Walk-in sites at Laurie Provincial Park look over Grand Lake from a wooded shoreline. The campsites sit in the trees with the water in front of them. In daylight the walking trail climbs to the Look Off, where Grand Lake shows through the trees.
Oakfield Provincial Park shares this shore for the day, with a beach, a boat launch, and a hiking trail on Shubenacadie Grand Lake. It is day use only, so you spend those hours here and sleep at Laurie. Reserve the Laurie campsite before you book the van.
As of September 2026, Nova Scotia Parks advises against swimming at Laurie and Oakfield after a blue-green algae bloom on Shubenacadie Grand Lake. The boat launch and the hiking trail at Oakfield still make a day. The swim is at Dollar Lake Provincial Park.
Highway 2 north out of Bedford is the road to Grand Lake, and it keeps on toward Truro. Laurie runs early June through mid-September. Sites are unserviced, so pack for cool nights outside July and August. If you need more sleeping space than a campervan, look at RV rentals in Bedford.
Dollar Lake Provincial Park
The beach at Dollar Lake Provincial Park is the swim on this trip, a freshwater strip with partially wooded campsites behind it. It is the beach weekend in this area, the park people book when they want to swim and sleep in the same place. Four short walking trails loop through the woods between the beach and the sites.
Sites are unserviced, and they book on the same Nova Scotia Parks system as Laurie. Dollar Lake runs early June into mid-October, so the beach overnight lasts after Laurie has closed. If Laurie is already taken, this is the other public overnight.
DeWolf Park and the Bedford waterfront
The wooden boardwalk at DeWolf Park follows Bedford Basin. People come for the water, the birds, and the walk that continues onto the Fort Sackville Walkway from a trailhead at the end of Convoy Way. You park, you walk, and you sleep at Laurie or Dollar Lake.
For Peggy's Cove and the South Shore, start from Halifax. The Eastern Shore is a Dartmouth drive. Cape Breton, Kejimkujik, and the Bay of Fundy are the rest of a Nova Scotia loop.