Woodlands, Parks of the St Lawrence, Review

Recently my family and I enjoyed a long weekend of camping at the Woodlands Campground, which is part of the Parks of the St. Lawrence. Our site was near the beach, backing onto an open green space, which was great for exercising the dogs. As we are new to the idea of rating campgrounds, we decided to use categories of things that are important to us as a family of five (plus two dogs). Campsite: size, privacy, layout, fire pits…, Campground: cleanliness, maintenance, amenities, beach(s)..., and Value: how’s the cost in relation to what you get.

Campsite: We stayed on site 182, which had an unobstructed view of the beach and a large grass field behind us which we ran the dogs in several times. The on-site fire pit was mediocre at best…it was very shallow with a few rocks around the edge, this made making a decent fire next to impossible. The rest of the site was perfect…lots of space for camp chairs, dinning tents, a dog pen for three dogs, and clothes lines, with ample room left over to toss around the frisbee. We set up our trailer along the back of the site so we had a great view of the water and used the gravel pad to set up our dinning tent. This proved to be a good move when it rained, our dining tent was on high-ground and stayed useable.

Campground: The Woodlands is a beautiful campground located just west of Cornwall, Ontario, along the Long Sioux Parkway. It has two beaches within the campground and a play structure for the kids, plus another public beach on the island with an additional playground.  There are oodles of camping options at the Woodlands: 

• 43 unserviced sites
• 22 waterfront sites
• 5 two service sites - 15 amp service and water 
• 92 two service sites - 30 amp service and water
• 30 two service sites - 50 amp service and water
• 1 premium waterfront site
• 2 cabins 

The beaches are sandy with shallow water, great for kids and playing catch or frisbee. The water gets a little weedy as you get about waist deep, but we had a blast tossing the football around nonetheless. If you were to swim or paddle out 10 meters or so the water has a bit of a current. The comfort station was clean and the showers had great water pressure. The campgrounds were very well maintained and free of litter. The roads were also well maintained and wide, making navigating our trailer around a breeze.  

Although we didn’t get out to paddle on this trip, we have spent oodles of time paddling the water in this area.  The history here is very interesting and you don’t have to paddle very far to find old roadways, rail lines and ruins just below the surface of the water.

Value: As for the cost, at around ~$50-65 per night you can’t beat the price…two beaches, playground, lots of space for hikes or bike rides and clean amenities.  

Caution! Other than the shallow fire-pit the only other negative is the dump out station. Woodlands doesn’t have its own dump station so you have to use the same one on the main road, shared by everyone staying at campground along the Long Sault. Depending on the time you leave, you may have a bit of a wait. 

Tip! McLaren is a campground just a little further west of the pump station and has its own pump out. If the lines are too long at the main pump out, it’s worth a drive down to McLaren to check it out.  

Final word: Overall we really enjoyed our stay here and will 100% be back!  Highly recommended to any family campers looking for an easy place for clean car camping.

We’d love to hear about your adventures! Feel free to leave comments describing your own experiences, good or bad, or join our private Facebook community “Glamping Essentials Campfire Collective”.  Should you have any specific questions, please email jason@glampingessentials.ca.

~ Jason