YMCA Camp Wanakita, Residential camp on Koshlong Lake, Haliburton, Ontario, Canada

YMCA Camp Wanakita is a camp on Koshlong Lake near Haliburton, Ontario, with over 1,000 acres of land. Its core is a wooden dining building with a shallow gable roof, an open pavilion-like upper level on posts, and a lower enclosed level with a balcony rail bearing a sign reading "THE CORE". Cabins are grouped on the West and East sides, and the expanded West side has washrooms.

Camp Wanakita opened in 1953 on Koshlong Lake, replacing Erie Heights on Lake Erie, which had grown too developed. George Jones and YMCA colleagues chose the site, and Keith Smith picked the name. It began as an all-boys camp; girls were admitted in 1969. The original 30 acres grew past 1,000, and a 2003 expansion added washrooms and cabins.

The name "Wanakita" comes from a legend of the Wendat people and was chosen by Keith Smith. Each session opens with the general manager reading the YMCA Wanakita Charter, which is read again at the end so campers can judge whether they lived up to it; the YMCA triangle symbol is then set on fire. Before meals in the core, a counsellor leads the camp in a sung grace, and cabins shout cheers afterwards.

Meals are served in the building called the core, which sits between the East and West sides of camp; each cabin has a permanent table there, set and cleared by a different pair of campers each day, and a tuck shop in the same building sells a limited number of snack items. Cabins of about 10 campers and 2 counsellors stay together for all parts of camp except Personal Choice Activities. Off-site trips run in wilderness areas with several lakes and may involve a significant amount of portaging, with current destinations at Algonquin Provincial Park and the Magnetawan River.

The welcome centre near the entrance, now called the Heming Welcome Centre and formerly the Longhouse, keeps a board listing every camper who has ever attended. At the close of each session the general manager reads the Wanakita Charter aloud and the YMCA triangle symbol is set on fire.