Driftwood Provincial Park — Attraction in Head, Clara and Maria

Small provincial park compared to others, but still has the basic amenities, with nice scenery, clean grounds, and lots of birds.

The East and West River campgrounds have many sites along the shore to swim, launch your canoe, and enjoy the sunset and breeze off the river. However, they are very close together with little privacy and the pads are on small size making things look congested.

The Brumm campground has sites that better accommodate trailers and RVs, with larger pads and more privacy. These are located in a forest setting, up the hill from the river and therefore doesn't get the shore breeze.

There is only one comfort station (bathrooms, and showers) near the East River campsite, otherwise vault toilets are nearby. Water quality is good and dependable, and it seems they recently did an upgrade to the buildings, and water and sewer.

The main beach is sandy with a roped-off area for unsupervised swimming, a grass lawn with picnic tables, and a boat launch with dock. There are many marked trails, but the best is Oak Highland (Riverview and Beaver Pond). Blueberries are plentiful when in season. For canoeists, directly across the Ottawa River is the Dumoine River offering a 16km roundtrip to the first set of rapids. Not certain if you need a ZEC day pass since it's in Quebec.

The main office is small with very few items, but they do have firewood and ice. Deep River is the closest town (33km) with a Valu-Mart grocery store, LCBO, and there are convenience stores closer in Rolphton (Esso) and Rapides-des-Joachims (which has a SAQ).

Overall a nice park, clean amenities, beautiful scenery, and a variety of birds singing...

This is a small park with some nice hikes and some really nice sites. Definitely try to get a beach front site, since there are no pathways to get down to your campsite's beach except through other peoples' sites. This was especially true at the West River Campground, and made it frustrating to try and have access to the water without sneaking through an unoccupied site in the morning before the occupants arrived. Another camper told me there used to be pathways that didn't go through the sites but they have all grown over. It would be nice if a pathway was maintained. Of course you can go use the day use beach, but technically as a camper at that campground you should be able to access that campground's beach. This park seemed especially dog and kid friendly, and was very very busy (and loud). There were two days when we had to wait to get wood, or were only able to purchase limited wood. The park shop did not have any camping supplies (bug spray, lighters, fire starters, etc.)...but did have puzzles and plushie squirrels. :P I would return to this park in a less busy month and only if I was able to secure a waterfront site. The sunsets (if you can access the beach to see them) are...

It's the views that sell the place. Amazing views from campsites in the Ottawa East and Ottawa West campgrounds. Almost all these campsites are waterfront, some with their own section of beach and most with their own canoe or kayak launching points. The sites themselves are small and close together with few privacy viewblocks from adjacent campsites unless you choose your campsite very carefully.

The park staff are great. The second night was noisy and they took my noise complaint seriously. Didn't hear anything the third night! They have regular foot patrols and make sure people get to appreciate the river and natural surroundings instead of poorly behaved children screaming at the top of their lungs at 10:45 PM right in front of your site...

The trails are in need of maintenance for sure. Loop 4 is completely inaccessible at the moment as both bridges leading to it are out. Loop 3 got very thin and overgrown in places but has a fantastic off-trail lookout.

It's all about the...