A Little Research Turns A Good Trip Into A Great One

The difference between a good camping trip and a great one is usually a few minutes of research. We’ve both shown up thinking we made a smart choice, only to learn the hard way that “quiet” depends on where your site sits, what the washrooms are like, and whether you accidentally booked beside the generator crowd.

We walk through how we research a camping destination step by step, from choosing the right park based on driving time, crowd levels, dog friendliness, and the best season to go. We share where we actually look for reliable info: Ontario Parks and Parks Canada websites, campground maps, Google Maps satellite view, travel blogs, YouTube campground walkthroughs, and campsite photo communities that show you what a booking page never will.

Then we get practical about what to check before you click Reserve: privacy ratings, sun versus shade, distance to water, proximity to playgrounds and boat launches, and the little things that can make a site noisy or smelly. We also dig into amenities and facilities like toilet types, comfort stations, drinking water access, firewood quality, camp stores, laundry, boat launches, and RV dump stations. If you’re thinking about backcountry camping, we cover the essentials too: permits, route difficulty, portages, water sources and filtration, bear activity, navigation, offline maps, and tools like AllTrails and Gaia GPS, plus weather, bugs, water levels, and fire bans.

If you want more hidden gems and fewer surprises, come camp with us. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s planning a trip, and leave a review so more campers can find the show.

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Research Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and good day. A welcome to the Super Good Camping Podcast. My name is Pamela.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

I'm Tim.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

And we are from SuperGoodCamping.com. We're here because one on a mission to inspire other people to get outside and enjoy camping adventures such as we have a family. I know we've talked in the past about planning your next trip, but we thought today we would talk a little bit about how to research the planning. So the difference between a good camping trip and a great one can be the preparation. So a few minutes of research can mean you find the quietest campsite, the best swimming spot, a hidden hiking trail, or in our case the hidden waterfalls, avoiding the loud generator section, which we have not done sometimes. A quick preview of what listeners can learn is just how to find the best campsites, what campground amenities actually might matter to you, where to research activities and find the hidden gems, and what to know before you're booking your backcountry trips.

Pick The Right Park First

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Right. So the, you know, you start with choosing the right park or the right destination. Things you should research is distance from home. How much time do you want to spend? You can do things not, I'm sorry, I was gonna say how much time do you want to spend in the car. You can there's the here in Ontario, there's a wonderful um park bus. Park bus uh where you can you can book a bus and go with a bunch of people, like-minded people, like-minded people, which is cool, and go away and go camping. But most often, sad as it is, uh sad as it often we, the camping community, uh often jump in a car and go places. So I that that's that's a wrinkle I would love to iron out.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

When our kids, when we they were younger, our radius was more limited of where we wanted to be driving. We didn't want to be doing a six-hour drive with five and eight-year-olds in the car.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Yep, absolutely. But we were at least trekking four people and sometimes a fur baby uh in the car. So we were being less bad to the world. Just saying. You want to look at uh I'll get off my soapbox for a little bit. Uh you want to look at the type of landscape, um, uh what you're into. Lakes, forests, mountains, rivers, who knows? Uh, popularity and crowd levels, big one for me. Uh, dog friendliness, if you have uh those those for babies, and seasonal factors. Um, you know, at bugs, temperature, fall colors, depending on what you want to do. Uh just a real quick on that on that topic. We have historically done mostly July, August, and into September trips. Um this year in particular, we're doing a June, Thomas and I are doing a June trip, a whitewater trip. Uh I'm intending to not do a July trip. Just July and August are kids out of school, campgrounds are booked, sweaty, you know, uh no thanks. So we're hoping to do an August trip, and I'm looking to book what we normally would have done on a July trip in September because kids are back in school. Uh temperatures are lower, and potential for pretty colors.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Fewer bugs.

Where To Look For Intel

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Um, yeah, way fewer bugs. Well, but I'm not taking you. I'm kidding. I am taking you. Uh, where would you find this information? So uh official park websites for us, that's Ontario Parks, or is it Canada Parks, National Parks? I guess Canada Parks. Um Parks Canada. Parks Canada, you're right. Oh, good one. See? You know more than I do. Uh Google Maps, uh, particularly the satellite view. Uh travel blogs. The it I know that vlogging is the new thing, or what people calling podcasts the video thing, it's it's not. Podcasts are audio, just saying. There are travel blogs out there, there's some awesome ones. It takes nothing to Google them, go do it. Uh uh camping YouTube channels, that that tends to be my go-to. Uh Reddit camping communities, which I don't use Reddit enough, I don't think. And yeah, it's it's so if you I mean Google, but search sort of if you if you're looking at an area, search, you know, uh, what's the best provincial park near me for camping.

