Beaver Pond Campground is a part of Harriman State Park. There are several lakes surrounding which provides lots of activities in the area! The check-in process was easy, staff gave me lots of information on hiking and they were very helpful with park information. The actual campsite was okay. Not a lot of trees around the sites, very close to your neighbors, and the bathrooms are in need of an upgrade! I was disappointed that there was so much trash left from previous campers, including broken tents. I did appreciate having a bear box at my campsite and a wash station to handle dishes . read more

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Best spot for a lake day with Family, Friends, whoever. And to cherry on top is that you have multiple zones from quite dark to light and fun. read more

I have been coming here for about 14 years now , u used to come about 4 or 5 times a year but I moved to North Carolina and I only come 1 time a year to meet up with my closest friends and family we are about 55 ppl or more we always stay in the A section and we try to book all of the sites on section A because we know we are going to be a little bit louder then usual because we have not seen each other in a year . But we let the park ranger know that we are all together and to please let us know if anyone complains about us being too loud but to be honest we end up befriending the other campers as well we want them to know that we're here if they need us or need anything , but as for this particular campground over the last few years I have seen so many new upgrades a few years back they put a camp store in where the laundry cabin was , they started putting in lockers for your food coolers so the bears and other animals don't come and destroy all of your stuff, they have upgraded their dumpsters as well so that they animals can't get in there. They have some beautiful trails hope u have a great trip when you come and if u In section A and hear a lot of people talking loudly tell them to shut up lol read more

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Nice camp site, pick the section closer to the bathroom that's further out, more quiet there and less people. Bathroom is clean too. Check out time is at 10am so pretty early. Pack up the night before so it's easier to clean up the next day. read more

Beaver Pond Campground - Campgrounds Near Me - Stony Point, New York

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Recently came to camp with a few friends and was pleasantly surprised! The NY state parks website didn't have too many pictures or information in general so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a nice little camping spot! We got the non-platform tent sites, but it offered plenty of amenities. The site comes with a picnic table, fire pit, lots of space, bathrooms with plumbing (and showers!), and sinks to fill up water/ wash dishes. Also there the lake is a short walk from the campsite and has a little beach area too :) Cute little spot definitely recommend - but I wish they updated the site more to do this place justice. read more

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Affordable fun spot located in beautiful harriman park definitely reccomend it.. check it out

This is our new favorite campground in New York! 1. The tent platforms are such a great idea. We had plenty of space for our tent, coolers, and chairs so everything was neat and accessible. They also give you a picnic table and fire pit w/ grill which was helpful. 2. Sinks! There are large, outdoor, two-compartment, stainless steel sinks placed throughout the campground. There's always one nearby for washing dishes. As long as everyone is respectful and not leaving old food in them these are a real gem. 3. The bathrooms are very clean at all times of the day. They even have individual restrooms which have a private shower. My only complaint about these is that I wish there were a hook or towel rack to hang things on while you shower, but if you fold the changing table out you can place your things there. 4. The grounds themselves are super clean. We arrived at a campsite that was perfectly clean, and we've noticed that everyone nearby is carefully adhering to the food policies about keeping trash away from animal access and removing the trash at the end of their stay. 5. A lot of the reviews of this place complain about loud/rude neighbors. We didn't experience this at all so it must depend on when you're here! Our neighbors were quiet and respectful the entire time. Everyone seemed like nice folks trying to get away from the city, and this is the perfect place to do just that. Definitely give this place a try! read more

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FYI if you planning to come this summer and want to enjoy the beach on site it will be closed due to Algal ..... at least they could of let us know before hand ..... on top of this the stuff cursed at my child ... I been coming to this camp ground for over 30 years and never had been disappointed or disrespected... I remember bomb fires, games and movie night now there is nothing here .... very disappointed read more

Beaver Pond Campground - Campgrounds Near Me - Stony Point, New York

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When registering for the campgrounds you are promised a private beach for the campers and every year, we are told to go over to the public beaches because of "lack of lifeguards". lake welch's has ample amount of life guards yet Beaver pond campground fails to provide lifeguards for a paid service that is said to be provided. read more

Beaver Pond Campground - lake welch with all the "unavailable" lifeguards - Campgrounds Near Me - Stony Point, New York

