massasauga provincial park

The Massasauga Provincial Park is truly one of Ontario's jewels! It is a water access park and so the camp sites require you to travel by boat, canoe or kayak. It is totally worth it though as the camp sites on Georgian Bay are absolutely incredible. If you haven't been to this park, you have to make the time and effort to do so!

Certainly, it is my favorite park… and in early September, 2014 my friend and I embarked on my 6th visit to this park! The weather was still very good and the forecast did not call for any rain. Upon arriving at the park’s Pete Access Point, we were told about very active black bears in the park and advised to hang our food, which we were planning to do anyway. It was a little windy, but most of the time we paddled in channels and were sheltered from the wind. It took us almost 4 hours to arrive at our campsite — this time we reserved campsite #601 on Jenner Bay My friend, a canoeing neophyte, found such long paddling quite challenging and was very content when we finally reached the campsite.I had visited this campsite several years ago; it was located in a magical, a.k.a. eerie forest and it was rather dark. There was a small clearing on the shore of the lake, with the fire pit and a bench. Because I had almost always set up campsites on rocky islands, exposed to the elements, quite often on bare rock, it was certainly a totally different camping experience. There were two additional campsites on Jenner Bay (remained vacant during our stay), yet quite substandard. We quickly set up our tents and found two branches perfect for hanging food.There were a couple of old pits here and there, most likely man-made. Later I asked a part warden about them; whereas he did not know their origin or purpose, he said that there used to be a lot of human activity in the park and it was very likely there were some kind of structures many years ago.The bay was quite private, although a small boat moored for two nights and from time to time we saw a few fishing boats come to the bay.Every day we were canoeing on Jenner Bay and on Lake Huron; the second day we caught a big, 16 kg. catfish, which we fried and it was delicious! Later we caught two pikes, both in Jenner Bay, and they ended up in our frying pan as well.The water level kept visibly changing; sometimes it reached the fire pit, at other times it receded at least one meter. Although we religiously hanged our food on trees’ branches, no animal every disturbed it and we only saw a few cute mice at night near the fire pit. A few times we spotted colorful hummingbirds.One day we paddled to Frying Pan Island, where we went to the small store (also an LBCO agency), replenished our beer and ice supplies and then paddled to the famous Henry’s Restaurant. Soon, I realized that something was amiss: the restaurant’s docks, normally bustling with activity and full of cruisers, motorboats, sailing boats and float planes, were completely deserted. I guessed the restaurant had closed for the season right after the September 2 Labour Day, just a few days earlier! Well, we stopped at the Sans Souci and Copperhead Association where I could finally read and take photographs of several monuments/inscriptions (which I had always seen from afar) and paddled back to our campsite, where we sat, sipped the delicious, cold beer and admired the rising full moon.On the second-last evening, while sitting on the shore and reading a magazine, I suddenly noticed a coiled snake near the canoe; unmistakably, it was the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake, the only venomous snake in Ontario, after which the park is named. I immediately called my friend and grabbed the camera. Initially he suspected that I had placed a rubber snake just to scare him, as the snake was motionless — but soon it began sluggishly moving forward, powerfully rattling its tail. Its rattle was made up of 9 rings. It was exactly the 5th time I had seen a rattlesnake in Ontario, but this one was the biggest: it was up to 1 meter long, very thick and unlike the previous rattlesnakes, it was not scared of us at all and did not try to escape as the others had always done. Instead, it kept forcefully moving forward across the clearing, then cut through the fire pit and eventually disappeared in the bush. Knowing that rattlesnakes usually hunt at night, patiently waiting for rodents, we became very careful while walking all over our campsite, especially after dusk. Although the last fatality due to the Massasauga Rattlesnake bite in Ontario was in the 1960s, we did not want to take any risks (by the way, the hospital in Parry Sound does carry have snakebite serum).While paddling back to Pete’s Place, my GPS became totally misaligned and after trying to fix it, I gave up and got my back-up unit, which I always bring with me. Of course, we could have found our way back without the GPS unit, but it was much easier to do so using this modern piece of technology. It was fairly windy and we had to paddle hard on choppy Woods Bay, but once we reached Blackstone Harbour, the wind subsided.The park staff told us that every day campers were reporting active bears visiting their campsites, but the bears were not in the area we camped. Fortunately, bears were only interested in food, not campers, but since I had had quite a few encounters with black bears, I could only imagine how scary, unnerving and unpleasant such confrontations must have been!Overall, it was a nice canoeing trip: the park was almost deserted, the boat traffic significantly dwindled, most of the bugs gone and the weather still good. We had hoped to catch more fish, but well, you cannot have everything! I am looking forward to visiting this park next year.

