Conestogo Lake Conservation Area — Attraction in Mapleton

I've been an advid camper with my spouse since about 2014 & then with my son after 2017. I started camping at Elora, typically every long weekend except for Family day & Thanksgiving day for about 3 to 4 years. Started to camp weekly 2 times a year for it became much more feasible. I started to move around to Guelph Lake & Byng Island & everything was always top notch. I went for the 1st time to Conestogo Lake last year 2023 for a week during Canada day. The camping in on itself is fine for us, we enjoy whatever we do at our convenience. What's not fine is the rudeness & the blaintant disrespect & disregard for the very people that show up for their enjoyment. They have rules & enforcement that's beyond what one would expect. One goes out to these places for freedom & to get away from the everyday. The park's supervisor/superintendent BRIAN is a complete joke. My son is Autistic & so, I had asked for some leniency on some things they were specifying as not allowed under the rules. Not that I'm against rules, but it's little things that make one's stay a lot better. I never had any issues with the people at Byng, Elora or Guelph, they are very understanding & listen to you & address the situation & topping it off as they improvise on your asking. They don't bend or go above the rules, they try to adequate your requests & look for a resolution to an issues that one may have. So, as of this post, I heard that the supervisor/superintendent from Guelph Lake is retired & they're replacement will be BRIAN from Conestogo Lake. All I have to say is that people are surely going to get a new reality. My plans for this year to camp at Guelph Lake is looking very scarse. I'm either going elsewhere or I'm just going to have to purchase some land in the middle of nowhere & then camp as I see fit. Anyone wants to come & join, feel free & no rules, for police can't enter private property & as such. Camping at Guelph Lake is not going to be the same anymore. Also, it's repulsive that they have opened up their reservation booking online as of March 21st, it's suppose to open on May the 1st like it always has. Just getting worse & worse...

We went camping here for 5 days and we had to cross a main road to get to the group camp site. We went in August so it was to be expected that it was hot. The park ran out of ice and didn’t restock for days on end.

Bathrooms: There was no flush toilet on the whole section of the park to the side. We would make the drive to the main section of the park with flush toilets and that only had 1 shower. 1 shower per bathroom for a campground is not enough to say the least. You needed a quarter for the one shower which is not an issue as it did give you lots of hot water. The bathrooms were not cleaned daily. We had a family member slip on the wet floor and we let the main gate know but the next day it was still wet and dirty. The toilet paper was left empty for days on end.

Campsite: The group campsite was a decent size area. Small if you have 10 tents. There is no water taps on the group site, but it was within a short walking distance. They park rangers would not collect our garbage as other camp areas do. We would ask for big garbage bags but we were kept being offered grocery store size bags.

Lake: Nothing special. It was pretty dirty so we didn’t do too much swimming.

It is very green and a pretty area to...

Visited Conestogo Lake this past weekend. A decent campground overall.

We had campsites 75 and 77 in the"Ash" section, these were full electric and water hook up. The sites were a bit more open than we are used to, but we really ended up liking them. I would say the Ash section is best if you want a nice large open campsite and The Oaks if you want more privacy (smaller trailers will fit there).

There was one small trail loop near the beach. We did not explore the "lower" section of the park (through the lower gatehouse entrance), but it said there was another small trail and some picnic and fishing areas.

Two cons would be the bathrooms and the lake. The bathrooms were not that clean unfortunately. And the beach area (grass and sand) was nice, but the water was very murky and dirty. Also lots of little sharp rocks and seaweed, I would recommend wearing watershoes.

Overall a fairly...