This is so awesome! This area is my favourite! I spent 14 nights at Balsam last fall over 4 visits and a few different sites. I left the tent at home and camped out in my suv! I can see Ann playing with her dog in the background as her husband Ted looked on while your making your pizza's and I see Dave's trailer and truck too on his site! That wee stump your site I had my little tin camper with lights on it. Not sure if you had the pleasure of meeting Annie. Annie has been caring for the bathrooms for 20+ years! She's a real sweetheart. My Auntie Pat and I were on #220 for a few nights, June 23-27, 2024. My friends lent us their trailer. So we were glamping it out in style! Hopefully I'm going to get a small camper this year! Love your videos! Thank you for making them!... oh anddd I love the dog park beach as well! Thats my favourite area for swimming!
This is such a wholesome and very canadian video! First video of yours I've watched and I love the amount of detail and care you put in to it!! Love it, I'll be here for more :)
I live near here and went the other day for a hike and to check it out for camping, and I kept thinking 'I can't wait to see what the Coles had to say about this place!' The good: it's SUCH a pretty area. The hiking trails were lovely, beach looked great, and it's on a beautiful lake. The iffy: the water had a boil advisory (so not potable). The bathrooms were pretty bad (the ones on the eco sites were the worst I've ever seen). And so many sites are wide open, so you really need to make sure you know what you're getting. Poplar seems to have the most distance between sites. I will come stay here because the eco sites were beautiful (and there is a path from the eco sites to a comfort station, about a 4 min walk, so you don't have to use the vaults. When I went they were not renting kayaks or paddle boards. It's a mixed bag, lots of good, but it's definitely got a different feel than a northern park. It would be a great place to bring kids for a day trip.
I hope you enjoyed your stay in The Kawartha Lakes. I live just down the road from Balsam Lake park and work at the Shalimar Esso gas station on Highway 48 just before you get to the park. Next time you're in the area come in and say hi.
We have camped many times at Balsam Lake, close to the city but not too close. the water is clear and the beaches are nice. lots of room to spread out. Thanks for sharing, Cheers Dave and Lorilei
Worth noting there is another store steps outside the park gate next to site 300 near lakeshore on Hawthorne side in the summer months with quite a bit of stuff.
We went to that store and met the owners. It was not a good experience. We must have caught them on a bad day. We didn't include it in the video because we didn't have anything nice to say after that one and only visit. Perhaps if we go back we'll have a better experience.
It's a nice park with a wide range of campsite types so you should be able to find something you'll like. Good luck when booking for the new year. It's almost that time again.
Balsam Lake is the park that my parents took me to every summer as a child. I believe thry favored the Hathorne and poplar sections. I love the book you were reading while camping there....I'm currently reading that book as well. Kevin Callen's memoirs has been a great read!
We all have fond memories of the parks we went to as kids. Our kids have great memories of the parks we took them to when they were young. Kevin's book is great! We hope to get him to sign ours when we see him next.
Nice to see you review a park that we're really familiar with. This used to be our go to when our kids were really small. The Hawthorne campground is fantastic if you don't need electricity. The 8 lake front sites are awesome, but they are a real challenge to book.
Thank you sooooooo much for showing us a pie iron how-to! That looked so good! Would love to see more of your camping food creations in future. Maybe a video on “what food to pack for camping?” And where to put it in the camper? Just a thought. We always love your videos! 🥰
We've done a couple Campfire Cooking videos in Season 2. We kind of forgot about doing them after that. We should maybe think about doing some more. Here are the ones we did: Tinfoil Dinner th-cam.com/video/ja1WsbbDuxA/w-d-xo.html and Dutch Oven Natchos th-cam.com/video/mkCdwJGt_Rw/w-d-xo.html . Chery also showed how to make a blackforest cake in a dutch oven in our Presqu'ile video th-cam.com/video/5uTRhq5Pka8/w-d-xo.html at the 14:42 mark. The Blackforest cake doesn't look the greatest but everyone always asks her to make it when they camp with us, because it's delicious.
We live in Niagara Falls area of NY and we like to venture into your neck of the woods. We’ve been watching a lot of your videos and noting a lot of them to visit in the upcoming years. If you ever venture this way look us up and hopefully our paths cross one day.
