We camped here for 4 days August 13,14,15,16 2020. Tent camping at site 28 on the river. 5 of us, 3…read moretents.
PROS -
Quiet- midnight fires must be out, and quiet is enforced from 10pm on. When you go to sleep, all you can hear is the cricket chorus, the occasional animal in the woods and ducks playing in the water.
Dark- there are only lights at the bathrooms/showers the rest of the campground is completely pitch black except for what your fellow campers set up. Bring a flashlight. The stars are BREATHTAKING! There is so much tree/leaf cover- you really feel like you are camping in the middle of a forest (because you are).
The Swift River- While you can't really go "swimming", it gets deep in spots, but it is fantastic for lazy tubing, cooling off and plopping your chairs in the water and chatting for hours. The water is clear, clean and cold. Wonderful! My two sons and I along with their friends spent days digging up rocks from the river bed and worked on making a dam next to our site- ridiculous simple, fun.
Location- centrally located and not far from Conway, Meredith and Ossipee.
Staff - friendly and helpful
Firepits/grills- the pits are cemented down in location, which is fine. They are large, round, and have a convenient grill attached. There is NOTHING like burgers cooked over a bed of charcoal or wood.
Site cleanliness - The sites all have a bed of gravel laid down on them and are raked/cleaned - along with the ashes/debris from the firepit- after a party leaves and before the next arrive. There is not much ground cover, bushes, grass, which keeps down on the bugs & ticks. Speaking of that, we may have just been there at the right time of year, but there were almost zero bugs!
CONS -
Cleanliness/Condition of facilities- I would've given this campground 5 stars however their bathrooms and showers are really showing their age. A bit dilapidated and very dirty- lots of spiders/webs/nest/cocoons- shows that they haven't been deep cleaned in a LONG time. I know, it is the woods and there will be bugs, but if the facilities were deep cleaned at least occasionally, it wouldn't be this bad. The showers are coin operated- .25$ for 5 minutes- which is doable. I hear/see that they are in the process of updating their entrance/camp store, so hopefully their bathroom/showers are in line for an update as well.
RECOMMENDATIONS -
If you can, get a premium, river-side spot, the further from the entrance/beach the better. Though you will have a hike to get to the bathrooms, the quiet/dark is wonderful and having the river at your doorstep is amazing! We were at site 28 and it was large enough for 3 cars and 3+ tents with room to spare. Went to sleep listening to the crickets and the murmur of the river, woke up to songbirds and the sun. The river also cools your site by about 10 degrees as compared to our friends site which was closer to the office. Our site also had electric and water as well- bring a 50'ft cord and it will stretch to every spot on your site.
SUMMARY -
Beautiful, quiet, dark, cool and for the most part clean. Spring for a river spot. Hopefully with the coming updates, they will address the bathrooms/showers issues with cleanliness. Would definitely stay here again.