The yearly family camping trip is so much fun to plan. It starts 5 months out from the day you want to camp. That's the only way you will get a site at any popular Provincial Park. Charleston Lake was our third choice Park but glad that's where we ended up. I had never had an issue getting a site in years past as long as I was online to reserve the first day possible. This year was different. With the pandemic camping in Ontario became a must-do. I always knew I loved Ontario Camping it seems more of Ontario's population knows now too.
Charleston Lake Provincial Park is in the 1000 Island area. It took over 4 hours from Kitchener to drive there with a lunch stop at the Port Hope On route.
I really like being able to take our dog on these trips. She loves getting to be part of the family Adventure. It's great to look at how her beautiful white fur never looks like this when we are returning.
This park has a couple of beaches and a dog beach area on its own. There are 8 hiking trails ranging from Easy to Difficult. There is also a Discovery Center which is great for the kids or on a rainy day. We were given a Discovery Activity Book for my son with fun games and trivia about the animals you can find and fauna in Provincial Parks. He was a bit old for it but young kids would really enjoy it.
We got a site in Meadowlands Campground. This campground is the farthest from the lake. We felt we needed to drive to everything as it would be a long walk to get around. We saw a lot of families with bikes which would have been very handing to get around.
After getting the site set up it was off to swimming for a cool down. The beaches looked small but had nice access and sand bottom. With the pup with us that is not where we got to hang out. The dog area is by the small boat launch. No beach but the water is very shallow and you can walk out for a long time. The water was crystal clear. At one point we could see several fish swimming around our feet. I did like that dogs could be off-leash while in the water, that's hard to find in a lot of places.
Beech Wood Trail took us over 30 minutes to do. It was a nice after-dinner hike. There were a couple of hills but overall it was an easy hike. Luckily the bugs weren't awful but we still wanted to keep covered while in the woods. There are warnings all around the park reminding you of Ticks. We did a Tick check after every hike.
The Fireflies were beautiful each night. I tried to get them on camera but it's really something you have to see with your own eyes. There was also a porcupine that made its way through our site and several others. You could tell where it was as there would be loud "what it that" as it passed through. I was in the tent with our dog making sure she didn't do anything crazy and get herself into trouble. That would be one suggestion I make don't leave your dog outside of the tent during the night. At one point we heard a raccoon get in a fight with either a dog or another raccoon.
The first night I realized the baking sheet I cheaped out on was not going to be able to cook our dinner or our pancakes the next morning. We took a quick drive to Twists Outlet. A very handy store to have nearby. Of course, there was ice cream there so we had to get some! The next day we decided to get our dinner at the store. We each really enjoyed our dinners and ice cream again for dessert!
The next morning we went on another hike Sandstone island Trail this took over 45 minutes. It does have some steep rock steps and surfaces you need to climb but overall easy enough for us and the pup.
It was such a hot day we found ourselves swimming twice at the dog spot. What a great way to cool down from the heat.
This year I brought with us a dog cooling mat. I had tried to get her to use it while we were at home but she never would. I put it on the ground at the fire pit and she used it the whole time. I have the Coleman Pet Cooling Mat https://www.amazon.ca/Coleman-Comfort-Cooling-Large-20x36/dp/B01GENR9VE I highly recommend them.
I really liked this campground and would for sure recommend it. There were sites with electricity and there were showers in the comfort stations. The comfort stations were clean every time I used them which is great because that is not always the case.
Overall the family enjoyed the Adventure. Can't wait to see what we can get up to next summer!
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