Bon Echo Provincial Park – July 2022

Bon Echo Provincial Park is not too far where we live, maybe a 90 minute drive and we have been often, for day trips and multi-day camping trips. We started a trip this year at this park, staying in Ontario again this summer and moved on to other Provincial Parks.

The only issue this year is that they had a horrible derecho go through the park in May thereby shutting down part of the park. It tore through the Park destroying trees and property, it was quite something and I don’t mean that in a good way. The campgrounds near Joe Perry lake and the back country sites on Joe Perry lake were closed and not supposed to open until September. The damage was pretty bad and it was disappointing not to be able to paddle Joe Perry lake or Pearson Lake but there will be other times.

So Bon Echo is pretty famous, (around here anyways) for the “big rock” as seen in above photo. Another view is shown below

They have a couple of campgrounds in the main part and they all have nice sites, we have had several different ones and no complaints. Most are fairly private and a good size. They have lots of trails, 6 in total and one of them is for pets! It’s about 1.4 km in length so dogs can enjoy a nice trail all of their own. The pups even have their own dog beach, we like to walk by there sometimes and watch the dogs play in the water, they are always having so much fun. There are also people beaches !

It’s a great place for canoeing too. Mazinaw Lake, Joeperry Lake, Bon Echo Lake and Pearson Lake. If you are ambitious there is a route you can take, it’s about 21 kms and it takes you past Indigenous pictographson the rocks to the waters of the nature reserve on the east side of the park. One of the portages is 1.5 kms long so be prepared for that.

This is a river in the park that leads to Mazinaw Lake, you can’t go very far down the other end due to trees across the water and other debris.

  • A trail that goes along the water
  • Another view of the river
  • The Lagoon where you can rent canoes, kayaks etc
  • Heading towards the channel on Mazinaw Lake
  • Another view of the rock
  • An engraved memorial to Walt Whitman carved on the Rock

If you want to read more about this carving, click here

As I mentioned, they have lots of trails. We like the High Pines Trail although about two years ago we were walking this trail and my camera died. I mean really died, it was not repairable. But I did end up with another, probably better camera, so there’s that…………

  • High Pines trail

Bon Echo is a great park and you won’t be disappoined. Now I will mention, there is not a lot to do in the area but I think you will enjoy it. The town of Cloyne is about 6 kms away if you need a couple of groceries.

Until next time…..

17 thoughts on “Bon Echo Provincial Park – July 2022”

  2. You and Clint pick the most-scenic spots for your travels. This is picturesque as well and I like the reflections on the water and that trail along the water. That’s a shame for the damage from the derecho. We had some damage in Michigan from the same derecho, but not as extensive as in Canada. We had a derecho in July 1980 which was significant in my area. I was working downtown in an office building and the senior partner had a corner office and the wind blew a window out. He was on his annual sailboat trip to Georgian Bay so he was not there but he was a world traveler and had many decades of mementos which were lost out the window, not to mention papers from the office. We had a lot of young trees recently planted at the end of my street in the main road median and they were all leaning over to the ground, not uprooted, just leaning and had to be removed. The sky was green and it was quite scary.

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    1. Mother Nature can be wonderful and very cruel. Yes he is lucky he wasn’t there even though he lost so many memories. We are having springlike weather now which is weird considering the horrible storm that went through for 3 days last weekend.

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      1. He used to go on a three-week sailing trip every year, so they had some time to get his office back together as best they could, but he was pretty upset about his memories. I sat nearby and heard the windows shatter and saw the shards of glass as the window broke. Same here with the springlike weather … I finally could shut the tap and stop the trickle, then drips in the tap from the extreme cold. We had 47 today and you would think I could have walked like the past two days, but there was black ice everywhere, so I didn’t attempt it.

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      2. My husband has been out walking but I have sticking to my exercise bike. But our weather is getting warmer and we are supposed to get lots of rain the next few days so I suppose most or all of our snow will be gone soon.

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  3. Wow, I read the account of the derecho at this park – I’m glad I went back and clicked it as I thought it was just a link to a definition of a derecho. I sent this post to a fellow nature lover/blogger who likes Walt Whitman.

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    1. We have had a few in Ontario lately and I had never heard of them until this year. They are pretty devastating. There were tons of people camping when this went through and it’s amazing that no one was killed.

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      1. I had never heard of a derecho until the one in July 1980 and hope I never go through one again. They are devastating to be sure and I had heard about the campers in Ontario on our news at the time. We had a gustnado about 50 miles from me in August. I had never heard of that word/event before then. It looks like a tornado but is not as deadly and is part of a thunderstorm. I really don’t like how our weather is becoming so erratic. We had over 20 severe storms last year – yikes!

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  4. Sorry to learn of the storm damage, but interesting learning what a derecho is. I’ve never heard that term before. Looks like a gorgeous place to go kayaking. I imagine it looks (and feels) quite different now. 🥶

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