Best Cabin Camping near Island Heights, NJ

Atsion cabins are excellent rustic cabins situated directly on the water. They come in a variety of sizes accommodating up to 7 or 8 people.

They must be reserved in advance and a multiple night rental is necessary. They book quickly during the busy season. However, we rented for Halloween weekend and had it all to ourselves! No neighbors!

Nov 1 marks an end to cabin rentals until the Spring.

Large, screened in back porch with chairs over looks the water. Full kitchen with oven and fridge. Private bathroom and real bedrooms. Big, stone fireplace…. So don’t forget the wood.

Each cabin has it’s own outdoor cooking space and picnic table.

But we made a mistake! While there is electricity, there is NO heat or AC. Our last day was November 1st and it was COLD. Too cold to leave the fireplace for the bedrooms. Be aware of the weather and pack some good bedding. Linens were not provided.

I have stayed here many times over the years, usually for a long weekend.  Longer trips were spent there with my parents when I was a kid.   I prefer the south shore campsites to the north shore.  The sites on the south shore offer a little more privacy and aren't as crammed.  I'm particularly fond of the dog friendly loop, its a newer loop and the bathrooms are more modern than the others scattered around. 

We have also stayed in the camping shelters a few times and a cabin once.    The shelters offer no frills sleeping quarters with two bunks beds, so four beds and closet/pantry on both sides in the rear for food and gear, a wooden table in and pot belly stove for warmth or a one pot meal in the front room.  Bathrooms are in a separate building across the road and are shared with the other shelters occupants.  The exterior includes a fire pit, picnic table and a fire ring for larger meal prep.

The cabins are a two steps above the shelter with a full kitchen and bathroom with shower, but otherwise rustic, with three sets of bunk beds, a wooden table and two Adirondack chairs in front of a fire place.  The screened in porch at the rear of the cabin overlooks the lake and has plenty of room for camp chairs.   There is also a picnic table and a charcoal grill outside.

The beach is home to the cleanest, most wonderful lake I have ever set foot  in.  There are picnic tables and grills scattered all around the beach near the parking lot and it does get crowded in the summer months.  There is also a concession stand open in the summer months, serving light fare -- burgers, dogs, ice cream, soda & chips.

Atsion Family Campground

Off US 206 and about 1/2 a mile up Atsion Road in New Jersey’s Wharton State Forest, you’ll find the Atsion Family Campground. The facility is run by the Dept of Environmental Protection and offers Tent, Trailer and Group Sites. There are also Cabins for rent as well, but only available during the summer months, After Memorial Day until October. AFC is one of several campgrounds in WSF and is the largest with 50 camping sites. Amenities include a handicapped accessible restroom/shower building, several drinking water spigots, and a waste dump for trailers. There are no electric hook ups and cell service is low, but manageable. Plenty of sun (shady too) so bring your solar powered generators and cell signal boosters if you need to stay connected. AFC is also pet friendly, so bring your 4 legged furry family members, after registering them with the camp site.

The individual sites are spacious with a pic-nick table and fire ring grill. Some sites have lake-side water access, so bring your canoes and kayaks and reserve these sites (4, 8, 10, 12, 20 and 22) early as they are popular. The ground is sandy and relatively level for easy camp set up. Some sites are close to a roadway, so you do get some car noise, and like all unmonitored camp sites, loud, unruly campers can be lurking among the pines. Be sure to get your fire wood from the guy that lives across the street from the campground entrance. 5 bucks, on the honor system, a good amount of wood, open 24/7.

Nearby is the Atsion Recreation Area, which offers fishing, walking, biking and horseback trails, a life guard monitored beach by the lake with restrooms and snacks (Summer Months). Only 15 minutes away, a quick drive, is Batso Village, an old iron and glass community from the late 1700s to early 1900s. NJ State Park Rangers are working hard keeping the area clean, rehabilitated, and educational center allowing you to walk through the old buildings and time as you image what life was like back then. Wharton SF is huge, over 122,000 acres of sandy terrain, towering pine trees, lakes/rivers and off roading trails!! Y’all should come and play in the Pine Barrens

General: Smallish (64-site) county park campground. There are also three cabins. As soon as you turn off the main road to the park, all roads are dirt, which was a bit surprising. They were well-maintained and in dry weather, not a problem, but probably not if it was rainy. The campground is in five loops with the bathhouse located in the D Loop. 

Site Quality: Sites in Loops B-E all have pull-thru driveways. Sites are all level, very generous in size, and reasonably spaced apart for privacy. A lantern hook, picnic table, and fire ring complete each site. As mentioned, all roads and camper pads are dirt. There are some ADA sites but the only thing distinguishing them from others is their proximity to the bathroom. 

