Port Burwell P.P. is located at 9 Wilson Lane in Port Burwell, Ontario. The park is located on one of Ontario's few Blue Flag beaches, the mouth of the Big Otter Creek, and a small peninsula jutting into Lake Erie. We visited in August 2022.
If you want a long history of the town of Port Burwell, I recommend the Wikipedia article here. But long story short, Port Burwell was chosen because it was at the mouth of the Big Otter Creek, and would make a great port. In 1971, the park was established, but under the name of "Iroquois Beach P.P.". The campground and beach parking was added in 1986, with the subsequent renaming being a direct result.
Port Burwell is named after Mahlon Burwell, an important surveyor and politician who lived in the area.
Port Burwell offers many amenities:
- fishing on beautiful Lake Erie
- docking and boating in town
- swimming on white sand, Carribean-esque beaches
- large park and town to bike around
- discovery programs held often
NEITHER TRAIL IS RATED FOR BIKES
There are two trails at Port Burwell:
Traversing across a little ravine. This trail offers great insight into the flora and fauna of the area, highlighted by the trail guide and Marvels of Migration brochure found at the park office.
The most common way to get from the beach from the campgrounds is the Beach Trail. This trail passes the group campsites as well as another ravine and creek. The trail leads to the day use road where the parking lot to the 5 beaches are.
Turn into the park and pass the store with the brochure display shaped like a lighthouse. Turn right toward the campgrounds and you'll find Alzora first, then Leander, then Iroquois. These three campgrounds are all separate from the beach and group campgrounds. The beach is accessed from a different entrance, while the group camping is from the campground entrance with a left turn instead.
Note that the photos in this section are not explicitly from this park, they are good photos of species that live here.
Seagulls
Birds of Prey
Herons
Go into town. See spotlight below.
Day trip to Port Bruce. P.P.
Go to the beach - white sand that is watershoe-free.
Port Burwell offers two main tourist attractions, the lighthouse and the submarine museum. The Lighthouse (below) was built in 1840, making it the oldest wooden lighthouse in Canada. It was also the second building in the town, second to only the Anglican Church. The submarine is the HMCS Ojibwa, where tours are offered for a fee. The ship offers great insight into the history of the Canadian navy as well as the town. Not to mention the ice cream shops, Blue Flag beaches, trails, and boating the town of Port Burwell offers. Lots to do in a relatively small town.
Decent park but is brought up by the town. 5/10 park, but 6.5/10 with the town included.
There's no official map online, but a good one is right here.
