The best camping near Bruce Peninsula National Park

If you don’t expect Canada to have Caribbean blue waters, rocky grottos, or shipwrecks lying beneath the bay, then perhaps you haven’t visited Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula. Close enough for a long weekend road trip from Toronto, Bruce Peninsula National Park, where you can explore waterside caves and hike the Bruce Trail along scenic Georgian Bay, is based around the village of Tobermory. From Tobermory’s Little Tub Harbour, you can catch a boat to the offshore Fathom Five National Marine Park to check out the unusual “flowerpot” rock formations, snorkel or scuba dive to more than 20 shipwrecks, or go camping on a secluded island.

• Best for families: The 232-site Cyprus Lake Campground offers washrooms and showers.
• Best for island adventurers: Flowerpot Island
• Best for backpacking with Georgian Bay views: Stormhaven

1. Cyprus Lake Campground is usually fully booked during July, August, and long weekends. Reserve your campsite as early as possible through Parks Canada’s online reservations service, which opens for the season in mid-January.
2. You can also book a yurt at Cyprus Lake, a site in the backcountry Stormhaven and High Dump areas, or a campsite on Flowerpot Island.
3. A limited number of campsites at Cyprus Lake Campground, as well as the Stormhaven and High Dump areas, stay open year-round and are first-come, first-served from November through April.

Bruce Peninsula and Fathom Five can be extremely crowded mid-June through September and on holiday weekends spring through fall. Come midweek if you visit in summer, but better alternatives are the first half of October, with beautiful foliage and crisp autumn weather, or the somewhat less busy spring (May through early June). While Bruce Peninsula National Park stays open through the often-snowy winters for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing, most visitor facilities and many Tobermory businesses are closed.

• You can buy supplies in Tobermory or in Owen Sound, at the Bruce Peninsula’s south end.
• From May through October, to park in the parking lot for the Grotto, the park’s most distinctive geological formation, or the adjacent Indian Head Cove, you must reserve a spot in advance. Campers staying at Cyprus Lake can hike to the Grotto and don’t need to book parking.
• To get to Flowerpot Island, whether you’re day tripping or camping overnight, arrange transport with one of the local boat tour companies.
• You need to backpack into the backcountry camping areas at Stormhaven or High Dump. In winter, while these campsites are open for campers, trails aren’t maintained.