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Trying to determine which of the Opeongo South Arm campsites are closed on account of the June 2025 storm damage, and whether those closures are incorporated into the reservation system's reservable numbers.
I've been told that the new version of the official park map reflects the closure of the affected campsites. Has anyone seen the new map? Are the affected sites removed from or indicated on the map?
In my searching around online, I came across the following FaceBook post and image from August. It appears to show 18 impacted campsites.
And here are those campsites indicated on the Algonquin Adventures PCI sub-map (from "Jeff's Map") ...
Has anyone got any additional or updated information ... on either specific campsites or the reservation system?
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I toured around that area last Bass Opener. I think your last image covers it well. Of note, Bates Island was completely devastated. 15 feet height of trees stacked on top of trees. Looks like an explosion! Except for site 24 which was completely untouched. Site 24 is where the couple was killed by a bear in 1991.
Last edited by MartinG (3/04/2026 6:57 pm)
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Scroll up to the PCI sub-map and you'll see that before last year's storm there were 68 campsites in the South Arm. If in fact there were 18 campsites destroyed, that would leave 50 campsites remaining for occupancy. 
However, upon referencing the reservation website (when using the "SiteScout" extension) we are informed that there are 57 permits available in 2026 (see red dart) .. what may the very same number available prior to the storm!
Given that there may only be 50 intact campsites available this year, it looks like they could be issuing 57 permits for only 50 campsites!
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I skied through that area 2 weeks ago and there were a lot of campsite signs still up. It looked really weird as the whole area looks like a bomb has flattened everything. My first impression was surprise that they hadn't done it yet, but I suppose that getting to the signs to take them down would need to be done with a lot of caution. Hopefully, they do it before people start entering the park and trying to mistakenly get to the sites.
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I paddled through the week after the storm. At that time, there were a bunch of no camping signs on the impacted sites. From my quick view, some of them were not occupiable but others gave me the vibe that the signs were up 'just in case".
Of course the issue is most likely the web people aren't connected with the park people so Barry's warning is a good one. Either that or the park is good with people camping in the middle of collapsed trees.
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Having been hit with the Derecho storm a few years ago and having most of our cottage island flattened, I expect that it looks worse than it is. That is not to suggest there aren't trees criss crossed on top of other trees, but rather that these really aren't dangerous areas. The trees have already come down, they aren't going to fall on you.
If there is enough open space for a tent and a path to the thunderbox, then the sites may well be usable. There may be less usable space at the moment than I expect a lot of Opeongo sites had, but I've also stayed on Algonquin sites that were pretty tiny and I couldn't believe they were actually being used as sites.
I wouldn't expect Algonquin to clear cut blow downs the way they did in Samuel de Champlain. They should do enough cutting to free up space around the fire pits and make sure the thunderboxes are accessible, but that's it. Campers will take care of the rest of the deadfall soon enough.
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