White Lake State Park Campground

This was our first visit here as NH state parks open reservations a year in advance so the good parks and best sites book up earlier than we can plan that far ahead for. Lucked out and booked Fri-Mon with just a couple months in advance. It was an exceptionally hot weekend and the lake was mobbed with day visitors and campers alike. The lake was beautiful—warm and crystal clear, soft sand, with a trail around it. Beach was a 10 minute walk from our site and we were not even half way into the campground. We did drive to the lot one of the late afternoons as our 5 year old gets tired and struggles to keep up on a small single speed bike. I’m not sure if campers can ordinarily park there.

One thing I was disappointed with was that there was a road (depot road) quite close to the outer loop of Area 1. We could see it from our camp site (1-77) through the trees and although not heavily traveled, some cars/trucks were quite loud and would speed by and scare my kids when biking who would think it was someone on the camp road about to hit them. This road doesn’t appear on the site maps, it just shows route 16, which feels deceptive. I would not have booked it if I saw that on the map, I don’t want to hear or see traffic when camping in a state park. I’m glad we were just there 2.5 days days.

We camp in a small r-pod and needed to use the dump station. The latch to the sewer cap was locked closed with a pad lock submerged in a puddle of...I don’t even want to know. I had to go to the registration office to get the key. Thank god I had latex gloves as I literally had to plunge my hand in the puddle to unlock it. I’ve never seen a dump station locked down like that and such a health hazard. Dumpsters were also locked! Had to throw our one bag of trash on the roof. Took our recycling back home as they don’t recycle either. I’m not sure if we will be back next year unless we can get Area 2, which looked really nice when we biked through there to check it out.

Last weekend, our family stayed at White Lake State Park for four days. While initially drawn to the campground because of its proximity to Chocorua, one of the most rewarding hikes in the Whites, we barely left the campground. We spend our days enjoying the park's pleasant beach and clear water.

Our kids loved padding their kayak around the small lake. The shallow water allowed them to explore safely.  We set up a hammock on the beach and enjoyed resting while watching them play.

A 2-mile walking path surrounds the lake and can be easily accessed from the campground.  Here we spotted a family of ducks, some wild lilies, and lots of interesting conifers. 

Pros:

• Beautiful beach within an easy walk
• Gorgeous mountain views
• Near some incredible hiking trails up Chocorua 
• Easy spots to launch kayaks, canoes, and other small boats
• Well-shaded sites with lots of hammock-prefect trees.
• Grills and picnic tables available at the beach. Trash is carry-in, carry-out.
• Two large playgrounds entertained the kids when they needed a break from swimming.
• "Camp clean" bathrooms. Yes, they did get dirty on the busy weekends, and I would not consider them clean if they were in my home. But they were cleaned frequently and at a high standard for most campgrounds.
• The dishwashing area was clean and very easy to use. 
• A large field provided opportunities to play soccer, frisbee, and tag. 

Cons:

• Very crowded on the weekend. All of the sites were booked on the weekend and the campground became loud and smokey. By Sunday night, we had the campground to ourselves and enjoyed it much more.
• Rodents rummaged sites for food. Make sure you store all your food and trash in your car and not in your tent! The resident raccoon knows how to open tents and knock over food bins. The chipmunks will nibble holes in your trash bags to get interesting scraps.
• Our site was near the bathhouse. The lights from the bathhouse were very bright at night and some traffic to and from disturbed our sleep. 
• There were no lifeguards on duty.

Campground Review

Friends and I have started a Memorial Day weekend camping tradition and during a visit here last fall two of us decided this would be our destination. White Lake has large sites, a gorgeous lake with a pair of resident loons, and proximity to the White Mountains National Forest (hiking galore, river, history), the Saco River (tubing, etc.), and Conway/North Conway tourist attractions.

The lake is clear, the swimming area is shallow for quite a distance so you can feel comfortable with kids, and there is a separate boat launch area. If you don’t have your own boats, they offer rentals of kayaks and paddle boats. On the day you leave, you can enjoy the beach, but you will have to park in the registration parking lot. You may want to bring bicycles or plan to walk a lot to get to and from the beach.

There are multiple loops, some offering water views. The water view sites are just that…views. There are some short trails leading to the lake from the sites, but for most of them they are down a little hill. A few of them even offer lean-tos.  Most of them can accommodate smaller RVs as well as tents. There are no hookups, but there is a dump station. Sites are close together. There are also a group camping area and a few family camping sites. Although many of the sites are reservable online, some of them are held back for walk-ins. Our sites are now first-come, first-served, but we reserved them last year. Memorial Day weekend, there were still vacancies, but during my Labor Day visit last year sites were full very early Friday morning. Quirky thing about the sites...the maps and the posts in loop 1 just show the basic number, but in the reservation system, loop one numbers are in the 100s (i.e. site 44 becomes site 144) No pets.

The bathrooms at the beach include flush toilets, but no showers. In the campground there are coin-operated (2 minutes/$0.25), hot and clean showers.  I also noticed that showers are available in the bathroom next to the campground store/office, but they are locked when the office is closed, so I didn’t get a chance to check them out. The bathroom serving our area (we were in A loop, sites 44 & 46) could use some maintenance. The toilets don’t flush well at all; the flushing mechanisms need to be replaced. They need to fix this (it was a problem when the season closed last fall, too) to earn that 5th star)

Our neighbor ran his generator ALL.NIGHT.LONG. the first night, but a ranger spoke with him the next day and he shut it off. He ran it during the 5-8pm time slot after that, but we didn’t have to deal with it overnight again. Glad that they addressed it. Your noise experience will vary depending on your neighbors. There are a lot of families here.

