Our second holidays of 2015 took us to a new private park on the Bruce Peninsula. There are no shortages of nice looking campgrounds on the Bruce and we had a difficult time choosing one. After looking at all the options, we booked at Mountain Trout Camp located on the shores of Gillies Lake. It was not a mistake. I’d have to say that we don’t frequent private parks as much as provincial parks and conservation areas for reasons such as wanting more privacy and a more outdoorsy park. Well, we were pleasantly surprised to say the least!
Our campsite F5 was plenty large enough for our 32 foot Spree with a large natural barrier on all three sides and a large open space across the road. Beautiful! We paid about the same for a nights stay here as we would have at a provincial park and got three way hookups for that price. Anyway, enough for now about the park. Here are a few photos of our campsite!
Gillies Lake is a clean, spring fed lake which is located at a much higher elevation that Georgian Bay. The floor of the lake looks like rock, but it isn’t. It’s a squishy type of material. At one end of the lake, it’s very deep with many fish (according to our fish finders!) Of course I didn’t catch anything, but enjoyed many paddles around the shoreline. The other end of the lake is so shallow, you can walk across it. Here are some photos of beautiful Gillies Lake:
We did so much while camped on the Bruce Peninsula! I have always wanted to hike many parts of the Bruce Trail in this area and we took full advantage of our location and hiked a few areas. One of my two favorite hikes was to Devil’s Monument!
We found a cute little golf course near our campground – Cornerstone Golf and spent a nice afternoon golfing nine holes then having a bite to eat at their clubhouse. Nice little course and great healthy food offerings!
Our next hike and my most favorite was our hike around Lion’s Head. The scenery was breathtaking and the hike spectacular! If we’re back this way again, I hope to explore more parts of the Bruce Trail!
After our incredible hike around Lion’s Head, we went into town and had a wonderful picnic lunch on the shores of Georgian Bay. The town of Lion’s Head was so pretty! A little too windy to kayak, but a very scenic place for a picnic!
One thing I love is cooking over a campfire! I’ve tried quite a few recipes this past year including some new ones on this trip. Some of the things cooked over the fire were Campfire Cinnamon Oranges, Skillet Potatoes and Garlic bread.
The kayaking Gods were not kind to us during this trip and we only ended up getting out on Georgian Bay once. I was so anxious to kayak below the cliffs we hiked! It was a beautiful time out and hopefully if we’re back in this area again, the weather for paddling will be more favorable!
So before I close with a few photos of Mountain Trout Camp, I’ll give a quick review. It’s an excellent park! It’s clean, well run with large sites and great campground owners! Ron and Cathy were awesome hosts and shared a wealth of info on fishing Gillies Lake, launches in the area and things to do. If you have kids, you’ll appreciate the nice swimming area with inflatables, the playground and the camp store with lots of ice cream and goodies! There is a beautiful deck area at the docks with Adirondack chairs and umbrellas to sit and watch the lake. We spent a few nights here looking at the incredible night sky! Mountain Trout Camp is relatively small park with more seasonal sites than transient, so you’ll want to book quick if you’re interested. The park also offers WiFi for a weekly fee and where we were, the signal was decent. Wood is a great price too! We ordered a cord and it was already on our site waiting for us by the time we arrived. From our campsite, we could hike to a beautiful overlook of Georgian Bay. The campground is well off the beaten path, so there is much walking that can be done. Here are some random photos of the park:
In closing, we would love to stay at this park again. It was clean, well run with awesome campground hosts. There was plenty to do here as well as in the area. Our campsite was reasonably priced, very private and included three way hookups! Here are some links:
http://www.mountaintroutcamp.com/
http://brucetrail.org/places/1
And a link to my Picasa album for this trip:
https://picasaweb.google.com/116741237613027767021/TobermoryHolidays#6242680636770869826
Sue and Daves RV Adventures 