Wow, did I make a huge mistake making reservations here. We have 2 service animals and upon entry, there is a big sign stating no dogs. Perhaps I missed it on the site, but it is listed on our profile. I did a search for sites requesting 30 amp power. Maybe the search wasn't working correctly. Whatever the case, I made these reservations several months ago. We were uncomfortable with the no dog signs. My husband and I discussed it and I guessed that perhaps due to bear in the area, this was necessary. We found our site and backed in. We had no electric, no water, no internet and no sewage. We did find a dump station upon exiting our site though. This park is beautiful and primitive. We were unprepared for this. It made our stay very uncomfortable to say the least. Had we not spent most of our time at family members home I would feel caged in. There were RV sites with stainless steel sinks and spickets, but our site was not one. There were also were sites with a deck, but again, not ours. I began to wonder what on earth are we paying for? I didn't even get a disabled discount. There were three few campers there, and it was obvious why. We showered at family members homes and did not explore if they had any, but I don't recall seeing any, nor did I see any laundry room. There was a ranger that drove around the park, but we had to hide our dogs. We drove up from the southeast USA and what were we supposed to do? We were exhausted from the drive, and as I said we spent most of the time at family's home nearby. The park was clean, probably because very few people go there. My husband ran our quiet generator and we made the best out of the situation. I will never go back. There is no local restaurants or shopping to pick up some milk or bread or necessities. You must go into town to retrieve any emergency necessities. I gave this park 2 stars because it was beautiful, that's all I can say about it. read more

One of my favorite campground close to NYC. You really need to plan ahead in order to choose a great spot. This has been my second stay at beaver camp and I really have nothing negative to say. Some folks may complaint about the closeness of each campsite. If that's a issue for you you might want to consider a different campground. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvu0hQ8K8Fs read more

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Things I would have liked to know: Camp sites are close together. The best sites (site W) won't be an option to reserve on reserveanerica.com. You're not allowed to hang hammocks. They sell under seasoned "Kiln dried" wood for 8$. Pros: Friendly raccoons, beautiful park. read more

Biked up here from Brooklyn 50 miles. Crazy uphill the last mile. Pros: Showers, bathrooms, water, cleaning sump sink, lake Cons: Could be crowded as you're right next to your neighbors. We were next to a couple who was fighting all night very loudly, left their car headlights on til 2am, and left a bunch of trash in the campsite. And we were here during the week...I can't imagine the weekend crowds... read more

Its all about the people around you! Facts: Easy to find. Enter any time you like. (people kept rolling in past midnight. Platforms are 20 feet from each other. Busier on the weekends. (that means loud nights) The people we saw "maintaining" the grounds do not do a good job. (we watched) Bathrooms are plentiful and fairly clean. Hot water showers no matter the time. NO HIKING trails off the grounds. Did not check/ search our things for contraband. Police do a nightly roll through. Can buy fire wood in the office if needed. (no cutting down trees) Ranger office with no ranger. Opinion: I'd go back mid week off season only. We were looking for a quiet spot for our first camping trip in years. Good times lasted till Friday. Even with the cops rolling through, there is no presence at night to keep the noise level down. I made a noise complaint that was ignored. The animals were 5 platforms over, blasting music, partying and no one was there to stop them. So be ware. Its all about the people around you! read more

Beaver Pond Campground - Platforms are 20 feet from each other. - Campgrounds Near Me - Stony Point, New York

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Wonderful Family Campground. Staff is super friendly and helpful; both on the phone prior to booking and at the campsite!! Pretty place; one highlight was waking up to see deer grazing across from our campsite. read more

Worst experience ever..the staff needs training in customer service. They are rude and racist, Especially the manager abigail if that is her real name.they refused to give me her last name. I asked for abigail supervisors name and phone number, they told me his name was john but gave me a fake phone number. They harrassed us the whole weekend we was there. The womens bathrooms smell like urine. The showers are dirty and have mold on the tiles. read more

Dang, wish we read the reviews. This was a last minute stop for us, so i thought we were lucky to get a tent platform in Loop B. Wrong! So wrong! Campsite quiet hours and no alcohol is absolutely not enforced. Which could be good or bad depending on if you're part of the large campsite party that's still raging at 4:30am. Didn't help that the rangers go home for the night at 10pm, leaving us plebeians to fend for ourselves in the wild  (pun intended). Figured i had 2 choices...join them...or stew wide awake in my tent for hours until the daylight when we could book it. (We chose door #2). Next time, I'll go elsewhere....like maybe my car on the side of the road. At least it would have been quiet! Update 4:37am: Bonus, the revelers have quieted down enough for us to hear the air raid sirens going off in the distance. So I guess we've got that going for us! Update 4:51am: Everyone is asleep! I hear birds! Tho I'm now contemplating on getting dangerously close to the party tents and bang on pots and pans. Anyone have bail money for when I get arrested? read more

