HollyDays in Northern ON: Part 8
/August 14-15, 2020
Chutes Provincial Park
We left Lake Superior Provincial Park, headed out on Highway 17 and kept going until Sault Ste Marie, where we needed to stop for gas. We stopped at the first gas station on the right and filled up, used the toilet, picked up a few snacks and then continued on our way. As we approached the light to turn, I noticed another Airstream in front of us. We laughed and wondered if maybe it was Justin and Anna and it was! We followed them all the way through Sault Ste Marie until they turned off the main highway shortly after.
Views of Lake Superior while driving
we “met” our friends, justin and Anna, on the road!
We considered stopping in Blind River but decided to just push through to Chutes Provincial Park. We arrived at about 5:30 pm and checked in. It was the first park that didn’t have any of their Provincial Park stickers left! So I bought a patch instead. We stopped at the dump station, filled up our fresh water tank and then headed on towards our site.
One of the things that I’ve noticed at almost all of the Provincial Parks (except one – which may have been Grundy PP?) is that none of them have any threads on the water hose at the dumping station. We can use it to wash out our sewer hose once we’re done, but we can’t use it to flush our black tank before disconnecting. It’s left me wondering how most RV owners who mainly use Provincial Parks, flush their black/grey tanks? Is there a special place to do it? If so, we couldn’t find it, which is too bad, since it worked so well at the one place we were able to flush our tank!
We arrived at Site 75, which we booked based on a recommendation in one of my Facebook camping groups and to my surprise, it had electricity! Yippee!. I thought that all but one of the sites I booked for this trip were non-electric, but it’s nice to be wrong sometimes. This was the first site since Grundy Lake PP on our first night, not to have a water view, but after we walked around the park a bit, I’m not sure any of the sites are either on the water or have a water view. Our site was large, reasonably private and had beautiful tall trees surrounding it. We had plenty of room to back in so that we could stay hitched and for the first time on our trip, we didn’t need to do any levelling at all!
After a basic set up, we took Daisy for a walk to see more of the park. There’s an AMAZING dog beach, AND an enclosed dog running/playing area. This Park is very dog friendly! The beach has a current that’s like a lazy river so people can float using the current around to the dog side of the beach and even further.. Chris thought it was one of the best dog areas he’s seen so far. I think Daisy agreed!
We walked back to our site and made toasted turkey sandwiches for supper (using our toaster that we could plug in!!). Chris started watching the movie Money Heist and I worked on updating my blog notes. We both showered before bed and watched some of the Jeffry Epstein documentary, which had a slow pace, but was interesting and upsetting all at the same time.
Our morning consisted of a short dog walk and breakfast, before heading out on the Twin Bridges Trail. It’s a 6 km out and back hike (at least that’s how we interpreted it). We didn’t have quite 2 hours to dedicate, so we went a little past the first bridge and then turned back. The trail follows the Aux Sables River and we were able to see the rapids and falls. The scenery around the first bridge was especially stunning!
After our hike, we put on our bathing suits and returned to the beach/dog beach area for a quick swim. Daisy had lots of fun again, chasing sticks and rocks and Chris and I each took a turn “floating” with the current down the short lazy river (we only floated around to the dog beach, but there were many people on tubes who floated much further). It would have been great if we’d had a tube or some pool noodles, but it was still a fun experience!
While at the beach, I ran into the family that was staying at Rainbow Falls with the VW Van. As it turns out they were also from Ottawa (living relatively close to us) and were leaving Chutes PP in the afternoon to go to Samuel de Champlain PP - which was exactly what we were doing. When we compared stories, we had actually done quite similar trips through Northern Ontario.
When I booked Chutes PP, it was primarily because it was the right amount of driving time from Lake Superior PP for us. It exceeded our expectations and we enjoyed it quite a bit! The campsites were reasonably private and interesting. The beach area wasn’t a typical beach, but the slow current and shallow water made it pretty fun. The dog beach was terrific (according to Daisy!) and the hike was very scenic. We’re excited to return for a weekend sometime in the future!
Next stop: Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park
Lake Superior Provincial Par - Chutes Provincial Park
Towing: 345 km
Driving: We didn’t unhitch.
Batteries: We had an electrical hook up! So didn’t give a second thought to our batteries:) It was also cool enough that even though we were plugged in, we didn’t need the A/C.
Fresh Water Tank: We filled up our fresh water tank when we arrived and we only stayed one night, so there was plenty left for another day. I didn’t take a photo of what was left over though.
Combined Grey/Black Water Tank: We didn’t dump on the way out of Chutes PP and there was still plenty of room in the tank when we left.
