Best RV Parks & Resorts near Fonda, NY

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.

This campground sits on the Schroon River just a few miles north of downtown Lake George and is very easy to access from I-87. They can accommodate any size camper from the 45’ motorhome with 50 amp service to a tent just wanting electric and water. All sites have cable TV hookup and free WiFi at their site along with a picnic table and fire rings. The park is not huge and it was pretty full so it felt a little cramped for us. There were quite a few seasonal people. Some sites back up to the river so you have a nice view. When the park if full, it can be a little cramped for big-rigs to back into some sites, especially the river ones. There are trees to navigate and some of the spots are tight. 

Apparently, it is under new management and there are lots of changes that the new owners are proud of. But that also means there is a lot of on-going construction happening in the campground which was pretty annoying. Lots of dust and loud equipment certainly interrupted the thought of a peaceful afternoon outside. Many of the sites in the older section have sand/dirt patios and sandy roads which makes it very dusty. The new area has crushed gravel and lots more room and some pull-thru sites. They have the typical campground amenities like horseshoe pit, pavilion, playground, pool, and camp store. We typically don’t use any of those and they were closed anyway due to Covid-19 safety precautions. Had we stayed longer, we would have taken advantage of the river access and paddled. There is a little beach area and launching paddleboards, canoes, or kayaks would be very easy.  (They also have watercraft available to rent.)  We were more focused on hiking and enjoying the woods.(Recommend the short hike to the“Bear Slide.”) 

Some of the things we didn’t like was the sandy/dirt which was a mess when it rained. You are supposed to leave your trash at the front of your site but sometimes it was not picked up until late in the day.  We found the bugs to be very pesky in the evening and didn't want to sit outside. Things we liked it the surrounding location and access to hiking trails and the river. Once the construction is complete and grass takes hold in some areas it will be really nice. Downtown Lake George is only about 4-5 miles away.

Although the campground was right off the road, it's still in a forest with big pine trees and mossy boulders. It was easy to access from 87. Given the proximity to the road, there is road noise, so that doesn't allow for that super outdoorsy experience you might desire. At night though it would get very dark and quiet - there weren't a lot of campers there during our stay. The camphost lives in a home onsite and was mostly helpful. Be sure to mention the 5 nights for 4 deal on their website upfront, otherwise she won't reimburse. Upon working with her to extend our stay, she said people were scheduled to come into our spot. We moved and no one arrived, so that was a bit annoying. 

To get to the sites, we had to take it a bit slow because there are some low hanging trees and a turn, but made it fine. Our first site, 22, was a back-in, 30 amp, full hook-up. It was a long site with plenty of room for our RV and SUV. We had to back it up to the very end to find the flattest option to level. With the way they have their sites set up, you need a 50 ft hose for water. This site was close to the showerhouse but next to a longterm trailer with crap everywhere and we weren't super thrilled that was our view from our windows in our living area. Our second site, 50, was also a back-in, 30 amp, full hookup. It was very pretty but hard to level. The site slopes up, so the backend was high. We tried about every way to sit our rig in there to level, but we ended up driving our front tires up on some leveling blocks and went up with the jacks as much as we safely could. We didn't get a perfect level, but we decided it was ok since we only had 2 days left. We had to wiggle our SUV in kind of sideways, but it worked.

There were some "residents" there in tents, which was interesting and a couple longterm trailers (with the typical cluttered lots you see at campgrounds that offer longterm stays). The campground is clean and the shower houses were faithfully cleaned everyday around 11a. Showerhouses were dated, but had super hot water for showers.

A few miles further down the road is the town of Lake Luzerne. We visited their small grocery which had the basics and we ate at one of the restaurants which had a view of the water (Upriver Cafe). The campground was in a perfect location to visit Lake George and surrounding area (Six Flags, outlet shops, putt-putt, restaurants etc). If you're wanting to explore even more you're only 1.5 hrs to Lake Placid and the Green Mountain National Forest.

Work was difficult with my husband dependent on AT&T. The Weboost got Verizon working fine, but AT&T was spotty. We had some issues with our RV that we were trying to get fixed locally which extended our stay, otherwise we would have left earlier due to this. The camphost told us that they had invested in some sort of mini Verizon tower for their personal use, so that was what was helping the Verizon signal. The campground offers wifi at the office/pool/rec room area, but when the "residents" come down, it brings it to a snails pace. My husband would go down there in the morning to work and had to go to Starbucks in Lake George at times when all the kids at camp decided to be on their devices at the same time.

Pool is not heated, so not many people were using it. They charge $2 per garbage bag to be put in their dumpster. They sell a few necessities in their office and firewood. They have laundry with 1 working residential washer $1 and 1 residential dryer $.75 and 1 industrial sized dryer $1. We did a couple loads with no issue. They are outside in a patio area.

Bring the bug spray. The mosquitos were as big as birds and tenacious!

Upon arrival we were surprised by the limited amount of sites, especially after coming from larger state parks. It wasn't necessarily a bad things for it to be small, but it seemed isolated from the beach, hiking trails, and other unique experiences. Our site(#31) faced directly to site#6 from the other loop. If you are traveling with another group, I would recommend booking these two sites. There is a small, hop-able, stream that runs in between them. Verizon cell service worked well and I was able to work remotely with video calls from our RV. We do have a Pepwave BR1 Max Pro to boost cell signal. We would stay here again to visit Cooperstown and Ommegang.