This campground is a fantastic place. Sites are clean, staff is friendly and professional, and the private beach exclusively for campers is a unique and fantastic perk. I see lots of negative reviews- I don't understand why so many complaining haters. Respect gets respect- be kind to the staff and they will be kind to you. The campground is a different world on the weekends- lots of big groups and barbecues, and full occupancy, so I like to camp Sunday to Friday when it's quiet and the place is almost empty. You can hike right from the campground through the forest to Irish Potato, a huge rock on top of a hill, and then on to Pound Swamp, a little known pond in the woods below Irish Potato. read more

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

I will start this review by saying that I only stayed here one night, at the end of the season (mid Sept.). I also will not be going back, so I will not have anything to compare this pathetic 2-star review to in the future. That said, the short of it all: 1) This park should change its name to "Chorus of Screaming Infants Pond Campground". 2) Do NOT go here if you do not have children. I repeat, DO NOT. 3) If you refuse to heed my warning and camp here anyway - BRING EARPLUGS (and or a sleep mask). 4) There are night critters. EVERYWHERE (mostly ballsy raccoons). 5) This is a campground for families and inexperienced campers from the urban areas of NYC and NJ. 6) The Rangers WILL INSPECT YOUR CAR/COOLER FOR ALCOHOL and confiscate anything they find. Even a bottle of wine. 7) A bag of wood will put you back $12 and is really only enough for one evening of fire-making. The expanded details: This is a great place to go if you have a family or are not ready/know nothing about any level of primitive camping. The facilities were nice, they had wash-out bins for your gear (instead of just a spigot on the ground). The lakeside was beautiful. There's a playground and plenty of space for picnicking if that is what you're there for. The campsite itself was fairly large, though it - and the entire campsite - was peppered with litter. Mostly gummy snack wrappers and Capri Sun pouches. We spent some quiet time away from camp in the woods by the lake watching the sunset, which was exactly what we came for. Saw a herd of deer on the trail who were totally unafraid of us, which was lovely. Back at camp, we made dinner and drank our bottle of wine while we ate (be nice to the rangers and hide your booze well and you might make it in). So far, so good. We didn't even mind the Reggaeton blasting in the distance, or the house techno our neighbor was playing on his cellphone (though the rules forbade "stereo" music playing, I believe). But come bed time and quiet hours (not enforced), oh the melee that ensued. Our camp neighbor was up until probably 4am talking, arguing with his wife, throwing shit in his fire. At some point I think he dumped a load of lighter fluid in because I was woken by the bright glowing daylight and WOOSH of the roaring bonfire he made. After I fell asleep the second time, I was woken by the sounds of very loudly arguing raccoons, who were clearly ransacking the campground from all sides. I realized later that this was because about 50% of the people camping there left all of their dirty dishes and food stuffs and leftovers OUT ON THEIR PICNIC TABLES instead of putting them in their cars or bear containers (as if any of them know what that is). Whatever, raccoons are part of camping. I fell back asleep. THEN, the raccoon fighting sounds woke a baby, who screamed bloody murder for what seemed like 30 minutes straight about 100 yards from our tent. Instead of maybe sitting in the car with the baby, the parents just let it wail for what seemed like an eternity for all to enjoy. It stopped crying, I finally started falling asleep again. Then I heard rustling near our tent. "Whatever, raccoons." All our shit was in the car. BUT, this raccoon cozied right up to me under our tent flap and then had the gall to POKE ME through the mesh side of the tent (to see if I was edible??) before running next door to raid the neighbors site, which was covered with remnants of their dinner. Never have I had a raccoon do THAT to me before. I finally fell asleep AGAIN, and about two hours later, a chorus of not one but SEVERAL infants screaming just about pushed me into a murderous baby-strangling rage and all I could think was "if only we were allowed to drink here I might actually have been so soundly asleep that I wouldn't have woken up for any of this." We hauled ass out of there the next morning, while some Swedish parents nonchalantly packed up their campsite into their Volvo SUV while their toddler played chicken with incoming cars in the road, which they ignored. A ranger asked our neighbor at 10:45am as he woke, "You know check-out is at 11am, right?" He did not. I wept for humanity. I CAN'T IMAGINE what this place is like during the swimming season when it's warm, the beach is open and the place is REALLY crowded. Thankfully, I will never find out. But ultimately, a weekend out in nature better than one spent inside your apartment in Brooklyn. read more