Thanks for watching for the USA. We've camped a bit in New York State. We love the Finger Lakes Region. We especially loved hiking at Watkins Glenn State Park. We hope to travel that way again in the future. If we cross paths someday don't hesitate to stop us and say hi.
I learn so much watching your videos... like how I need to get a pie iron for next season! We really enjoyed our time at Balsam and our site was in the Cedars campground and pretty private. But we had rain while we were there, so I'd give it another try in the summer months. Great overview 👌
Glad you liked it. The weather makes a big difference to the overall feel for a park. They are really hard to give a fair rating when the weather is bad.
Wow, that's incredible! We've done reviews of over 40 provincial parks and you haven't been to any of them? I'm guess that you're from up north, above Algonquin Park. That's an area we haven't explored too much yet. We'll get there eventually. Hopefully in 2023 we'll make it to some of the parks you love. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
I also love the trails at Balsam lake for the same reason, the different kinds of trees and vegetation. I also like the little hills. I can't remember what they call them.
Excellent video as always! Man, you guys must rack up a bunch of mileage doing the bike arounds to show all the sites/campgrounds. We did a walk in site a million years ago & those vault toilets were the same nastiness then. Thanks for all the reviews you do. :)
Yeah, we hit the ground running when we arrive at a campsite. We try to get most of the basic footage of the park and sites done on the first day. That leaves the rest of the trip to really explore and get a feel for the park. I never went into the vault toilet at the walk in sites at Balsam. Cheryl took her first step in and it looked like she got hit in the face by something. She said there was no way she was going in. That's a first for her. I like the comfort of my travel trailer bathroom. Cheryl call's me a princess. I guess I'm just getting soft in my old age.😊
I love all of your reviews!! Always a great resource when planning out future trips!! Do you know by any chance what the bear situation is at balsam? Do they frequent the sites or is it a rare occurance?
You were 20 minutes from my house. We were there in May and had a good time. Unfortunately this was the last camping trip my oldest dog Kasper was on as she passed away last week.
Just got back from Balsam and I find the quality of camper is going down hill rapidly, aside from being stuck between 2 ignorant groups of campers firing F-bombs until 3 in the morning, I went to the comfort station in the morning and some Neanderthal decided to jump up on the counter and take a dump in the sink....I think I have just about had it with PP on the weekends especially long weekends!
@@CampingwiththeColes and just a lack common respect for others, there was a very large group there as well and they thought it was perfectly acceptable to walk right through the middle of our site....I told them once not to do it...then I repositioned our truck across the opening and they still did it walking around the truck....I need a bigger dog!
Went to balsam lake a few times as a child camping with my family. Went back with my fiancee in my 40s and we were in an OK spot for our tent, but plagued every night by raccoons. Food locked up in car, they scratched at the car. So left early, never returned.
Cell Phone Service: If you've been to this park please let us know your experience with cell service.
Parents have a cottage on balsalm over by coboconk. Service is decent everywhere. Streamed a jays game while out on the boat.
I never get tired of your videos. I appreciated the loo review, helps to know which was to stay clear from. Looking forward to Mew Lake in two weeks!
This is so awesome! This area is my favourite! I spent 14 nights at Balsam last fall over 4 visits and a few different sites. I left the tent at home and camped out in my suv! I can see Ann playing with her dog in the background as her husband Ted looked on while your making your pizza's and I see Dave's trailer and truck too on his site! That wee stump your site I had my little tin camper with lights on it. Not sure if you had the pleasure of meeting Annie. Annie has been caring for the bathrooms for 20+ years! She's a real sweetheart. My Auntie Pat and I were on #220 for a few nights, June 23-27, 2024. My friends lent us their trailer. So we were glamping it out in style! Hopefully I'm going to get a small camper this year! Love your videos! Thank you for making them!... oh anddd I love the dog park beach as well! Thats my favourite area for swimming!
LOL, that's great that you got to see your favourite area and the people and sites that you know. Have a great camping season!
@@CampingwiththeColes Thank you! and yous too! Cheers!
This is such a wholesome and very canadian video! First video of yours I've watched and I love the amount of detail and care you put in to it!! Love it, I'll be here for more :)
I got my first pie iron last Summer, and my first attempt was with cherry pie filling, and bits of dark chocolate. It was great!
That sounds great! We've also done it with lemon meringue filling and it was awesome. Lots you can do with them.
Another great review you two. Looking forward to Mew lake review it’s on our camping bucket list. CHEERS!!!😊
Thanks. Cheers!
