Lake Whittaker is located just south of London and north of Aylmer. It is part of the
Kettle Creek Conservaton System.
We camped at Lake Whittaker on the August Long Weekend. It was a full house. It was a relatively last minute booking. We purchased a new to us trailer in July and didn't have anything booked for that weekend. I picked Lake Whittaker due to it's proximity to us, and also to my family in London. I wanted them to come visit for the day, which they did. It cost $8 a car to come visit. The pool was also a reason I picked Lake Whittaker, we have small kids and pool swimming with them is fun. There are also two beach areas. One is the camping area and the other was day use. They were lovely to sit at and they had a dock for fishing off of. I saw lots of kids swimming in the lake. The water looked a bit murky to me. I like swimming in lakes but am not one for small ones I am a Great Lakes kinda girl.
Our site was in the Poolside Campground. Poolside is for larger trailers and RV's. although on the long weekend we saw some tent campers also. The campsites were mostly 30 amp electric sites and seasonal sites were randomly dispersed amongst the overnight sites. Some sites had some shade and trees and some were very open. We camped on 126. It backed onto trees. The privacy wasn't great but the site was large.
Map of Poolside as seen when making an online reservation
Here is our site and some picture of Poolside Campground.
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| OUR CAMPSITE - 126 |
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| POOLSIDE CAMPGROUND |
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| POOLSIDE AT DUSK |
We were pretty happy with our site. It didn't have the privacy that a lot of provincial parks provide however it was better then a lot of private campgrounds that we have been too.
Like I said we were in the Poolside Campground, which was pretty cool because we were so close to the Pool!
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| THE POOL |
The pool is not large and not heated, but it is still nice. It has lifeguards which is always good when so many kids are swimming. We used it a couple of times. It was never too, too crowded even though it was a long weekend.
Poolside also had a volleyball court and basketball nets. All in all we were happy with everything we could see in our campground except for the bathroom situation.
They did not appear to be cleaned on a regular basis and were quite old. I am not sure if it was because it was a long weekend and the park was full to capacity, but they should have been cleaned more frequently.
There are three showers at Poolside. It cost 25 cents for 5 minutes in the shower. Not the cleanest showers and once again quite old. The water was hot though! Which is a plus.
There are two other campgrounds at Lake Whittaker and they have their own bathrooms and showers. I did not check them out, so maybe they were better.
O.K moving on...
When making a reservation the park lists the Lakeshore and Woodlawn Campground together.
The Lakeshore Campground is really nice. It is mostly small sites suitable for tents and pop-up trailers. A few of the sites are totally unserviced and the rest have 15 amp power. Some sites back right onto the lake which is really nice. There are lots of tree, and the sites that circle the outside of the loop are quite private. These sites are just steps from the beach area. There are a couple of sites that look like they could handle a bigger rig, but the road loop seems pretty narrow. It would be a tight squeeze.
Here are some pictures.
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| HEADED OT THE BEACH |
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| PIER FOR FISHING |
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| SITES ON OUTER LOOP LOOK NICE AND PRIVATE |
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| COMFORT STATION AT LAKESHORE |
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| FULL HOUSE |
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| THE BEACH WAS A GREAT PLACE TO WATCH THE SUNSET |
Woodlawn was the least impressive campground in my opinion. It was full, but I suspect just because it was the long weekend. No pool, no beach, no privacy. There was a horseshoe pit and it was a nice place to ride my bike through. There were a lot of party, partiers at that campground. They seemed to be having a blast.
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| WOODLAWN CAMPGROUND....MEH |
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| MORE WOODLAWN |
Lake Whittaker offers trails for walking or biking. Some areas were a bit hilly and bumpy for bikes. The official guide lists them as medium difficulty I would agree with that.
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| TRAIL MAP |
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| BRIDGE ON TRAIL |
There were a lot of activities at this park which was great! There was a carnival with firetrucks for the kids, and they loved it. There were games and a bbq. Hotdogs and Hamburgers that we didn't have to cook! The proceeds were going to getting new play equipment for the park as the existing is quite old and shabby. They also had a 50/50 and sold Tim Hortons Coffee on Monday morning to raise money. The coffee was a welcome treat at 8am on Monday morning.
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| KIDS LOVE FIRETRUCKS |
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| GIFTBAG FROM FIREFIGHTERS |
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| RINGTOSS |
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| MY SISTER, MY MOM AND MY LITTLEST NEPHEW ENJOYING THE CARNIVAL |
All in all, I enjoyed Lake Whittaker. We would probably return. It is only 40 minutes from where we live and it is fairly easy to get a reservation. I booked 3 weeks in advance for a long weekend and got a pretty good spot. The only issue honestly was the bathrooms. But I guess that is sometimes part of camping. They seemed to get worse as the day went on. They were obviously being cleaned at some point, just not often enough. The provincial parks I have been too, offered cleaner bathrooms though. Just something to keep in mind. The beach was great, water a little murky but we saw TONNES of kids swimming in it. It didn't seem to bother them any.
PROS - A great small park, good for families and kids. No problems with partiers on the long weekend. Pool, and Beach made for lots of things to do. Close to home for us.
CONS - Bathroom cleanliness. That is pretty much it.
Here are some more pictures of our trip. Feel free to leave a comment! :)
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| VERY DOG FRIENDLY PARK |
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| VOLLEYBALL NET |
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| MAN'S BEST FRIEND |