Oh, Yelp. Sometimes I really wish you'd let me write zero-star reviews. The bottom line here is, just don't do it. Not unless you want bears and all your neighbors to see (and hear) EVERYTHING that goes on at your campsite. If I'm going camping, I want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. I mean, I was born and raised in New York City. I'm used to people breathing down each other's necks. But dear Lord, not like this. This campground offers no privacy whatsoever--zero. Zip. No trees. Some campsites sit directly beneath power lines. No trees separate the sites. No space at ALL to yourselves. The site we reserved didn't even have any flat space to put a tent down that wouldn't have been perilously close to the fireplace--nope. No, instead the idea was apparently to pitch our tent on sloped ground covered in grapefruit-sized-and-up rocks. Under a power line. With families all around who don't know the meaning of the term "peace", much less the term "quiet". I swear, the apartment I used to live in on the Upper East Side / Southern Harlem offered more privacy and a better sense of security. I was afraid to even walk fifteen feet away from the car for fear of something getting stolen (or eaten by bears--according to the campground staff, black bears pretty much just roam free around the site). I don't know how bad it gets after dark, because after a 10-minute tour, I wanted nothing at ALL to do with this place. This wouldn't be quite so infuriating if it wasn't for several factors. To begin with, the area around the camp is NICE, especially in the autumn--quiet, lots of trees changing pretty colors, real delightful. And I'm sure the actual pond itself is very nice--or at least I'm hoping it is, because this place is PACKED to the GILLS and I really hope nobody up there went to discover the aqua equivalent of a latrine. Also, the refund process is ridiculous (since there's no way to move your reservation to another campground somewhere far, far away). We paid $19/night for 2 nights ($38) plus a $9 reservation/transaction fee ($47). {Side note: ReserveAmerica is a TERRIBLE and incredibly expensive way to reserve campsites}. After getting a look around and deciding we'd be safer and happier sleeping under a streetlamp in the South Bronx, we asked for our money back. We were told that not only is the first night's fee forfeit, which, okay, I can understand--but they actually charge *another $9 transaction fee* to cancel the reservation. That means that, after coming way out here to discover that this place is in fact the camping equivalent of an armpit, I got a $10 refund and a shrug from the staff members. Overall, if you're looking to take your kids somewhere to be raucous and rowdy and have a "family campground" (plus bears), MAYBE this is a decent fit (though probably not). But if you're looking for any sense of seclusion or privacy AT ALL, find someplace else. Personally I recommend Little Pond campground in the Catskills. Secluded, private, and you feel like you're AWAY from people--not in a dogpile of them. read more

For it's proximity to NYC, Beaver Pond is pretty much exactly as you would expect. I was there opening weekend (last weekend in April), and it wasn't too too terrible yet, but I can only imagine how bad it will get as the season progresses. This is very much a campground for people who are new to camping, and are from urban areas. There are wooden "platform" sites available, if you don't want your tent on the ground. Generally, the sites are crammed in together, with tent platforms only a foot away from the next site's driveway, but if you get the sites on the "W" loop (which is on a poorly-maintained, unpaved road), they have some decent greenery. We were on W21, the furthest site out, and it was pretty isolated and nice. Pros: plenty of facilities, including a industrial-sized double sinks for dish washing. Showers were hot & free. Bathrooms & showers were reasonably clean (not sure how long that would last in the season). Pretty woodland areas. Proximity to a beach, fishing & playground for kids. Cons: Frankly--the people. They are frequently loud, inconsiderate of neighbors & facilities, and messy as all hell. One sink was backed up from people pouring oils & fats down the drain, and the other was filled with old scouring pads, rags and sponges that people just left. There was some litter already, and again, this was opening weekend. The animals are far too tame from people leaving food out. Raccoons ransack the camps every night, and no one follows the food rules you should when in bear country. Other negatives include the price of firewood (though if you don't need cooking coals, there was plenty of downed wood in the camp), condescending staff (though lord knows what they have to put up with on a daily basis), and roads that are technically 2 way, but barely allow for one vehicle at a time--coupled with the rudeness makes checkout and check in miserable. read more