Choosing A Better Campsite

SPEAKER_00 4:19

So finding the best campsite in the campground that you choose, because not all campsites are created equal. They are not. Uh things to remember. So privacy and Ontario Park's website does kind of rate each each site for privacy uh and quality of the site. Uh the distance to the washrooms. So you might want to be close to the washroom, you might not want to be close to the washroom.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Depends on what type of washroom it is.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

There can be a very banggy door on the washroom.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Or there could be a vault toilet that maybe you're downwind.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

A little smelly here. Uh proximity to water, especially if you if you want to go swimming, that maybe you want to be somewhere closer to the water. Um, noise levels. So if you're near a playground, you're near a road, you're near a boat launch, all of that is gonna be a noisier spot. The size of the campsite, but becoming if you're just like one tenth, maybe you only need a small one. If it's two tenths, three tenths, or you're looking at an RV, then you need a different site. Uh generator versus non-generator sections. So we have when when we camped in Algonquin, we were near the RV uh people, and generators were going fairly often.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Um which we thought we were being clever by going to a non-electric site, except they could have plugged in if we were in electric site and they wouldn't have run their generator. Generators. You know.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Yeah, so there's that to consider too. Electricity. Bit of a crapshoot there. Radio free as well, as far as noise. Uh, and sun versus shade. So as a pale-skinned person, I actually prefer a site that's a little bit more shady.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

That's that's a nice way of saying she's a redhead.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Uh, where to look, campground maps on the park website. So look there. And also, like I said, each uh for Ontario Provincial Parks, they do have information about privacy and quality of each site. Uh, Google Maps, satellite imagery as well, camping review websites. There is there was a really good camping, like campsite site you used to look at. I don't know if it still exists.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Well, there's a picture site, there's a camp campground pictures, campsite pictures, something like that. Um, oh, yeah, yeah. There's a Facebook group that I I use, Ontario Parks Campsite uh pictures. There's also, I think it's actually titled Campsite Pictures, maybe.com, I'm not sure, but I pay a$5 a year membership, and and it does the overwhelming majority of Ontario campsites. Uh they may not take, they tend to do sort of off-season and run through and take a whack of pictures uh all at once, like in the fall or something. So it it gives you an idea, but you're not looking at it with full foliage or or anything. So privacy, privacy is the the question mark when you see those particular pictures, but it does give you the layout. Uh, it often shows you, you know, like it gives it gives a full a full deal. And I think they have a YouTube channel that you can go to as well and check, you know, a quick sort of pan shot as opposed to just static photos, which I think is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

On YouTube at Campground Walkthroughs, and our good friends Ben and Cheryl from Camping with the Coles, they do awesome reviews of campgrounds. So theirs is a really good channel if you are looking for Ontario Parks. Uh so search for best campsites at whatever your provincial park or park name is. And campers will sometimes share the exact number of their sites, but sometimes I think there's also a bit of a like, yeah, I'm not telling where my site is. Certainly back when I'm not sure.

Amenities That Make Or Break

SPEAKER_01 7:51

I'm not telling you where my fishing spot is. Yeah, absolutely. Campground amenities and facilities. So if you if you if you know what you're getting into, that it that can make or break your trip. Uh things you should research, and and this plays out very well for the Ben and Cheryl camping with uh the Coles. Washroom type. Yeah, is it a vault toilet or is it a flush toilet?

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Uh so like look for Cheryl's blue reviews for that specifically.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

She's good on that. You know, it it comfort station, uh i.e. showers, drinking water access. Is it right beside you? Because everybody and their brother will be coming to fill up their water bottles and whatnot.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

And if you've got a very heavy jacket, it's not so bad for it to be close by, but you don't necessarily want to be right next to it.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Yes. Firewood availability. Uh, you know, here in uh again, here in Ontario, most certainly most Ontario parks, I can't speak to private campgrounds and and and KOAs, uh, although I assume they do because there's money in that. So uh firewood availability.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Um quality of firewood also matters.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

