Best Tent Camping near Esperance, NY

This campground was my first backpacking trip and it was perfect!  There are tent sites around the whole lake with fire pits and 1 lean-to site at the end of the trail when you first arrive at the lake.  The sites are relatively flat and well shaded with trees.  Note, it can get swampy near the edge of the lake so you may want to bring bug spray.  Make sure you practice leave no trace principles and pack out what you bring in!  It does get a little crowded later in the day so you may have to share space with others and it can be a little noisy at night.

I called and booked ahead of time knowing I'd arrive late and leave early, which was absolutely no problem, so I'm very thankful for that. I paid over the phone, was given clear instructions on where to park, and was told to enjoy my stay. This location is great if you're in a van or RV and need a quick place to stay for the night in this area of NY in mid- / late-October (because it seems NY closes its state parks quite early) or if you're here for the rock-hunting. From what I could see late at night (which honestly wasn't much) I wouldn't recommend for tent-camping as the sites were quite close to each other and not much soft ground for sleeping.

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!

We've visited a few times: two nights in June of 2022 and more recently in June of 2023.

Campsites are on either side of a fairly steep valley, so not a ton of room in each site. They’re also fairly close together. We've had number 17 and 23, and both times we could see our neighbors across the campground road, but not on either side. The site is in a nice forest. State Route 214 divides the campground in half, and you could hear road noises from our site, but they quieted down by 6:00. 

There weren’t a ton of services at the campsite, which was fine. No showers or hookups. The toilets were pit toilets, which could have been cleaner. There was potable water. Each site has a picnic table and a concrete/stone fireplace and grill. The sites themselves were clean and well maintained. You can go to North-South Lake Campground and use their showers. 

We had a VW Westfalia, which we had no trouble pulling into our site. If we had something bigger, it might have been an issue. 

Two things to note: there is NO cell service here. You have to drive about 5 minutes towards Hunter to get service. Also, NY has some strict requirements about proof of rabies vaccination for dogs, so make sure to read the requirements.

This park is located approximately 12.5 miles from downtown Cooperstown and is set in the quiet rural countryside of New York. The mature trees make for beautiful scenery in the fall. There is a mix of sites varying from tent, RV, rental trailers, and camping cabins/cottages/lodges bringing the total number of sites to 120. Back-in and pull-thru sites are available. Site types include full hookup, water and electric, and no hookup with prices varying depending upon site. You can choose between 30/20 or 50 amp electric service. Interior roads are gravel and some site pads are gravel while others are grass. 

The park is nicely terraced and all the sites are level. Patios were a grassy/dirt area with a picnic table and fire pit. Our site (#41) was a pull-thru but there was no way we could drive our 45’ motorhome forward out of the site because of a large tree and narrow roads. So we ended up having to back out. The free wifi worked well as did our Verizon 4G phone and hotspot. We picked up a dozen or so television channels with our antenna. The park does have a fair amount of trees that would interfere with roof-mounted satellite dishes so you would have to pick your site carefully. But, there are some 30 amp and no hook-up sites that are clear. This is a typical KOA with lots of amenities including a swimming pool(which was closed for the season when we were there), a playground, volleyball court, basketball court, jump house, pavilion, recreation room, bicycle rental, and horseshoes. Showers, restrooms and laundry are also present and clean. There is a propane filling station. While there is no fenced-in dog park there is a pet walking area. The surrounding area is pretty rural and the closest town (Richfield Springs– which is very small) is five miles away and where you will find restaurants, gas station, grocery store, and more. A few miles from the park is a creamery that has a café. 

Approximately five miles away is Glimmerglass State Park which was great for hiking and kayaking Otsego Lake. There is a also a historic house at the park that you can tour and the country’s oldest covered bridge. Cooperstown is a little over twelve miles away from the park but well worth a trip. Not only is Cooperstown home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame but it is a charming downtown well worth exploring. Other nearby attractions include The Farmers Museum, Fenimore Art Museum, Hero’s of Baseball Wax Museum, Glimmerglass Opera, and Cooperstown Brewing Company.

Both the Glimmerglass State Park and the Glimmerglass Festival Opera House list their location as Cooperstown, but in actuality the Park is 8 miles outside of Cooperstown on the northeast side of Otsego Lake, with the Opera House nearby on the northwest corner of the lake nearby. If you are going to visit one, you should also visit the other! In fact the park is an ideal spot to stay if you are wanting to take in any of the Glimmerglass music or theater productions which have quite a professional lineup in the summer season. If staying at the park you will also enjoy the amazing beach and waterfront on Otsego Lake, and great kayaking on the lake as well as the stream flowing into it. You can also hike, ot take a day trip into Cooperstown, especially for museums and all things baseball.