Here's my take. We camped on a rainy Sunday night so my experience isn't typical: we were in the A section atop a hill where most of the sites were on raised platforms. There were about 8 other groups in the section, all quiet and well behaved. The bathroom was perfectly fine for a campground. I wish the sites had a bit more foliage in between, but ok. It was fine. The thing is that when we arrived the place was packed with Mexicans. What must it be like on a Saturday night? They weren't rowdy, but it was like being in Queens, what with the music and the unbelievable crowds. Where are they coming from? If I had to stay there with those masses, it certainly wouldn't have felt like your typical campsite. read more

After reading many reviews on here and other sites, I have to say, this place was not as bad as I anticipated it being, but I also feel that we may have lucked out and that is why it wasn't so bad. This is a good place to go because it is not too far from the city and it is cheap. If you have never been camping before it is a good place to start out because it isn't REAL camping, its more like just hanging out in the woods with a bunch of strangers. The three biggest things to know before you go here are: (1) it is very very family oriented; (2) because it is close to NYC and cheap it is CROWDED; and (3) demographic breakdown is approximately 85% Puerto Rican, 10% Caucasian and 5% Asian/Other. It is noisy during the day because there are 50 million children running around, and at night it is quiet (10pm begins quiet hours). The platforms in the section we stayed in (A) were relatively close together, but we were still able to have privacy. A group of six of us went - two couples with spots on the lakeside and the other couple with spots on the woods side, and both areas had their pros and cons so we spent the evening/sunset on the lake side and the night time partying on the woods side, as it was more secluded. After the first night a lot of our neighbors left except for a family that occupied two sites. They were fun and somewhat loud, drinking, smoking herb, etc. which we did not mind at all. We made friends with them so they didn't care if we were up late doing our thing and vice versa. Like someone else said on here, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO BRING ALCOHOL - just don't be reckless with it. It isn't like the park rangers inspect your car or campsite, they just drive around to make sure you aren't being too loud or anything like that. The bathrooms were very clean in the morning and totally disgusting at night - bring your own toilet paper. My only real complaint was the "private beach". As far as the "private beach" is concerned, it is anything BUT private! Lake Welch is open to the public and was PACKED by 9 am Saturday morning with pretty much everyone from the Bronx. We could hear the people at the lake from our campsite and it sounded louder than people screaming on the Cyclone at Coney Island! When we finally took a walk down there it was extremely crowded and kind of gross (dirty band-aids, chicken bones, and other garbage in the water - no exxaggeration). There should really be a designated "campers only" section of the lake for the campers to enjoy. After all was said and done, we all agreed that we would go back here again for a quick, cheap weekend getaway and just stay in a different section where things are more secluded (like Section W) so it will be more like real camping and will be less crowded. And here is a tip to anyone who goes here - make the time to drive 10 mins north up to Bear Mountain State Park for a day. It is $8 per car, but they have a bunch of hiking trails for all different skill levels, areas for picnicking, BBQ's, paddle boats, swimming (in a cleaner lake than Lake Welch), a pool, a zoo, a museum, etc. Just get there early because the lot fills up quickly. read more

The campsite is what you make it. First thing I noticed is the location your spot, as if you want to be around many people or just in a more secluded area. My impression after reading all reviews was that I had chosen a BAD PLACE, but after all, I called them in and requested an advice on what to choose within their campsite. I wanted to be in the wilderness, there I stayed, me and my 9 year old son were able to see a bear wondering around, a family of deer and many racoons! It was fun, quiet and quite joyful. The main thing is to know the site locations, and I was told to stay in the W section, and the W section is really away from other people, tents, plataforms, etc, and it has a bathhouse, bathrooms just a hundred yards from all the W section. I had a lot of fun, had a quality time at night building a fire and having a nice glass of wine...WILL NOT COMPLAIN., nobody bother us, rangers were nice, staff of the park were exceptionally nice to us and no one ever checked what I had in my cooler...which if they had, I would argue to let me have my wine in peace at night or I would have left...as I did not know you could not bring alcohol, I realized after I saw some signs around! too late. I will surely come back. read more

I love Beaver Pond Campground! It's the perfect weekend getaway from the city. Its clean, quite and has a super friendly staff!! I camp there several times in the Spring and Summer and can't get enough of it. So beautiful there! Two thumbs way up!! read more

