Mikisew Provincial Park

Overall Park Rating: 8/10
Nature Aspects Park Rating: 7/10
Recreational Aspects Park Rating: 7/10

This park is another Hidden Gem.  It's gorgeous, it's quite, the staff are friendly, the woods dry(mostly), and best of all, it's not over camped!   It is most definitely in my top 5 parks!  Mikisew is a bit of a trek off the beaten path, so there is NO highway noise and very very very little light pollution (better then algonquin).  Take your time on the little country roads once you get off the highway, they are a little rough, and very windy.   Not to mention you never know when a deer, moose, bear, fox, cat, or frog will jump out in front of you!

There are a couple trails that are across the road from the main park area, they are all worth hiking, there's lots of interesting trees, landscapes and rocks and such along them.  We took a picnic lunch with us on one hike and ate it on top of a series of giant rocks.  It was quite lovely, and because we were off the ground, the mosquitos weren't to bad either!    there is also a trail that goes along the lake shore and around the campground.  It's quite nice, but the ones across the road are nicer.  

As far as wildlife is concerned, there are plenty of birds,  dragon flies, butterflies, small rodents, and deer along the trails.  I'm pretty sure there are moose in the area and bears as well, but we didn't see any of those.   There are also lots of frogs, toads, and SALAMANDERS like the one in the picture above.   Please be careful when hunting for salamanders they are delicate, don't touch them!!  and please, put logs and rocks back where you found them,   carefully!.

One thing to take into consideration when looking into a site here is that a large portion of the campground used to be a pine plantation, so there is a LOT of pine trees, and with pine trees comes limited privacy because not a lot grows underneath them.    To compensate for that the sites are nicely spaced out.





There is no park store, or rentals, but the gate house sells the usual ontario parks shirts/pants/random stuff.   have i mentioned the friendly staff?   Both trips we took to this park the staff were amazing!  the first time we got to the park at around 11pm, they were just closing up the gatehouse for the night, and weren't mad at all that we showed up that late, with no reservation, and no firewood.    they put us on a random open site, told us we could set up on any site that was open and to come back in the morning to let them know where we were.

The closest civilization would be "The narrows"  it's about 5 or 10 minutes from the park. Theres a general store, a giant eagle carved out of stone, a beach and that's about it.   Have a look in the park news paper, there should be a coupon for buy one get one free icecream at the store!  The store at the narrows has pretty much anything you'd need but forgot.  a little bit of food, a little bit of toys, some general hardware and the like.   the people there are also very friendly!

That's about all i've got on Mikisew for now!