Lake Francis State Park Campground

I tent camped at site 6 for two nights in early September for a trail volunteer event for the Cohos Trail I and had an awesome stay.

For facilities, there is a camp office (though hours were not consistent), basic camp store, coin op showers, coin op laundry, a big dish cleaning station, and clean bathrooms.

For activities, this site is awesome for fly fishing folks since it’s a short walk from one of the best spots in NH.

I saw lots of folks kayaking and canoeing and there’s a public boat ramp a short walk from the campground. There was a sign for rentals but I didn’t see any available. This may be for earlier in the season.

The sites vary in terms of privacy. The lakefront sites were spectacular but you are close to your neighbors. I was in site 6, in one of the small loops off the waterfront drive. These spots were close together but were separated by some brush to make them feel more secluded. The tent sites in the outer loops looked to offer more privacy.

This campsite was full the weekend I was there and very lively during the day but very quiet and peaceful in the evening.

Lake Francis is way up in NH so this does feel remote. The main activities are hiking, fishing (both fly and from the boat), and I saw a host of folks ATVing.

I would definitely come back on account of the great fishing and peacefulness at night.

Everyone is looking for something different when they camp. But I still don't understand the love for this place. The campsites are on top of each other. I am listening to the teens swear at each other on one side and the people on the other side are watching a show that I can follow along with them. This is a one night stop over for me, thank goodness. The lake is a nice lake. There are lots of nice lakes to camp around that don't require driving to the border of Canada. If you require 30 amp service for your "CAMPING" while you leave your outdoor lights on so the rest of us can "appreciate" not being able to see the sky, well, I am super sorry that the hookups are not to your liking. As my husband says, 'why would you drive hours to sit closer to strangers than you do at home?' I think I have a pair of earplugs in my bag, thankfully. If you like to fish or ATV, I guess this it the spot. Facilities are very nice. I guess people like to do laundry while they camp? For a week? Who does laundry more than once a week?

This is a gem! Off the beaten path way up north in Coos country and absolutely stunning. The only downside to our experience was that our site was directly in front of another site, which required driving through our site to get to the one behind us. Poor design for sure.

That being said, the park staff were incredibly kind and did their best to address the annoyance. The lake was incredibly low so it was a good thing we weren't trying to launch a boat. The bathrooms were clean but beware, the shower has so much water pressure it might take your skin off! But the water was super hot which I appreciated. 

The sites were well manicured and clean. The dogs really enjoyed the lush green grass! While it didn't rain during our stay, this site would have been decent if it had. It was late in the fall season so it wasn't super crowded but there was a bit of noise (fireworks and gunshots) in the vicinity. There are a few trails you can hike but the park is mostly centered on lake-based activities.

We spent two wonderful mid-week nights in our 25' converted shuttle bus.  We stayed in site 32 (no hookups}.  It was a grassy site surrounded by trees and brush, so pretty private.  It was not on the lake, there are about 7 RV sites right on the lake with full hookups which are great but they do not have the privacy of 32.

The staff was great, cheerful and helpful.  Like everyone else, they are short staffed this year so they had to cut out the canoe/kayak rentals.  The woman at the desk/shop gave us two names to call for kayak rentals,  I called North Country Paddle (603-538-6565) and they were very helpful and we had two kayaks delivered within 40 minutes.

The camp store had very limited supplies, but did have ice, firewood, t-shirts, sweatshirts and candy bars.

There is a store -  Young's General Store less than 3 miles away that says they "have pretty much everything".  We didn't need anything so we didn't stop in, but it looked like a place that would have what you'd need while camping.

Bathrooms and showers are fairly new and well maintained.  Hot showers are $0.25/3 minutes.  I must say that I've never had a shower that felt like I was being power washed ;-)  Great water pressure!

If you are into ATV'ing, this is a great area for that as there is a large trail network and there is a large outfitter - Bear Rock Adventures- which rents ATVs less than 4 miles from the campground.  Some of the camp sites are accessible by ATVs.

Overall, a nice place to be!