A Guide to RV Camping at Pancake Bay Provincial Park

Welcome to Pancake Bay Provincial Park, a highly memorable campground I visited 40 years ago and remember just like it was yesterday.

Established in 1968, Pancake Bay Provincial Park located on the north shore of Lake Superior, offers a recreation-class park that preserves and protects Northern Ontario’s fragile sand dune ecology and heritage while offering RVers a wonderfully comprehensive camping experience. Pancake Bay is a massive park, covering 17.23 sq km along the lake head, and offering 328 marvellous campsites including 160 with electricity, 3 comfort stations and 5 yurts. You might say this park offers travellers everything but actual pancakes—though there’s more to that story later. 

“Camp Your Way Across Canada”

It was the early 1980s when I first had the pleasure of camping at this spectacular provincial park. My parents and I embarked on our “Camp Your Way Across Canada” tour, a camping adventure I was fortunate to do more than once. Located just off the TransCanada Highway, approximately 11 hours from my hometown near Mont Tremblant, Quebec, and one hour north of Sault Ste. Marie, Pancake Bay was our first stop on the tour. I recall my mother had chosen Pancake Bay in advance after discovering the park inside her beloved CAA TripTik travel planner—a handy foldout paper map of the day, offering scads of great travel information inside. Mom savoured the irony of eating pancakes while camping in Pancake Bay. And we did just that!

Where Does the Name Pancake Bay Come From?

As my mom recounted, (and according to Ontario Parks) the name Pancake Bay commemorates the early fur traders, their challenging voyages, and the humble meal that sustained them. After an arduous journey across Lake Superior, traders arrived at the bay with their food supplies nearly exhausted. They had just enough flour left to make one final batch of pancakes. This last meal marked the end of their provisions, leading to the bay being named Pancake Bay. 

Pancake Bay Provincial Park is Large and RV Friendly

Trailer aficionados visiting Pancake Bay will note that the campsites are generally “large and RV-friendly” with most electrical sites offering 30 amp entrance, as well as plenty of room to back-in, or pull-through, a larger travel trailer, fifth wheel, and even A-Class motorhomes of 30+ feet in length.  RVers will also appreciate the sanitation stations offering the ability to fill your trailer with fresh water, as well as dump both grey and black water tanks.

A Guide to the RV Campgrounds at Pancake Bay

Pancake Bay Provincial Park is comprised of five separate camping sections: East, East Central, West Central, and West, all of which are scattered along the shore of Lake Superior shoreline. All the park’s campsites are set back on a hill facing the water with convenient access to the lake’s unique sand dune shoreline.

Every campsite includes a picnic table and fireplace, with many sites offering potable water taps and vault toilets. Garbage receptacles are located throughout the park. Three separate comfort stations offer flush toilets and hot showers, RV sanitation dumping stations, and two laundry facilities. The park also has three basic but very comfortable cabins onsite with quality mattresses, dining tables, microwaves, mini-fridges and gas BBQ grills.

Reserve your site by phone or online on the Ontario Parks website.

Bird Watching in Pancake Bay Provincial Park 

Whether you are an armchair naturalist or dickie birder extraordinaire, another popular activity in this park is bird watching. Common sightings include awesome birds of prey such as Bald Eagles and Osprey, along with Loons, Sandhill Cranes, Cedar Waxwings, and flycatchers. More than 200 bird species have been sighted here over the years. Add your bird sighting to the World Bird Sighting Database for Pancake Bay.

Edmund Fitzgerald Lookout Trail

Perhaps the highlight of camping at Pancake Bay is the Edmund Fitzgerald Lookout Trail, a scenic walking path named for the famous ship, which sank in Superior during a storm in 1975. As heard in the song "Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald" by Canadian troubadour Gordon Lightfoot, the entire crew of 29 men were lost in the icy waters of Lake Superior just off Pancake Bay. The 6 km trail by the same name is a wonderful stroll identified by a series of blue markers. The first portion is gentle and relatively flat followed by more climbing. The Lookout Trail culminates in a series of stairs up to two viewing separate platforms with panoramic views of Lake Superior. The viewing platforms have signs explaining the history of the area known as the “Graveyard of the Great Lakes.” My mother was a Canadian history buff and walking the Edmund Fitzgerald Lookout Trail was also part of her Pancake Bay pre-planning, much like the delicious pancake breakfast we enjoyed on the last day before pulling out.

The Pancake Bay RVers Final Word

Though it has been four decades since I enjoyed fresh pancakes at Pancake Bay, it is a trip etched in my memory forever. On my next RV adventure through Northern Ontario, I plan to return to this historical park and campground. Do yourself a favour and check it out! For more information on camping at Pancake Bay Provincial Park, visit their website.

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