Alexander Lake Forest Provincial Park
|
Rating: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆
FREE TO CAMP (21 day limit) Rainville Road (Route 533), Mattawa, Ontario Campsites: 1 non-maintained site. (Could be others that we did not find...we were told there were some on Alexander Lake if you canoe in to it, but I can not verify that as fact). Lakes: Encompasses Turcotte Ponds, Alexander Lake and Crooked Lake. Borders the shoreline of Clear Lake. |
Description:
This is a non-operational park. This means that there are no facilities. You could camp there if you wanted to (for free...limit of 21 days by law) but there are zero amenities.
The campsite itself is not on any water front and there is no beach and no place to swim (unless you want to walk down and go in through the marshy areas or one section where it looks like canoes are launched from). It's just a place that some people have put together themselves. Camping here would not be good for kids but adults and teens would be ok with it.
Someone made a toilet at the campsite but it is home made and out in the open and offers no privacy.
The road is not maintained and it only goes just so far (to the campsite) before it turns into more of a foot path (the road is too over grown and damaged to drive on past that point).
There is a place for parking up near the main road and you can walk in. Or, if you drive down to the campsite, there is room to park down there and/or turn around. There is a big sand dune just before you get to the site. The campsite is right on the outer edge of the sand dune.
There is also another road into the park, (you can tell the difference because this one leads into dense trees where the one going to the campsite is more out in the open) but it leads to a cottage on some private property located in the middle of the park. We were surprised to find it there and the owners explained that they were grandfathered in when the park was made. Be warned that some areas of the park have crazy amounts of mosquitoes. The mosquitoes weren't so bad on the road to the campsite and at the campsite itself, but they were horrible on the road that leads to the cottage.
There are nice views of the lake and they are probably great for canoeing. The owners of the cottage said there might be some campsites on Alexander Lake if you wanted to canoe into there. But we didn't see them first hand since we were only on foot.
It's a nice little place to get out and explore. It's a little out of the way but definitely private and rugged.
This is a non-operational park. This means that there are no facilities. You could camp there if you wanted to (for free...limit of 21 days by law) but there are zero amenities.
The campsite itself is not on any water front and there is no beach and no place to swim (unless you want to walk down and go in through the marshy areas or one section where it looks like canoes are launched from). It's just a place that some people have put together themselves. Camping here would not be good for kids but adults and teens would be ok with it.
Someone made a toilet at the campsite but it is home made and out in the open and offers no privacy.
The road is not maintained and it only goes just so far (to the campsite) before it turns into more of a foot path (the road is too over grown and damaged to drive on past that point).
There is a place for parking up near the main road and you can walk in. Or, if you drive down to the campsite, there is room to park down there and/or turn around. There is a big sand dune just before you get to the site. The campsite is right on the outer edge of the sand dune.
There is also another road into the park, (you can tell the difference because this one leads into dense trees where the one going to the campsite is more out in the open) but it leads to a cottage on some private property located in the middle of the park. We were surprised to find it there and the owners explained that they were grandfathered in when the park was made. Be warned that some areas of the park have crazy amounts of mosquitoes. The mosquitoes weren't so bad on the road to the campsite and at the campsite itself, but they were horrible on the road that leads to the cottage.
There are nice views of the lake and they are probably great for canoeing. The owners of the cottage said there might be some campsites on Alexander Lake if you wanted to canoe into there. But we didn't see them first hand since we were only on foot.
It's a nice little place to get out and explore. It's a little out of the way but definitely private and rugged.
Location:
Alexander Lake Forest Provincial Park is located on the Ottawa River, twenty kilometers north of the Town of Mattawa
Alexander Lake Forest Provincial Park is located on the Ottawa River, twenty kilometers north of the Town of Mattawa
Hwy 533 runs along the edge and, in some places, through the park.
Warning! There is a road that leads to some private property (a cottage) in the middle of the park. I noted the road as a "private road" however, I think just the property is private, not necessarily the road itself.
Zoom In of map to show detail.
Park Boundaries
