Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Winthrop, NY

This is a very basic campground situated in a small village in the Adirondacks – situated between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. Every site has a picnic table and an open fire grill and most of the sites on the outer ring have a lot of privacy as they are lined with trees and shrubs. Lots of spaces for larger RV’s, but we saw mostly tent campers.

Bathrooms are mostly clean and the showers are nice. There is a quality dishwashing sink by the bathrooms. Overall, the campground is ok, but needs a bit of a facelift, repainting, etc. Also, you can hear the sounds of the city (cars, leaf blowers, and other things that remind you that you are not truly in the woods).

The best part about this campground is that it is conveniently located between two awesome places and is relatively inexpensive, so if you don’t plan to spend much time in the campground itself, it’s perfect.

We used this campground as a basecamp to mountain bike on an awesome trail just outside of Saranac Lake, the Bloomingdale Bog trail. The following day, we did a quadrathlon that involved kayaking the length of Lake Placid, hiking to the summit of Whiteface Mountain, kayaking back, and then finished the day at Lake Placid Pub and Brewery for dinner. Highly recommended, but plan on a 9-10 hour day on the lake/trail!

With its central location, this campground is close to everything you may need, most even within walking distance.

Lovely State Park in the 1,000 Islands where water activities are the main attraction. Make sure to check out the island too! The park spans the island and a little snaking river-like bay. Really pretty to explore on boat. Easy and very pretty trails on site, walk along the shore too. Decent wildlife and great birding. Feels very isolated though easy to get to. Bring your passport, you can see Canada from some of the picnic grounds. Incredible sunsets!!!

Quality State Park facilities, clean. Camping ranges from tents in shady woods to cabins. Some sites are pretty private, even the ones that aren't are quiet.

Note: Robert Moses apparently did a lot in New York State. This park is near Canada! There is also a Robert Moses beach on Long Island near NYC (Fire Island National Seashore) and Robert Moses parkway near Niagara Falls. These are all 8+ hours from each other! Be careful with your mapping apps and in getting advice for travel.

I have stayed here many times over the years, usually for a 10-18 day stretch at a time. This is one of my favorite places. Most sites are right on the water. Square pond is a lovely little lake that connects to a larger lake (Upper Saranac I believe) by passing through a canal. This campground has great facilities. There are restrooms located convieniently throughout the park so you never have to walk more than a few sites no matter where you are. There are hot showers located at one end of the park and a dump station for RVs. The restrooms and showers are cleaned daily. There is a great little general store just outside the park that sells pretty much anything you could want. Sites are equipped with a table and fireplace (most have grates). There are vendors that drive through the park daily selling wood, ice cream (from an old fashioned wagon, get the moose tracks!), and ice. There is a boat supplier that travels the lake every morning and evening dropping off and picking up kayak and canoe rentals. If you love water front camping this is for you! The park is pet friendly but you need to show proof of vaccines. There are great things to do nearby like the Adirondack Museum, Lake Placid, and beautiful hiking spots. You can have power boats and jets skis on the lake as well as non motorized boats. Some of the best sunsets I have ever viewed happened right here. Quiet hours are taken very seriously and rangers walk the park at night warning rowdy fireside folks to quiet down. However, as dusk turns to night, you can always count on the chorus of yodels going back and forth across the lake. This is a wonderful spot! Check it out! You won’t be sorry! Oh, but sites go on sale nine months in advance through reserve America and the best spots wind up booked for the season pretty quickly.

We stayed at Meadowbrook over Memorial Day weekend in 2024. It's an average campground, but has a really good location between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake. 

Our site had the standard DEC picnic table and fire pit. There are showers (the hot water was broken the day we were there, but the attendant said we could go to nearby campgrounds to use theirs), toilets, and water spigots. I had decent Verizon signal. 

The sites were clean, but the fire pit was showing its age. We stayed in site 37, which was a bit more private and surrounded by trees. The sites in the two loops closest to Rte 86 (#1-13, 27-34, and 51-62) were much closer together, and some didn't have trees between sites. Even at our more "isolated" site, we could still see our neighbors. 

The bathroom was actually one of the nicest I've seen in a DEC campsite; it looked like it had recently been rebuilt. 

There are positives and negatives about the location. On the plus side, there's ice cream and places to eat within walking distance. We also forgot lunch for our hike the next day and were able to walk to a convenience store to grab supplies. And if you're doing things in Lake Placid and Saranac, the location is tough to beat. On the minus side, there's a bit of road noise and some of the campsites looked like they had great views of a parking lot.

This is a gorgeous campground on the banks of Fish Creek Pond and Square pond close to Tupper Lake and Saranac Lake.

Very site has water access, and the water is super shallow all along the shoreline. It’s perfect for dogs, kids, and hanging out in the water. The bottom is sandy with some rocks, good to have water shoes but not essential. Sites 65-100 get a great view of the sunset! Our site was level and dry, as were the surrounding sites. There’s not much brush on the sites and there are lots of old, tall trees, so I had tons of places to put up our dogs tie out, my hammock, and the clothes line.

There were clean bath houses everywhere and one shower building on the west side of Square Pond. I was surprised by the number of bathrooms, you’ll never be far from one while camping here.

Over all, one of my favorite camping weekends ever, it was a gorgeous spot for water sports and great for a run or bike ride. Don’t sleep on this spot!