Killbear Provincial Park spreads across about 1,760 hectares of Georgian Bay shoreline just north of Parry Sound, near the village of Nobel. Declared a park in 1960 on land that was logged in the early 1900s, it is one of Ontario’s most loved camping destinations, and sites book out fast — reservations open five months ahead and summer weekends disappear quickly.
The park holds seven campgrounds with around 880 sites, and nearly all of them sit a short walk from the water. About four kilometres of beach line the shore, including a two-kilometre crescent of sand that runs from the day-use area past the Kilcoursie and Beaver Dams campgrounds. Smaller pocket beaches hide around Harold Point, Granite Saddle and Blind Bay, and there are beaches where dogs can swim on and off leash. The rocky points between the beaches are made for scrambling, and the sunsets over the islands are the kind people plan trips around.
Four hiking trails cross the park, from the easy 800-metre Lighthouse Point Trail to the six-kilometre Recreational Trail shared with cyclists. The Twin Points Trail explains the area’s geology while the Lookout Point loop digs into local ecology. Keep an eye out for the park’s most photographed resident: a lone windswept white pine growing from a bare rock outcrop, a living echo of the Group of Seven paintings. The shoreline boulders also carry ancient Indigenous pictographs that are protected — look, don’t touch. The park sits within the Georgian Bay Littoral UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and the visitor centre covers the natural and human history of the point, including the lighthouse that still stands at its tip.