Best Tent Camping near Berne, NY

Me and my friends get a group site at least once a year. It's an amazing place with really great staff that care about the safety of everyone and keeping the areas clean. We always have an amazing time here. The views are great and we have never had any issues. 

First time I went it was intimidating because I had never camped in an all tent camping site with no running water or public restroom areas. However, as soon as I got acclimated, I loved it. There are outhouses stationed at different areas all around, and bear boxes for every group. There are bears around so use the boxes seriously. 

There are a number of rivers and little waterfalls that are always nice to visit. I plan to go there again very soon!

The hike in was a fairly easy 1.3 to the csmpground. The sites were huge and spread out. Although we could kind of see our neighbors if we tried, we were far enough away that we weren't looking at them all weekend. SO PEACEFUL! Uou will hear the bard owls call at night and not much else. Sites 11, 8, and 9 are pretty set back and private.

Amenities include:

1. The rangers deliver wood to your site
2. The bear lockers are roomy and clean and could double as storage to keep items out of the rain (highly recommend reviewing being "bear aware" as we had a sighting in our neighboring site and not all other campers are bear smart and left food/trash out even though rangers gave reminders).
3. The composting toilets were so spacious and clean you could sleep on the floor in an emergency!
4. Each site has a fire ring and a picnic table.

There are plenty of options for hiking including two nearby falls, a section of the AT, and of course the summit. The summit lodge offers breakfast & lunch. Although abut pricey, the large fire place, friendly hiker conversations, and a warm cup of coffee brightened our rainy day. They also do dinner by reservation. The summit is accessible by hiking or car. They have educational and entertainment programs scheduled throughout the weekend.

Wonderful campsite 11 right next to the stream. unfortunately no hot water for my 3 days there.. mens bathroom sink near entrance was not working.. closet spigot working was near campsite 27. No firewood sold at campground at this time. NO cell phone service.. most campsite are very close together so not much privacy. Dead end road so virtually no road traffic at all. Most campsites are rocks and dirt. No fire ban 8/2022 at this time. Its about a 30 min ride to Phoenicia. Bathrooms clean. Very close to hiking trails- Slide mountain trail and giant ledge right next door

We arrived here early afternoon, which ended up being perfect timing as we could set up everything and catch sunset by the fire. The place is pretty easy to access with paved road the whole way there except for the last 1/2 mile where it is very bumpy. Some might say 4*4 but we made it just fine in our little Camry. There are two campsites located right outside of the park where you can park your car next to your tent but we opted to hike in. The first spot is less than 1/2 mile down the path, with the next three in the next mile. The campsites are very spacious with lots of room between you and other campers, and have a fire pit and some have picnic tables. We had a stellar time just hiking down the path and relaxing by the water. There’s no noise at night apart from the running water of the stream and we had a very peaceful weekend. We’re most definitely returning!

I went here with two of my coworkers for a relaxing weekend getaway. I'm use to the rough and tough it of backpacking the AT Trail so this place had quite a few amenities I am not use to! Haha. We stayed at a platform tent site and were able to park two vehicles on site but the grounds had plenty of parking not too far from the sites. Each of the sites had a large platform (enough room for one very large tent or 2-3 smaller tents), a fire pit, and picnic table. You are very close to your neighbor in this area but when we were there everyone was very respectful. There was potable water a short walking distance away as well as flushing toilets. There was a very large open grassy field for play/sports, a playground and life guarded portion of the lake for swimming. This location was very accesible to the Bish Bash Falls trail and even had a few side trails to explore. This place is very good for easing on first timers and there were quite a few children so those who are parents should consider this a great place to get kids involved in the outdoors as well. There were other accommodations such as RV hook ups, events, and rentals but we weren't there long enough to take adavatage of those. Overall a great experience and relatively cheap for what you get. I believe it was around $30 for two nights which was the minimum.

We were on a 5 state East Coast camping trip. Our first campground was in New York Aug 8th. Unfortunately, Debbie was socking New York hard. North South Lake Campground in the Catskills was our camping home. Thursday & Friday it was Neverending rain & wind. Saturday was the nice day.

North South Lake has no electricity. The sites are almost all beautiful, tucked in under shady trees. Not a good way to try out our solar panel! Some are by a stream. A few are by the lake. This is a tent campers paradise. New York tent campers are hard core camping during Tropical Storm Debbie!

 There are 7 loops. We were in loop 2. Site 85. There are some sites with an incline down to the site. That might give some rvs trouble. It did for us & I had to be driven out of the campground to call 911. Thank you Mary!! It all ended well & we got a different site.

 There are bears that visit the campground & one came one of the nights & visited our camping neighbor's site. They showed us a picture- it was a large black bear. 

Generators are allowed for 5 hours & they tell you when you can use them. 

The bathrooms/showers are state park clean- which means not very.

 There is NO cell service & just forget about WiFi. You are unplugged.

This is a hiking park & for this middle aged overweight flatlander they are pretty strenuous. Kaaterskill Falls is an exception - short, easy trail, but the parking fills up quickly. Then they close it! You'll have to take a shuttle to get in.

The trail to the Mountain House Site is also pretty easy, with more of an incline.

There's 2 nice lakes with beaches. 

The Catskills are very scenic& we enjoyed our time there!