The camping opportunities give you three options: the main campground by the park office, which is wooded and shady and has electric hookups as needed, and is close to the beach, but you will have a lot of neighbors. If you want a quiet tenting experience, choose the Beaver Pond primitive tenting campground! This offers a small number of large, well spaced and private tent only sites set back in the woods by a beautiful pond and by the Beaver Hiking trail. Very peaceful with more solitude than the main campground, but a longer walk to the beach. The third and newest option, the Travis Field campsites, reminds me of an overflow parking area at an outdoor festival, unfortunately just a bunch of basic tent campsites plunked in an open grassy field located in between the beach and the Beaver Pond sites. I am guessing the park has greater demand for campsites than the original campground offers, so they put these spots up in an open field, and maybe folks would rather have these sites than nothing if they want a week at the lake, but they would not be a first choice unless perhaps you have a group that wants to gather together and take a block of these sites. I didnt check out the cabins, but there are some, which might be especially good if you want to come in the winter as the park is open year round

If you’re looking for relatively cheap and strictly the necessities, this is a good site for you. $16/night when I went.

The site is a decent size for your car, two tents, lawn chairs, and the site provided picnic table and fireplace. Lots of tree coverage which helped when it rained. Be aware the site is very rocky, so a sleeping pad or air mattress would be ideal.

The bathrooms are a glorified hole in the ground with a toilet seat, but if you need it, it’s there. No sinks. But there is a water source in between every other site for when you need it.

They did advertise for some things they didn’t have. There is swimming but the site provides you a parking pass for the North South Lake 10 miles away. The trails are also a distance away. The comments about being close to the road is true- maybe 20-30 feet, but it’s not too bad with the tree coverage.

About 5-8 miles to town for anything you need. It’s a beautiful area- driving right between the mountains to the site.

The people are very nice and they drive by a couple times a day to check everything and make sure everyone is good.

This was my first camping experience, but it was in no way a bad one. The bathrooms and the distance to the lake are what brought my score down.

The lake and view video were taken at the North South Lake affiliated with Devil’s Campground via the parking pass. It was beautiful! Definitely worth checking out.

Ranger review: GCI at Brookside Campground

CAMPGROUND REVIEW We ended up at this campground because the family we were traveling with needed to accommodate their 50 foot camper. As a rule of thumb- I try to visit as little RV parks as I can, but we were trying to find somewhere that would accommodate both of our needs.

While it is true that this campground does specialize in large groups and is one of the only places in the area that will host a rig as big as my uncles, that was about the only thing it had going for it.

Grounds were dilapidated. It was like they had too much to handle. The lawn was overgrown at our site, the bathrooms were always in need of something... it was just a glorified trailer park.

I will say that the spots were spacious, particularly pertaining to tent sites. However- the brook that the campground is named after is mostly stagnant. So prepare for an abundance of mosquitos!

Another perk is the location. It was really nice to be right near The Catskills. However, I will most definitely be taking advantage of the smaller and quieter campgrounds around.

Would recommend for: people with big rigs. Large groups with children. The sports “complex” and pool actually looked very nice and well maintained. There were kids everywhere.

RANGER REVIEW ON... GCI OUTDOOR CHAIRS

So if you’ve been keeping up with my ranger reviews, you know I am always very pleasantly surprised by the things I’ve gotten the opportunity to test out that I never knew I needed. Camping Chairs were actually on my list of things to acquire this year for our trips, so I was psyched (as usual) when I found out GCI Outdoors would be what I got to check out.

I purchased the “Eazy” chair and the Roadtrip Rocker.

So first, the Eazy chair. It’s a good looking chair that comes packed away in a pouch that slings over your shoulder. It’s pretty heavy, but we happened to be car camping this time around so that wasn’t a big deal. The arm rests are sturdy, the chair is comfortable to sit in.

The Roadtrip rocker I was really excited about. And the thing is pretty awesome. The patented hydrolics is pretty nifty and it’s really neat how it works. I was surprised to find that it packed so easily into its sack, and has a sling so that you can carry it where you need to go.

Grab your own here:

https://www.gcioutdoor.com/camping-chairs/roadtrip-rocker/