to our canoe-in site the next day, but were pleased with the experience of "settling" for car camping. Great spot.