Lake of Two Rivers Campground Office — Hotel in Unorganized South Nipissing

Bear encounter on site: Lake of Two Rivers has been the go-to campground for my family. Its mid-point location in the park, direct access to Hwy 60, close proximity to the store, beautiful lake for swimming/canoeing and tall tree canopy are what make this campground ideal for us. However, after last week's camping trip, we will not return. The black bears are too familiar and aggressive for us to feel safe. On our first morning, we woke up to four bears passing through our site (one mamma and three cubs). The fact that they silently passed through was of no concern to us because they showed no interest in us. Later that day campers from the site beside us said the night before a bear clawed a hole in the tent the teenage boys were sleeping in and they had to patch it with tape. They did not have any attractants in their tent. The following day, while my husband and I cleaned up the food and dishes from dinner around 6:30 that evening, a mamma bear who was separated from her cubs (according to the warden) silently appeared on our site. First she smelled the firepit (full fire ban was on so little to smell there but that is where I cooked with our single burner). Then she went into the entrance of the kitchen tent where my husband was cleaning the dishes. She was in the entrance. He banged pots to try and scare her away. She slowly turned and went to our car. The hatchback was open because we were putting away the food (we keep all attractants in our vehicle at all times, even the clothing we wore that day goes into the car for the night, we washdown our eating area after every meal, all dishes and cleaning basins go into the car after every meal, the cooker goes back into the car...nothing gets left out on our site). The bear climbed into our vehicle, reached for the cooler and tipped it over in the car. We set off the car alarm to deter her. That did nothing. Campers at nearby sites rushed their children into cars. Everyone in the area put their car alarms on. We all made loud noises to try and scare her away. We were successful at getting her out of the vehicle and quickly closed the back trunk door. Rather than leave the site she walked into the vestibule of our tent where our 4 and 7 year old were hiding. That is where they were when she arrived on site so we told them to stay there quietly until we could get them to the car. All this time the bear had been between them and the vehicle so it was risky for us to reach them. As she started walking into the tent my husband started making loud noises to distract her and keep her from actually trying to get in there (the tent door was closed but she could easily tear it if she wanted). She turned and faced him. Then she started walking towards him. He took slow backwards steps. She's about two meters from him now so he puts his hands up high and makes a big loud sound to scare her away. Rather than leave, she makes a charge toward him. Within a second she's within a few feet of him. She lifts her paw, tilts her head, bears her teeth and makes this loud growling sound. I scream! It's high-pitched. A scream of true fear. She pauses. Looks around. Turns and canters away through nearby sites. I race across the campsite to the tent. My husband already has our son in his arms. I grab our daughter. They're now safely in the car. We pack up camp and head to a hotel for the night. Our camping trip is cut short. We fear that she smelled food and will consider us an easy target so we no longer feel safe staying there for worry that she may return. The most concerning thing was how silently the bears walk. There was no rustling in the bush or heavy footsteps to warn us that she was nearby. She was just suddenly there, within feet of us. The warden came quickly and they scared the bear off the campground to the northern side of Hwy 60. It's too bad that the bears have received "treats" from campers because that's one of the reasons why they are so active at this campground. Bears are opportunists. It's a wonderful camping location, just not somewhere I'm comfortable...

