Jon Willing’s most memorable family getaway? Good ol’ Gatineau Park
Nicole, Miles and Jon Willing during their first family “glamping” trip at Lac Philippe in 2020. Photo Courtesy Jon Willing
That’s the beauty of living in Ottawa, an easily escapable city with lush land nearby. It doesn’t take much driving from many neighbourhoods to reach rivers, the Greenbelt and, maybe the granddaddy of all local getaways, Gatineau Park.
I wish I could say how much we’re looking forward to our next Gatineau Park adventure this year, but an unexpectedly long renovation project at one of the National Capital Commission’s great campgrounds means we’ll be shut out of one of our favourite summer experiences for the second year in a row.
The NCC’s campgrounds, when they’re available, are ideal for families looking for a gentle introduction to roughing it. There is a variety of campsites, there are beaches for day activities and, for anyone skittish about outhouses, decent washrooms in walking distance.
Before becoming parents, Nicole and I would go on tent camping trips and we amassed a solid camping kit that could be quickly hauled out of storage and packed into the car.
When Miles was approaching two years old, we decided it was time to test family camping at Gatineau Park’s Lac Philippe campground.
To be clear, we were “glamping,” though there was hardly any glamour in this particular camping attempt that saw a good amount of rain. We rented a ready-to-camp unit — pretty much a cabin with a soft top — with bunk beds stacked to the ceiling, a fridge, some cooking utensils and a barbecue. It was a perfect turnkey camping operation, especially in the case of crummy weather. It was a joy watching Miles roast marshmallows on a campfire, climb massive rocks and listen to the mysterious forest sounds in our bunks.
The second summer we went to Lac Philippe was even better as Miles’s curiosity about nature grew.
After the peak COVID-19 years were behind us, we looked forward to another camping trip at Lac Philippe. Our plans were scrubbed when the NCC announced the campground wouldn’t be available in 2023 because of the $20.1-million renovation.
No problem, we thought; we would be back in 2024. We started exploring the possibility of friends renting other camp units and making it a real glamping bonanza.
But the new year brought unfortunate news that Lac Philippe would be once again closed to camping for another summer because of the reno work.
Maybe we could have found other campgrounds with similar amenities, but we enjoyed our experience at Lac Philippe so much that we pulled up stakes on our camping aspirations and looked at other vacation ideas. One summer we went to a Great Wolf Lodge resort nearly 600 kilometres away, but we missed our Lac Philippe getaway closer to home.
This season we’ll rent a cottage a couple of hours away from Ottawa. I’m sure it will be great.
What we thought four years ago would be an annual tradition of glamping in Gatineau Park hasn’t turned out that way, but it’s a reminder that the most treasured family trips aren’t on planes and trains, but instead on short automobile drives just outside the city.