I love having these videos to help us choose where to go. Thanks so much.
Glad you find them helpful. We love making them.
I live near here and went the other day for a hike and to check it out for camping, and I kept thinking 'I can't wait to see what the Coles had to say about this place!' The good: it's SUCH a pretty area. The hiking trails were lovely, beach looked great, and it's on a beautiful lake. The iffy: the water had a boil advisory (so not potable). The bathrooms were pretty bad (the ones on the eco sites were the worst I've ever seen). And so many sites are wide open, so you really need to make sure you know what you're getting. Poplar seems to have the most distance between sites. I will come stay here because the eco sites were beautiful (and there is a path from the eco sites to a comfort station, about a 4 min walk, so you don't have to use the vaults. When I went they were not renting kayaks or paddle boards. It's a mixed bag, lots of good, but it's definitely got a different feel than a northern park. It would be a great place to bring kids for a day trip.
I hope you enjoyed your stay in The Kawartha Lakes. I live just down the road from Balsam Lake park and work at the Shalimar Esso gas station on Highway 48 just before you get to the park. Next time you're in the area come in and say hi.
Thanks for watching. When we're back to Balsam maybe we'll gas up there.
We have camped many times at Balsam Lake, close to the city but not too close. the water is clear and the beaches are nice. lots of room to spread out. Thanks for sharing, Cheers Dave and Lorilei
Glad you liked it. Cheers
Are we just going to ignore the dog somersault at 13:52? 😳 Great video. Heading there next week and this is very helpful. Thank you.
LOL, I never noticed that before. The lady in the background was doing some serious dog training.
@@CampingwiththeColes Thats Ann! :o)
Worth noting there is another store steps outside the park gate next to site 300 near lakeshore on Hawthorne side in the summer months with quite a bit of stuff.
We went to that store and met the owners. It was not a good experience. We must have caught them on a bad day. We didn't include it in the video because we didn't have anything nice to say after that one and only visit. Perhaps if we go back we'll have a better experience.
We try and do thanksgiving with the fam here.. Lots of things for the kids with trick or treating
That's awesome! We love doing Thanksgiving at a park with our kids too.
Been waiting for this review. May have to put it on the list for the up coming year. Thanks.
It's a nice park with a wide range of campsite types so you should be able to find something you'll like. Good luck when booking for the new year. It's almost that time again.
Balsam Lake is the park that my parents took me to every summer as a child. I believe thry favored the Hathorne and poplar sections.
I love the book you were reading while camping there....I'm currently reading that book as well. Kevin Callen's memoirs has been a great read!
We all have fond memories of the parks we went to as kids. Our kids have great memories of the parks we took them to when they were young. Kevin's book is great! We hope to get him to sign ours when we see him next.
Nice to see you review a park that we're really familiar with. This used to be our go to when our kids were really small. The Hawthorne campground is fantastic if you don't need electricity. The 8 lake front sites are awesome, but they are a real challenge to book.
Looks like a great park for the kids. Our go to park when the kids were small was MacGregor Point.
Thank you sooooooo much for showing us a pie iron how-to!
That looked so good!
Would love to see more of your camping food creations in future.
Maybe a video on “what food to pack for camping?” And where to put it in the camper?
Just a thought.
We always love your videos! 🥰
We've done a couple Campfire Cooking videos in Season 2. We kind of forgot about doing them after that. We should maybe think about doing some more. Here are the ones we did: Tinfoil Dinner th-cam.com/video/ja1WsbbDuxA/w-d-xo.html and Dutch Oven Natchos th-cam.com/video/mkCdwJGt_Rw/w-d-xo.html . Chery also showed how to make a blackforest cake in a dutch oven in our Presqu'ile video th-cam.com/video/5uTRhq5Pka8/w-d-xo.html at the 14:42 mark. The Blackforest cake doesn't look the greatest but everyone always asks her to make it when they camp with us, because it's delicious.
@@CampingwiththeColes ~ We’ve watched them all. We love it! Thanks! 😊
We live in Niagara Falls area of NY and we like to venture into your neck of the woods. We’ve been watching a lot of your videos and noting a lot of them to visit in the upcoming years. If you ever venture this way look us up and hopefully our paths cross one day.
