Sandbanks for Canada Day - by Kirby the Camper

This has become an annual event for my family and many of my friends and their families. Sandbanks Provincial Park is a beautiful park situated in Prince Edward County on the north shore of Lake Ontario. “The County” is where I grew up, and camping at Sandbanks for the Canada Day Long Weekend now serves as a high school reunion. Most of my friends are renting tent trailers from Bill Camp (613-393-3011), just outside of the park. He brings the trailer into the site you have reserved, sets it up, and then he comes to pick it up at the end of your holiday.

All of us have young children that look forward to this weekend, knowing that they will be camping for a number of days with their best friends. We get together as a group and book a loop of campsites. This allows our children to ride their bikes and walk the paths within “our” loop, and not get lost or worry about thru traffic on the road.

Many of us take our children fishing on the Outlet River, which runs through the baymouth sandbars that form part of Sandbanks Provincial Park. The river connects from Lake Ontario to East Lake, and depending on the winds, which can shift the water levels, the river can flow either into or out of East Lake. In the spring, after the river has been sealed off by the accumulation of sand over the winter months, Lake Ontario breaches the new sandbar, as the Lake Ontario waters rise. We seem to catch mainly sunfish and rock bass, but there are other fish in the river such as pike, and small and largemouth bass. The shoreline nearest our campsite is perfect for kids to fish from. It is constructed by gabion baskets, about 1 ft above the water level, and about 5 ft wide. My 5 yr old son has kept a running total of fish caught over the past 2 yrs camping at Sandbanks, and is up to 15 landed, a number he is very proud of.

This year was an extremely wet few days of camping, last year we had below average temperatures. Both, I hope and believe, are oddities. Neither year was ideal for taking advantage of the parks best asset; kilometers of fine sand beach. We did walk to the beach a couple of times this year, but in a perfect vacation world, we would have been at the beach every day, spending long hours in the water, and building sand castles. Instead we watch storm clouds build, and wondered whether we had zipped up all the windows in our tents and trailers.

I’m sure we will spend Canada Day at Sandbanks again next year. I hope the weather cooperates and our biggest issues are staying hydrated and applying enough sunscreen while relaxing at the beach.

See Sandbanks on a Map

Read Campsite Reviews for Sandbanks Provincial Park

- Kirby the Camper