Waterfront Campgrounds???

Could be the ocean, a river or a lake, but what are some of your favorites in the Northeast?

My all time favorite is Green River Reservoir in Northern, VT.

http://www.vtstateparks.com/htm/grriver.htm

This is a very unique camping experience as all the campsites require a paddled boat to get to. No bathrooms or anything at the site. The Reservoir itself is incredible, 550 acres and only 1 house on the entire shoreline; the rest is conservation land. Has the best small mouth bass fishing I've experienced anywhere. Unfortunately, haven't been back since I moved away from Stowe in 2001.

Last summer we went to Lake George and enjoyed a few days at Hearthstone Point.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/24470.html

Car camping is pretty much all I do these days as I don't have a pack or small tent. Our tent is a 2 room 10 x 15 tent that weighs about 60 pounds in it's case. :lol: Hearthstone was a cool spot. Nice beach, reasonable quiet sites, good shower facilities. Probably the best part about the place is it's on the town shuttle route. It was nice to just park the car for a few days and be able to catch the shuttle to Six Flags, some of the shopping etc.

Summer prior we were at North Beach in Burlington, VT

http://www.enjoyburlington.com/northbeach.cfm

Really enjoyed this as well. It's on the bike path, which offers an easy 15 minute walk into town. Worked out well as we caught a Ween concert one of the nights on the Burlington Waterfront. Facilities there were also quite good. Only thing I don't care about the place is it's a day use beach area as well, so the swimming experience is a bit on the noisy side.


So, where are some of your favorite waterfront campgrounds? Waterfront is a must for us. It's nice to be able to hop in the lake in the morning. Anyone know of good oceanfront camping?

Since I'm in MA I end up often goign down to Rhode Island.

At Burlingame they have a pretty nice lake. I like taking the dogs there, they can swim around the lake.

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What I like about it is besides the lake on the propery the beaches (East Beach is my favorite, near Ninigret pond) is only about 10 minute drive away.

For on-ocean camping, you can get permits in Rhode Island to camp right on the beach at East Beach, although I've never actually done that.

Salty Acres in Kennebunkport. They have some sites that front on a beautiful salt water marsh plus it is just a short bike ride to Goose Rocks Beach – one of the nicest beaches in Maine. Campground bathrooms are a bit old school, but if you can survive wilderness camping you will be fine.

Somes Sound View in Bar Harbor/Acadia. They have sites that front along a gorgeous fjord harbor that you can swim in (a tad cold), although these sites have a bit of a hike to the bathrooms. Some of the sites are open/tight together and they do have quite a few rules. On the quieter side of the island, which is nice plus still a ton to do.

Danforth Bay in Ossipee. Good size campground with all the amenities plus sites right on a nice lake that you can swim in.

I know you said NorthEast, but my family loves Assateague Island in Virginia. For years we would tow our camper down to Chincoteague Island(right next to it) every summer. We loved it so much we bought a permanent trailer in the campground now.

The campground in waterfront on the bay, but you dont swim from the property.(long wade through marsh grasses to get to tidal mud flats)

The Virginia portion of Assateague is National sea shore so no buildings or overnight visits. Short bike/car ride to the beach.

The Maryland end of Assateague allows camping right on the land side of the dunes. We have never stayed here though

Both portions of Assateague have wild horses and lots of other wildlife around.

Umbagog Lake in New Hampshire, 22 miles long, and about 8 miles wide in parts. 80% or so is a state park, and there are remote sites all around the lake. AWESOME place to camp!

We'll be on Mooselookmeguntic Lake for a couple of days starting July 5. Rest stop while we do part of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. Similar set up except less development!

For ocean, we really liked Mt. Desert Campground next to Acadia National Park. Sites right on the water, mmmmm lobster

Bump.....the wife and I will be celebrating our 7 YR anniversary camping at Pillsbury State Park in Washington NH end of Sept. Secured a waterfront site and there are hiking trails that can be accessed right in the campground. Anyone ever camped at Pillsbury?

Best waterfront camping I've done so far was up at Umbagog

xwhaler said:

Bump.....the wife and I will be celebrating our 7 YR anniversary camping at Pillsbury State Park in Washington NH end of Sept. Secured a waterfront site and there are hiking trails that can be accessed right in the campground. Anyone ever camped at Pillsbury?

Best waterfront camping I've done so far was up at Umbagog

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The wife and I brought our boys up there over the summer for a hike. We did the balanced rock trail. It was fairly easy - maybe 2 or 3 miles round trip. It's a very beautiful area. We haven't camped up there yet - but we do plan to - it's the next town over from us! One word of caution: there are leaches in the water, so think twice about wading in...