Thanks for watching for the USA. We've camped a bit in New York State. We love the Finger Lakes Region. We especially loved hiking at Watkins Glenn State Park. We hope to travel that way again in the future. If we cross paths someday don't hesitate to stop us and say hi.
Watkins Glen is one of our favorites as well. We’re taking a trip to Michigan this year and are staying at Oastler PP on our way home.
I learn so much watching your videos... like how I need to get a pie iron for next season! We really enjoyed our time at Balsam and our site was in the Cedars campground and pretty private. But we had rain while we were there, so I'd give it another try in the summer months. Great overview 👌
Glad you liked it. The weather makes a big difference to the overall feel for a park. They are really hard to give a fair rating when the weather is bad.
Maaa and son again... Back at it.
I love Balsam lake but it is one of those that are hard to get and sometimes you have no choice but to get the wide open ones. Great tips guys
Thanks.
Another great one guys.👍👍👍👍👍
Thanks so much! Happy camping!
I love watching your videos and hearing your reviews. Waiting for you to review a park that I have yet to visit, though. 😁😁😁😁
Wow, that's incredible! We've done reviews of over 40 provincial parks and you haven't been to any of them? I'm guess that you're from up north, above Algonquin Park. That's an area we haven't explored too much yet. We'll get there eventually. Hopefully in 2023 we'll make it to some of the parks you love. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
@@CampingwiththeColes I've been to all the parks you have reviewed. Waiting for reviews on parks that I have not visited yet. 😁😁
I also love the trails at Balsam lake for the same reason, the different kinds of trees and vegetation. I also like the little hills. I can't remember what they call them.
Thanks for sharing!
Excellent video as always! Man, you guys must rack up a bunch of mileage doing the bike arounds to show all the sites/campgrounds. We did a walk in site a million years ago & those vault toilets were the same nastiness then. Thanks for all the reviews you do. :)
Yeah, we hit the ground running when we arrive at a campsite. We try to get most of the basic footage of the park and sites done on the first day. That leaves the rest of the trip to really explore and get a feel for the park. I never went into the vault toilet at the walk in sites at Balsam. Cheryl took her first step in and it looked like she got hit in the face by something. She said there was no way she was going in. That's a first for her. I like the comfort of my travel trailer bathroom. Cheryl call's me a princess. I guess I'm just getting soft in my old age.😊
love your channel
I love all of your reviews!! Always a great resource when planning out future trips!! Do you know by any chance what the bear situation is at balsam? Do they frequent the sites or is it a rare occurance?
First comment :) love you guys. Keep it up.
First comment! Way to get on it! Thanks for watching.
You were 20 minutes from my house. We were there in May and had a good time. Unfortunately this was the last camping trip my oldest dog Kasper was on as she passed away last week.
So sorry to hear about Kasper. She was a good camping dog that made it into a lot of your videos. You'll cherish those memories with her.
@@CampingwiththeColes thanks and it will be tough watching those videos for awhile
Just got back from Balsam and I find the quality of camper is going down hill rapidly, aside from being stuck between 2 ignorant groups of campers firing F-bombs until 3 in the morning, I went to the comfort station in the morning and some Neanderthal decided to jump up on the counter and take a dump in the sink....I think I have just about had it with PP on the weekends especially long weekends!
@@gordharris9738 YIKES! That's horrible! We haven't had anything that bad.
@@CampingwiththeColes and just a lack common respect for others, there was a very large group there as well and they thought it was perfectly acceptable to walk right through the middle of our site....I told them once not to do it...then I repositioned our truck across the opening and they still did it walking around the truck....I need a bigger dog!
Just wondering what city you live in? I live in St. Agatha just 3 min. West of Waterloo.
Not too far from you in Kitchener.
@@CampingwiththeColes we are going to Murphy’s point, Charleston pp, Sibald pp, Arrow Head pp, and Algonquin ; all this June
That's a busy June! Good selection of parks.
Went to balsam lake a few times as a child camping with my family. Went back with my fiancee in my 40s and we were in an OK spot for our tent, but plagued every night by raccoons. Food locked up in car, they scratched at the car. So left early, never returned.
Oh, that's too bad for you. We never saw any racoon when we were there.
First thing I said, site was too wide open, bet your marking future sites down
Yep, that's not our kind of site. We would stay away from the campgrounds closest to the water in order to get the private sites further back.
Unfortunately, our least favourite park
That's too bad. Everybody is different and has their favourites and least favourites.