Awesome winter camping

Stayed here for two nights in late December. Site #40 along the river was close to the bathroom yet had plenty of privacy from other sites. The campgrounds were well cared for and the staff was friendly. There are some nice looking tent only sites we plan to experience come springtime. Water would have earned it five stars.

Perfect for Thanksgiving

I headed up to Wellesley Island state park for the long Thanksgiving weekend with three teenagers (one girl and two boys). We rented cottage A, which was clean, spacious, warm and fully stocked with everything we needed. The fire pit outside was the only disappointment as it was well below ground level (on a sloping hill) so tending the fire was a difficult process and cooking on it was challenging. The Nature Center was open and lovely and every Saturday (even in off season) they organize hikes. The park itself was incredible - highly recommend the Eel Bay trail, which will take you past the glacial potholes a d along the striking coastline. We also checked out the North end of the park, near the marina and will probably go back in the summer and rent a cabin over there. There’s a store, laundromat and arcade, but all were closed either due to the time or year, or covid. Litter is a problem throughout the park which is really sad. We did our best to clean up what we could, but someone should organize a clean up, especially because lots of it must make it’s way into the St Lawrence :( The staff we met were all really friendly and helpful. The towns surrounding the park are economically struggling and we had to drive quite far to find a grocery store that was open. All restaurants within a 20 minute drive were closed for the season. We’ll definitely be back!

Overrated

Pictures are deceiving! My two teenagers and I booked site 810 in the west bay for my birthday and we were incredibly disappointed. I’ll skip most of the complaints about the site and staff, and say this site works best of you have a small camper and/or don’t mind not having ANY privacy. 

We had two small tents and two hammocks. We could only hang one hammock because the only trees were too small and over the rocky ledge to the water below. The water view was beautiful, but there is no possible position for privacy from the site to the right or left or behind unless you’re inside your tent. There is a small gravel road directly behind, and an open field with full hook ups behind you. We had large groups of noisy families in the field behind and generators ran much of the time not to mention, if the people in the field want to view the water, they have to sit facing sites like 810, which felt like people were watching us all of the time. We highly recommend NOT staying in the west bay unless you have, or like, lots of young children running around back and forth to the playground. There are also not clear markers between sites, so they were often throwing balls and tumbling in our site. It can also get super windy, so plan ahead in case.

Aside from the site itself, we had some issues with the way the animals were treated in the barn, and with the food at the restaurant. Granted, we went in August during covid, so maybe those things are typically better cared for. We may go back — the surrounding bay is gorgeous — but we’ll def stay in east bay or one of the tent walk in sites if we do. Bring bikes of you can, it’s a nice farm to pedal around and the bike rentals were not available due to covid.

Very nice

My two teenagers and I stayed for four nights in site #17. The site is large enough for us to spread out our two tents, changing/shower tent and two hammocks. The pine needle floor was soft and clean. A path leads straight down to the river, which we can hear running from the tents at night. The caretaker is one of the friendliest I’ve met, and he keeps the sites and bathrooms very clean. There are some cool looking dispersed campsites around the corner off Tripoli Road, which could make for a fun diversion one night if staying a while. It’s early July and there’s been hardly anyone staying here! Only downsides are it’s a bit off the beaten path (over an hour to Conway); there is some road noise; and the water is very brown / rusty. We didn’t feel comfortable drinking it.

Sweet and simple

Camped here as a family of four (two teens) and started off at site #11 which we thought was FF, but turned out to be reserved for nights 2-4 so with the help of the kind caretaker we found another site (#15) for the remainder of our stay. Cute place, mostly quiet and very clean. Positive vibe. Showers of any kind would earn it five stars.