Awenda Provincial Park is a beach paradise
Awenda Provincial Park is beautiful - there's no other way to describe it. A large park, four different and sandy beaches (including a pet friendly one) with views of endless skies and majestic sunsets, all the swimming, boating, or fishing you'd want to do, beach and forest trails - Awenda really has it all. Where the park loses points for me are on its hikes - they're fairly average, not overly stimulating - no steep inclines, no rugged surfaces to traverse, mostly flat and through forests. I do like an exciting hike or two to keep things interesting! (particularly as neither of us swim, and our only activity otherwise is boating).
We had the pleasure of camping in Awenda for one night in July 2021 (July 11 - 12, 2021), but one night did not do this park justice - Awenda is a provincial park that you want to visit more than once, if just to enjoy the beaches and water activities on Kettle Lake and the Georgian Bay.
Rating: 9/10
Where is Awenda Provincial Park located?
Just north of Barrie, it is less than 200km away from Toronto. It rests on the south-east corner of Georgian Bay, which is an inlet of Lake Huron, one of the five Great Lakes. It's in the Tiny Township with the closest town being Penetanguishene.
Our Campsite
The sheer number of campgrounds at Awenda gives you an indication of how large the park is.
We were at campsite 277 in the Snake campgrounds.
I wouldn't rate our campsite itself very highly - it was pretty bland, nothing noteworthy or special to write home about. The tall trees around us didn't provide much by way of privacy; you can see in the image below how we could clearly see tents in other campsites around us.
Park Activities
Beach Trail
The trail, as it suggests, takes you through each one of the beaches (Beaches 1 - 4), and is a pretty easy one to complete. The views on the beaches at Awenda that first evening was incomprable to anything we'd seen before. At one point, the sky seemed split in two due to cloud formations. We spent far too long lingering by the sand and rocky beaches as the water lapped quietly around us, and the sky played games with our eyes and brains. Despite being a popular park, we barely saw anyone around us - the beaches were our very own to enjoy as we wished. I had a hard time selecting which pictures to post! If you think they look breathtaking, imagine how it felt to be there in person.
Wendat Trail
A historied trail that takes you down boardwalks and through forests that contain old ruins of homesteads. But before the homesteaders and colonialists who made their home here, these were the lands of the Wendat (Huron) Nation people.
Read this fascinating blog post that details some of the history of Awenda.
As Awenda is a big park, it will require a vehicle to get around to the beaches and to the trails. It is an impressive park and well-worth a visit.
