Cranberry Lake

Tons of free campsites and lean-to everywhere.

Some with picnic tables and fire area.

First arrive type! 

I camped while hiking the full CL50 loop.

You can also swim or go fishing!

So far this has been the best campground we have experienced in NY. Cranberry Lake is massive and absolutely gorgeous. The people that work here are very nice and helpful. Try to get a site on the water. Pretty good privacy site to site. The hike up and around Bear Mountain was a good workout and fun experience for our whole family (littlest is 6). We cannot wait to get back there and camp again!

First thing about Cranberry Lake: the staff are wonderful. We arrived when the check in staff had the day off. Not a problem we only needed wood which was available just down the street from the campground. No need, the ranger, who let us know the overworked staff was off, brought it to our site once he had figured out the key. Sweet. Our site was on the uphill slope so we had some road noise due to that. We walked a bit of the campground until we realized it's larger than first assumed. I will say do your homework, check out the site photos which you can easily find online. Get a waterfront site but be aware the privacy isn't great at many sites, at least the ones we saw. There is a shower house which is great but be ready to drive to it, as I said the campground is bigger than expected! Some sites are super close which would be great for groups who may like to visit or it could be a nightmare with loud folks. The lake is beautiful. We weren't set up for it but if you can plan for the sunset view I think it's worth rescheduling your trip for the right site. Brand new sewer dump area for folks who need it.

This is a Great Lake for kayaking, clear and calm, lots of nooks and crannies to explore. And if you can get a lakeside site, you can launch from your site, enjoy the beautiful sunsets, watch the ducks...but if you aren’t lucky (or early) enough to get a lake site, forget it. There is one narrow access path in Loop 1. No parking, and no connecting paths between loops. We were in Loop 2, which meant dragging our kayaks across someone else’s site and down the road a bit to get to the launch area. And the sunsets? We had to scope out which site was vacant each night to get a glimpse. The campground needs to designate one campsite per loop for lake access for campers in that loop.

Bring your boats! There are a few tent sites where you can launch your boat. I want to live here I love it so much.