MacGregor Point Provincial Park — Attraction in Saugeen Shores

During a weekend in Kincardine, we drove up to MacGregor Point Provincial Park for some day hiking and swimming. The entrance fees were reasonable. The park staff seemed knowledgeable and were helpful, and took the time to help us navigate the map of the park and points of interest, therein. It was a very sunny and warm day, and there were some mosquitoes in the park, but we found that as we moved along the trails, if we kept moving, it wasn't so bad. The trail that we explored wound around a wetland and featured an observation tower and a bird hide. We witnessed some of the diversity of the ecological environments that exist in the park and benefitted from the storyboards throughout the park that detail some of the factors that make this place special and important.

The panoramic view of the wetland from the observation tower was the perfect location for bird watching, listening to animal calls and appreciating the diversity of the park. The bird hide was an excellent reprieve from the day's heat, and also an excellent way to view birds and other wildlife. We spotted several birds, a turtle, were entertained by the frog's songs and delighted in all the butterflies that were fluttering around. It is genuinely a lovely place.

The Tower Trail is a 3.5 km (return) trail. We learned that cyclists can use this trail and do! And wheelchairs can use the section of this trail between the parking lot and the observation tower.

We were able to easily navigate the rest of the park, found a shady spot to have some lunch and even ventured to the 'Nipissing' area of the park for a swim in Lake Huron. We visited on a Sunday, and though there were campers in the children's play area, and on the beach, it was not crowded. There was room to lay down a towel and venture in to the water - which, on the day of our visit was enjoyable because of how warm the day had been.

The camping areas seemed clean and many of the people we spoke to, who were camping there, said they enjoyed the park, and that the camp sites were nice. We found that the camp store on site was well stocked, carried many common necessities and had a very popular ice cream counter.

Overall, a...

I really enjoyed our weekend stay here. The campsite was large with room for 6 people, 3 tents and 3 cars. The campground itself was well maintained with clean washrooms and showers. Loud music isn't allowed, so I found it to be a relatively quiet camping experience, which is what we were hoping for.

It's a dog friendly park, with a dog friendly beach within walking distance from Huron campground. The beach was rocky so bring your water shoes. The dog beach is not ideal for swimming, although there is a swimmers beach nearby.

I went for a run on the trails and parts of the trail was along the waterfront. The trails were marked, although I would have liked to see more signs posted along the path as I felt uneasy about being lost.

I'm rating this 3 stars because the staff in the Park Store weren't friendly or helpful. Two cashiers tended to one customer who couldn't decide on which flavor of ice cream to buy, while a line was forming. When I asked the cost of firewood, the clerk pointed to a sign and said I had to wait my turn. I paid $9 for a bag of firewood which ended up being a small bag of kindling. The signs posted indicated to take wood from the kindling pile, but I didn't realize until we went back for more wood that the firewood was actually further back in another pile. Also, we had purchased a park pass for 2 additional cars ($26 for each car), and we were told that we were able to park all 3 cars at the site. We had 3 cars on the site on one night, but on the second night we were told that we had to move one car because we were only allowed 2 cars on site. Apart from that, we enjoyed our family camping experience at MacGregor Point and plan to camp there again...

I have camped for over 30 years and had never experienced the situation I did this summer at MacGregor. The sites are very well concealed from each other, which is good for privacy, but can lead certain people to forget or ignore the fact they have neighbours around them and, as a result, behave badly. The first night we were there, young people arrived after dark and put up their equipment, making a lot of noise in the process; they then proceeded to socialize very loudly all night. I went over and asked them to be quiet around 1:30 AM, but they were not interested in changing their behaviour. Phoning the office to complain is a long circuitous process, especially when you are exhausted after travelling and it's the middle of the night. These young people were not from Canada--I'm guessing university students from Toronto--and did not know or respect the rules of the park. My partner went to the camp office the next morning and complained. The group was only slightly quieter the next night. The third night a new pair arrived, in the middle of the night, were extremely loud, vomited several times in the early hours, were told to shut up by several campers and left the next morning. They were also young, not originally from Canada and, I presume, not interested in knowing or following rules of the park. It is a huge park, the wardens can't cover every site every night, but having no gate, no way to prevent people from coming in and making a miserable experience for those around them is unacceptable. I know there is a radio and generator free area. That's where traditional campers should head because anywhere else could be a horrible multi-night experience...