Some camping trips are all golden-hour sunsets and quiet mornings by the lake. Others test every ounce of patience, preparation, and calm you have. Our trip to Bon Echo Provincial Park during the derecho firmly landed in the second category—and it’s one I won’t ever forget. Bon Echo is one of those parks that feels almost sacred the moment you arrive. Mazinaw Rock towers over the lake, ancient pictographs etched into its face, the kind of place that naturally slows you down.

This past weekend, I went camping in Algonquin Provincial Park with Kaidy. It was one of those trips where everything slows down—where...