Beaver Pond campground is definitely FAMILY ORIENTED ! Spots are right next to each other . Its a very short drive from the city so its worth going for the weekend but it dosent feel like real camping for some reason . IF you are looking for good spots ,there are only 6 of them on the W LOOP , and they are about 60 feet away from each other . The bathrooms are terrible , very dirty at the end of the night and clean in the morning , the showers are bad too , but your camping so who cares . There is no alcohol permitted on the site , but you could bring it and just be quiet about it. Hide it in the cooler and drink from a different bottle, not a cup! They have people patrolling but they are nice and dont really care . DONT BE SCARED TO BRING ALCOHOL . The staff is rude and they will give you an attitude if you are not nice to them or difficult to work with .. so dont be a spazz and be nice to them and youll have no problems . Place is beautiful ! the woods and pond are great , there is sand on the beach . The pond is full of fish ( we fished a bunch ) and theres dear running all over the place . MAKE SURE YOU BUY THE FISHING LICENSE ON LINE , they dont sell them at the campground and ull have to drive for 20 min to a nearest spots store . Noone came up to us to check for the fishing license but get one its only $5 Also there was no store on the campsite to buy water or food , so come prepared Also they have a wood guy driving around at 6pm , he will stop next to your camp site and ask if you need wood . 10 logs for $5 and 20 logs for $10 ... he expects u to tip him.. You could walk around the woods and collected your own wood The ground on W loop the campsite was filed with bunch of rocks so it was hard to find a good spot to lay your tent at .. but if you have a blow up mattress youll have no problem . OVER ALL The place is great for a family camping and ok for a party environment camping . If you are there to get drunk and party . I suggest finding a different campsite . If you are there to have a fun weekend for cheap and not that far away YES THAT IS THE PLACE U WANNA GO TO . I dont think ill be ever going back there , i like campsite that are deep in the woods and noone cares what you do . Message me if you have any questions about Beaver Pond Campground -Chris read more

Never, ever come here--this place is truly torturous. We were trying to have a quiet couple of midweek nights away from the city, and the photos of the Harriman State Park looked beautiful, so we thought it would be the perfect since it's not too far from Manhattan. And it's true: the wooded areas you drive through to get here are nice, but then you come around the bend to see HUNDREDS of people milling around the tiniest section of a tiny lake, and all of these people apparently stay overnight in this campground. It literally feels and sounds like a midsummer night in Queens. Blasting music until the sunrise, kids running everywhere, and the police constantly patrolling, but only to ensure that people aren't swimming outside of the tiny beach sliver and to collect fees from every car that enters the campground. Other than that, it's a free-for-all. Alcohol isn't allowed, but we heard one cop telling our extremely noisy neighbors who were ten feet away from our tent: "It's fine to drink here, just hide it in a paper cup. But you only paid for three of your four cars, so you owe us fifteen bucks." This place is all about money, and it's very cheap, so it attracts a ton of people, and many of them have absolutely no courtesy and no care at all for being in nature. If you want a peaceful camping trip, head further upstate. End of story. Avoid this campground! read more

I honestly wish I could give this place less than 1 star, but Yelp won't let me. I just got home 2 days early from what was supposed to be a nice, relaxing three-day weekend camping trip with my girlfriend. There aren't a lot of camping options in NY this time of year, but we were excited for the trip. The drive up is beautiful: if you're looking to go somewhere for a day, this could certainly fit the bill. However, the thought of even so much as pitching a tent at Beaver Pond campground made me want to cry. This was obviously meant to be a day-use picnic area: our "campsite" had a freaking power pole in the middle of it! If you've read any of the other reviews here, you'll know that unless you're in the highly-coveted W sites, you will have absolutely no privacy and you'll have kids, bikes, kids on bikes and cars going way too fast whizzing right by your supposedly peaceful and rustic site on the unmarked roads all day and night. There are signs all over the registration office indicating that this is a major bear area, and I can see why: with so many people, most obvious beginners, crammed so close together, there is no hope of keeping the majority of the campsites free of food and food smells. You're essentially at the mercy of your neighbors. In short, if you enjoy camping for the "getting away from it all"; if you like your peace and quiet; if you enjoy a little seclusion and the feeling that you're really roughing it (even if you're a car camper), this is absolutely not the place for you. I'm not at all sure why anyone would want to camp here. I wish we had thought to check Yelp reviews before we made our reservation as we're now out the first night's stay (that would be tonight, which we're currently spending back at home) and an additional $9.00 processing fee. This is certainly one of those live and learn situations for us: I hope anybody reading this learns from our mistake and avoids Beaver Pond. read more

