The Algonquin one actually had some good activities (although some of them managed to be lacking in educational value while also being extremely dry and boring). But the main problem with the Algonquin Park activity booklet was that it just doesn't look appealing or engaging. Parks Canada has done theirs up with lots of bright colours and fun pictures and seems aimed at very young kids. (I'd say 4-7 age range.) The Kidlet had a blast filling hers out! (Even after she thew up on it and had to discard the first couple pages.)
The Campground
The Glen Rouge campground is much more open than I'm used to. Almost no trees anywhere. It's basically just a big open field with paved paths winding through it and cars, RVs, and tents (but mostly RVs) packed in like sardines. Zero privacy. Zero separation between the sites. The only way to really tell where the sites even are is to look for the wooden posts with the site numbers on them.Glen Rouge seems to attract a very high proportion of RV campers. While there were quite a few families staying there, I was slightly put off by the people who seemed to be there mostly to smoke and drink. That said, no one was excessively noisy and everything was calm by the time quiet hours rolled around at 23:00.
As far as amenities go, Glen Rouge has a "comfort station" with gendered bathrooms with flush toilets and sinks. There are also showers although these are located inside the bathroom area and, thus, also gendered. I believe there is also a dish-washing station outside the bathrooms.
Firewood is sold at the camp office -- for $12 a bag! -- but they DO NOT have any kindling available. I found this quite irritating as you're not supposed to bring in outside wood due to the risk of spreading things like Emerald Ash Borer. You're also not allowed to scavenge dead wood from the park. And they don't sell kindling? This makes it rather difficult to get a fire going in the provided fire ring/pit!
Also, if you're planning on doing any hiking, it would probably be best to look up and print out the trail maps ahead of time as they'd don't currently have any maps available at the camp office.
Oh! And, one last thing about the campground: the maps, website, and signage all indicate that they have a playground. It turns out that what this actually means is "we have a couple of swings". I do not consider swings to, in and of themselves, constitute a playground. Now, I don't mind if a campground doesn't have a playground. I don't go camping for the playground. But, if you're going to put it in your brochure, you'd better well actually have it! I'm hoping that they'll add something more substantial to it eventually. But, as it stands right now, they don't really have much of a playground. So don't go in expecting one or make any promises to your kids!
The Sites
The sites are, as noted, all very open with zero privacy. They do all have designated areas for fire. While the oTENTik sites all have dedicated fire rings with grates, most of the other sites only have a small pit dug in the ground. No ring, no grate. Not even any rocks around. So, if you're planning on doing any cooking over the fire, you should probably bring your own fire grate.I believe all the sites also have a picnic table. All the oTENTik sites definitely did. The rest of the campground was so visually busy and cluttered with so little separation between the sites it wasn't really obviously at a glance whether or not they each had their own picnic table. Probably best not to go in expecting one; just in case.
The oTENTiks
The oTENTiks are posh! They're quite spacious for a tent/yurt type camping accommodation. You get a small deck with a couple of Muskoka chairs, two queen beds and one double (arranged in a sort of mezzanine set-up), a nice little bench and a wooden table with four chairs. There are also six -- count 'em, SIX! -- outlets inside as well as USB ports for charging your devices directly from the wall without a three-pronged adapter. The light switched just control the lights and don't affect power to the outlets and there are three separate lights: one for the living area and two for the sleeping area.
The windows are proper glass that slide open and closed and have tarp/vinyl "curtains" that can be snapped into place to cover them for more privacy. There are also tarp curtains that allow you to separate the beds/sleeping area from the living area.
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| Curtains open |
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| Curtains closed to create separate sleeping area.1 |
It's worth noting that oTENTiks 1-3 back onto the vehicle path and face the woods. This makes them feel much more "private" than the rest of the campground. It also means you can sit on your deck in the morning/evening and watch the birds in the trees. oTENTiks 4 and 5 are "across the street" from 1-3 and face the vehicle path (and the other oTENTiks).
oTENTik 3 is not reserve-able and can only be booked on a first-come-first-served, walk-in basis.
oTENTik 1 has a ramp and is fully accessible. Although the presence of the ramp means you only get one, rather than two, Muskoka chairs on the deck.
oTENTik 2, where we stayed, had a fire ring with a grate (like all the other oTENTik sites) but, for some reason, it was nearly three times as tall as the others. This made it somewhat challenging to do our cooking as everything was elevated quite a distance above the flames. I ended up making a larger fire than I might otherwise have done just because I was struggling to get enough heat up to the food.
1 There's also a curtain for the upper bed, I just didn't notice it 'til after I'd taken this photo. Back
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