2022 Big Trip - Neys Provincial Park
/Night 4 & 5 - Ontario
Aug 2-4, 2022
The drive to Neys Provincial Park was another long driving day for us. After 4 days of driving we were excited for the prospect of a park stay that was more than one night! We had 2 nights booked here.
Our first stop on the road was in Wawa at Young’s General Store for some gas and a quick look around the general store. There was such a variety of cool and interesting things in this store! From there, we drove to the Wawa Lake beach for a break and a walk. It was the perfect temperature! The beach was really nice and seemed to have a slow slope out. We considered taking a dip but decided not to, but Daisy was only too happy to go for a swim!
We left the beach and headed to the Wawa Goose, where there’s also a very a cool visitor’s centre. The last time we stopped at the Goose was during the Summer of 2020 and the visitor centre wasn’t open due to Covid. We were happy to be able to stop in and learn a bit more about the area, but we wanted to get back on the road so decided we might try to see some of the suggested waterfalls on our way back. We took the requisite photo with the big Goose and continued on.
Very Canadian!
tried to get holly in the photo with the goose
Our next stop was in Marathon at Pebble Beach. We’ve been here before, but it’s so pretty and unique with so many gorgeous rocks that we enjoy going back! We met a little boy who really wanted to say hi to Daisy, but she wanted nothing to do with him! He was really sweet and super chatty.
We didn’t see any other Airstreams on the road today and the traffic was better than we expected along this route. Even when there were construction delays and it was down to one lane, we only ever saw 2 or 3 cars waiting for the green light.
We arrived at Neys Provincial Park in the late afternoon, checked in, went to dump our tanks and fill up with water. I was excited to see that the hose at the dumping station was threaded and I could flush our black tank! Not all (or many provincial parks have this). IYKYK how exciting this is.
Another couple checked in behind me and they were also at the dumping station. The husband and I had a nice chat about our Holly, while his wife stayed in the truck. A family on their bikes drove past and also asked about our Airstream. This is the first we’ve been asked about Holly on this trip!
We found site 68, unhitched (for the first time on this trip) and set up quickly. The sun was out and it was beautiful! I went to the beach – there’s a little path to access it right from our site. The beach is huge with lots of wood all over it. The water was pretty rough and we could hear the waves roaring at our site. We couldn’t see the water from our site, as there were lots trees obscuring the view.
Once set up, we took Daisy for her walk. We didn’t intend to be gone very long, but we ended up going to the playground/campfire pit, went the wrong way when leaving and took the loop for area 4 (which was not at all our intention!). Daisy had a sip of water at the boat launch – there’s a cool lookout to a bridge there. Finding our way back, we stopped to chat with a family that had a tent on their truck and a puppy named Bobo.
There was another Airstream just around the corner from us in area 3, a 22 foot, but we didn’t meet the owners. It was fun to walk around and see all of the different trailers. We saw a few A-liners, some Sprinter type vans, lots of tents and tent trailers and some older style, retro trailers – really a mixed bag. This campground also has a number of seasonal sites. More than most provincial parks we’ve been to.
We bbq’d hamburgers (delicious!) for supper and, since the bugs weren’t too bad, we ate outside. I had premade hamburgers and frozen them, so we’d be able to have homemade burgers on this trip. We also pre-cooked some chicken and salmon that we put in the freezer for quick and easy meals.
I went to the beach to watch the sunset while Chris headed in to watch a movie. It was supposed to rain, so I put away our chairs to keep them dry (and it rained!). I read the paper for a while. Chris went to bed before me and I finally joined around 11 pm. It was a pretty quiet night and the first one where we knew we wouldn’t need to pack up in the morning.
We all slept in until 9 am and woke up to a cloudy and rainy morning. We made coffee and read for a while. I added to my camping journal. Chris started reading one of his new books and we chatted about various different topics. We made eggs for breakfast with toast.
After breakfast, we decided to try the Under the Volcano hike, so packed a snack and some water and headed out. It was a bit chilly, so we were dressed in long sleeves and long pants. We stopped at the visitor centre for a quick peek. There were some really interesting things to see! There were skins of a few different animals (mink, beaver, fisher, skunk – I always wanted to pet a skunk!), and some others. We also learned about the prisoner of war camp that used to be at Neys.
Cool bench at the visitor’s centre
We had to walk a bit further to get to the Point Trail that would take us to the Volcano hike. It was a pretty easy walk that took us to the dog beach (which we stopped at on the way back) and then it hooked up with the Volcano hike. We thought that the way the trees and brush were growing along with the beautiful colours, including the overcast day, made this part of the trail feel very magical.
The Point Trail
We got a sliver of service here!
There were some old boats on the rocks at the start of the trail (and coincidently, the only place where we got a sliver of service!) but instead of taking the trail, we walked on and climbed over the huge rocks to get to the ultimate destination – a big rock/large pebble beach. We weren’t sure if this rocky beach was the end of the trail or not, but when we took the trail a little further, it was very over grown and was headed away from the water. (When we got back, I looked it up on a digital map, and the rocky beach was only about halfway through the trail!).
We turned around and headed back on the trail instead of climbing on the rocks. The trail had really interesting and different trees and ground cover. It wound around, occasionally spitting us out on the big rocks for a minute before continuing. We found this trail to be more difficult than the first trail we were on, because there were more trees and rocks, but there wasn’t as much climbing up/down, so it felt quite a bit easier than the Kag trail at Samuel du Champlain PP!
We stopped at the wooden boats on our way back, for a snack and to send a few texts. We continued on to the dog beach, which Daisy loved! This is one of the most amazing dog beaches we’ve ever seen at a campground! It’s huge and long and there’s no shortage of sticks to throw for Daisy. She was in her glory!
On our way back to our campsite we stopped to chat with a guy who was travelling from Oregon to Sault Ste Marie (via US) and home (via Canada) in his bus like RV. Super interesting guy! We also saw an Airstream Basecamp right near him. This was in section 1 - the pull thru sites here have gorgeous views. The major drawback of these sites is that dogs aren’t allowed on that section of the beach. Bummer. I’ll take our site with dog access over that one… it was a long enough walk to get from this section to the dog beach.
I went for a shower and when I came out, it was just starting to spit rain, but Chris went for a run anyways (about 8 km?) and it started to pour while he was gone. He came back drenched! But he still went for a shower. The campground, including our site, had lots of very large puddles.
We sat out the rain in Holly. It was a great excuse for some downtime! I updated my camping log and blog entries. Chris read and watched a movie.
It rained quite a bit and then the sun started to come out in the evening. It was very pretty.
It was still pretty soggy in the morning when we got up, so tear down was a bit messy. When I went outside to clean a few things up, there was this beautiful smoky light from the campfires and the sun shining through. The wet trees and ground made everything feel a little more sparkly.
We took a quick walk on the beach for Daisy (and us!), hitched up, made the coffee and headed out before 10 am, towards Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park.
This was such a great Provincial Park! Even though it was pretty remote, there was still a lot to see and do. We’d love to explore more another time.
Pancake Bay Provincial Park - Neys Provincial Park
Towing: 390 km
Driving: 0 km (we unhitched but didn’t use the car at all)
Water Tank: 19% remaining
Black Tank: 45% full
Battery: not sure
We didn’t dump on our way out so that we’d be able to use the last little bit of water in the fresh water tank and add to the not quite full black tank before arriving at our next stop. The dump station has a threaded hose for a black water flush!
Both when we arrived and when we left, there was a sign saying that electrical sites were full.