Let's Try That Again! Our Second Lake Ontario Campground
Our $200 early escape from Association Island was a tough pill to swallow, but we counted ourselves lucky that we weren't quite finished with Lake Ontario. As we ventured toward Niagara, we had a couple other campgrounds lined up that would let us marvel at this Great Lake some more - hopefully without getting swarmed.
The first campground was Daisy Barn in Wilson, NY, about a half-hour from Niagara Falls. This is one of a few campgrounds that dot the southern shores of Lake Ontario. We didn't know much about this campground other than its positive reviews, and while it wasn't $100/night like Association Island, it still cost us a nightly rate of $60, so we crossed our fingers that this site would be worth the money.
We didn't choose our campsite when booking, something that we often have the option to do, so our site was a surprise. It was a pull-thru right next to an adorable crab apple tree. The site was long and reasonably spacious. We also had no next-door neighbors most days. The only negative with the site was that there was garbage in our firepit when we arrived. We blame the last campers for this more than the campground workers, but some between-booking cleaning would have been appreciated. That small issue didn't deter us, though, because we were thrilled to have a nice, level site that seemed bug-free as far as we could tell! ...We did, however, get a frog stuck in our bathroom Max Air fan on our first night, but don't worry, we were able to save it!
It's funny how sometimes you can read the vibe of a place immediately, and that's what happened at Daisy Barn. The minute we pulled into our site, our neighbor two sites down greeted us with a smile and a wave. This was the general demeanor of all our fellow RVers. The park has a lot of seasonal campers, and this can either make or break our stay, depending on if they're welcoming or not. Everyone here was so friendly, with not an ounce of proprietary attitude towards the transients. Many are also full-time but choose to summer up at the lake. This gave us common ground as we discussed life on the road, mobile internet solutions, and how our pets enjoy the RV life.
The park had a list of amenities on their map, but as far as we could tell, not every amenity still existed. We took Tanner on the walking trail, only to find part of it was overgrown. We read about a "sports pad" and we weren't sure what it was, but we never found out because we didn't see anything that resembled such a feature. All that to say, we never stay at a place for the amenities, and the park had plenty to offer. Most notable was $5 bundles of firewood which is extremely cheap, and while we didn't buy any ourselves, we noticed some of our neighbors building roaring fires during the week, so it's safe to say this fire was well seasoned and ready for the firepits. Then, of course, we had the lake. The campground is situated on a hill, and so no sites are actually positioned along the water. We actually appreciated this because it meant that everyone could enjoy the lake views. On the hill is a communal firepit and picnic pavilion (where they also host events), a few benches and chairs, and our favorite, bench swings! It's a perfect place to sit and watch the boats go by. At night, if the weather was clear enough, we could see the city lights of Toronto across the water.
The best part about Daisy Barn was that, after a tumultuous month, we got here and finally felt like we could breathe again. We knew that we had miles to go before we could put August behind us (and even then we didn't know how many miles), but this was the campground where we rang in September, and we couldn't have had a better location to welcome the new month and breathe that sigh of relief.
Campground:
Site 45, pull-thru, FHU, firepit and picnic table