The Killbear Provincial Park is a popular park on the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron in the Parry Sound District in the province of Ontario. Lake Huron is the second largest of the five great lakes. The park has a beautiful rocky shoreline, many small sandy beaches, and nice spots to view some gorgeous sunsets. It is very popular for camping, day trips and water sports.

Duration: 3 nights

Our first camping trip for the season was to be Bon Echo at the end of May but since we were still under lockdown, this reservation was cancelled by Ontario Parks. Our next camping trip, Killbear Provincial Park, was in June and we were keeping our fingers crossed. We had been wanting to go to Killbear for many years but due to its popularity, we never managed to get a reservation. But this year, we had planned and booked well in advance and booked 3 nights at this park, but with the continuing lockdown and the date getting closer, we were getting nervous.

And then just like that, the lockdown ended just a day before our reservation date and the park was allowed to open exactly on our reservation date. We were ecstatic. This was now going to be our first camping trip of the season and we were going to be the very first campers of that season on that campsite and the park. And that was first for us.

The day finally arrives. After a long winter and the pandemic lockdown, we were excited to finally get outdoors. The weather was warming up nicely and it was going to be great. 

How to get there?

Killbear Provincial Park is about 292 kms or almost 3 hours from Toronto. The drive was nice and passes through the scenic Muskoka and Parry Sound region. Try to give some extra time to stop and enjoy the views.

We got our permits and proceeded to the Harold Point campground where our campsite was. 

Staying at the park

The Killbear Provincial Park has 7 campgrounds which offer car camping, some of them are radio free. There are three group campsites which can accommodate upto 25 people. There is also one roofed accommodation called Killbear Lodge. To book the roofed accommodation, you will have to call the park. It cannot be done on the Ontario Parks reservation website but the details can be found below:

https://www.ontarioparks.com/roofedaccommodation/lodges/killbear-lodge

For dog owners, there is a dog off-leash area close to the group camp sites and a dog on-leash area close to the Twin Point Trail.

Below is the park overview map:

https://www.ontarioparks.com/pdf/maps/killbear/park_map.pdf

Our campsite was pretty damp when we arrived, there was a swampy area behind our site and loads of mosquitoes attacked us as soon as we arrived as if they were desperately waiting for some humans to feast on. A few sprays of insect repellant helped.

We went on a stroll to the beach closest to us right after dinner. The lake and the beach were very serene. We spent about an hour walking along the sandy shoreline. Once the sun had set and darkness was setting in, we decided to head back and hit the sack. It had been a busy work day and we were tired from the long drive. We had a whole new day to look forward to.

First day, woke up early and went for a jog. But before that, we took some snaps of our campsite and of pretty looking caterpillars which we realized were quite a few around our site. We noticed that they were even hanging from trees. We were amused seeing these interesting species, but that feeling was about to change. The caterpillars were going to become quite involved in our stay at the park.

Killbear Provincial Park is a huge campground and during this stay, we managed to explore a small portion of the park. We headed out of the campground to a trail which runs along the Killbear Park Road which leads to the permit office. We entered the Beaver Dams Campground and after passing the campsites reached the beach. The beach here has a scenic rocky terrain.

Hiking and Biking Trails at Killbear Provincial Park

  • Twin Points Trail
    • Distance – 1.6 km loop
    • Time – 40 minutes
    • Difficulty Level – Easy
  • Lookout Point Trail
    • Distance – 3.5 km loop
    • Time – 1.5 hours
    • Difficulty Level – Moderate
  • Lighthouse Point Trail – Takes you to the tip of Kill Bear Point
    • Distance – 800 m loop
    • Time – 25 minutes
    • Difficulty Level – Easy to Moderate
  • Recreational Trail – Ideal for hiking, jogging, cycling or nature watching
    • Distance – 6 km linear
    • Time – 3 hours
    • Difficulty Level – Easy to Moderate

One of most striking features in the landscape here is the windswept trees. They are all very unique nature’s creations. 

Killbear Tree

A particular Grey Pine tree which is over 100 years old is one of the most photographed trees at the park due to its windswept shape. A simple google search for "Killbear tree" will give you numerous results for it. People take a day trip just to see the tree and be able to take their photos alongside it. It probably is still there but interestingly we came to know about it only after we visited the park. It seems that the tree is dying due to its natural life cycle, so hopefully we will see it the next time we visit.

