Best Equestrian Camping near Groton, VT

I camped at New Discovery this weekend, the sites are well separated and private. The grounds are beautiful and well situated to enjoy Groton State Forest. My complaint is in regards to the maintenance of the facilities. The Women’s bathroom ran out of toilet paper and was never replaced. More upsetting was that the soap container was empty all weekend. At a time like this hand washing is more important than ever! It was very disappointing!

This easy-to-access campground has made it on my list of places to stay.

There are two loops of sites, some deep in the woods with great-looking trees, others in a field, and some in between. There are even sites with stalls if you're into horses.

The bathhouse looks typical and clean.

Not much cell service, but some in places.

Easy access to a lake and a picnic pavilion.

Noticed more than a few sites that I could hang at.

Awesome state park. Right along a long rail trail where you can put in many miles and not even know it. Swimming and boating is a short ride in a couple different directions, Osmore pond, Kettle pond, or Ricker pond. We stayed at the Eagle leanto and is perfect for hanging multiple hammocks. Close enough to the bathrooms too. There were squirrels that would spend lots of time throughout the day sending loose the green pine cones and then come down and chew them up. Pretty entertaining except for when they drop them on your tarps.

This state park has a little bit of everything. There are sites with electric hookups as well as some without. Some sites are in the middle of a grassy field while others are tucked in the trees. Site size various pretty vastly as you travel through the campground. There are two main loops, one is more secluded and spaced out than the other. The campground loops have bath houses, complete with coin operated showers. Park staff were attentive and restrooms were being cleaned with frequency. 

There are more remote walk-in shelters on the Osmore Pond, located within New Discovery State Park. The shelters are rustic, have shared outhouses between a few sites, fire pits and small picnic tables. The remote sites are spaced nicely around the pond along a hiking trail that skirts the perimeter. The walk from the parking area to the shelters varies, depending what side of the pond you are camping on. If bringing a full-sized cooler(or other large/luxury car camping items) be sure you are heading to a site closer to the parking area. It would be a challenge to get some of those larger, heavier items to sites across the pond from the parking lot.

we had the most perfect spot in a private site on osmore pond that was accessible only by canoe! quiet, serene. beautiful! can’t wait to go back!

 There are hiking trails right from the campground, which we always appreciate. You can also go down to the water and rent a kayak or canoe from the rangers. Camp fees are $28/night, plus $5/day per adult for state park fees. 

There is a dump station and drinking water on site, but the spigots for the water are not threaded. We tried our water bandit, with messy wet results. (Apparently you can’t use those if the other end of the hose is pressurized.) Luckily, we found we could unscrew the head of the hose at the dump station and had no problem filling our tank with potable water. 

Each site is so different and may or may not fit an RV. Some sites are so sloped I don’t even know how a car would camp there. Some sites are out in the open grass where you just find a spot within the site that works for you. We saw fresh moose poop on a hike but sadly no moose or other wildlife. There are bears around the area though so please be bear smart when camping here. 

Showers are something like $1 for 8 minutes, quarters only. The lean-to sites are really cool, and if I was tent camping I think they’d be so fun to sleep in. They have food compost bins here, but the rangers keep forgetting to unlock the bin, so you just have to ask them. There’s also a book exchange library and adorable little gnome habitats set up in the campground. We had a pleasant stay here.

We had a last minute change of plans to our hiking trip due to a delay. We wouldn’t have the time to hike into our pre planned area before dark, so decided to set up shop here. This place was actually pretty great. Each site was pretty large and most of them had access to the river. Which had nice areas for swimming and wading. Each site had its own bear box and it was only a short hike down from the car. The park connected directly to some beautiful AT trails that we took advantage of the next day. It was also pretty cheap! $12 or $15 if I remember correctly. All self registration.

We camped here Wednesday-Friday on one of the riverfront tent sites. We arrived around 11:15 am and got the last site on the river, which had a nice little opening to the water and had a bit more tree coverage to separate us from our neighbors; the only remaining sites otherwise were a bit small and clustered together or tandem so that we’d have lots of foot traffic through and around our site. These sites were carry-in only, which wasn’t convenient, and it was a lot of work to carry all of our gear from the parking lot to the site (the main part of the path was a hill).

Big negative: Our site was completely swarmed with bees. We checked a few vacant sites to see if maybe it was just our site, but we found them all around, including all over the cars in the lot. They calmed down in the evening once it got chilly, but otherwise, they were constant. They were the worst on our last day; we planned to hang out, make breakfast, enjoy the river, and take our time packing up. But they were unbearable and we had a couple stings, so we rushed to pack up and left early, which was very disappointing and felt like a waste.

The river access was great, though the water was very low. We appreciated having a bear box on our site, especially since we couldn’t keep anything in our car. It was big enough to fit our grill, cooler, trash, and bag of groceries. The campground also has flush toilets, which was a big plus, since most other campgrounds in the area only have vault toilets. There were vault ones near our site, but I preferred to walk a bit further to the flush ones. They were near the campsites by the main road; the traffic was loud in this area and the sites didn’t have bear boxes, but there were no bees to be found.

We’d likely stay here again if something was done about the swarms of bees, and would probably bring some sort of cart to get our stuff from the car to the site.

Great campground. Stayed at site #32. This side was near the street but at night there is minimal traffic. Higher side is by the river so the preferable side to stay on.

There is an area for tents only where you park in a lot and walk to the site.

This campground is first come first serve.

Some of the restrooms have running water. Some are only privies.

As for showers or areas to wash dishes, i was not able to find either. There is potable water.

Stayed here the night before i started the Pemi loop, and it was perfect.

Hancock is a first-come, first-serve campground close to the visitor center as you enter the Whites.  It is also close to Loon Mountain Resort.  Camping at this campground provides you river access, or is relatively close to the Hwy, depending which site you choose.  One area is your standard campground - parking area, tent area, next site.  The other area, only for tents, is a communal parking area with walk-in campsites near the water.  

This campground had clean pit-toilets, no shower, spotty cell service, and both trash and recycling dumpsters, which were nice to see!

Open year round. Most sites are close together with very little privacy

A few sites are pretty much right on the river which is awesome. There's a nearby swimming hole. Campground is only short drive away from an endless amount of hiking options

Nice first come first serve campground with a lot of separated sites. You'll probably want to be closer to the river (although people will get up early to fish, get on the river etc.) because the is traffic along the road (not awful, but still semi constant).

Mostly vault toilets and water pumps but they seem to be upgrading some of them to flush and running water.