I would not speak to that. I'd like to talk to the folks from Ontario Parks at some point, and I that it's the bane of everybody's existence as far as getting wood at parks. Most people buy their wood outside of parks because it's well dried, it's well seasoned. Just saying. Unless you want smoke because you're early in the season, you have a lot of bugs, buy the Ontario Parks wood at that point. Um uh again, Ontario Parks, a lot of Ontario parks have a camp store, so you can go and get ice cream. Well, you can go get ice cream, you can go get marshmallows, but you can also pick up you know bug spray and fire starters and well, you know, whatever. Uh, you you forgot to bring your utensils. You can usually go and buy, you know, plastic sporks and stuff like that. Uh laundry facilities, which not so much as you get older, you tend to plan your clothing. Uh and not for lack of planning clothing, but I can tell you that we ran into an issue, Thomas and I, when he was quite a bit shorter than he is now. Uh, we ran into an issue where we had a wet sleeping bag and we had to do something with it. So laundry facilities for the win. Or sometimes you just, you mean uh you don't want to pack as much crap. So you wash it, you know, three days in or whatever, and you're good to go. Uh boat launches, if you're going fishing or or whatever, or you want to go paddling. I mean, you you have to be able to dump it in somewhere. So that's a good thing. And uh again, back to Ben and Cheryl. For those of you that uh camp in RVs, you want to know where the dump stations are. So check that that's not at some kind of windy road and you're 14 miles away. And where do you find these things? Again, park websites, uh, campground maps, uh, again, usually on the park websites, uh, or reviews on all trails, Google Maps, and TripAdvisor. I would caution on TripAdvisor just because I've seen it a bunch of times. All trails and Google Maps, Google Maps, there's a little bit. All trails is generally pretty not hardcore, but but people that that have done this, you know, that that that regularly get out there and do things. TripAdvisor, on the other hand, uh, I've seen so many, I've seen lots of great reviews. I've seen a ton of first timers who didn't know what they should be expecting in the backcountry and wrote one-star reviews. It's like it was always dirty. You're out in nature, man. It's going to be dirty, it's going to be buggy, there's going to be all those things. Like, that's you can do one by the time you've done your fifth trip, it's like, oh, this is how it happens every time. But they're they've done their first trip and they haven't pulled their review out, or I don't know if you can, but just saying.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Well, I remember our friend Jesse from Follow Me North, they had a uh Instagram page where they would post some of the reviews of Vontero Park. I think it was Algonquin specifically. Yep. Uh and it was like that. People would give a one-star review for Algonquin because it was dirty.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

There were there were bugs. There were there were animals going through my campsite. How dare they? Yes. It's quite funny. That's that's kind of the point, man. Just saying. Uh, as a bonus tip, look at recent reviews, not ones from like five years ago, because things happen. Uh parks change, they make adjustments, uh, they're forever in flux. Uh, you know, Wicked Storm happens. Um, dare a show, to set the right term. Whatever. That micro burst comes through and poof, you the when they all the beautiful beach trees, well, they're all gone now because they get wiped out by a mini tornado. So just be aware of that.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

So activities inside the park. So one of the best parts of research is discovering what you can do while you're there. Uh, activities look for are hiking trails. Uh, and some of them have really spectacular trails too, like the crack at Killarney. Uh, canoe or can kayak routes, uh, beaches, and sometimes they will also have um the ability to rent, like if you don't have your own canoe, but while you're at the park, you want to rent a canoe and go canoeing, you can rent a canoe.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yeah, there's usually a uh if there's not an outfitter in the park, which is doesn't happen very often, there's usually one very close by.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Well, we did uh at Bon Echo, we rented a canoe in the park so we could canoe over to um uh uh Masino Rock. Yes, which was awesome. Came up with that name.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Good for you.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Uh beaches uh for those that you want to swim, swimming swimming areas, uh, and fishing spots if they uh allow fishing in the park.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

And or anybody mentions where good fishing spots are. Yeah, over there. That's where you go fishing.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Nope. Wildlife viewing, lookouts, and scenic viewpoints, uh, biking trails. So some some parks will allow mountain biking. Turkey Point has a really good mountain biking system and ranger programs, and we really enjoyed some of those with the kids. So taking the kids for the ranger program where they made bookmarks, then they made tie-dye shirts with onion skins and like all kinds of fun things, uh, playgrounds for the kids, and door soccer football pitches or beach volleyball, like all kinds of yeah, and badminton courts, out outdoor badminton courts.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

