DRIFTWOOD PROVINCIAL PARK – AUGUST 2008

 

We visited Driftwood Provincial Park during our second week of holidays in August 2008. Driftwood is located on the Ottawa River on Driftwood Bay, which was created during the damming and subsequent flooding of the Ottawa River. Our site was a pull thru, not very private but nicely shaded with tall pines. The park itself seemed more like a stopover park for most campers with most pull thrus being only used for one night. The park itself was very clean with the washrooms, showers and laundry kept clean as well. There were regular park patrols as well and it was a very quiet park. The docks were nice and the bay spectacular with it’s beautiful sunsets. Here are some pics of the park:

 

One of the first day trips we took while camped here, was to Brent in northern Algonquin Park. We wanted to hike the Brent Crater Trail, but didn’t, due to the heavy rainfall earlier that day. We took pictures from the viewing tower instead.

 

 

Here are some more pictures of the Ottawa River in the Driftwood Park area:

 

I hiked one trail at Driftwood Provincial Park, the Oak Highlands Trail. The trail skirted the Ottawa River then went through the woods. It was very wet due to all the rain we had that week. Here are some photos from the trail:

 

We took another day trip into Eastern Algonquin to access the Barron Canyon Trail. After our hike we had lunch at the wonderful Achray campground. Then it rained again! The canyon was incredible!

 

On the way back from Barron Canyon we passed through the town of Deep River along the Ottawa. The sky was heavy with rain clouds and the pictures turned out terrific!

 

We launched from Driftwood Bay into the Ottawa River for a day of kayaking. It finally stopped raining long enough to do some paddling. Dave and Kat caught some fish from their canoe while Nikki and I kayaked together. The scenery was very pretty. Here are some photos:

 

Driftwood Bay was a very nice, clean quiet campground. The Ottawa River was a very nice place to kayak with easy access from the park. The Oak Highlands Trail was well maintained as was the entire campground. The only part of this holiday that was really bad was uncontrollable – the incessant rainy weather. The park was close to Northern Algonquin Park which gave us the ability to do numerous day trips to hike or simply sight see. We visited the campground at Achray and Brent and both looked beautiful, but without hydro facilities. Driftwood had a swimming area, but it was swim at your own risk due to “swimmer’s itch”. Would I stay at Driftwood again? Quite possibly, after we’ve camped at some other parks we’ve yet to visit. Here are some links:

http://www.ontarioparks.com/english/drif.html

http://www.ontarioparks.com/english/algo.html

https://picasaweb.google.com/116741237613027767021/Driftwood2008#