Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Bantam, CT

Most amazing weekend with tons of woods (privacy is huge for us). Very friendly guests and staff! Amazing weekend with lots of fun for the kids and even the dogs! We’ve been to campgrounds with playgrounds worse than the waters edge dog park. Every one of us had a great time with the perfect campsite deep in the woods (still able to park my 26’ camper trailer). Swimming pool, great playground, among lots of trails and wooded area surrounding almost every site. Best camping weekends we’ve ever had have been at Waters Edge.

Recently, we camped here for a week. We don’t ever post negative reviews like this. The last day, we experienced a violent attack by a very large and aggressive Pit Bull. The Pit Bull did not have a collar or a leash and was accidently let out of the RV to roam free and unsupervised. It immediately ran to our site(4 sites away) and attacked our dog that was tied at the time. The incident was unprovoked. While trying to save our dog, my wife and I were also attacked. The wounds were serious enough to require emergency transport to a hospital for treatment including stitches. All we could think of was what might have happened if our granddaughter had been playing with our dog. 

To put it mildly, their existing pet policy is grossly lacking. They never checked what breed of dog or ask to see documentation of shots when we were registering. Yogi Bear Jellystone Park needs to better manage their pet policy to address aggressive dog breeds and ensure the safety of campers. We camped there for seven days and saw multiple sites have more than one large dog, which in many places we’ve camped at would have been banned due to breed type or size. We have RV’ed extensively across the US and have never seen such careless enforcement of a pet policy regarding aggressive dog breeds. Seriously, think about avoiding this park if you have pets or small children.

Ashley here with The Dyrt. I would like to welcome your host, Mary, to our platform. There are 2 lodging options to choose from. Pets welcome! Book your stay today and come back here to leave them some love.

Let me just start off by saying we did stay at the end of the season so the campground was quiet… But this is a stunning park and totally worth a stop if you’re traveling via hwy 84! They had such great customer service and the amenities are on point. 2 separate ponds: one for fishing, one for swimming; large outdoor games; Rec hall with video games, 50¢ pool table, live music; volleyball; boat rentals; and even a baseball diamond! (We picture kickball more than baseball happening here) Facilities were east to use and clean. Sites were wide open and easy to access, my only complaint being that they offer “full hookups” but you’re told to just leave your grey tanks open. We chose to wait and dump on our way out. If you’re a pet owner, you’ll absolutely love the dog run!

I have camped here many times. There are three campsites; two that require short hikes (.5 miles and .75 miles, respectively) and a third that can be driven to. Each one is far away from the others. The two that are closest are still divided by several hundred feet of wooded area; you can hear if someone at the other campsite shouts loudly enough, but you can't hear normal conversation or see any lights.

There is no cell phone coverage at any of the campsites (if you care about that while camping).

All of the campsites are right next to the Shepaug River. There is a very crude outhouse between campsites #1 and #2, but none at #3. Each campsite has a designated fire pit, and the Steep Rock Association provides ample firewood. SR 1 and SR 2 both have picnic tables at them; SR 3 does not. Pets are welcome; there are many people hiking and camping with dogs, and people ride horses down some of the trails.

On 9/2/17, when camping at SR1, we saw a Dumpster on the side of the trail that leads from campsite SR1 to campsite SR2. I have never seen a Dumpster anywhere at Steep Rock before, so I don't know if that is a permanent new addition or if it was there temporarily.

Reservations are required and can be made by contacting the Steep Rock Association office during the week.

Point Folly is a small, quiet campground that has water, pit toilets and I think a dumping station.  The campground is right on Bantam Lake which is great for boaters/kayakers  fisherman and families.  I have found the east side of the lake to be much more windy than the west side of the lake.   The water front sites on the West Side seem to flood easily if it rains.  

Its not much of a campground yet it has me returning at least twice a year since friends recommended it to me.

Beautiful area to hike. Quiet off the beaten path. There are 3 yurts available May-October (no dogs allowed in the yurts☹️. There are several tent sits available. Dogs are welcomed here! Every site has a fire pit and a picnic table.Highly recommend staying here if you are in the area!

We love this campground. It is a small family/dog friendly campground. Large clean pool my kids loved swimming in. Staff is super nice. Small arcade

We had really high hopes for this place based on all the glowing reviews, but boy were we disappointed. We pulled in and quickly learned that there must have been a weeks worth of dog poop all over our site. I had gone to the camp store to ask if they had a shovel to help me clean everything up, but they didn’t. My husband and I spent 35 minutes instead of setting up, picking up someone else’s dogs waste. Despite our efforts of clean up, we still couldn’t figure out the smell. Turns out, their dogs had also went all over the rocks and ledges leading to the stream.

We then noticed that our picnic table was less than a foot from our neighbors leaking septic dump and hose, which might have contributed to the rancid smell.

Live and learn right? We will just eat inside, but then we noticed that our fire pit was 6” away from the corner of our neighbors older motor home, which had exposed wood. While the friendly woman at the camp store encouraged us to have a fire anyways, (two of our planned meals required the fire) we opted not to, since we noticed cigarette butts and what was more dog waste in the fire pit itself.

We ended up really testing out the inside of our trailer, eating, hanging out, watching tv - not something we wanted to do this weekend. Luckily we had a scented candle stashed in the camper, so we closed up the windows and tent ends and tried to make the best of this. While the full hook ups were nice, it definitely wasn’t worth the smell or energy.

What saved the trip was the beautiful area and the awesome hiking trails.

Everyone was friendly despite the lack of maintenance and sanitary measures provided by the campground, and I do have to say it was nice and quiet all weekend, but maybe that was just because we were hauled up inside our camper. You can’t win them all, I think we will definitely be sticking to state campgrounds and forests... I’m really hoping we just got a bad site on an off weekend... :(

This is an interesting camp ground. As I am set up for bed I see one other large green tent that looks deserted. People left their left over food scraps in the grass by my camp so not only has my dog been eating it, I also hear coyotes. Won’t be surprised if I see a bear in the morning..

I have given this place a higher rating in the past but having returned multiple times I have to lower it. The positives are: the grounds are very well kept, most sites are a very nice size, owners are pleasant, very quiet and relaxing. If you have kids there is not a lot for them to do. As for the lack of stars...the owners are pleasant but are constantly policing everyone, I have been reprimanded (yes I mean reprimanded) because my dog was walking on the grass (on a leash), it seems they like it if you stay on your site at all times. all but one of the seasonal campers i encountered and was camping near are very rude, not all are well kept, one even mowed the grass at 730am on the site next owers paying no attention to my dog who was tied out or that he was shooting debris all over me and my stuff. The price is too high and the over all tone has gotten very odd. I MAY try again next year to see if it got better but could only tolerate once this year.

Close to the city and civilization, yet large enough to have nice trails and creeks to feel away from it all. The camping sites are very different so it’s useful to go in person and select the area. Parking is close, but some of the sites are also pretty close to each other so there is less privacy. It’s a good site to do a quick camping trip. Dogs are welcome on a leash.

We’ve stayed from F-Su. We got a tent spot and it was perfect since it was the furthest one away and there was no one near us which is probably why we loved it so much bc we were so isolated. a little disappointed in the site though, we found broken glass on the walking trail near our tent and by our fire pit which was really dangerous for our dogs. We would visit again though, we loved all the parks and hiking in the area and we left the camp for the day Saturday to hike in the area.