There's each park has got different things. They that they will Ontario Parks will have its set of what's the drop downs? Amenities, amenities for CVs, yeah. That's a perfect one.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Uh as a way to find them, park trail maps, hiking apps like all trails, park visitor guides, the park websites, and local tourism websites. And just as a pro tip, top things to do in and fill in your park name.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Wherever you're thinking about going. Yeah. Uh and all it so you're not just looking at things inside the park, you're looking at things around the park. Uh, Pamela mentioned ice cream earlier. The Maz outside of uh Bon Echo was was uh was wonderful. We went out and got like super killer locally produced ice cream and and pigged out. I seem to remember it was.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Well, they have all kinds of things there too.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

They had like well they had kayak sales and and stuff like that too. So then they have odds and sods that make sense for camping folks, but it was it was great. It was not really a point of interest per se, but it's still a good place to go. So some of the things you want to go looking for, uh scenic drives, waterfalls, historic towns, local restaurants. We've done that at Kill Bear. We went in and and went at the big bear or something, whatever. It was, but it was great.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Yeah, fire um fire halls. We went to a fire hall in Perry Sound. We local museums.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

There's the canoe museum, the which I'm going to in three weeks, I think. No, a month. Um yeah. Uh oh, should I have just forgotten? What's the oh uh we went to the we go to the farmers market sometimes, yeah, right? Ice cream stands, right? So so there's the Maz for you. Uh scenic lookouts. Anywhere you go, if there's a scene of lookout, go check it out. It's awesome. And and take pictures, take lots of pictures because they're all digital now. Uh and local hiking trails. Uh yeah, just even if it's a shorty, get you out there, get you away from the usual insanity of of what life is these days. So uh where to research these things. So Google Maps uh and just explore nearby, like pick, you know, drop a pin and say explore nearby. Uh local, uh local tourism boards, travel blogs, and again, they do actually do travel blogs, uh, regional hiking groups, I um so many Facebook groups, and so many. Check them out. Uh Bruce Trail hiking groups, all that sort of jazz. A fun strategy is search for hidden gems near wherever.

Backcountry Research Essentials

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Uh backcountry camping research. So if you're heading into the backcountry research, it gets to be even more important. So things you need to know, one is permits. Do you need to have a permit? Do you are you booking sites? Are you booking the lake? Like what are the booking criteria? Uh trail difficulty and difficulty of not just your trail, but if it's a paddle portage difficulty, difficulty in general, the distance between sites, uh, what are your water sources and likely you're gonna need water filtration, uh, bear activity. So if there is some an active bear in the park where you're planning to go, portage routes and navigation and cell service or um satellite service. Uh so we're defined this information, the official backcountry maps.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Um from the parks themselves. They they usually sell backcountry maps. I ordered one yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

We have a collection of maps. We do uh park offices, uh, trip reports from experienced campers, backpacking forums, and topographic maps, like the government does.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

The government puts out puts out a bunch, uh I want to say it's more provincial. I think all the ones that I own are are Ontario topographical maps. Uh, but there's also especially maps, you know. Uh Friends of Tomogamy puts out maps, friends of Algonquin puts out maps, uh maps by Jeff, any any iteration of that, whether it's on Lostify, Jeff's maps, whatever. All of his maps have all kinds of topo top topography, topography, but also will give you routes, we'll show you routes, we'll show you uh difficulty, whether it's it's long and winding, whether it's a whole bunch of uphill and then a whole bunch of downhill, whether it's tons of scree, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Points of interest.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

He is fantastic at points of interest, even even back to the original Jeff's Jeff's maps. Uh, but he he's more so now. Just saying I don't want to wax poetic about it. He he makes very cool, very easy to grasp things. Uh Lat Long makes uh fantastic topographical maps and back road back road maps. Uh again, locally produced, slightly different. Uh I own, looking back, I probably own half a dozen of them.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

So and then apps that help all trails and Gaia GPS.

