White Lake is just gorgeous 💜 Family-oriented campground. We went with family and stayed up a little on the late side and were haggled a little by staff to put our fire out and stop talking. There are very few times that we ever do that but we hadn’t seen the family we were with in quite a while and the days just didn’t seem long enough to spend time with them (: Sites are spacious with plenty of elbow room!

What a beautiful Lake and campground. Bathrooms we're clean and we'll stocked. The beach was clean and had lots of ducks swimming near by. The kids enjoyed ice cream tacos from the snack shack. We'll be back!

Went up for Columbus Day weekend in 2018. Even though it was raining, it was a beautiful location for the fall. The lake is quiet at that time and few people are around - but it wasn’t deserted. The bathrooms were clean and had stalls, showers, and real sinks(!). The campsite itself was beautiful. We had a spot right next to the water. We pitched our tent and it started to rain the entire night. Somehow we managed to start a fire (even though it took about two hours). The next morning we woke up and steam was rising out of the water. It was quite stunning so we decided to go in for a morning swim! The water was still and warmer than the air, the trees were full of color, and it was truly an incredible time to be up there. They had kayaks and cables for rent by the beach but the rentals weren’t open that late into the season.

This campground is super kid friendly, a nice trail to take a walk/bike ride, A lake to swim, canoe, kayak in. A playground for kiddos to run extra energy off. only down fall it’s a state park so the beach area can be very packed during operating hours. I personally find spots along the trail and let kids play in water were it’s not so crowded. Overall I love it and my kids enjoy it. We started 2yrs ago and we plan on making it our summer camp spot. Also we tent it and the camping sites are pretty big and neighbors aren’t to close. 

happycamper

This is a wonderful place with lots of trees and sites that are reasonably spaced, if not all that private. There is a nice beach and a trail that goes around the entire small lake. It’s close to hiking trails and fishing spots and is clean and well run. There are flush toilets and hot showers available. We took the kids there for years and we all loved it.

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.

1. 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.

Best for families, HUGE campground.

Beach is beautiful and long on White Lake. Lots of trails to walk on and explore. Playgrounds and a little store to grab snacks and whatever you may have forgotten.

Sites are kinda close together, but overall were clean. Would come back here again for sure! Close to Conway and right off rte 16.

This is a VERY LARGE campground, it will be a trek to get to the bathrooms or showers or swimming. You do NOT get to park at the lake if you are a camper. So that will be a long walk. However, the sites were spacious and felt semi private, I had a site next to the bathroom, which was very helpful and I felt confident letting my children go to the bathroom alone.

Primitive large campsites, no hookups…no water, no cable, no electric. Clean bathrooms and pay showers. Been camping here for over 30 years..in a tent originally and now a 30 ft trailer..been to many campgrounds with lots of amenities and activities and our kids would rather be here than anywhere else. Now our children will bring their children here, it feels like our second home.

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.