The Bugs Won: Our Trip to Lake St Peter Provincial Park

My wife's and my first car camping trip of the year was to a new park for us. We went to Lake St Peter Provincial Park, which is located about 20-30 minutes north of Bancroft. It is an interestingly shaped park with the campsites located on a peninsula, but the majority of the park is on the mainland, which has a few trails.

We stayed at the park June 5-6, and even though it was a nice park, I would not recommend going there at that time of June. The bugs were horrendous and so thick that they could carry you away if they were organized enough. We also had a good amount of rain for our one-night trip, which is never fun when camping.

We stayed at site 23, which is fairly open and lacks privacy on the front and one side. Behind the site is the main comfort station, which is down the hill from the site. The park has two beaches, one within the campground and one at the day-use area. The day-use beach is much nicer and bigger, but the campground one would have more privacy.

The park has two trails you can do; they are located on the other side of the gatehouse with good signage. There is the lookout trail, which is a 4km loop, and then if you want a longer hike you can add on the cabin trail, which will add 2km. I tried to do the trails but only made it 150m in before I had to turn around on account of how bad the bugs were.

The park itself is very nice — they have a few waterfront sites that would be great if you can snag them. I will be going back, but I think next time I'll wait until late August or early September on account of the bugs.

Site 23.

Our site once set up with our tent and bug shelter.

Front Gate of the park.

Trail map of Lake St Peter.

Bluebead Lily.

Day use beach.

Campers beach.

Thanks for reading about my first car camping trip of 2026. I have another one coming up from Murphy's Point Provincial Park later in June so keep an eye out for that. For those waiting on the Algonquin post, it most likely won't be up until August at least.

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