Bath/Shower House: Very clean. Soap and paper towels are provided. The only thing missing were hooks or shelves for toiletries but there was a large bench that could be used. Since it is located in the D Loop it would have been helpful to have pathways leading from the other loops. Did not use the shower so cannot comment. 

Activities/Amenities: There is a lake with a boat dock and a small boardwalk. Kayaking/Canoeing, fishing, and swimming. In the summer, canoe, kayak, paddle boats, and row boats are available for rental. Several short (longest one is 2.5 miles) hiking trails that are fairly well-marked but can be a bit confusing at times. Some sections of the trails were muddy due to swamps and bogs but passable. There is also a fitness trail. There is an archery range and a council ring (campfire). There is a dump station and laundry facility with brand-new washers and dryers (however, you need to pay using an app on your phone). The office is open until 9 pm and sells ice, firewood, and bait. There are age-appropriate playgrounds both in the campground and by the office. 

There are not a lot of camping opportunities in NJ, and this was a nice one. The campground was only about 20% occupied when we were there at the end of April, so our stay was a quiet one.

We stayed at Baker’s Acres Campground in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, for a weekend in mid-August. So did the rains of Hurricane Henri! 

Our site(#Zoo-1) was a level back-in with 50-amp electric, water, sewer, and cable. It was easy to pull in and accommodates larger rigs. The hook-ups were all well-maintained and worked fine. We had plenty of room to fit our car too. The site included a picnic table and fire ring. My favorite thing about this campground is that most of the sites have plenty of trees and shrubs for semi-privacy, shade, and a rustic feel. 

This campground has been family run for over 50-years and has an interesting history that’s worth reading more about. Our site is located across from the pickle ball court which used to be a petting zoo(now the site# should make sense, right?). We came because we wanted to experience one of New Jersey’s oldest campgrounds. We liked the interesting vignettes they created around the campground as well as the goldfish pond near the office and store. 

Baker’s Acres is well-maintained. The amenities include a swimming pool, lots of sports courts/fields, and a bunch of family-friendly scheduled activities. There is a camp store with all the usual items as well as bath and laundry facilities. The wifi service was ok, but costs$1 per day per device. Our Verizon cell service worked fine. 

The front office staff were all friendly and we love that, especially when checking in at a new campground. 

Drive time to Tuckerton Seaport is about 10-minutes and Long Beach Island is about 35-minutes depending on traffic. There are plenty of stores within a 5-mile drive if you should need anything including Walmart, super markets, convenience stores, and several restaurants. 

Our only minor negative was that our site was sandy dirt which created a bit of a mess, especially after the rain. It is the Jersey shore, after all. This would have been 5 stars if the site had gravel, grass, or was finished with concrete. It’s a pet peeve, but I hate having to constantly clean up to keep the sand out of our RV. 

This is a great old-fashioned campground close to LBI. We’ll can’t wait to go back!

   We stayed in New Jersey for our 5th campground on the East Coast: Turkey Swamp Park in Freehold. This is a County park.

 Near some Revolutionary War battlefields.

 I really liked this park! They have 2283 acres. A 17 acre lake. Some hiking trails & a nice campground! The sites are all pullthrough. There's lots of vegetation for "privacy". We had a site on the perimeter, which are forest views. Only problem is none of the roads are paved. All are packed sand. We could tell it rained recently because of the muddy tracks. Fortunately it didn't rain while we were there!

  Shower/bathrooms are clean, but dated. They're checked regularly. The bath house is for the entire campground. 3 out of the 4 women's were working. There's a shared dressing area. 

There's a laundry that doesn't take quarters. EPay. 

There's a nice playground in the campground.

 They have 3 cabins for rent, with forest views.

 The lake has fishing & boat rentals. No gas motors. There's no swimming at the lake. Cell service was fair.. No WiFi. 

They have an archery range. 

    This was my favorite campground on our trip! I really enjoyed camping here! There's a rustic retro quality to the place. I adored the campsites & I didn't see any really bad ones.

Flat site, no tent bed, enough space to park two cars. Campsite decent size, but some don't have clear boundaries to neighbors, and sometimes not optimally configured (e.g., the site next door's fire pit was placed on the edge of its site/right next to my site). Could hear the traffic on Rte 72 at night despite being a half mile away.

Bathrooms were clean and stocked, warm/hot water available. No issues with firepit, water, plenty of tinder nearby. Bought firewood at the office for $7, but there is plenty of dead wood lying around outside the campsite. Picnic tables were somewhat hacked/battoned for kindling, but many sites had a log lying around for such purpose.

Went during the week and there were only 3 other campsites in use, ran into very few people on the trails. Ticks were definitely present but wasn't too crazy - found 2 on me in 3 days, no mosquito bites... thanks permethrin!