One of my favorite places in Georgian Bay. Has an outstanding self-guided nature trail through a few different eco-systems all on one island. More dock space these last few years...only available by float plane or boat...have done both.Took my wife there via float plane on our second date. She is a fabulous photographer and she got some award winning photos of the rock formations flowing into the Bay. Have photographed it myself and did a watercolor painting which I had done up into blank greeting cards which I use for thank you notes. Highly recommend a trip there via Parry Sound Air Ways float plane. They'll drop you off for a picnic and come back when you want them too. Amazing how many people I meet around the Bay who have never been there...do it. You will be in for an unforgetable experience. Great to fly there during fall color season.

It's one of our favorite places in the whole world. A couple of hours from the biggest city in the country and yet you can find some amazingly vast remoteness with no cottages or humans.

Went into the park for August long weekend. In behind Ruddy island to moor for a night . So quiet and peaceful. And beautiful . It's at the end of a bay and absolutely no traffic. Biggest snapping turtle I have ever seen came to visit . Very tranquil spot and unspoiled piece of Georgian Bay .

In August, 2013, we spent over one week camping and canoeing in the Massasauga Provincial Park and it was our 5th trip to this amazing park. This is a very popular park and it may be difficult to get campsites, especially over weekends, although more remote campsites, that require many hours of paddling, often over open and unpredictable waters of Georgian Bay, are understandably less in demand. Speedboats can be a problem, some do not pay much attention to canoeists and create relatively high waves—our canoe is very stable, wide and long (17 feet) and was still swamped and some water got inside. There are many cottages, most have electricity (via underground cables) and cell coverage is excellent. Depending on a campsite, it may be a perfect park for novices, who want to experience their taste of interior camping as well as for more advanced canoeists. Yes, if you are lucky, you can encounter the Massasauga Rattlesnake in the park—as well as black bears: several years ago a very pesky bear regularly ‘inspected’ campsites located along the shores of Blackstone Harbour and woe betide the camper who ignored to hang his food on the tree, or worse, left some in the cooler or tent—the bear usually got it—and it did NOT use the door to get into the tent! Yet this year we did not see any bears. There is a store in Moonriver Marina and on Fryingpan Island; both stores have small LCBO outlets (i.e., cold beer, wines and other alcoholic beverages).BLACKSTONE HARBOUROur first campsite was less than 30 minutes from the access point at Pete’s Place, on the south shore of the channel leading to Woods Bay (and to Georgian Bay), so there was plenty of boat traffic. Nevertheless, the boats did not bother us — we could hardly see them — and we even enjoyed sitting on the rock and watching the passing boats and the setting sun. The campsite also looked out on a small island (private, but without any structures), sometimes we swam to the island and relaxed on its rocks. Next day in the evening all of us went for a paddle on Woods Bay, around Georgina and Fritz Islands. The weather was perfect and we could enjoy the wonderful sunset. Once we were back, we had a campfire.CALHOUN LODGEWe also paddled to Calhoun Lodge and some of us did the Baker Homestead hiking trail, which was quite rigorous, but interesting. In 1939 “Judge” Joseph C. Calhoun, a lawyer from Cleveland, Ohio, purchased 300 acres on the shores of Blackstone Harbour, hired local people and soon built the main lodge and over the years added a number of other buildings. The Calhoun estate was named “Willebejobe” which is a combination of the names of his children, William and Betty Jo, and his wife, Betty Dean. In the 1970s the property was sold and eventually bought by the Government of Ontario and later became part of the Massasauga Park. Most of the buildings still survive in various state of (dis)repair. One of them, the maintenance shed, has a rather gloomy history: On May 24, 1968, Jerome Cassanette, the caretaker, dressed in his best clothes, and with a bottle of the Judge’s finest scotch, went to the maintenance shed, closed the shed door, started the tractor and then lay on the work bench until he succumbed to the fumes. The Judge, arriving from Ohio the next day, discovered his body. It is said that Jerome’s ghost haunts the property even to this day. While I was there alone, taking photos and exploring the buildings, I did not see any ghosts, although I was rather more concerned about encountering a black bear or an Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake, the only venomous snake in Ontario. There is a brochure published by the park on the history of Calhoun Lodge and the Baker Homestead. Also one of friends of Joseph Calhoun, who used to spend many a summer at the Lodge, has a very interesting website about Willebejobe.WRECK ISLAND CAMPSITEAfter a few days we canoed to Wreck Island. The weather was awesome and even though we had to paddle on relatively open water, we had no problems with waves or winds. Unfortunately, some motorboats were totally oblivious to our presence and we had to carefully watch for the big rollers they created. At one point three powerful speedboats darted about 100 meters in front of our canoe. In no time they vanished, yet the high waves they had left behind literally swamped our canoe — had not we positioned the canoe perpendicularly to the waves, it would have likely capsized.We had camped on Wreck Island in 2009 and we still remembered plenty of water snakes inhabiting the island at that time-they were quite ubiquitous, swimming everywhere and sticking their heads from numerous crevices. They were there again-one, very long and thick, was living under a flat rock, most of the time part of his body exposed to the sun. Others either swam or hid in cracks. We felt at home! Yet we did not see any other wildlife—we we kind of missed the lonely, shy black bear that inhabited the island in 2009 and sometimes was observing us