Wheatley Provincial Park, ON.
Situated on the north shore of Lake Erie, Wheatley is a small park with a beach and some nice waterside camping. The park is close to Point Pelee National Park, the tomato capital of Ontario (Leamington) and a fine wine growing area around Harrow.
Click here for the official Ontario Parks website.
General Stuff
The park is quite small and heavily wooded for the most part and is ideal for a quiet few days away from it all. The campgrounds here are divided into three areas with many sites right on the water's edge; not Lake Erie itself but a couple of quiet creeks. The waterside sites are quite expensive compared to those not by the water, but they always get booked first, so think ahead if you want one. All the sites are large, private and well tended; as with all Provincial Parks, there's only an electricity (30/15 amp) hookup. There's a long wooden bridge across the creek that takes you to the beach, which is quite small and scruffy looking but I'm sure is lovely on a sunny day. The Comfort Stations are clean and have lots of hot water, although they are a generation behind other Provincial Parks. The woods are teeming with wildlife and in the spring is awash with Trillium, Ontario's own Provincial flower. There is a small store in the gate house that is open when the gate is manned, which is most of the time. There's a dump station close to the gate. The town of Wheatley is just a minute or two away where there are bars and restaurants if you tire of the rustic life.
Opinion
We've been to this Park twice, both times in the early part of the season. The park is maintained well and as the place hasn't been busy when we've been there, it seemed a really quiet spot to spend a few days relaxing. The waterside sites are not the best in my view as they were a bit wet and not always that level, but the non-waterside sites are mostly large and level, and private as well. The beach always seems a bit tatty looking to me and there doesn't seem to be an obvious route down the mud bank to get to it. That said, I reckon in the summer months it's really nice. We had an issue with the dump station here last year as we had about an hour's wait to use it; that's not really the park's fault, though, more our rubbish timing. Beware the bend in the dump station access road; that caught a few campers out as we were watching. Last visit May 2013.
Click here for the official Ontario Parks website.
General Stuff
The park is quite small and heavily wooded for the most part and is ideal for a quiet few days away from it all. The campgrounds here are divided into three areas with many sites right on the water's edge; not Lake Erie itself but a couple of quiet creeks. The waterside sites are quite expensive compared to those not by the water, but they always get booked first, so think ahead if you want one. All the sites are large, private and well tended; as with all Provincial Parks, there's only an electricity (30/15 amp) hookup. There's a long wooden bridge across the creek that takes you to the beach, which is quite small and scruffy looking but I'm sure is lovely on a sunny day. The Comfort Stations are clean and have lots of hot water, although they are a generation behind other Provincial Parks. The woods are teeming with wildlife and in the spring is awash with Trillium, Ontario's own Provincial flower. There is a small store in the gate house that is open when the gate is manned, which is most of the time. There's a dump station close to the gate. The town of Wheatley is just a minute or two away where there are bars and restaurants if you tire of the rustic life.
Opinion
We've been to this Park twice, both times in the early part of the season. The park is maintained well and as the place hasn't been busy when we've been there, it seemed a really quiet spot to spend a few days relaxing. The waterside sites are not the best in my view as they were a bit wet and not always that level, but the non-waterside sites are mostly large and level, and private as well. The beach always seems a bit tatty looking to me and there doesn't seem to be an obvious route down the mud bank to get to it. That said, I reckon in the summer months it's really nice. We had an issue with the dump station here last year as we had about an hour's wait to use it; that's not really the park's fault, though, more our rubbish timing. Beware the bend in the dump station access road; that caught a few campers out as we were watching. Last visit May 2013.
