From the highway it does not look like much, but once you get into the campground you are sure to be impressed!
We were lucky to get a site near the river for one night on Canada Day! Even the Ranger told us how lucky we were to get such a beautiful site.
We spent our first night at site #28 and the site was surrounded by trees and backed onto lush forest. It was beautiful but also a mosquito haven! We quickly set up a perimeter of mosquito coils and citronella to keep them at bay.
I highly recommend Site #28 for anyone looking to stay here!!
Shortly after we finished setting up, it started raining. We played cards, then as the rain eased off we explored the trail next to our campsite.
After a short walk, we came to the river! Gorgeous views and frigid water, our son was the first to strip down and jump in! He belly surfed down the channel in the shallows and had a great time. Our daughter got into her bathing suit and decided it was too cold for her, but went for a quick belly surf anyways and definitely cooled off quickly. They had a lot of fun considering it was 5pm and overcast skies!
So many gorgeous views despite the cloudy weather! We definitely got lucky with our site backing onto this short trail to the river.
In the morning it was cool and overcast, but not raining!
As the early riser in my family I get the fire and the coffee going, walk the dog and get some quiet time before the kids wake up! It is so relaxing to sit next to a crackling fire with your dog next to you and nothing to do but wait for your family to awaken- and make coffee of course!
The next morning we had to decide if we wanted to move on to another campground, or simply move sites as #28 was only available for one night. Both kids voted to stay at the same campground for one more night. Although moving sites can be inconvenient, with the tent trailer it isn’t terrible.
My daughter wanted to go to the playground in the morning so we walked over and then walked around the First Come First Serve area and found a few sites empty. I called my husband, luckily he heard his phone and agreed to drive some chairs and things over to save the site so we didn’t lose it while we finished packing up!
This time we were at Site #99 and it was very different. The sites were much more open and behind us were the remains of scorched trees full of birds singing and chirping away, it was beautiful! There were also a lot less mosquitoes!
This end of the campground had another great surprise in store. I walked my daughter to the outhouse and it looked like this:
Then we went inside and found THIS!
Now I don’t need a flush toilet, but it is a nice surprise to have when camping! It was completely unexpected after using a few outhouses around the campground the night before, but we weren’t complaining. They were also very clean!
They had a great playground with swings, slides, and a disc swing that was very popular. They also had a dirt track for biking with a smaller section for little kids. I was so impressed by this Provincial Park for having all of these amenities!
They also had a shower house with a parking lot attached to it right next to the playground, presumably so elderly or mobility challenged visitors staying near the back of the campground can drive to take a shower.
Did I mention the showers are also FREE?? Outside of the shower house at the back, they had large stainless steel sinks for doing dishes too! Our site was a pretty far walk and we have water in our tent trailer so we didn’t bother using them, but it’s definitely a nice option to have!
This park had many amenities for a Provincial Park and I was quite impressed. They also sold Firewood and Ice on site which was great.
I do wish we had spent more time at the river or it had been warmer the first day. When we went to the KVR bridge on the river it clouded over pretty much as soon as we got there and then the mosquitoes came in! We left our devices at the campsite so I didn’t get any photos from the bridge but it was so cool to walk over the old bridge and the river had some nice calm areas for swimming and nice sandy beaches!
It is a large campground, very family friendly and lots of kids riding their bikes around. Reservations are through the Discover Camping website and I would definitely recommend reserving if you can!
When the water is high, more mosquitoes are to be expected (especially at the sites closer to the river) so come prepared and you’ll be fine!
All in all, this is a beautiful area and I highly recommend Kettle River Recreation Area! This is a very family-friendly campground with lots of kids riding their bikes around and just a really relaxed vibe about it, we will definitely be back!