I booked and paid for a 2-week stay at the Indian Line campground in Brampton, based on wonderful memories of the beautiful surrounding Conservation Area from my youth and its proximity to our primary destinations in Etobicoke, Ontario.
Sadly, it turned out that Indian Line is NOT a campground. It is a trailer park.
NOT that there is anything wrong with trailer parks, but they should be billed as such and not listed as ‘campgrounds’, especially within the Toronto and Regional Conservation area.
Does this look like a campground at which you’d want to spend 2 weeks?
Unfortunately, I’d paid my $400+ and was kind of stuck with the choice.
The majority of folks who stay there are seasonal residents, paying only $500 per month. For the privilege, they are allowed to erect permanent structures such as garden sheds in which to store their lawnmowers. Most, though not all of the sites were kept reasonably nice.
Basically, the new manager has moved most of the seasonal residents to the south end of the park, which is reasonably well-kept by the residents themselves.
On the other hand, the ‘campground’ portion on the north end of the park was a mess.
The ‘camper graveyard’ to which they tow decrepit trailers was located on the ‘campground’ side.
Ed’s first complaint / comment was that the washrooms were too filthy to use following the May 24 long weekend… and that is saying a lot for Ed whose cleanliness standards tend to be quite liberal.
Too, when it rains – it pours and these mud holes are semi-permanent on the ‘campground’ side of the ‘park’ because the roads are so ill-kept.
Apparently no one cares where fires are built either…
… nor whether folks can sit at a picnic table comfortably…
Our spot had NOT been mowed prior to our arrival or at anytime during our stay. By result, the grass in our site was at least a foot tall, posing a major advantage for the TICKS which I was constantly searching for and removing from Jasper and my bedding.
UGH!!!!!
Too, I found the remnants of a garden planted by a re-located seasonal resident in the long grass which posed a serious tripping hazard, not to mention the unsightly mess caused by a number of plastic pots strewn in the yard. I cleaned up and disposed of most of the mess, but could not remove the 8 x 10’s surrounding the space.
The site next to us sported an old broken-down garden shed which was finally removed by staff on Day 12 of our stay.
Speaking of ‘staff’, from what I saw, most did as little as humanly possible, including NOT replacing campsite availability signs for up to a week. This one was only 5 days old.
I had the misfortune to use the washing machine whose spin cycle did NOT work. I reported it immediately, got my refund (for the extra $3 I spent on the dryer) and then stupidly used it again several days later, assuming it was fixed because there was no ‘unserviceable’ sign on the machine.
WRONG!
Another refund. Another hour wasted.
I just WISH I’d taken a picture of the swimming pool, which was filthy and green just like the rest of the place – despite the fact that the weather MORE than justified it being open.
Taking a campsite at a REAL campground (Albion Hills) just 10 minutes to the north would have been SO much more pleasant.
Seriously, this ‘campground’ IS a trailer park.
NOT recommended until serious improvements are made.
Hi Rosalind, My sister Deborah sent these photos to us because my husband and I worked and lived there in the summer of 1982. We were fresh out of college and I ran the canoe program and Dan was the campground manager. It sadden me to see how many hands have let the park get run down so bad. It use to be a nice oasis but even back then the neighbourhood was a bit sketchy. Very sorry to hear you had to endure that on your holidays. Pam and Dan Wilkinson.
Hi Pam,
Sorry that you had to see those, especially as someone who cared for the park. Judging by ‘summer of ’82’, you and I are probably about the same age and therefore have similar memories of the area.
Wouldn’t say it was a matter of ‘endurance’ though… we’ve stayed in Casino parking lots, so grass and trees are always welcome. 🙂 It’s just sad and disappointing that the place isn’t full on a weekend (a long weekend to boot) probably because of bad press.
Seriously, if we spent our summers in the Toronto area, I’d be first to sign up as a seasonal resident and bring my pruning shears. 🙂
Cheers,
Ros
I was actually at Indian Line shortly after you, and to be honest I think that you may be exaggerating a bit about the park in this review. When I was there in June, the pool was open and was actually really nice. It was a bit small, but seemed to me to run on saltwater instead of chlorine and was extremely clean (this is the only place that I’ve seen staff fully vacuum the pool every day). It seems that you should not really be commenting on how the pool looked when it hadn’t yet been opened for the season….. If you had taken the time to talk to park staff, you would know that the ‘camper graveyard’ was an area where dilapidated campers were assembled temporarily to be taken away to the scrapyard, and actually while I was here they cleaned that area up entirely. I can’t comment on how the grass was on your site, but I think you’d be hard-pressed to find any ticks in a lawn in Brampton. Anyway, maybe you just had a worse experience there than I did, but this story seems a bit sensational to me…
Hi Dan,
Pictures don’t lie.
As for the ticks – I’ll say what I said to Frank – why the heck would someone lie about such a thing? It’s well known that this has been the worst season in years for ticks and a dog in the long grass is going to pick them up.
And TCRA did in fact get in touch with me to THANK me for my commentary and promised that things would improve (which they apparently have), so perhaps my blog post helped improve YOUR experience there?
Cheers,
Rosalind
hi, seasonal camper here at indian Line Campground. Came upon this blog while I was looking up some info on the campground for next year. Really suprising to see these comments here, you clearly have not seen the park as it was PRIOR to this year. The previous manager was very slack when it came to enforcing maintenance and regulating park complaints. The new manager Sven has done an incredible job bringing the park back into a new age of urban camping. I have been coming to Indian line for 5 years. The information you give in regards to camping monthly fees is totally off, the monthly rate is about $800. Secondly, I have NEVER seen a tick in the campground, EVER.
As previous poster mentioned, the trailer graveyard has been removed completely, and the grass looks the best it has in years.
And the reason the washrooms may have been messy during the may long-weekend (DUH!!!) Was because there were stupid drunk campers puking all over the place. Staff clean washrooms every morning top to bottom, but as soon as some teenager, or small children go in, its seems to get dirty again. Even so, I have personally witnessed staff completely bathroom checks at lunch time and in the evening.
I personally take offence to this blatant negativity of your blog, Seems like you travel just to complain about how shitty places are. The staff at Indian line are nice people who will go out of their way to help, just as long as you ask. My bet is, you did not personally bring up these issues to them, otherwise I can assure you the grass wouldve been mowed day-of and your picnic table replaced. in addition to the firepit issue, if you wouldve asked staff, they would have dug you a firepit, and brought you stones, just as they did for MY site, and my neighbours sites.
So please, stop complaining.
Hello Frank,
I’m glad to hear that they’ve improved the place so much since our visit.
Perhaps you should re-read the post – I said I’d totally stay there as a seasonal camper (even at $800). Though it was a seasonal camper who mentioned that they were paying only $500, so you might want to check around.
As for the ticks – why the heck would someone lie about such a thing? It’s well known that this has been the worst season in years for ticks and a dog in the long grass is going to pick them up.
As for taking offence, that’s up to you…
But TCRA did in fact get in touch with me to THANK me for my commentary and promised that things would improve, so perhaps my blog post helped YOU?
Rosalind