The Algonquin backcountry is a wilderness treasured by many people, sometimes too many. Your quiet backcountry escape can sometimes feel more like a car camping site than a rough backcountry site. As a result of this, I wanted to know if it was just because I was bad at picking lakes to camp on or if there was something else behind it. To answer this question, I wanted to know which lakes were the busiest and which were the quietest in any given year. I filled a Freedom of Information request with the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks to get the booking data for each “booking zone” for 2024 and 2025. A booking zone is what you see online when you make a reservation. This data provides a lot of information. Easy access lakes are the busiest, while hard to access lakes are often the most quiet ones in the park. The data also shows that lakes such as Burnt Island, which has 43 campsites, are more busy than lakes such as Frank, which only has 1 campsite on it. To try to understand the data more, I broke it down into the top 5 of each category. The categories are: Busiest Lake, Quietest Lake, Quietest Lakes That Saw People, Quietest Access Point, Busiest Access Point, and Which lake had the biggest change from 2024-2025.
The way that I broke the data down is by combining the total of bookings for 2024 and 2025. I also combined booking zones into one lake, so East and West North Tea are combined into one “North Tea” and South, North, and East Opeongo are combined into one “Opeongo.
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| Pen Lake site. |
Busiest Lakes
To no surprise, Opeongo was the busiest lake of the park with 13,635 people booking a site on the lake. Some big factors are the size of the lake, the number of campsites, and how easy it is to get to the campsites. Most of the sites in the south arm of the lake are easy to paddle to, and then add in how easy the water taxi is, the lake is very accessible, even to those with no prior backcountry experience. The next busiest lake is Burnt Island with 6,277 bookings, followed by North Tea with 5,761, Tom Thomson with 3,471, and finally Pen with 3,406. Other than Opeongo, none of these lakes are directly on an access point.Busiest Lakes
1 Opeongo 13,635
2 Burnt Island 6,277
3 North Tea 5,761
4 Tom Thomason 3,471
5 Pen 3,406
Quietest Lakes
What I found surprising is that there are actually some lakes in the park that don’t have anyone camping on them throughout the whole year. There are 5 booking zones that saw no campers over the two year period: the Bonnechere Put In, Gerald, JEH Macdonald, Roundbush, and Weasel; though the Bonnechere Put In is technically not a lake and is just a jumping off spot, and isn’t bookable in the parks system anymore. Technically, Lady Slipper also had no bookings, but as it isn’t bookable as no site exists, it shouldn’t be in the data. The only lake that actually saw someone on this list was Reed with one person in 2024. Of all the lakes on this list, three (Gerald, Weasel and Reed) are accessed through the Bisset Creek Road Access Point, with Roundbush being found South of McKaskill Lake. JEH Macdonald is found North of the Nipissing River and South of Biggar Lake.Quietest Lakes
Technically Bonnechere Put In (not bookable)
1 Gerald 0
2 JEH Macdonald 0
2.5 Lady Slipper (no actual campsite exists there)
3 Roundbush 0
4 Weasel 0
5 Reed 1
Quietest Lakes That Saw People
If you run into people on any of these lakes, it's just pure bad luck, seeing as the most any lake on this list saw was three people over two years. I made this category because some people who want to be more adventurous may still want to know that people have camped on the lake in the past. The only repeat contender on this list is Reed Lake with one person visiting it in 2024. Bissett Creek, up near Big Bissett Lake, is next with two people staying on it in 2024 and 0 in 2025. It is another one of those sites that exist in the park’s booking system but it doesn’t actually exist in real life, so those two people who booked it must have been severely disappointed. Totem and Wahwahtayee Lakes each saw two bookings. These lakes are sandwiched between Three Mile Lake and Erables Lake. The final lake on this list is way down in the South of the park. Cross Corner Lake saw a grand total of three people staying.Quietest Lakes That Saw People
1 Reed 1
2 Bissett Creek 2 (Bookable but does not exist)
3 Totem 2
4 Wahwahtayee 2
5 Cross Corner 3
Quietest Access Point
