Campgrounds filling up for Victoria Day weekend

A family hits the road for a camping weekend on May 15, 2015 as they make a turn on Second Street West in Cornwall. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)

MORRISBURG – If you were watching the weather and making a last minute decision on a camping weekend, there’s still an opportunity to pitch a tent.

St. Lawrence Parks Commission spokeswoman Susan Le Clair tells Cornwall Newswatch their sites at various campgrounds across SD&G are roughly 90 per cent full, which is pretty standard for this time of year.

“We still do have some available. The only thing is that you will be more limited in what type of services that are available,” Le Clair said.

She says the demand is hard to gauge compared to last year because this is the first year for their online reservation system, which started taking bookings in March.

But she believes the bitter winter has helped fill campsites. “This winter, for sure, I do think that people were just so happy to start thinking about spring and start planning. So I do think the winter has created a kind of built up desire in people to get outside and have some warm weather and enjoy themselves,” Le Clair said.

Some of the new amenities people will see at the campgrounds are two solar-powered camper cabins at the Glengarry Campground. “It’s a great alternative if they don’t have a trailer and they don’t want to be tenting, it’s that opportunity to…be out in nature,” she said.

There’s also a “rustic” family-sized cabin, which sleeps eight, at the Woodlands Island campground site. It was a maintenance and staff building which was transformed into the family lodge. There are two 30-amp RV sites nearby. “We just see it as being a perfect location for extended family get-togethers or groups of friends that want to get together and have their own private area.”

The commission is also working on a “getaway cabin” called the “Boathouse Loft” at the Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary Campground.

“Anybody that really looking to really get away from it all and have a really private area, it will be absolutely perfect.”

And new for this year, the Cedar site of the Riverside-Cedar campground has also introduced a one-third discount for seniors.

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