Our sites were large and level, but after we pitched our screen tent we realized there were ground nesting bees all over. They didn’t bother us, but it was disconcerting to see them lining the edge of the screen. A little online research showed us that they nest in the spring. It was late spring, so black flies were our biggest challenge! Plan accordingly.

There are some small stores, a gas station, and a Dunkin Donuts just outside the campground. Full shopping needs can be met in Conway and North Conway. During my two stays here (as an adult; apparently our family camped here when I was a kid, too), we kayaked, swam, hiked to Champney Falls, and another hike in the Ossippee area, and went tubing on the Saco (do this earlier in the year when there’s plenty of water on the river!). Mt Chocura is a great nearby hike.

Product Review: Midland Radio  X-Talker T75VP3 Two-Ray Radio.

As a ranger for the Dyrt, I sometimes  have fun opportunities to try out equipment while camping. For this particular trip, I was camping with several others and we anticipated times when we’d split up for a bit or hike at different paces, so it seemed like a great opportunity to test the Midland Radio X-Talker T75VP3 Two-way radio. I found it more challenging than I anticipated just to decide which radios to test. I had to learn a whole new vocabulary to understand the implications of the different specifications; once I received it, I needed to read the manual to figure out the various menu options and how to make the changes. I have a copy of the manual downloaded to my phone for easy reference!

Here’s why I chose this package:

• 1. I liked that the radios have rechargeable batteries and a charging base, both via USB. If the battery dies and you need a back-up, you can use AAA batteries. They charged quickly and I found the battery life was quite long on stand-by.
• 2. They have long-range capability with high and low power settings, though you need ideal conditions to maximize this.
• 3. I could use it on low power without a license.

4. Weather: you can find the local weather forecast as well as receive weather alerts. I may not have cell service everywhere, but I can generally get the radio feed.

Real life:

It worked well over a mile with a combination of lake and trees. I arrived before others and went off to explore, so I left a radio at camp and asked them to radio me when they arrived. When we went hiking in the White Mountains, part of our group went faster than the others, so to radio allowed us to keep in touch even while traveling separately. These are not the staticky transmissions of my childhood walkie-talkies; messages are transmitted clearly and easily. We didn’t encounter any traffic on the radios, so we didn’t bother with the privacy codes.

A friend and I decided to camp here before a backpacking trip in the Whites, to cut down on morning-of driving time. Our site, #02 on Loop 2, was in very close proximity to all of the neighboring sites. We had children on several sides, and a rowdy group of adult men on another side. Quiet hours are supposed to start at 10:00pm, but our rowdy male neighbors were up, playing music, talking loudly, and singing, until midnight. Then, just when we thought they were ready to settle in, they turned on a headlamp aimed directly into our tent. We are both very experienced car campers and backcountry campers, but even we struggled to get any rest through all the noise and light. The staff drove by a few times in a golf cart but never stopped to encourage this group to quiet down or use a little etiquette/common sense with their headlamp use. It wouldn't have been so much of a problem if the sites weren't SO close to each other. I attached a photo to show just how closely all the sites are situated; that's my backpacking tent, for scale.

My husband and I took my Dad camping for Father’s Day this year at White Lake State Park Campground. We enjoyed every minute! There were definitely a lot of people there, but there were enough trees between each site to give at least a little bit of privacy. We stayed at site 28 in Area 1 (there are two sets of sites within the campground). Each site has a picnic table and a fire ring with a metal grate. We were about a minute away from a restroom, which was clean and well-maintained. There was also a water spigot across the way from our site.

White Lake is gorgeous. We brought a kayak and a few stand up paddleboards with us to use. There is a sandy beach with lots of space and picnic tables that also looked well-maintained. The beach and swimming area were very popular! Right next to the beach there is a restroom and changing room facility. I believe there is a store on the opposite end.

We really enjoyed our one-night stay at White Lake State Park Campground. We will definitely return!

A great family campground just South of Conway, NH. Close to groceries, the outlets, plenty of restaurants. Across the street to the North is the fabulous Rosie's Diner, a homey place with amazing food and home-baked bread. Seriously their toast and corned beef hash is awesome. Also just across the street from the entrance to the South is a Dollar General with just about anything a camper could want in a pinch, including beer and hot dogs.

The camp itself has a store by the gatehouse well stocked with various items (bug spray, skillet, firewood, sunscreen, sodas) and souvenir Tees and Sweatshirts. There is another store on the beach with the candy, floats and toys. They also have charcoal in just the right size to grill on one of the available charcoal hibachis, scattered among the picnic tables on the beach.

The lake itself is unreal, with the mountains in the background it just feels incredibly peaceful and serene, keeping in mind I mostly visited around dawn and dusk and the Memorial Day clouds and rain kept it pretty low-key. I've seen photos of the beach on hot sunny days in summer and it looks packed with swimmers.

Sites were fairly standard- dirt floor with gravel packed in around the circle fire rings. We grilled right on the grate provided. Big picnic tables are provided on each site. All sites are wooded with plenty of trees to get a good tarp, and lots of options for hammock placement. Our site 1-32a was huge, and the driveway was a rather steep hill. Our site was not water view but we drove around that area to get a look and they are gorgeous.

While we were there there were tons of families around. Bicycles are a good idea since the gatehouse is a pretty good hike away from the camping areas, and you need to drop your trash off each night in the dumpsters that are located there. Showers were coin op. Hot, good pressure and about as clean as you could expect during mud season.

If you arrive between 1 and 8 pm, you check in at the office, but they have a slot for after-hours arrivals.

No pets are allowed here. Bring your bug spray, citronella candles and smoky firewood- the bugs here are no joke. But if you come prepared you can get by with minimal bites.