After exploring this part of the beach, we headed back to our campground walking along the shoreline. The water depth close to the beaches was not much, around 3-4 feet.

We returned to our campsite for breakfast. By this time, there were more of those caterpillars and they were now climbing all over the tent and the gazebo. We attempted to remove them but they seemed to keep coming back, climbing again. We decided to ignore them for now, packed some snacks and headed to the beach to spend the day there.

It was refreshing to watch people out and about, enjoying some water sports, diving, lazing around on the beach after the pandemic lockdown which had kept us all in our homes for many months.

After spending a few hours on the rocky beach of Harold Point, we climbed onto the “Harold Point Rocks”, the rock from which the divers were jumping into the lake.

Cliff Jumping

The Harold Point Rocks has a spot for cliff jumping which at its highest is over 10 metres. 

Important: This is not encouraged by the park staff and is done at your own risk. Please be careful while doing it.

We sat on the other side of the rock facing east and spent a few hours just lazing around, with our feet in the water and taking in the stillness, the sereneness of our surroundings.

On returning to our campsite, we realized that we had a big problem. There were now numerous of those caterpillars and they had almost taken over the campsite. On the tent, gazebo, the chairs, the car, they were climbing onto everything. Our attempts to remove them were also useless as they kept returning to climb again. 

Gypsy Moths

There are many species that hibernate in the winter and become active as spring comes. Mosquitoes seem to get active in spring and they seem to be less troublesome during late summer and fall. These caterpillars were of a specie called Gypsy Moth. Apparently, the Gypsy Moth lays eggs before winter and when spring arrives, these eggs hatch and out emerge these caterpillars. For a few months, they climb onto trees and feed on the foliage which explains the climbing madness. After sometime, they turn into pupae and an adult Gypsy Moth emerges. 

Killbear now has a Gypsy Moth infestation problem and the level of infestation is cyclical with some years seeing less and other years seeing more of them.

This was one of those years where they were possibly peaking. Somehow, it appeared that we were seeing more of them on our campsite due to our location close to that swamp I mentioned, or the kind of trees around our site or something. But we did notice that people on a few other campsites did not seem particularly as disturbed by it as we were, their tent was also clear but there were others who were facing similar issues as us. But we were not sure how they were dealing with it. We were going crazy for sure. After wrapping up our dinner early, we went into the safety of our tent. We slept off soon.

The next day, we decided the best way was to spend as much time as possible away from our campsite. So we had a quick breakfast, packed lots of snacks and headed to the beach. We were to spend the whole day there. The other thing about these caterpillars was they could hang from trees and stick onto unsuspecting people. This way they are able to move around and spread to other areas. So while walking we had to be careful to avoid these hanging caterpillars.

We spent a nice, lovely day on the beach. You had to keep yourself away from trees near the beach as well as you could see these caterpillars hanging on them. Sometimes, a strong wind will detach them from their web and they would fall on the ground, and they would drag themselves towards anything to climb onto.

We went back to the campsite for sometime, to check what the situation was there and freshen up. Being our last evening at the camp, we headed to the Harold Point Rocks to watch the sunset. It was a clear sky and the view from the rocks of the Georgian bay landscape is very nice. The sunset was gorgeous.

We returned to our campsite again briefly and then later walked to the beach to gaze at the starry night sky. There was a forecast for rain that night and the next day. As it started to get cloudy, we returned to our campsite and hit the sack.

In the morning, we woke up to a wet soil and the caterpillars were everywhere. It started to drizzle soon after off and on. After a quick breakfast, we started to wrap things up. It was not easy due to everything being wet, and also due to the extra effort to remove as many caterpillars as we could. Apparently, since these caterpillars are always eating, they produce a lot of poop constantly. So all that waste was at the base of the tent, tarp or gazebo dissolved and created quite a mess. These caterpillars literally drove us up the wall.

Once we had everything loaded, we went to the beach and then into the lake we went to wash ourselves off. Showers were closed as of now. It just felt way better after a half an hour dip in the water. By this time, it was also raining quite heavily. We got out of the water, changed and hit the road.

Even though the caterpillars gave us a tough time, Killbear Provincial Park is a great park and we loved it. We surely will return again to explore all the trails in this park and also to just purely relax and enjoy the warm waters and the sunset. And the next time, hopefully we won’t meet those caterpillars again.

For additional information, visit the below links:

https://www.ontarioparks.com/park/killbear
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killbear_Provincial_Park

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