Points in its favor: 1. private beach 2. really helpful staff that helped us find a spot at a different campground for the following night Strikes against it: 1. When we checked in, we were told the firewood guy would be around in the next 20 minutes. He never arrived. If it hadn't been for a fellow camper with wood left over, we would've been SOL. 2. Zero privacy. This place may as well be a field. From where we sat, we could see two dozen other tents and hear several dozen other voices. 3. Quiet hours aren't enforced. In a place like this, they need to be. Our neighbors stopped singing and applauding one another at 2am. At 5am, our neighbors on the other side started yelling at their kids. read more

This was without a doubt the worst "campsite" I have ever experienced. Like another reviewer mentioned, I sorely regret not having looked on Yelp before making reservations here. This "campsite" is utterly absurd, it is more of a day picnic area. There is absolutely NO privacy. Not so much as a single tree or a bush separates you from your neighbor. First of all this place is LOUD! And I actually wish there had been bears here, at least they might have scared some people away. My wife and I came here to get away from the noise of the city and found our apartment in Queens, next door to the fire station is quieter. Our tent was literally fifteen feet away from our neighbor. I don't mind children running around and being kids, but this place was more like a tailgate party in the Bronx or a Labor day weekend in Coney Island. People were playing loud music until 1AM, getting drunk and screaming all night long. Our neighbors must have had five adults, 7 teenagers, 4 children and 4 tents! We were so close we could hear EVERY WORD these people spoke! Secondly, there is nothing nice about this swimming area. Again, imagine Coney Island. NY State law requires a lifeguard be on duty for swimming, so there were HUNDREDS of people all corralled into a fifty yard SLIVER of beach that's of course... roped in with swimming lane lines. It was ridiculous. It was more crowded than a NYC pubic pool. We decided to do our own thing and found a nice secluded space to swim. Of course that was ILLEGAL! and a ranger came and told us we couldn't swim there. I hate this campground with every fiber of my being. I would not wish this vacation on my worst enemy. We tried to escape this Sodom and Gomorrah only to discover that if we attempted to camp somewhere else in the Harriman State Park that our car would likely be towed and we would be issued summonses!! I wish there were some understanding among people that camping is for enjoying nature. Enjoying the great outdoors was impossible with our fellow campers. My wife suggested there be some kind of education for new campers. Silly maybe. But who in their right mind designs a campground this confining? read more

I look forward to Beaver Pond every year! The staff is amazing. Clean bathrooms. A great getaway from the city rush.

I thought it was great. i agree with both the good and some bad reviews. Depending on where your site is... It's best to plan in advance to see if you can get a W or A section. The great part is that it's a short walk with private access to the beautiful Welch Lake for great swimming and fishing. read more

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Just a wonderfully complete camping experience of the worst possible kind! I'm writing this from my tent at 2:40 AM while listening to raccoons shrieking wildly, along with the nearby baby that they have woken up. There was a time, an hour ago, when I did not know what animal was rooting around outside my tent, knocking shit over. I tried going outside and shining a flashlight in that general direction, and something started hissing very loudly. I got into my car wondering if I needed to make a disturbance of some kind, while my wife texted me to inquire why I was abandoning her to the wildlife. Shortly after, I flagged down an ever-so-helpful man patrolling the campground from the safety of his truck, who assured me that these were just the "very aggressive raccoons" that were "used to being fed all summer". He told me while shining a light on my neighbor's campsite, which was pretty much trashed at that point; cans all over the ground & table, and pointed I out that we could clearly hear the guy snoring through all of this. He said he couldn't do anything about the snoring, but wanted to know if anyone else was partying too hard, since that's normally a problem. I said, no, other than something in the dark that was snarling at me like a pissed off mountain lion, things had seemed pretty chill since, oh, 11:30! Then he shrugged and drove off. I guess it's bad etiquette for staff to disturb someone sleeping and make them pick their crap up so the rest of us can sleep. Based on the current shrieking, I'm guessing the raccoons are annoyed that our neighbor FINALLY realized that they had been rooting through his campsite for a good half hour, enjoying the banquet he had laid out for them, and had chased them off. This neighbor is once again peacefully sleeping through the chaos he has caused. I know this because he is snoring 12 feet from me. That's how small these campgrounds are. Yeah, So.... 1--Put your food away at the campground--I guess that needs to be said. 2--Stay away from this campground ghetto. At least I now know why there were so many spaces available earlier this afternoon, while the other campgrounds within 30 miles were all booked this weekend! 3--I could see how this park could appeal as a little beach in the Hudson Valley. I could conceive of coming here for a couple hours with children if I lived close by. 4--I shudder to think what this place would be like WITHOUT a ban on alchohol! All in all, I'd have been better off spending my night and money at a motel--at least I'd have had a good night's sleep and enjoyed the next day; the area is beautiful. read more