from across the small bay!FRYINGPAN ISLAND & HENRY’S RESTAURANTWe also paddled to the famous Henry’s Restaurant on Frying Pan Island. As our trip required us to be traverse through quite exposed areas, I had made sure that the weather forecast did not call for any rapid weather changes and we were monitoring the sky and cloud patterns. We saw an O.P.P. (Ontario Provincial Police) boat, checking boaters’ safety equipment-one hapless kayaker, who seemingly forgot to bring a life jacket, was turned back by the police. When we arrived at Henry’s, there were plenty of impressive boats, cruisers and sailboats (and one float plane) at the restaurant’s docks, yet we did not see any other canoes — we were the only brave ones! We just had French fries and briefly talked to the restaurant’s owner. Later we headed to the small store on the island. Catherine bought ice cream, I opted for several cans of cold beer and we headed back to Wreck Island. At one point we were almost hit by a fast-moving motorboat — the driver saw us at the last moment and appeared visibly embarrassed and even terrified.THE WRECK OF THE WAUBUNOInstead of paddling directly to our campsite on the south shores of the island, I proceeded towards an entrance to a passage between Wreck Island and Bradden Island. There I was paddling back and forth around small rocky islands at the mouth of the passage and constantly scanning the area around the canoe. Catherine had no idea what I was doing or looking for and became quite perplexed by my peculiar behavior, yet I totally ignored her bemusement and kept paddling hither and thither.“Do you remember the story of the Waubuno?” I asked her.Considering all the many stories I had been regaling her with, Catherine could not recall this name.“Well, there is a Historical Plaque in Parry Sound in Waubuno Park, where a sizable anchor is located. So, to make the story short, let me just read you what it says”, I said and pulled out a sheet of paper containing the text.“This anchor, recovered in 1959, belonged to the steamer "Waubuno", a wooden sidewheeler of some 180 tonnes which was built at Port Robinson in 1865. She carried freight and passengers in the shipping trade which flourished on Lake Huron during the nineteenth century. Commanded by Captain J. Burkett, she sailed from Collingwood on November 22, 1879, bound for Parry Sound. The "Waubuno" encountered a violent gale later that day and sank in Georgian Bay some 32 km south of here. All on board perished, and although some wreckage was later discovered, the bodies of the 24 victims were never found. The specific cause of this disaster has never been determined.”“Wow, what a terrible disaster!” she exclaimed.I pointed to something sticking out of the water.“And you’re now looking at what remains of the hull of the Waubuno!”Both of us were quietly looking at this old, rusty and decaying object which 134 years ago was part of this well-known ship.THE WRECK ISLAND HIKING TRAILThen we paddled past the campsite to the beginning of the Wreck Island hiking trail. There was one cruiser docked, whose occupants were having a small campfire on shore. The Wreck Island Trail is quite short, but it is absolutely spectacular due to impressive rock formations! I was devouring the amazing and unique scenery and every few seconds took a photo — I could literally feel my camera overheating! I am not a geologist, but let me quote a few passages from “Wreck Island Trail” by Ontario Parks:“Geologists believe that the rocks in this area have experienced a mid-continental collision beginning some 1.1 billion years ago. Mountain building was followed by millions of years of erosion. Some 450 million years ago a marine sea flooded this area leaving deposits of limestone, yet none of these thick deposits have survived the subsequent erosion on Wreck Island.Glaciation has also contributed to sculpting the park’s landscape. Continental glaciation finished the job of removing the last traces of soft limestone. The last sheet covered the Wreck Island area approximately 60,000 years ago, however, it was 14,000 years ago that an event far to the north of Hudson Bay would leave a lasting record on the island. A catastrophic release of glacial meltwater occurred, releasing a huge quantity of debris-laden water with “nowhere to go”. Ice still covered this part of Georgian Bay, including Wreck Island, as the water rushed southward. It traveled beneath the ice under tremendous pressure. The water was able to push up the base of the glacier and travel along the ground. The rushing torrents was filled with sharp grit, cobbles and boulders. This torrent attacked the rock surfaces of Wreck Island much like a giant sand blaster, resulting in the erosional processes evident today.”Percussion Boulders“Fourteen thousand years ago a catastrophic release of glacial meltwater occurred, releasing a huge quantity of debris-laden water with “nowhere to go”. Ice still covered this part of Georgian Bay, including Wreck Island, as the water rushed southward. It traveled beneath the ice under tremendous pressure.The water was able to push up the base of the glacier and travel along the ground. The rushing torrent was filled with sharp grit, cobbles and boulders. This torrent attacked the rock surfaces of Wreck Island much like a giant sand blaster, resulting in the erosional processes evident today. The large, black boulders is one of those rocks which were bouncing along under the ice hammering the rock surfaces. These rocks are known as percussion boulders, they were swept along in a high speed sheet of water under tremendous pressure. Geologists think this incredible flow may have been short lived, lasting anywhere from only a number of hours to several days.We know that these percussion boulders have traveled a long distance; this black boulder looks very different than the bedrock on which it sits. The boulder is gabbro from far north of here and contains green epidote.”It was a wonderful evening and I took over one hundred photographs with the rock bathed with the setting sun, yet no photograph will convey the exceptional beauty of this area. It was getting dark and we slowly returned to the canoe. We paddled for a while and finally reached our campsite in total darkness.What can I say… yet another awesome canoeing & camping trip!

