For the last two years we went camping in a yurt at Mew Lake in Algonquin Park for New Year’s (You can read about year 2 here), but this year we didn’t get a Yurt booked because we were adventuring in Iceland and we missed the opportunity. We may have missed our shot at New Year’s, but we still wanted to go winter camping at Mew Lake, so when a different opportunity came up, we jumped on it.
If you have been following the blog for a while, you may know that I love to spend time on the Ontario Parks reservation site searching for random dates and locations to camp. My hubby thinks it’s weird, but on this occasion it paid off as I found an available yurt for the weekend before Christmas. On top of that, it was the brand new yurt that is extra fancy! After a quick consultation with Dan, to make sure he was able to get take Christmas Eve off, I booked the nights of December 22 and 23. There was the option to stay until Boxing Day, but we decided that we wanted to spend Christmas at home this year. Maybe we will spend Christmas camping another year.
On Saturday morning we loaded the car and headed north on the all too familiar highway 62 – we could probably drive it blindfolded by now. We arrived before the usual 3 PM check in time, but luckily the yurt was all cleaned and ready for us to get settled in. We even had a welcoming party of wild turkeys that came running down the road and greeted us on our campsite. I can only image they are so friendly due to the fact that they have been able to find scraps of food that campers may have left behind. Of course we weren’t going to be having a traditional Christmas dinner in the yurt, so we joked about how we could have our turkey dinner after all!
Turkeys? 
After our greeting party decided to move on to the next site, we went inside to check out this brand new yurt. It was AMAZING!!! There was the usual two sets of bunk beds (double on bottom, twin on top), but all the other items in there just blew us away. The furniture, which include a nice wooden table and chairs, side bench, higher bench to allow for food prep (with bottom storage), and side tables by the beds, was awesome. And of course, the Pièce De Résistance was the GAS FIREPLACE! Oh, and the sky light! This was a yurt that I could easily see us staying in for a long stretch of time.
Once we settled in, we got dressed and headed out for a hike to “Mew Falls”. The start of this trail is also where the pine martens are known to hang out, but we had never seen one in the area before. But luck was with us as the pine marten was out playing with photographers. I tried to get some photos on my phone but he was one quick little guy. Luckily Dan had his camera and long lens and managed to get some nice pictures like the one below. It’s a cute little thing, but check out those teeth!!!
After playing some hide and seek photography with the pine marten we continued to the falls. There must have been some heavy winds from the storm that passed by in the previous days as there were numerous trees down and laying across the trail. But the path was well worn and easy to walk. The falls are always a nice place to go while at the campground, especially if you love the sounds of flowing water like we do. If it wasn’t getting so close to supper, we would have stayed a little longer.
Hiking time 
On our way to the falls 
Hike to Mew Falls 
The Falls
We headed back to camp to have supper before going out to skate on the rink, which is always a highlight of this trip. The rink was temporarily closed earlier in the afternoon to get flooded, but it was open for skating again when we got there. The park also has a couple of hockey nets and a bunch of sticks for campers to use, but we couldn’t find any pucks. Luckily, the park staff are always super helpful and they found a few pucks in storage so that Dan and Hayden were able to play some hockey. I, however, didn’t last very long on my skates because they are really uncomfortable and cause some major sharp shooting pains up my legs.
Lit up tree on the rink 
Cozy fire by the rink 
Full Moon 
When Hayden had had enough skating time, we headed back to the yurt and spent the evening playing a few games of Exploding Kittens and a few games of cards. I was truly in my element that night as I could sit and play cards by the fire in this yurt all evening. Be sure to check back next week as we continue our adventure in part 2.
As always, lots of fun and enjoyment.