This is my first camping. So first of all, I have no experience in camping. I am looking for convenience more than other considerations. This Lake of Two Rivers Compound met my expectations. It has quite complete facilities: washrooms, water, shower room, and even laundry room. When I booked it, I was also concerned about living in wilderness and about wild animals. So I chose a spot very close to these facilities. Maybe to many experienced campers, this choice has no privacy (saw some reviews which complained), too noisy, my site was just across the lane where washrooms, shower rooms, water tap, laundry room are located, to me (Again, I made this comment because I had no experience in camping 😄）, it's perfect and leave me less worries. I don't need to run around to look for them when I need them. Privacy, yes, overall, campsites are relatively close, but no problem to park cars, some families really set up quite complicated "housing" to my standard, all can fit. Again, I feel safer in this way to be a bit closer to each other. One or two kids screaming, but they are kids. So again, I felt lucky about all my "neighbours". Secondly, some reviews complained that the washrooms were not functioning, the shower rooms were not functioning. But I observed. During my stay, the washroom, to be honest, cleaner than even some washrooms in downtown Toronto. Shower room was Ok. I only felt lucky. And the staff came and checked quite often. The third, about the noise from highway 60. It is true. However, again, as a newbie, noises may scare some big animals? That's what I thought. And I had no trouble in sleeping. And the campground map marked which sites will hear noises from highway. Maybe people who care about the noises just try to avoid these sites. The noises from highway was totally OK to me, but I was waken by the singing of the geese. Haha. This is nature. It's OK to me, too. I also lit up my first campfire and cooked something for myself, which was exciting to me. The wood: I saw one review, complaining that the wood they bought from Mew Lake campground office was wet. One thing is true: we need to buy wood from Mew Lake compound, which is about 1 km away from Lake Two Rivers' Campground. The wood were packed nicely in bags and left in a shed (if I can call it a shed,) attached to the office. There are two types of wood: the wood for campfire and the kindling wood, easy to use. The lady in the office there was nice helping me guess how much wood I will need. The wood I bought has no issues because it has been very dry in Ontario for a while. I was lucky again. And there is one store (which offers a lot of stuff that we will need for camping) and a cafe and grill (which can provide breakfast, lunch and dinner if you don't want to cook) which is about 500 meters away from the campground. Very convenient. For canoe and kayak, if anyone is interested in rowing canoe or kayaks on the lake, there will be two companies which deliver the boats to the lakeside in the morning up until 10:30 and there will be another time in the afternoon, I think. According to the website, usually people can book in advance for 2-day use, for one day, it will depend on that day's specific situation which is available. I was lucky. I got one day kayak rental. Rowing on the lake was fantastic experience, strongly recommended. The lake was beautiful and peaceful. With all the fall colours around, I have nothing to say, just feel lucky and happy. So, to me, I am very happy to choose Two Rivers' Campground to start my camping trip. To me, this is a perfect camping experience. All the staff there worked hard to keep the environment as good as possible for all of us. Many thanks to them. I will be back for sure.

(The photos were taken about sunrise, sunset, stars, the beauty of fall colours, and the cafe that I mentioned. I got so many photos and it definitely will be my important and good memory for my camping experience.)...

The park was easy to find. It is just off of highway 60. There is pavement all the way until you access the parameter roads which are deplorable. There is no way anyone can dodge the pot holes even on a bicycle. Signage is adequate. Check in on week days was non existent. One just found your way to your reserved campsite and set up. Park staff drove by and I guess they had a list of what type of equipment was supposed to be deployed because they never stopped by to confirm our reservation. The rules are fairly basic.

Our site,108, was a large space that one could have made into a pull through had a large tree, that was about center, not been in the way. We had to back in because the power (30 amp only) post was located a the extreme left rear of our site and a large tee prohibited making use of the center area. The power post is shared with the next door site. We had enough power cable to connect without using our extension cable. Sadly, next door could not as the power was to their right rear. Our site was not flat or even. The tree in the center of our site had large exposed roots radiating out. Our auto levelers allowed us to place the coach where we wanted though. Distancing is good for a rural park. Some sites had a vegetation privacy barrier but very sparse. Each site has a table and a fire pit. Overall the park was as rustic looking as we expected. Water taps are few and far between so be sure your fresh water tank is full. Trash receptacles are located only at the exit of the park so not very convenient.

There is NO park included wifi or cable TV. We did not find any OTA TV. Satellite might be difficult because of the trees. We did not use the washrooms or showers but we checked and found them clean.

There are trails in the park as well as Kayak and Canoe rentals (available from private vendors) that can be delivered to the park site.

There is a restaurant and small store within easy walking distance at the park entrance other than that, you can find food, shopping and convenience stores at Huntsville which is quote a distance away. We found this park to be poorly laid out. Sites maintenance neglected. Algonquin is famous world wide and one would expect a government operated RV/Campground to be world class We paid $60.00 per night plus reservation fees and taxes and we feel we...