Ferris Provincial Park is located in Campbellford, Ontario, next to the Trent River. There are a few biking and hiking trails and a nice suspension bridge over the Ranney Gorge. It is also popular for kayaking and canoeing on the Trent River through the gorge. There is a boat launch facility for launching into the Trent River.

Duration: 1 day

This was a spur of the moment plan to spend the weekend at a campsite. We found this park which was just 2 hours drive and a few campsites available. We booked a site promptly. 

How to get there?

Ferris Provincial Park is about 183 kms or 2 hours east from Toronto.

Ferris Provincial Park is a small and charming campground with the Trent river passing through it, a small beach with some opportunities for fishing, boating, canoeing or kayaking downstream.

Staying at Ferris Provincial Park

There are two campgrounds, Bedrock and Valleyview with a total of about 163 campsites for both car camping and RV's. The Bedrock campground is close to the Trent river.

We had booked our site in the Bedrock Campground.

Our site was nice and private. It had a narrow entrance and our car could just about cover the entrance. We were here right after our Killbear trip and the Gypsy moth caterpillar experience was still fresh on our minds. We found a few of them here as well, but it wasn’t as bad as what we had gone through in Killbear.

Right after we had set up our tent, we went exploring the park on our bikes.

The park has some history to it about the Ferris family that owned the property and donated it to the province for public use. There is a dry stone fence built decades ago. There are some information panels which give you lots of information regarding it’s history.

We biked around on the bike trail, checked out the small beach on the Trent river.

Though the park may not be that popular but has its own natural beauty. The views from the suspension bridge towards the river and the gorge is incredible. With all the natural flora around, it must be nice location to view the fall colours.

After exploring the park a bit, we headed back to the campsite to call it a day.

We were up early the next morning for a hike. We checked out some of the main attractions of the park.

Trails in Ferris Provincial Park

Ranney Falls Trail - 1 km, Difficulty Level: Easy to Moderate
River Gorge Trail - 3.5 kms, Difficulty Level: Easy to Moderate
Drumlin Trail System - Colour coded trail, 6.2 kms in total, Difficulty Level: Moderate

The Ranney Falls Trail was short and sweet.

We got down to the river bed which was at this time half dry and just a stream was flowing. Possibly because of the dam upstream in the town of Campbellford.

We climbed back onto the trail and walked towards the suspension bridge and the Ranney falls. There is an observation deck on the trail where you get a closer view of the falls.

From the bridge, you could also see turtles basking in the sun.

We were though a tad disappointed with the Ranney falls. Likely depending on the depth of the water downstream and the flow of water from the dam, the height and magnificence of the fall likely changes at different times during the year.

After breakfast, we checked out the Drumlin Trail which is a bike trail. It has blue, red and white colour markers along the trail.

The difficulty level of this trail is between easy and moderate. Our biking skills are still building up, so when would reach difficult terrains, we would just get off our bikes and drag them over those portions.

By the time we finished the trail, it was time for us to wrap up. After a quick lunch, it was time to leave.

We left the park feeling nice about the fact that every park in Ontario has something unique to offer and they all need to be discovered and explored.

We will surely be back to explore it further and continue our quest to explore other relatively less popular parks as well to experience whatever they have to offer.

For additional information, visit the links below:

https://www.ontarioparks.com/park/ferris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferris_Provincial_Park

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