I love Massasauga Provincial Park. Grab your boat/kayak and enjoy great Georgian Bay scenery...it's the best.

Set along Georgian Bay (there are also inland lake sites where I have not visited), this provides wonderful camping experience for both paddlers and motorized watercraft. Visited this summer with my son for some camping and fishing out a small outboard fishing boat. I loved the privacy...not camping sites piled on top of each other. The only complaint I have is that interspersed with the park are several private lots with cottages and with that comes typical cottage activities like tubing, jetski's etc...although didn't see that much. Basically, you aren't fooled into thinking you are in the backwoods because you can look out from most sites I image and see a cottage or two...but then there are interior sites that are available for paddlers. Wonderful people that run the park out of Oastler Lake park campground.

I Love this park. We go several times every year, and the beauty of it strikes me every time.The fishing is great, the wildlife is pretty good, and the lakes are relatively warm.A couple of downsides: We like to canoe, but the motorboat traffic can be pretty bad, especially on long weekends in the summer. So if you are canoeing, stick to the northernmost lakes, where motorboats aren't allowed.They have been making improvements to the park, building a visitor's centre, etc. and with improvements, comes popularity. We used to just show up with our trip plan, but now it's next to impossible to get a site, even when booking a few weeks in advance!To those who have given bad reviews: This is a BACKCOUNTRY park, the facilities are exactly what is to be expected. At least there are facilities.

Wreck Island is part of the park and a wonderful place for a hike. There are good docks for mooring. There is a pamphlet guide for a hike across the island and around the perimeter that takes an hour. There are many interesting geological rock formations. The views of other islands in the park are breath-taking. It is a wonderful spot for a day trip.