If you guys enjoy hikes, I recommend checking out Oak Hill, which is accessed off of Faxon Hill Rd. It is fairly short hike - less than 2 miles - but has beautiful, panoramic views from the top! I would be happy to tell you how to get there if you are interested.


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We stayed there last year at lakeside sites 12 & 14 which were very nice, but not very sheltered from the road. There are other nice lakeside sites. We hiked the Bear Pond Trail, Greenway, 5 Summers trail loop the 1st day. Can't say anything about the views from Lucias Lookout as it was a drizzly day. There is a part of the 5 Summers Trail near the top of the ridge that is pretty swampy. It's about 1/2 mile long, but I managed to keep my feet mostly dry. The bottom section is a nice old woods road. The 2nd day we did Mt Sunapee via the Andrew Brook trail. The trail was nice and the views from the White Ledges were also nice, but the trail was very busy on an October Saturday with lots of unleashed dogs running around. The third day we had a very enjoyable kayak ride around Butterfield and May ponds from our campsites. There are a bunch of wind turbines on a ridge overlooking the ponds but they didn't annoy me at all.

Overall it was a very nice weekend and Pillsbury is a really nice out of the way spot for a quiet weekend. I hope that you have a great time!!!!

Thanks Quietman! We're only going for 1 night and dont have kayaks so probably will focus more on the hiking.
We may rent a canoe but will have my dog with us and he is too scared of the canoe and I dont want to leave him tied up at the site.

Do you remember how long the Bear Pond, Greenway, 5 summers loop was? Looking at the map it appears to be around 8 miles or so which may be a bit longer than we are looking to do.
I may do a shorter loop on Bear Pond, Greenway, Ridge Link, and Mad Road back to the site.

Xwhaler, here is some of the view from Oak Hill. It was pretty hazy when we went. Late sept should be beautiful.


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xwhaler said:

Do you remember how long the Bear Pond, Greenway, 5 summers loop was? Looking at the map it appears to be around 8 miles or so which may be a bit longer than we are looking to do.
I may do a shorter loop on Bear Pond, Greenway, Ridge Link, and Mad Road back to the site.

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That loop was a little over 9 miles. The other loop you mention is shorter, and will the exception of the section of the Greenway seems to be comprised of old woods roads so it would be easier walking. The hike to White Ledges on Sunapee is a 4 mile round trip.

Quietman said:

That loop was a little over 9 miles. The other loop you mention is shorter, and will the exception of the section of the Greenway seems to be comprised of old woods roads so it would be easier walking. The hike to White Ledges on Sunapee is a 4 mile round trip.

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White Ledges overlooking Lake Solitude seems really nice but you are saying that is 4 miles R/T starting within the campground?
Or do you drive to that from the site?

Muskeget Island Off of Nantucket. camp right on beach and Have island all to yourself most times, except for the seals

Saranac lakes, NY. Just a bit north of Lake Placid . 3 lakes all connected and dotted with island campsites that you can only get to by boat. Well you could swim I suppose. We also car camp at Rollins Pond State campground up there which has a ton of waterfront sites, great swimming and fishing and paddling.

xwhaler said:

White Ledges overlooking Lake Solitude seems really nice but you are saying that is 4 miles R/T starting within the campground?
Or do you drive to that from the site?

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Sorry, missed your question, yes we drove to the Andrew brook trail head. Its a VERY long hike on the Greenway from Pillsbury!

Hither Hills in Montauk. The ocean is right on the other side of the dune.

You can do really well at Horseneck Beach in MA. Its the only way to get dogs on the beach legally in summer.

Awesome wknd up at Pillsbury State Park. Really nice, out of the way location with incredible foliage views and hiking from our pondside site. No electric or flush toilets but anyone who appreciates a nice, clean state park campground should check this place out. We will be back and look to do some kayaking among the many ponds in the park

Glad to hear that you had a good time! Did you do any hiking?

Quietman said:

Glad to hear that you had a good time! Did you do any hiking?

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We did yes. From our site we hiked up to the Bear Pond Trail, Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway, Ridge Link, and back on Mad Road Trail.
Total distance per GPS was 6 miles---some elevation gain...about 400' of vertical as campground is at 1600' and top of Kittredge Hill is 2k'.
Well maintained trails, hardly saw anyone---really nice scenery.

Yesterday AM after packing up the site we did Pitcher Mtn in Stoddard which is only a 1 mile loop but very impressive views---I always like finding good "bang for the buck" hikes like this.