$20 to park the car for the day at Wasaga Beach Provincial Park? Outrageous! The $80 to $100 worth of gas you put in tank was fine. The $30 Tim Horton’s run on the drive up didn’t even cause a stir. The cooler full of fresh food, drinks and ice came to a good $50 or more but that’s okay. The late afternoon fast food lunch in downtown Wasaga Beach ($10 minimum per person) after the food in the cooler failed to be appealing didn’t even cause you to bat an eye. Yet, $20 per car to park for the day (up until 10pm, no less)? Well, that’s just crazy talk.
Generally, you don’t go to the beach alone so that $20 cost is broken down to $10, $5 or even as low as $2.50 per person. You get flush toilets (with toilet paper, no less) and clean sinks with running water, all in a facility that is cleaned more than once per day (and doesn’t generally smell like a sewer). You get picnic tables and receptacles to dump all your garbage. You get a beach that is clean (yes, someone cleans up your garbage that didn’t make it to one of those receptacles). You get a beach that is patrolled. Oh, you also get printed park information and maps included in that $20. One more thing: You can leave at any time and enter any other Ontario Provincial Park on that day without paying any additional entrance fees.
All for $20 per vehicle? Sounds like a pretty good deal. Sounds like a pretty damn great deal. So, why am I bringing this up? Normally, I don’t rant on this site. Normally, It’s About Travelling is about the beauty of travel and the discovery of the world around us, both near and far. But, something got under my skin on our latest visit to Wasaga Beach Provincial Park and I felt I had to address the issue. I’ll continue the rant below. But first, some pretty sunset pictures that you too can take if you visit this location…
Wasaga Beach Sunset Image Gallery
It wasn’t the best sunset when we visited on June 17, 2018 but we make do with what we’re given. For full-size, high resolution versions of any of the photos in the image gallery, simply click on the individual pictures.
The Rant Continued
My Beef is this. Just before you enter the provincial park at Beach Area 2, there are several local businesses offering reduced parking rates to access the provincial park. Although not legal, I believe parking in these spots and using the park facilities for free is morally wrong. What’s a bit more disturbing is that one of the places profiting off someone else’s property is a church – a supposed community leader in morality.
I might be wrong. Maybe these businesses contribute a portion of the cash they’re taking in back to Ontario Parks to help with garbage disposal, staffing and the cleaning of the washrooms (all services that those parking at the renegade lots are using). And, I might be wrong in thinking that the cash money taken in as parking fees is not being declared as taxable income and therefore not making its way back to the park via that channel. But, I doubt that.
Do the right thing. Pay the fee. Enjoy the services provided. Your vehicle is much safer in the provincial park lot anyway. And, it’s much safer when you don’t have to cross busy Mosley Street, dragging your cooler with your kids running wild. One more thing, it increased every year – much of the ‘wild’ areas of the park (meaning anything that is not paved or mowed) is covered in a healthy blanket of poison ivy. That includes the access points from Mosley Street.
Do I think all fees are fair? No. I’ve recently said my piece about the Grey Sauble Conservation Authority’s entrance fees to parks like Inglis Falls and Bruce’s Caves. Why? Not because of the amount. $6 per car is hardly an expensive cost. It’s not even the fact that it now must be payed through a smart phone app, even though that can be a bit inconvenient for some. It’s the fact that the fee is non-transferable to other sites within that conservation authority on that specific day. Since the parks within that authority are 1-2 hour visits at best, you are probably going to visit more than one and at each one you have to go through the payment process all over again.
In the Ontario Parks realm, I don’t think the fees charged at a location like Forks of the Credit Provincial Park are overly fair. This is a minor step up from a non-operating park and really provides no facilities. There are pit toilets at two locations in the park and the trail maintenance is minimal (might even be provided voluntarily by the Bruce Trail members). The feature area at Churches Falls has been closed off now for quite some time due to erosion so the main thing you go to see can hardly be seen.
Wasaga Beach, Ontario
Wasaga Beach was incorporated as a town on January 1, 1974. At the time, the population of all-season residents sat at around 1,000. One of the fastest growing communities, not just in Ontario, but in all of Canada, that population now sits at 21,000 and growing. And that’s just the permanent residents. In the summer months, the numbers do nothing short of balloon.
The town is located at the mouth of the Nottawasaga River where it empties into Georgian Bay. Part of Simcoe County, Wasaga Beach is 38 kilometres northwest of Barrie, Ontario, 21 KM east of Collingwood and 147 KM north of downtown Toronto.
On November 30, 2007, a major fire wiped out 90% of the buildings along the beach 1 area street mall. It was controversial because these the businesses that gave Wasaga a ‘party town’ image. The official plan was to transform away from that and cater to the douchy rich from Toronto and those over the age of 65. The fire was seen as potentially intentionally set to rid the town of its ‘trash’.
Wasaga Beach Provincial Park
Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, in all, encompasses 1,844 hectares of land. 6.8 of those hectares is designated a protected wildlife habitat (apparently, poison ivy is included in the wildlife they are trying to protect). Established in 1959, the main office is located at 11-22nd Street North in Wasaga Beach. There are several other entry points to the park.
This park is for day-use only and you must vacate by 10pm. This leaves plenty of time for sunset viewing as the big star goes down at the latest just after 9pm at the solstice. The closest provincial parks with camping facilities are Awenda Provincial Park (48 KM to the north) and Craigleith Provincial Park (33 KM to the west). Modern flush washrooms are available at beach areas 1 through 6.
Oh, sort of a big deal. Wasaga Beach is the longest freshwater beach in the world. The unbroken span of sandy beach runs 14 KM. These days, the beach is a bit narrower than in past years with the water level up in Georgian Bay.
Wasaga Beach Sunset Time Lapse Video
Again, not the most dramatic sunset I’ve ever seen but pretty spectacular (and peaceful) nonetheless. If you like the video, please give it a ‘Thumb’s Up’ in YouTube. If you love what you see and want to see more travel related videos, please consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel.