The quietest access point should come as no surprise with Access Point 24 Bisset Creek Road coming in on top. Over the two years, only 22 people used this access point. This is most likely due to the difficulty of getting to the lakes in this region from the access point, which either involve a long portage right off the start or a difficult journey up a creek. The second quietest access point is number 28 Brain Lake, which saw 181 people. It is another northern access point much like Bisset Creek. The lack of use from this access point is most likely due to the lack of any major lakes and the fact that you can’t make a loop from the access point; it has to be there and back. In third place is Access Point 18 Aylen Lake which saw 196 people use it. The access point is located on the South Eastern side of the park close to Shall Lake. The access point itself isn’t actually in the park but is used to access lakes such as Robitaille and Wilkins Lakes. A surprising entry to this list, considering it is located on Highway 60, is Access Point 12 Pinetree. It saw 428 people. The reason it isn’t busier may be because it starts off with a portage and then the lakes that you can access it from are relatively small and only feature one or two campsites. Fifth on the list is Access Point 14 Hollow River-Dividing Lake which saw 430 people use it. It is located on the South Westerly side of the park and is another access point that is outside the park boundaries. It requires a good deal of paddling and a significant portage to get into the park from this access point. The way that I came up with the numbers for this category was to add up the total number of bookings for lakes on the access point or in close proximity of the access point, which meant one or two portages away depending on distance.Quietest Access Point
Access Point 24 Bisset Creek Road 22 total visitors
Access Point 28 Brain Lake 181
Access Point 18 Aylen Lake 196
Access Point 12 Pinetree 428
Access Point 14 Hollow River-Dividing Lake 430
Busiest Access Point
The busiest access point in the park is Access Point 5 Canoe Lake. It is also arguably the most famous access point in the park. It saw 17,449 people use it over a two year period. From this access point, you can stay on a bunch of different lakes such as Burnt Island, Joe Lake, Little Doe, and Tom Thomson Lakes. They all have plenty of campsites, which raises the number of people using it. The next up was Access Point 11 Opeongo which saw 16,222 people use it. Most of the people using this access point stay on Opeongo but the numbers also include Annie Bay, Proulx, Redrock, and Happy Isle Lakes. In third was Access Point 6 Smoke Lake which saw 9,121 people use it. From this access point you can get down into Ragged Lake, Parkside Bay, and Big Porcupine Lake. Access Point 22 Archray came in fourth with 8,821 people setting off from it. The numbers from this access point are bumped up by the popularity of the Baron Canon area. Last on the list is Access Point 1 Kawawaymog Lake (Round Lake) which saw 8,799 people access it. From this access point you can get to North Tea, Manitou, and Biggar Lakes.
Busiest Access Point
Access Point 5 Canoe Lake 17,449
Access Point 11 Opeongo 16,222
Access Point 6 Smoke Lake 9,121
Access Point 22 Archray 8,821
Access Point 1 Kawawaymog Lake (Round Lake) 8,799
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| Canoe Lake Access Point. |
Which lake had the biggest change from 2024-2025
When looking at the data, I was interested to know if any lakes had a big drop in bookings or a large gain of bookings. The numbers showed some surprising results. Opeongo South Arm had the biggest drop between the two year period with bookings down 530 from 2024 to 2025. This is most likely due to a number of sites being closed due to a severe strom that toppled trees and damaged the sites in June 2025. Lake Travers was down 179 bookings from 2024 to 2025. Most people who book this lake are using it to go down the Petawawa River, so potentially low water levels could have played a part in this decline. Ragged Lake is next up with an increase of 119 bookings year over year. Followed by North Tea East Arm, which had 108 more bookings. The last booking zone on this list is Opeongo East Arm which was up by 101 bookings. This is most likely the result of people not being able to book the South Arm of Opeongo and instead having to book further up the lake.
Which lake had the biggest change from 2024-2025
1 Opeongo South Arm, Down 530
2 Lake Travers, Down 179
3 Ragged Lake, Up 119
4 North Tea East, Up 108
5 Opeongo East Arm, Up 101
The numbers in this data can tell a lot of different stories depending on how you look at it. Hopefully this data has inspired you to try some new lakes in Algonquin instead of just the true and tested ones. To branch out, try these: instead of staying on Booth Lake, stay on Godda or Boot Lakes; instead of Grand Lake, try Clemow Lake; instead of Cedar Lake, try Lantern Lake; to name a few. Try to spread out the impact of your trip onto other lakes rather than the few that everyone visits, and you might just find your new favourite lake to camp on.
You can access the data set here. It also includes booking data for hike in campsites.