Shawme Crowell State Forest

This state forest campground is located just over the Sagamore bridge, across the Cape Cod canal. It's a basic, no-frills campground, with more than half the sites designated as tent only; a few of the sites are designated for tent/pop-up. The tent sites tend to be on short spurs that may be hilly and uneven, so would be difficult to navigate with a trailer or larger vehicle. If you don't have camping gear, there are 6 yurts available for rent, though they were not available during the 2020 covid season. The bathrooms offer showers and are undergoing some renovations in 2020. No hookups, but there is a dump station. 

  

If you have young kids, they'll love the new playground area. That's really about the only attraction within the campground, though there are some hiking and biking trails. The Cape Cod Canal Bikeway is nearby and provides easy biking and exploration. If you're looking for a beach experience and you'll be there a few days, consider buying a weekly parking pass. During the week, it may be worthwhile to cross back across the Sagamore bridge to visit Scusset Beach State Reservation, but weekend summer traffic will likely make that prohibitive.

  

If you forgot food, Market Basket is a short distance away.

Stay here because you want to explore the area

Great forest. Nothing like the rest of cape cod. Lots of pines and trails through the woods. Plenty of space/availability. 

Shame Crowell 

The campground at Shawme Crowell is fairly large with a lot of sites to choose from as well as plenty for bigger groups. Most of the sites themselves are also on the larger size. The showers are strategically placed in the middle so could be a longer walk depending on what site you are at. The campground is located in the adorable town of Sandwich, full of beautiful colonial houses and cute shops and restaurants. It's also in Cape Cod so getting to Provincetown, only takes about an hour. Location is great however, I found the traffic from nearby roads, highways and maybe even an airport to be surprisingly loud. If that doesn't bother you than should be a fine place to stay and dog friendly!

Great Location

My husband and I love Cape Cod. During the summer, you can’t beat camping here. You’re close to great beaches, you can bike the whole stretch of the cape. There’s a ton to do out and about, so even though the sites here are pretty uninspiring (no views or much happening right around the campground) you likely won’t be hanging out there for long.

Just be very careful of ticks! This is Cape Cod, so take tick prevention seriously.

The reason I wouldn’t give this a 5 star review is how close the sites are to each other. We (unluckily) were next to a couple who stayed up late talking, and even though we tried to set up our tent as far from them as we could, we became intimately aware of every detail of their lives!

Great location. Nice rangers. Basic sites. 

We stayed here in October and it was a little too chilly for us to camp but we gave it a shot. The campground wasn't too big and the sites offered a lot of privacy, and some hiking trails within the campground. Would definitely recommend!

Nice remote campground

I would love this place and give 5 stars, IF they didn’t have gypsy moth caterpillar infestation in the spring. I do intend to visit at the end of summer one year.

Everything else about this place is top notch.

Cheapest way to stay at the cape

I like this campground because it is close to home.  There isn't much to do here within the campground.  It has two areas.  The one nearer the camp entrance is smaller than the second.  The second one has a playground while the first one does not.  I would not recommend the first area if you have small children for this reason.  The playground is being revamped and looks awesome so far.  Unfortunately the bathroom right next to it is closed while the playground is being updated.  It is very hilly but many people enjoy riding their bikes here.  When driving, be careful of them.  I've hiked the trails and you have to be careful. They aren't always well maintained or marked.  They are right next to the main highway so you get car noise and can usually see them as well.  I find them to be uninteresting.  There is no swimming on site either.  On the positive side, the campground is within driving distance of great fishing, biking and tourist areas.

Good but a little boring

The cons:
Very basic. 
No electricity at sites.
Small camp store

The pros:
Decent privacy.  
Not too loud. 
Wonderful location 
Awesome playground.
Price cant be beat

Great for the price

Good value for the money. Could hear the traffic on rte 3 in the background at night. No electricity on sites. Good for a couple of nights, but wouldn't want to stay longer than that.

Small and cute

Tents, yurts, powered or not powered. You can have remote-feeling sites, or ones that are close in…and all are “floored” with nice flat cover of dry pine needles from the towering white pines local to this area. A few miles from the north coast of Cape Cod (town of Sandwich), close to beaches and to a lovely long narrow “board walk” across a sea grass / marshland. You can have a campsite with a mountain bike trails leaving your space and ride through miles of trails. You can walk to fabulous shower and bath houses; you can also rent yurts!

My favorite campground in Mass! 

We have stayed here during our exploration around cape cod. 
It's a but farther away from the main location, but we loved the quiet and tranquility of this campground. 

Hot showers available, but the bathroom is not thoroughly cleaned. I use the same shower stall for 3 nights straight and the same soap was stuck on the exact same spot on the wall for 3 nights straight. The floor is old-dirty due to age, but the shower curtains could use a wash or two.

Dumpster is near the dump station, and that's the only one I found. There are 3 dumpsters and we're overfilled for 3 days. Dump station was clean. 

Camp store is near the entrance and it is really hilly to get to on a bike, and a bit too far to walk with a bundle of woods. 

Campground 2 (the one in the back), has a really nice playground. The bathroom next to it was clogged when I was there.  

At least on weekdays when we were there, it was quiet except for a few revving cars at the nearby roads at night. Staff were all very nice and friendly. 

Quiet away from the crowd

Each site is nestled in between pines.  Although this is definitely dry camping-water spigots are conveniently placed between sites. Bug spray and fans are a definite when sitting outside due to mosquitoes. If there’s not a full moon be sure to have a reliable flashlight to navigate pathways. The restrooms do have hot showers although unkept and unclean-I was informed they are being upgraded. The woman that are employed here were extremely accommodating, polite and helpful-(hopefully you can read between the lines in this statement).   The campground abuts Heritage Museum and Gardens which is 100 acres of well maintained flowering gardens. Several unique buildings exist on the rolling paved walkways, each with a theme of antique cars, toys etc-there is an admission fee. There is a climbing and propelling area in the back of the property, however neighboring residents discouraged it from staying open-The Pilot House Restaurant as well as Fisherman’s View offer a variety of delicious appetizers, entrees, and martinis. And on a last note -check out Treehouse Brewery-great beer and another beautiful view-log onto their website to preorder tickets.