This place was very lovely. I promised the guy there that I would write them a review and I am a person of my word. My weekend started going camping for my boyfriends birthday on our way to New York. We stayed in a co workers cabin only to find out that we were going to be babysat by them and lied to about all the activities we were built up and excited for. the beds were bug infested and I slept all of two Hours. We eventually the next day moved down looking for a campsite and we came across beaver pond...it said they were full and reservation only however when we went in there looking for a place to camp for the night; they were accommodating and made room for us when they could of made us leave. Everyone was very respectful of each other's space and were very down to earth, low key families. Quiet hours end at 10. I think my campers were a little louder and no one seemed to be bothered by them as they were teenagers and just trying to have fun. They have the most beautiful beach and cute little onsite store. They were showing a movie on the lawn for the kids and it was a really great place to stop and take a break. It turned the entire weekend around and I can't tell you how relaxing it was. Whole walking on the beach at sunset. I felt more like myself than ever -very easy to lose yourself in the materialistic world we live in. I think this is a beautiful place and we will definitely be back. read more

We were running late and knew we would miss the checkin time. We tried calling the office throughout the entire day and the phone line was not working. We arrived at 1:30am. The sites were not marked well at all and trying to navigate through the campground was very challenging. We had to park the rv in the parking lot. We were exhausted from the drive. We left a note on the window to let the office know we had a reservation but we had arrived late. The next morning we promptly went to the office and without a greeting we were asked if the ranger set us up in the parking lot, as if we were an annoyance to the entire office. We were then told that the sites didn't have electricity and generators could only be ran a few hours per day. Huh? So we left. read more

I'm not a camper and I was afraid to go. This place was perfect for some1 like me. I've been coming here for the13 years. We do this every year just to get away. The prices is great for 6 ppl per site. I love the idea you have ur own private beach or you can walk to the public beach. They have the supermarket and other stores near by. If you want to stay away from noise, book site A, it's a smaller area. You have ur own platform to build ur tent, a picnic table and floor grill. If the wood guy doesn't come by, just a short drive you can collect ur own wood. Local Attractions West Point Sterling Forest Renaissance Festival just 10 minutes away Woodbury Commons Outlet Mall Bear Mountain State Park and Zoo Horseback Riding Palisades Center Mall Many Golf Courses More Fishing New York City and all it offers is just 45 minutes away Rye Playland Amusement Park is just 30 minutes away Hope this helps............. read more

Decent for beginner campers (like me)! Placement of your site is def. A huge factor because if youre in the middle, you will get all the noise and no privacy. We had a corner site so it had a lot of extra land which was great. Bathrooms are convenoient but not always the cleanest. Quiet hours arent really enforced. Beach is decent w lots of room on the sand but water is crowded. read more

We have been to Beaver Pond every summer for the last 3 years and it is amazing!! Campsites are a great size, staff is great, and the camp store is great and not over priced. The reviews on here are horrible so I had to add review. I recommend this campsite to everyone I know. Can't wait to go back! read more

My family has been going to this campground for over 30 years and I am sad to say that I will never be returning. During my last stay I had the worst experience of my life. The manager, Abigail, who's staff refused to give her last name, treated my family, friends and I with complete disrespect and racial discrimination. We were continuously harassed us from the day we checked in to the minute we drove away. She made us turn down our music, which was not loud, at 1:00 in the afternoon, she sent state police to our site to ask why there were so many people and to search for alcohol that we did not have. I rented 4 camp sites for the weekend and during a discrepancy over trading camp sites with another family, which we got permission to do by a park ranger, Abigail made it her business to disrespect us to the point that my friends left to another camp ground. She told us to shut up, continued to talk over us and embarrassed us by having 4 of her employees drive onto our sites for the rest of the campground to see. We were not the only Hispanic family she targeted. On the day of checkout Abigail made sure to remind us of check out time and told us to make sure we were out by then. She did not do this to any other site. Lastly, when I requested a phone number to report Abigail, I was given a fake number. Beaverpond lost business from at least 10 families just from this experience. read more