Bon Echo: Mazinaw Lake vs Hardwood Hill vs Joeperry Lake

Short version: book Mazinaw Lake if you're there for the lake, the beach and the view of Mazinaw Rock, and you don't mind neighbours. Book Hardwood Hill if you want more shade and quiet and you're happy to walk to the water. Book Joeperry Lake if you want a car-free site and you're willing to carry your gear in or paddle it.

Here's the longer version, including what each campground is actually next to.

What Bon Echo is

Bon Echo is built around one thing: Mazinaw Rock, a cliff of granite that rises about 100 metres straight out of Mazinaw Lake for a kilometre and a half. At its base, just above the waterline, are hundreds of Indigenous pictographs that you can see from a canoe or from the park's tour boat. The lake itself is deep and cold and long. The park is about an hour north of Napanee on Highway 41, which makes it one of the closest big-lake parks to Kingston, Belleville and the eastern GTA.

It's a very popular family park, and summer weekends sell out the moment the five-month reservation window opens. Know your 2027 booking dates before you plan around it.

The three campgrounds

Mazinaw Lake campground

This is the main campground and where most people end up. It runs along the lower lake, with the main beaches, the boat launch, the canoe rentals and the dock for the Mugwump ferry that takes you across to the Rock and the Cliff Top trail. The Visitor Centre, the amphitheatre and the store are all here.

The campground is made of several loops with names like Sawmill Bay, Midway and Fairway, and they differ a lot. Loops nearest the water are the most in demand and the least private. Loops further back have more trees between sites. Electrical sites are here, in the loops closest to the road and services. If you're bringing a trailer that needs power, this is where you'll be.

The trade-off is people. Mazinaw is the loud-in-a-happy-way campground: kids on bikes, boats going out, the beach full on a July afternoon. If that's what you want for a family trip, book here and don't overthink it.

Hardwood Hill campground

Hardwood Hill is the quieter, more wooded campground on the other side of the park's main road, up a hill under, as the name suggests, big hardwoods. Sites are generally more shaded and more private than the busier Mazinaw loops. The cost is that you're not on the lake. Getting to the beach means a walk or a short drive back down to the Mazinaw side.

Most Hardwood Hill sites are non-electrical, tent-and-small-trailer territory. If you want to sleep well, sit in shade at noon, and only go to the beach when you choose to, this is the pick. Check the park's site map for which loops have comfort stations nearby, because it's a bigger walk from some sites than others.

Joeperry Lake

Joeperry Lake is a separate, smaller lake on the west side of the park with walk-in and paddle-in campsites. You park at the trailhead and either hike your gear in on a trail or launch a canoe and paddle to your site. It's not a backcountry trip in the Algonquin sense, but there are no cars, no generators and far fewer people. There's a beach on Joeperry Lake and canoe rentals at the trailhead area in season.

Pack like you're going to carry it. A wagon helps on the trail sites. Bring water or a filter; services are minimal by design. If Mazinaw sounds like too much and Hardwood Hill isn't enough, this is the sweet spot for a couple or a small group of experienced tent campers.

Bon Echo also has a handful of true backcountry canoe sites on the upper lake, booked as backcountry. They're a different experience again.

Things to do from any of them

• The Rock. Take the ferry across and hike the Cliff Top trail to the lookout above the pictographs. Do it early in the morning or in the evening for the light.
• See the pictographs. From a canoe, paddle along the base of the Rock. The park's interpretive boat tour runs in season and is the easiest way for kids.
• Paddle Mazinaw. The lake is big and can get windy in the afternoon. Go in the morning.
• Trails. Shield Trail, Abes and Essens Trail, and the short Bon Echo Creek trail cover the range from a stroll to a half-day.
• Art. The park has a long history with artists and hosts an art exhibition and sale every summer.

Which one, really

• Family with kids, first time: Mazinaw Lake, in a loop one row back from the water.
• Trailer that needs power: Mazinaw Lake.
• Tent, want shade and quiet, will walk to swim: Hardwood Hill.
• Want to hear nothing but loons, can carry gear: Joeperry Lake.

Once you've picked, PitchPeek lets you save the sites you're deciding between, plan the trip with your crew (shared gear list, meals by day), and rate the site after the trip so the next family knows what they're booking.

Free · plan the trip with your crew · rate the site when you get home

Questions

Which Bon Echo campground is closest to the beach and Mazinaw Rock?

Mazinaw Lake campground. It sits on the lake with the main beaches, the boat launch and the ferry to the Rock. Hardwood Hill is a walk away from the water.

Does Hardwood Hill have electrical sites?

Electrical sites at Bon Echo are concentrated in the Mazinaw Lake campground. Check the Ontario Parks site map for the current layout before booking Hardwood Hill if you need power.

Can you drive to your site at Joeperry Lake?

No. Joeperry Lake sites are walk-in or paddle-in. You park at the trailhead and carry or canoe your gear to the site.