Weather Bugs Water And Fire Bans

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Gaia. So that's yes. I I've seen people use both. I personally haven't used either of them. Uh I think I might have tried out all trails at one point, but I haven't tried Gaia. But I've I watched our trip last year uh into Mogmy. I've seen I've seen tracking on it, and and Bill um Thunderbox Diaries, Bill Wilkie uh swears by it. So he knows what he's doing, unlike me. Uh weather, bugs, and seasonal factors. That can that can be a big difference in your trip. Some of us are bugged by bugs and some of us aren't so much. Sometimes it's crazy. Uh, but research, you can uh research historical weather, you can research when the mosquito season is, up to a point. Things change. Uh water levels, especially rivers, that's gonna make a huge difference in your trip, depending on what time you're running. Look when fall colors are. Don't don't even try to go to Algonquin. Uh, it's not gonna happen. You're not gonna get in. Uh, and smart one, pay attention to firebands or or historical firebands and keep checking that stuff as you're getting closer to your trip. Uh where to trip or where to check, sorry, uh, Environment and Climate Change Canada Park Alerts uh pages. They put up, you know, uh water issues because of bacteria or you know, whatever, um, or firebands in the park and uh local Facebook camping groups, which I belong to a bunch, and they're they're great, they're a great resource.

Booking Tactics And Backup Plans

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Just some booking strategy tips. Popular parks can book fast, so you need to know like when is when does booking open? Get on there at seven o'clock in the morning if that's when it opens, and uh ideally you'll have your several choices of sites already in line so that you know like which sites you want right off the bat. Uh, learn reservation opening dates and times, know your preferred campsite numbers ahead of time, as I said. Uh, have back backup sites ready. So this Tim will do, like, we'll have like three options, and consider the shoulder seasons because that's usually easier. But uh I I personally don't recommend the spring because of the bugs. Uh I shoulder season-wise, fall is uh is to me so much more appealing.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Yes, although lots of people are jonesing to get out, so you know they're willing to put up the bugs. You you you can you can search that up on YouTube, let me tell you, man.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

Um Reservation Sanitaria handled through the Ontario Parks reservation system.

Lessons Learned And Closing

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah. Uh yeah. And w if you don't win the seven o'clock five months ahead. lottery don't lose your mind about it there are plenty of like there's so Ontario Parks itself has a cancellation notification service so you plunk in what you what you're looking for and if somebody cancels because I'm not going to get into it people book stuff that they don't actually intend to use andor things happen uh it will give you a notification you will have zero minutes to jump on that and book that site but it's a better chance uh often a better chance than than zero that you've got at 7 a.m five months ahead just saying there's also I've seen a post at least a post on Facebook in one of the camping groups that somebody has done their own version of it so go look for that stuff pro tips always read campground reviews always seriously uh uh you're gonna get a feel for the people that don't know what they're talking about and the people that do know what they're talking about everybody has a different perspective but that's important stuff uh look at satellite imagery uh absolutely because again parks change something happens some invasive species and suddenly you're looking at you know three trees on your site instead of 17 you don't know try to research the exact sites that you want I spent a ridiculous amount of time going through that stuff to see that it's a good site I'm not gonna have some bonehead right beside me uh whatever you know I'm looking at something at the end of a road away from everybody else as opposed to duk duk duk you know whatever uh download maps before you lose cell service don't depend on having cell service do not at front country you're going to do better but it's stand out of the road at a specific spot in order to check my emails I do remember that I have pictures of you doing that uh and check your park um advisories before you leave and then just in closing a little research does turn a random campsite or a random camping trip into the quietest spot in the park the perfect swimming beach the best hiking trail sometimes a hidden gem that you might have missed otherwise and those points of interest too that those really give you those memories that you're gonna take back with you at the end of the day. Yeah and know that not everything is written in stone I mean we've done the Pamela mentioned the generator where we was like oh uh nothing against them we chose a non-electric campground it didn't say you can't put RVs in there so so they did is they put a small trailer in and they it was non-electric so they ran a generator that's something I will keep in mind for next time and learn yeah learn from you know go go and go oh okay cool how was that what do I want to make notes about to make it a better experience next time and if uh you don't like bugs make sure that you're looking for swamps nearby your campus site shot not that anybody did that oh no not at all think about shoulder seasons uh it's especially here well I I think it's pretty much everywhere now uh you've got a better chance at getting a site or certainly at getting the site you want on shoulder seasons yeah and and in the fall no bugs pretty colors so you throw a hoodie on instead it's not a bad thing just saying but but don't book the my sites because that's what I'm doing now and that's it that's it for us for today thank you so much for listening please do tune in again soon if you would like to reach out to us we are on Instagram YouTube Facebook all the things and we would love to hear from you if you want to email us we are at hi at supergoodcamping.com that's h i at supergoodcamping dot com and we'll talk to you again soon bye bye