Tent Camping at Oka National Park - Review, Tips, and Tricks
- Filed under: Camping
- Date: Apr 25,2008
I haven’t been to many camp grounds, but Oka National Park is one of my favorites because it’s not too far from montreal (about 30-40 minute drive), it has a long Beach (which is rare), and is literally in the middle of a huge forest that has nice bike paths, wildlife, and views.
There are a few things that should be mentioned however :
Because it’s in a forest, you don’t get a lot of direct sunlight on the campsites. (You need to go to the beach)
There’s lots of Poison Ivy around the forest with signs warning that it’s there, and telling us NOT to remove it. Oka is all about preserving nature the most it can, and they do a good job.
The forest is filled with Crazy, psycho, killer racoons that go “hunting” at night.
The list of rules is enough to scare most people away. They say NO music, and fires out by 11. I stayed by the fire past midnight a few times, and no one said anything. Some neighbors a few campsites away however started playing pretty loud Rap Music during the day, and it took all of 5 minutes for an electric golf cart to show up and tell them to turn it off. (Which was appreciated on my part anyways) I wonder how difficult they are about music at low volumes. I never turned on a Radio the whole time I was there.
Some tips about picking a camp site at Oka National Park :
I’ve always stayed in THE DUNES. The best camp sites are the ones that are along the OUTSIDE of the dunes, corners of the outside near the back end are good. Try to avoid picking anything that’s in the middle, and make sure you don’t pick one that is LITERALLY next to the washrooms.
I hate to give this away, but I think the BEST campsite in the dunes is Dunes #26. (I’ve found other really good lots. Even better than #26. I made a review list of multiple lots the last time I was there, read it here!)
Be nice to the people that work there and TRY to follow the rules as much as possible, because at night it’ll be the same people that decide whether or not they enforce them.
For the love of god, DO NOT leave food in your tent or OUTSIDE. You NEED to put it in the car at night or else the killer racoons will get to it. I promise. If there’s one thing you get from this article if you DO go to Oka, it should be understanding about the racoons. READ THIS POST it will save you!
My final tip goes for any and all campsites. When you leave, make sure all your garbage has been disposed of, and don’t leave things hanging around in the fire pit. When camping your goal should always be to LEAVE NO TRACE.
If you have any questions feel free to leave it in the comments section and I will answer quickly ! Thanks for reading and visiting Techie NATION !
Check out my video slideshow of our May 2008 trip !
The last time I went my girlfriend and I walked around the camping ground rating different lots so that the next time we go we don’t need to guess the good ones. As always, i’m sharing this golden nugget with the readers of TechieNATION. Click here to see my very specific camping lot ratings from Oka National Park. (You’ll thank me later) 
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