How to find CROWN LAND in Ontario. 

Your very welcome, glad you found it helpful!

Thanks! 🍻

Sounds great! i hope you have a great adventure!

Getting my 2021 Tacoma TRD 4X4 OFFROAD Premium in April 2021 and can't wait to see these crown land locations. Now hopefully the restrictions about traveling will be lifted by then...

@@useryggfdcc Restrictions lol - its a 24 hour drive from Toronto to Thunder bay (same to Florida) and its all crown land. No "ranger" will find you. Enjoy the lake you find all to yourself all summer long.

@@Cutlass_Rudd I did a two daytrip to Mattawa going the WMAT trails....saw nobody. Awesome time...no bugs too.😀

@@useryggfdcc Yes perfect time of year, warm enough and no bugs

i should have did this sooner, hopefully now it reaches and helps more people!

Glad I could help!

Glad you found it helpful 🍻

Glad you enjoyed it!

Glad you enjoyed it, have a great adventure 🍻

Why post covid? That will be years.

Thanks! Glad you found use of it 🍻

Glad it was helpful!

You're so welcome!

You're welcome!

Glad you found it helpful 🍻

Glad to be of service 🍻

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No problem! Glad it was helpful!

I too noticed that after playing around with the atlas after I did put together the video. It’s a help tip I plan on addressing in a future video

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Most welcome!

That’s a great tip! I’ll incorporate this information into an updated video I’m working on. Thanks 🍻

Thanks!

You're welcome! Thanks for watching 🍻

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Glad you found it helpful 🍻

Thank you for this video I am confused on where you are able to park though. Do you just find a spot on the side of the highway and portage to the lake? How do you trust leaving your car alone for days. Thanks for the information!

Also when you are saying ‘campsites’ do you mean just a good spot to set up a tent? Because I thought you can set up a tent absolutely anywhere so if somebody were to beat you to the ‘campsite’ are you not able to just walk another 15minutes deeper in to the forest to find any other spot to set up camp?

The correct on the campsites term. The video (and the series) is geared towards vehicle based exploration, so I’m mainly talking about drive in campsites. As I’m sure most people know, the easier it is to access, the quicker it fills up. In terms of parking, There’s a couple things to consider. On logging/Forest access roads Finding a place safe place to park is definitely a challenge. In most circumstances, leaving your vehicle on the side of the road is perfectly acceptable assuming that you take all precautions to make sure the vehicle is not blocking the possible flow of traffic, or or visibility around a blind corner. When it comes to parking on a maintained road, you still need to account for the Highway Traffic Act regarding parking. The HTA states the following. * Not be parked at the crest of a hill, or curve where you don't have a 125m line of sight in both directions. * Not park to block an existing road, trail, sidewalk or crossing. * Not park within 100m of a bridge. * Not park anywhere explicitly prohibited (eg. by signage) In some circumstances where the crownland parcel is within a municipality wouldn’t be a bad idea to check out the municipalities website to see if they have any parking bylaws especially during the winter time

@@thebackroadadventurer Thank you so much you’ve given amazing tips

I still use GaiaGPS a lot when planning trips and traveling. I’m unfortunately there is no layer on Gaia that actually shows crown land (yet) I’ve years that the folks are working on one 🤞. There’s also an app call ihunt, it dose have a crown land overlay, but it’s behind yet another annual subscription. I’ve yet to play around with it, but I’m looking forward to play around with it.

@@thebackroadadventurer Don't the BRMB layers show crown land?

If you're in Barrie you have crown land just up the 400 starting around the Mactier area.

This is a great question. I see this come up a lot on various social media groups and as well as in the RU-vid comments. I’m thinking I should do a short video to clarify the confusion between the two. In the policy report provided by the MNRF, the “private recreation camp” refers to if you’re allowed to build a permanent or semi permanent structure on leased land like a hunt camp. Now you still can get leased crownland from the ministry for the purpose of hunting minor mining, and timber operations. On crownland camping falls under “general recreation” so when you’re looking at the policy report, if it says that general recreation is allowed than camping is allowed.

@@thebackroadadventurer right on thanks man,thats great you got back to me so soon after making the video 3 years ago. Much appreciated.

Permitted means you can camp there for free if you are an Ontario resident. If not a resident, you must purchase a Crown land camping permit from MNRF.

Keeping with the tread lightly & leave no trace principles. It’s best to use an existing fire pit if possible, if there no fire pit available you can make your own. Ideally just a rock ring, that way you can spread the rocks off again when you’re leaving. Alternatively you can carry a portable fire pit. That’s what I’ve been doing that last few years. I like to cook on my fires and…well, you never know what might have been burned perviously in existing fire pit.

@@thebackroadadventurer Thank you

IHunter is a great alternative to the atlas, it also allows you to view the policy reports. Unfortunately, I don’t see the MNRF giving us anything better then what we currently have.

I believe it was somewhere south Ramsay, along the west branch road.

Normally yes. However, depending on the time of year be mindful of fire bans in the area.

Thanks for pointing this out! it appears that everything has been condensed to a "recreational activities on crown land" page. www.ontario.ca/page/recreational-activities-on-crown-land

Like you already know finding the right crown land in Southern Ontario can be a challenge. The majority of public land that is available in the south is conservation managed land and county forests. The majority of these are viable option for hunting, but not target shooting (there are a few outliers, but those are rare). The iHunter app gives you a clear idea of which properties allow for hunting and also will give you the details and restrictions for each property. Typically target shooting with NON-RESTRICTED rifles and shotguns is allowed on the majority of crown land with the exception of Crown Game Preserves (you can not even be in possession of a firearm on those parcels), but these will be clearly marked on the crown land atlas. The best advice I can give is that when your looking at the policy report is to make sure hunting is allow on that parcel, these crown land parcels will typically be ok for finding a SAFE location to target shoot. Keep in mind that south of the French and Mattawa rivers some municipalities still have “no Sunday gun hunting” laws in effect, my understanding is that this also applies to discharging a firearm in general. Unfortunately it seems that a small number of municipalities are also adding “no targeting shooting bylaws” but that seems to mainly be in response to residential areas being built near some very small parcels of crown land in Southern Ontario. It is probably going to take a bit of trial and error to find a parcel that’s actually going to be suitable and safe for target shooting.

@@thebackroadadventurer Much appreciated.

really?? where would the closest area be to look up? i am from southern ontario and am looking to get into some crown land camping

@@kevins8825 use the governments website it’s not very good but it’s the quickest and easiest if you don’t have any backcountry books. However that’s an option too lookup backcountry Ontario books they sell them at Cabelas and probably other outdoor stores as well

@@christianb8228 thanks! yeah the government website isn’t to friendly on iphones since i don’t have a desktop to try

@@christianb8228 just remember things change over time Printed materials r a great 1st step But … Always confirm locations from any book with, a real-time source Or ur camping experience might b a bust when u get to ur location & find out it’s Not Crown land anymore, or Specific regulations or Zoning have taken place since the date of that book u were using was printed Always check print dates when using printed sources

It's a joke

Even as a joke it’s a tempting solution

Ur National Parks rules r like our Provincial Parks, no thanks

Very little public land in the states

How do you determine if you can have a camp fire on crown land?

There is, its by Parry sound, Mactier etc. Search for a spot on the atlas as he shows

How so? We are planning a trip there sometime soon from Indiana and are trying to learn what is acceptable to do. Driving through Alberta, B.C. and Yukon Territory and camping wherever we could find sure seemed easier.

@@drewpackman2929 if you are planning on visiting Ontario for camping stick to the north Perry sound ON is as far south as I would recommend