Bonnechere Provincial Park

July 29 to August 3, 2009

For this year's camping trip with the grandkids, Oma and Opa decided to invite us to Bonnechere Provincial Park. It was the only place not booked solid for the August long weekend since they keep a certain number of sites that are first come first served.

So they headed out mid-week to stake claim to a camp site, and Rubby and the kids joined them.

The Bonnechere campground itself is pretty small, with sites fairly close together. In terms of activities, there was only one hiking trail and a beautiful canoe excursion on the Bonnechere River. For the kids, the highlights of the park were the playground and the beach. There were also daily programs put on by the park but it seems that the long weekends attract enough campers that they don't feel the need to provide programming on the busiest weekends of the summer. ?! We were also not impressed by their terrible maintenance scheduling... comfort stations were closed from 8-9 in the morning and just after dinner time (the busiest times when people are getting up and getting kids ready for bed.) They also chose this weekend, right at supper time, to pump out the septic tanks. Yuck!

Nevertheless, it was a beautiful area and there were several close by attractions like hikes in Algonquin Park and the Bonnechere Caves in Eganville which we thoroughly enjoyed. And the main redeeming factor of the park for Opa was that he found tons and tons of Schwammerl (chanterelle mushrooms). :)