I like that checklists for various types of park wildlife are offered at the gatehouse. And, like Killbear, they offer plenty of children's programs. They also apparently host both "learn to camp" and "learn to fish" programs, which is kind of neat. That said, I also found the park had a somewhat run-down feel to it. The discovery centre looked fun, but also quite small and somewhat dated (although I didn't get a chance to take a close look as the Kidlet was too tired to go in). The Swan Lake Trail was very pretty and the floating boardwalk was cool, but it also looked somewhat dilapidated and seemed like it was in danger of losing the "floating" descriptor at points. The dip stick that's meant to measure the water level in the wetland (as part of the iWetland project) was missing. I also couldn't find any of the interpretive guides that are supposed to go with the hike at the trail head. And, even if there had been some, they wouldn't have been much use since the only stop/post I could find along the trail was #4. The trail itself was, at least, very well marked. When convenient trees weren't available for trail markers to be attached to, yellow arrows had been spray-painted onto the rocks to mark the path.
If you're into, as the song goes, "blue lakes and rocky shores" Grundy's got 'em in spades! I'm usually not that into swimming that doesn't involve a mask and fins, but the pull of Grundy is strong. It's a four-hour drive to a labyrinthine park with campsites that are fine, but not spectacular. Oh, and the water tastes kind of gross due to the high sodium content1. And even with all that I still kind of want to go back to Grundy just for those beautiful, beautiful rocky shores!
The Campground
White Pine seemed like a pretty typical car camping campground. It offers a mix of electrical and unserviced sites as well as a couple barrier-free/accessible sites. There's easy access to a comfort station featuring the usual flush toilets and showers as well as laundry facilities. The bathrooms are gendered, but they also have a couple large, "single stall", accessible, family/gender neutral bathrooms available as well as a bunch of gender neutral showers.There's also a path down to one of those nice, rocky beaches I keep going on about. The water seemed reasonably warm although I didn't get a chance to actually go for a swim while we were there.
If you want something a little more secluded, it looks like the Balsam campground has a bit of separation from the others. The trade-off is that it doesn't have a comfort station.
And if you want really secluded, there are 10 backcountry sites available. Most of them are paddle-in sites with no portage required. (Another reason I might want to go back to Grundy someday.) They also come equipped with food lockers so you don't have to worry about hanging your food to keep it away from the bears, which is really nice.
The Site
We were on site 555. I didn't find anything particularly noteworthy about this site one way or the other. It wasn't too far from the comfort station or the water spigot. The ground was reasonably level and not too hard packed. There were a lot of sticks and twigs on the ground that had to be cleared away before we could set up the tent. No real complaints beyond that though.1 They actually have warnings posted that if you're on a low-sodium diet you should find an alternate water source. The Kidlet took one swig and then declared that she was not going to drink the water here anymore. (This was one of several reasons we decided to come home a day early.) Back
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