Marten River Provincial Park — Attraction in Temagami

WOW. First off, this ENTIRE park is VERY hilly, and I would definitely NOT 🚫 recommend it for someone with physical disabilities. I am writing this review based on my experience within the Assinika Campground sites, my needs and requirements, with the hope of informing others.

We FINALLY arrived at our "accessible" ♿ site, #163, after an unintended 30+ minute scenic route around this campground. Directions to our site were not given, we were just handed a map. Once across the bridge, the fun begins of trying to figure out where to go! There are mostly one way roads throughout, which are NOT clearly defined. I'm adding pictures of the signage showing the confusing intersection that led us on a wild goose chase through this park! These windy, hilly roads are in poor shape, VERY bumpy, and VERY narrow. Good luck trying to do the 20 km/hr speed limit. There are blind hills and corners everywhere, multiple vehicles parked all along the roads and sites, and of course pedestrian traffic. After maneuvering around this hectic, busy park in a truck towing a utility trailer.. on the August long weekend.. for approx 35-40 minutes.. we FINALLY located our site.

Our site is supposed to be an accessible ♿ "barrier-free" site and there is still not a level spot anywhere.. it all slopes downhill. The fire pit is slightly raised on a permanent cement base, and possibly the most level area on our site. Ground cover is mainly a rocky, gravel base.. not much grass here!! There is no rake at the comfort station (?) so expect to bend over and hand pick all the sharp rocks from your tent area. We always use a single tarp under our tent, but tent pads or thicker tarps are necessary to protect your tent base... and then prepare to hammer in and bend every tent peg you own.

From what we saw, the camping sites are ALL quite hilly and not many have level areas anywhere for a tent, let alone three (as our site was rated). Great if you are in an RV trailer and can level it, but as I said, with the elevation being all over the place and the narrow, one way roads.. this may also be challenging, unless it's a smaller 14' trailer and you're an ace at parking it.

The tiny "comfort station" is located quite close, and there is a tree line that gives some privacy to this site. However, there is a hill on the asphalt road to get to it with a large gravel section, making it virtually impossible to use a wheelchair or rollator/walker. There are only 🚻two toilets and two showers here - one shower is ♿ accessible (no fully equipped 3-piece washrooms as in other PP I've stayed in). They are also poorly cleaned and do not appear to be maintained after the first cleaning of the day (absolutely disgusting, truthfully!🤢). Daily, at LEAST one washroom was out of supplies by dinner time, leaving campers standing waiting in lines of up to 5 people, while others were scrambling to supply toilet paper and hand soap where and when they could! In my opinion, there are waaay too many campsites assigned to use these two washrooms!! While I can appreciate there being busier times of the season, this needs some serious attention!! If your need for accessible toilets is not just due to a physical challenge, but a digestive or bladder issue as well, steer clear of this park!! Additionally, there is only one light outside (on the shower side of the building) leaving the toilet side in complete darkness at night.

We were (incorrectly!) told at front gate that closest washroom was the one main comfort station in the centre of the park over the bridge. It is also on a very steep hill.

Accessibility to the beach from our campsite requires walking down a narrow dirt path, full of rocks, tree roots and a decline/incline as well. No ♿ parking.

Would 🚫 NOT recommend this park to anyone with...

Just finished up week campout with some family, and its a very pretty 4 1/2 drive up from where we live. Additionally, its a pretty park with lots of old growth which is always something neat to see in parks. Lots of lakes around to canoe on and go fishing in, the campground beaches are quite busy, as well as grassy/marshy, but the day use beach was better. Not a very quiet park since there is a lot of boat activity and the highway close to the park. Dog beach was small and out of the way from the majority of the park. The hiking trail was a breath of fresh air and was very nice to walk in, though the transition trail (the longest trail) seemed to he quite overgrown, to which I was touching lots of foliage for around 1km. One issue I had was when I was having a conversation with a few family members at one of our sites one night and was interrupted by the warden telling us that we were “disturbing the peace” or something similar. I would understand if we were being loud or were intoxicated, but we weren’t. In 17 years of camping experience, the volume we were at would have been fine at any other park. Staff clean all washrooms and facilities several times throughout the day which is quite respectful, and are friendly as well. Overall, I may not come back simply bc of the noise and the bitter experience we had with noise level. But if you don’t mind much noise, this is the...

I consider this park to be a nearest Northern remote provincial Park. The closest drive to a nearest city in every direction with reasonable amenities is about 45 min to more than an hour. Therefore, one would need to content within this park and this is such a park. Good enough to get yourself unplugged from the world. Well, regardless of cell service, which is quite poor unless in certain spots of the park, you are forcefully unplugged 😂

The park has moderate trails, enough water body to canoe, kayaking & fishing. They also allow motor boat.

I enjoyed the drive through of the all the camp grounds but roads are too bumpy, the base of the road lost its smooth top.

Only one full services washroom facility location with showers and laundry. For a park of such size in terms of camp sites, there should have been 2 of such facilities.

Shower ONLY facility available dedicated to 2 campgrounds.

Enough vault toilet, where the structure makes it appear to be a full services washroom but disappoints you when inside. Conversion to marine washroom would be fantastic and off load the traffic from the ONLY full serviced washroom.

Overall, I'm quite amazed by this park.

Will likely...