Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Tully Lake

Tully Lake Campground is located in Royalston, MA, which is a northern part of Central Massachusetts, near the New Hampshire border. It is a State managed campground, and reservations must be made through Massachusetts Trustees of Reservations. There are some prime camp sites with direct access to the lake, but suggest you be prepared to call early in the morning of the first day State Campground reservations can be made, if you want one of these!

This is a "Carry In" campground. You park at the entrance, register with Ranger. Large wooden wheelbarrows are provided to bring your gear to your camp site. (This means no noise or disturbances from cars entering your camp sites.) There are individual sites, and 2 group sites, if you are camping with a group. Canoes are available to rent to explore Tully Lake. Most parts of the lake are suitable for swimming, and some camp sites offer direct entry into the lake for swimming, canoeing, or kayaking. If you'd like to hike with children, there is an easy hike close to the entrance, along Doane's Falls, a series of 5 waterfalls along an ascending path through a wooded area. The views are beautiful, and it's not unusual to spot professional nature photographers at various points along the waterfalls. Bring your cameras or smart phones to capture some of these breathtaking views! And of course there are longer, more challenging trails for more experienced hikers. There are family oriented programs offered, and dogs are allowed, on leash only. Cell service is spotty to non-existent for some providers within the campground. But a short walk or drive away from the campground you can get connected again.

The bathrooms are located near the entrance to the Park, and include flush toilets as well as coin operated, hot showers, open 24/7. There are sinks beside the building, where campers are asked to wash their dishes, rather than at the camp site. A fire ring and picnic table are provided at each camp site. If you've forgotten any gear or need groceries, there's a Walmart just a 15 minute drive away, open until 12 midnight.

The staff are quite friendly, helpful and informative. If you enjoy "old fashioned" family tent camping, without the noise and presence of cars and RV's near your camp site, (or cell phones!) this is the place for you. Enjoy!

Pros- very clean, bathrooms kept up with regularly. Staff is very nice. They offer boat rentals, canoes, paddle boats and kayaks. Store on site and they do activities during the week. Definitely more kids friendly I think. They do have a pool, park, dog park, lake and food trucks visits at times. They have community fires and dances. Pet friendly. Wood available on site.

Cons- loud cars going all night, some lights in your face. Some people tend to fly down the road on golf carts. You can also hear the main road from the open style campsite. No privacy. People will walk threw your tent site. They will talk during the night while doing this, smoking seems to be allowed at pool. No fires between 9am-5pm.

Overall we had a good time.

Score a campsite at this Army Corps of Engineer owned/Trustees of the Reservation operated campground and you can either paddle or walk into your site. Trustees membership offers a small discount on the rate.

There's a canoe/kayak launch near the campground, so if you have a waterfront site you may choose to paddle your gear over. Some of the sites do not have waterfront access, however, and you'll definitely want to take advantage of the carts provided. Campsites are very basic, with only a picnic table and fire ring. 

Canoes and kayaks are available for rental. Volleyball and horseshoes are near the entrance. You may purchase firewood. The bathrooms offer flush toilets and a single shower on each site, plus a dishwashing sink outside. From some of the sites, this will be a long walk during the night. The mural inside is beautiful. 

From the main entrance, collect a cart, load your gear, and following the appropriate divergent path from the parking lot or bath house (they are color coded). Some of the sites are located on a small rise; I suspect that was appreciated the night 4" of rain fell recently! One site gives you an island to yourself.

Cell coverage is pretty close to absent or poor in most of the area, so download any maps you might want (driving, trail, geocaching) before you arrive.

Near the dam is a larger boat launch with parking. I was there in July and wildflowers were blooming. A disc golf course is also near the dam and was seeing a fair amount of activity. We hiked the 4-mile loop around Tully Lake. The highlight was Doane's falls, a very quick walk from the campground area. There's no formal swimming area and you can't swim at the boat launches, but you are able to swim from your campsites if you so desire.

I took most of my photos during a December visit (which is why the picnic tables are often resting against trees), but returned in July.

This place is pretty awesome. They have an ice cream shop attached to their office/store, mini golf just outside of it too. There is an amphitheater for concerts and shows throughout the summer. RV Spots, tent camping spots, a dog park, badminton, basketball, horseshoe, shuffleboard, the works. The bathrooms are beautifully redone and clean. The laundry room is pretty good too. Its close to Brattleboro and Putney and just across the border to New Hampshire. I'd most definitely stay again when I'm in the area. The other guest were very nice and we could also have packages delivered.

After scouting this campground in December, I was able to score a last minute reservation of a waterfront site in July. As a caveat, waterfront in this instance was more of a water view as the lake was on the other side of the campground road and a large open area with trees. Campsites are$17/night (no hookups, dump station available) with a significant surcharge for out-of-state campers leading to a$54/night charge, which is no bargain when you consider nearby private campgrounds are closer to$40 with full hookups.

There are two loops to the campground. The North loop(sites 101-150) offers more waterfront sites where one can easily launch a canoe or kayak directly from the site; note, however, that the sites in the teens are on a rise above the water, although I did see some campers had pulled their boats up along the shore even below those sites. The North loop also has a small beach; for the East loop, you’ll either need to walk to the day use are, which features a larger beach, or drive around to it. There is no swimming apart from the two beach areas. There are numerous spots along the lakefront where you can fish, catching panfish close to shore. Bass, trout(stocked in spring), chain pickerel are larger species.

Bathrooms in the north loop are old and in desperate need of renovation, enough that I would think twice about a site here if I were not self-contained. East loop bathrooms have better flooring and facilities. I preferred the largest bath house, near the waterfront. Flush toilets. Water available from faucet. Showers are available and free, but only 1/bath house. Only a couple of the bathhouses have dishwashing sinks.

I was in site 59, with a nice view of the lake. I endured a major downpour and 12-hr rain storm(I’m not sure how much rain we got, but nearby relatives had 4” rain in the same time, so that puts it in perspective) and the next morning site 58 was underwater with a brook running through it. I didn’t explore the north loop after the storm, but this site in the east loop bore the brunt of the storm.

Cell phone coverage was nearly nonexistent. We could get maybe 1 bar on Verizon, sometimes 3G, sometimes not even that. Texts took their time going through. Leaving the campground, I had better luck getting 4G if I headed to Winchendon rather than to south to Baldwinville. Download maps for offline use if you expect to explore the area (such as Tully Lake, Doanes Falls).

There are ice cream and burger/hot dog restaurants a few miles in either direction(Lickity Splitz, Lee’s Hot Dog). Winchendon had a Family Dollar. Both towns have Dunkin’ and gas stations.

Miles and miles of country/forests surrounding pine acres, however pulling in you’ll soon realize how much goes on inside the campground. AWESOME pools (very kid friendly), parks, dog park, hiking trails and even sections off of the trails to find your own private beach on the water. Went there in a tent rather than our camper, which turned out to be better. Tent sites were very dispersed and way up on the top of the mountain. Camper sites seemed a little close but worth the sacrifice due to the incredible environment. On the more expensive side but worth the money if you have kids. Another big plus was the abundance of wood to get from fallen trees (not having to pay for the expensive bundles at the store) and the size of the fire pits