Mew Lake Campground

I made the mistake of coming to Algonquin Provincial Park right around peak autumn foliage time. Even though the whether was chilly, there were massive numbers of tourists at virtually every trail and campground. Park staff told me that Algonquin is a destination park for a lot of tourists from Asia in autumn.

I stayed at Mew Lake Campground, and it was at 100% capacity on all 131 sites. There were lines to use the showers, and people routinely cut through campgrounds to get to a path to reach the restrooms. There's a few nice trails leading right to the campsite, so this would be an excellent campground to stay at if you plan on walking some of them.

It looked like people really settled in at some of the campsites, putting up welcome signs and flower pots. The check-in area requires you to get out of your vehicle and walk to a desk, and they are very, very slow at getting you checked in. There's really no need for this.

They are very strict on regulations requiring campers to put away food and roam around writing citations.

Here are my recommendations on where NOT to book:

- 1, 2, 3, 4, 25, 44, 45, 42, 43, 46, 47 will be loud because they're near the main road or intersecting roads.

- 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 have a makeshift trail on the back side that people take to reach the restrooms and it feels like they're walking through your campsite

- 50, 52, 58, 60, 32, 33, 35, 12, 14 are adjacent to walkways

This is a lovely, quiet campground in the off season (mid Oct through April). Mew Lake Campground is the only overnight “front country” campground that operates year-round at Algonquin Provincial Park. There are 60+ electric hookup sites - some can be reserved online and some are first come/ first served. We visited three times in November and December of 2020. The campground is in a pine forest, beside a small body of water. The sites are generally spacious and many can accommodate larger trailers and 5th wheels (ours is a 30’). The comfort station is heated and has toilets, showers and laundry facilities (although showers and laundry were closed during our visits this fall/winter due to COVID pandemic measures). In winter the nearby trails can be used for snowshoeing and cross country skiing, and there is a skating rink near the comfort station. Other than the main comfort station, the campground is winterized in the fall. The water spigots throughout the campground are drained for the winter, so you need to arrive with your water tank full. As of mid-December when we last visited, the dump station was still open though there was no water to flush the drain hose or to flush the tanks.
The front gate is only staffed for a few hours a day in the off season. If you’ve registered online, bring a copy with you. Otherwise there is a self-registration system. Wood is available at the front gate.
Cell coverage with Bell/Virgin varies in the campground, from 3/4 bars of 4G near the lake, down to 1 or 2 bars as you move away from the lake.

First if you need water for your RV head to the dump station, it says don’t drink the water but the ranger sent us there. It is chlorinated.
Our first site was electric our second was not, also site 67 has a small amount of road noise as do a list they have available.
Beach was deemed non swimmable due to high bacteria counts.
I paddle boarded on it very small and over half covered with Lilies and extremely shallow.
Great access to lots of hikes and you can hop on the bike trail.
Two Rivers store close but extremely expensive and very limited.
Two Rivers CG sites are close but Mew Lakes have much more room.
Cell service was poor and varies throughout the CG. When we put our booster up it was still one bar but loaded great
Dump station is three miles away.