Camping Log

The following is the master log off our camping trips. Our trips usually consist of spending a weekend at a state or national park. You can quickly lose track of where you have been, and how it was, so that is what I am going to be doing on this page.

Enjoy!

National Parks

  • Assateague Island National Seashore (near Ocean City, MD)
    More mosquitoes. I have learned my lesson. No more camping at National Seashores. Visit and then move on!
  • Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke, NC
    mosquitoes, mosquitoes, mosquitoes!
  • Greenbelt National Park, Greenbelt MD
    This park was litterly across the street from our apartment when we lived in Greenbelt. It is a nice little park (very small for being a National Park). Would be a great place to camp if you were looking to spend some time in Washington, DC, as it is just off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.
  • Prince William Forest Park, Triangle, VA
    This park is located just off I-95 in Virginia. A very large forrest park, it features a tent campground deep inside the park (when your driving to the campground, it feels like you may never get there!) and an RV campground on the edge of the park.
  • Shenandoah National Park, Front Royal, VA
    This place is awesome. We only got there once, so we barely scrapped the surface. The park features numerous campgrounds. We stayed at Matthews Arm, which is closest to the northern entrace of the park (The park is over 100 miles long). I highly recomend getting reservations before making the trip, as we got turned away at the gate on our 2nd trip there.

New York State Parks

  • >Fillmore Glen State Park – Moravi, NY
    We made our return to camping here in the summer of 2010 after not having gone as a family for 5 years! Unfortunately it was only a quick overnight stay that was cut short due to one of our little ones getting sick. However, I was not too sad to leave this park so quickly. While it is a beautiful campground with what looks to be a nice glen you can hike along (didn’t get to see it), the night we stayed the campground was filled with large groups of kids who seem to be wandering around with no attention paid to them by their parents. After night fall, some of these kids were launching water balloons at the restrooms…which were less then 100 feet from my tent! It was also a very loud campground. It was actually hard to fall asleep with all the large groups talking loudly through the night. This could be a fantastic park if the Park Police would step up their patrolling of it. I for one will not be returning.

  • Robert H. Treman State Park – Ithaca, NY
    We stayed here over Memorial Day weekend, 2005. While we had been to this park several times in the past to hike the beautiful gorge, this was our first time camping here.While it is a beautiful park, the campground was sub-par in our book. It’s a small campground, and only has one bathroom, which was a very long walk from our site. The sites are very packed in together, and lack any type of seperation between them.I would skip camping here (maybe try Buttermilk Falls which is just down the road) and just visit the park to check out the 2 mile gorge.
  • Watkins Glen State Park
    A great park featuring a beautiful gorge. Within two miles, the glen’s stream descends 400 feet past 200-foot cliffs, generating 19 waterfalls along its course. The gorge path winds over and under waterfalls and through the spray of Cavern Cascade. Rim trails overlook the gorge. The park is located in Watkins Glen, NY, a town most popular for auto racing. It is located at the bottom of Seneca Lake.The park features plenty of camping spots in a nice heavily wooded area. Our site had some trash left on it when we arrived, and the restroom conditions were pretty poor. Besides that, I nice place to go and only around an hour drive from Binghamton.
  • Wellesley Island State Park
    Located on Wellesley Island in the 1,000 Islands, Wellesley Island State Park is one of the nicest parks we have ever camped in. The island is surrounded by the St. Lawerence River, offering beautiful views of the water from many of the campsites. The park also features a marina, four boat launches, a 9-hole golf course and a sandy beach area. The only disadvantage to staying in this park is that you must cross one of the toll bridges ($2.00 toll) when coming from the US Mainland or coming back from Cananda. Very easy to get to; it’s just off I-81!
  • Taughannock Falls State Park Taughannock Falls State Park’s namesake waterfall is one of the outstanding natural attractions of the Northeast. Taughannock Falls plunges 215 feet past rocky cliffs that tower nearly 400 feet above the gorge. Gorge and rim trails offer spectacular views from above the falls and from below at the end of the gorge trail. The park sits on the edge of Cayuga Lake, just north of Ithaca, NY. It is a beautiful park and the campground was wonderful. The campsite was found clean and the restrooms were kept in great condition. The park is also located just minutes from the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail.

NY DEC Campgrounds

  • Taylor Pond, Ausable Forks, NY – My brother and I stayed here in July, 2007 for an Adirondack fishing trip. The campground is located on Taylor Pond, which is barely a pond at 813 acres. Boat rentals are available. The campground has a remote setting with basic services and limited facilities. It is surrounded by 8,000 acres of Wild Forest state land.
    This is great little campground to stay at. The sites were clean, as were the outhouses. The resident park ranger is a great guy who hails from the Binghamton area, so he was happy to meet us. But remember, it is only a basic services campground, so don’t expect to find real toilets or showers.

  • Wilmington Notch, Wilmington, NY
    I stayed at Wilmington Notch for the first time in August of 2010 with three friends. We stayed for 3 nights in my friend’s pop-up camper, which was a nice change from tent camping.

    The campground is small but very nice. The main draw to the Notch is its location. Located on Rt. 86 beside the Ausable River, the campground is 1 minute from the Whiteface Mountain Olympic ski area and 8 miles from Lake Placid. It also features rest areas with flush toilets and hot showers. There are no electric or water hookups at the sites, but a dumping station is available for campers.

    We found all of our fellow visitors at the campground to be extremely kind. It was filled with friendly families and a helpful staff. Due to it’s size, you are a little bit on top of each other with little privacy from each other, but this is really it’s only drawback. I would highly recommend the campground and plan on staying there again with my family when we evenutally take a family trip to the Adirondacks.

Maryland State Parks

Virginia State Parks

Festivals

  • Finger Lakes Wine Festival, Watkins Glen, NY – July 2004
    Camping at festivals is not always the most enjoyable experience. We’ve only experienced camping at music festivals, where the campground is ussaly cramped, and you can’t even park near your site. This festival was nothing like that. It’s held at the Watkins Glen International Speedway, a place that is used to hosting campers. The grounds were nice, and the gave you very large spots to camp on. Bonfires are allowed. The only real drawback is the lack of full service restrooms. There are no showers available at all, and most of the bathrooms did not even feature running water. A great festival though, especially if you like trying out hundreds of different wines!
  • Hookahville, Columbus Ohio – Memorial Day 1999, 2000
  • The Lemmonwheel, Limestone Maine – August 1998
    The Lemmonwheel was the third festival hosted by the band Phish, and the second one held at the decommissioned Loring Air Force Base. It was attended by over 60,000 people! The band played a total of seven sets. It was a very unqiue camping experience; basicaly living in a large tent city for a weekend.
  • Grape Jam, North East PA – July 1998