I'm not usually the person who gives anything an extremely bad review, especially a one-star! I have to say, the people in the registration office; they actually were really awesome and checking in was easy and they were helpful, so this rating has nothing to do with the employees I came in contact with. That part of the experience was straight-forward and better than what I expected.
The one-star does have to do with the fact that on weekends, this place is a zoo. It's basically a block-party in the woods with city folk, it's all 5-borroughs in the woods, radios blasting, scratch that, it IS a block party. That being said, the "W" section as noted in other reviews is the "woodsy" section, much more private and away from the bulk of the sites. I thought I would try that and stay away from the interior part of the grounds. It did turn out to be much quieter and out-of-the-way.
The campground is located in a gorgeous part of Harriman State Park, right on Welch Lake. I was really looking forward to camping out there and I tried to make the best of it, but this is what made me abort my evening there:
When I arrived at my actual site, it was a complete mess. Cigarette butts, countless beer bottle caps everywhere, under the picnic table, around the fire pit, pieces of plastic wrapper, broken glass, even a random soaked black sweater at the perimeter of the site, even found a delightful "drug baggy," sure it could have been a small plastic bag that once held baby powder... whatever, no one wants to find this kind of sh*t at their site when they arrive, or ever.
Following the leave-things-better-than-you-found-it rule, I started picking up all of the crap, piece by piece, ghetto-style with a bodega grocery bag, cleaning the site for 30 minutes. Ah, what a nice time in nature! I liked the site, and I wasn't going back to the registration office to complain, I didn't want to be the uptight-complain-y Manhattanite camper.
To get over the initial disappointment, I went for a hike. For the hike they recommended, the instructions actually included, "when you reach the boulder with graffiti, take a sharp right..."
That sums it up.
When I think about going outdoors, I want boulder-boulders, normal, grey, boring, boulders, not ones with Satan-swastika-stars sprayed in purple, nor boulders etched with "Susan and Gary 4Ever" in white-Sharpie. And, tons of litter was scattered throughout the trail, even wrappers dangling from branches--red white-rimmed "beer pong" plastic cups, Snickers wrappers, water bottle caps ubiquitous, it's really sad actually. If I had some help, with a couple of more people, I bet we could have cleaned that entire trail in about two hours, just seems like neglect and/or laziness. Maybe they do clean everything up, but the bears keep dragging sh*t out into the woods, who knows... speaking of which:
I get back to my site: a bear is about 100 feet from me, staring at me. He sees me and doesn't give a sh*t. Then he walks off. Great, I have this gorgeous fire going and the sunlight is dappling through the woods and I was about to get comfy, read a book, but all I can think now is a bear sniffing outside my tent in the middle of the night because he thinks there's a Milky Way waiting inside. And, I know at Yellowstone, those f*ckers can tear through a Toyota just to get to a cannoli.
Went to the dumpsters on my way out to get rid of the garbage I collected, and that same bear, or maybe another one, popped out of the dumpster this time maybe 15 feet from me, with a Wendy's bag hanging from his mouth, as if my order was ready, "Do you want a Coke with that?" on his face. He really didn't give a sh*t at all that I was right there, the car running, it was like that YouTube clip, "the honey badger -- he don't give a sh*t!"
Why are the dumpsters kept open after a certain point, or ever? I realize that the bear likely doesn't want to have anything to do with me, "I've been here 19 years and there has never been an encounter accept for the one guy who left some food in his backpack, the bear took the bag, along with the iPad that was in it," the ranger told me.
This campground really needs to get their cleanup crew on this. It's unacceptable not to go through a site and at least clean all the obvious sh*t out... an empty bottle of Tito's, multiple "forties" of beer, how can you miss that?
If you're from New York City and you're going with a bunch of friends to party, you want something close, easy, cheap, then fine, go for it. If you plan on sneaking in alcohol and leaving all your garbage behind, then go for it! But if you're looking for something that's more than that, skip it. This isn't nature, this is Central Park on Labor Day with bears standing by with your fast food order. I didn't even want a refund, they can keep their money and use it towards a clean up fund I hope. read more