By:
Submission
North South Lake Campground is the biggest and most popular state campground in the Catskill Forest Preserve, offering extraordinary scenic beauty, and historical sites, such as: Alligator Rock, Kaaterskill Falls, and the former site of the Catskill Mountain House. An abrupt change in elevation occurs from about 540 feet above sea level at the base of the escarpment to approximately 2,250 feet at the site of the former Catskill Mountain House. The provinces around the lakes have long provided visitors with exceptional views of the surrounding countryside. It is said that on a clear day, five states can be viewed from the escarpment.
7 camping loops; 219 tent and trailer sites; 2 lakes; 2 beaches; Two picnic areas: one on North Lake with two picnic pavilion rentals a 20' X 32' and a 44' X 24' (the larger of the two with electricity) and one on South Lake with a 40' X 60' picnic pavilion rental (with electricity).; 2 picnic areas with tables and fireplaces or charcoal grills; playground; flush toilets; hot showers; boat launch (no motorized vessels); rowboat, canoe, kayak and paddle boat rentals; firewood sales; volleyball; horseshoes; fishing; playing field; trailer dump station; recycling center; solar cell phone charging station; ADA fishing platform.
From the South: Take the NYS Thruway (I-87) to Exit 20, at Saugerties. Follow Rte 32 north for approximately 6 miles to Rte 32A and Rte 23A West. Stay on Rte. 23A to the village of Haines Falls. Make the first right turn in Haines Falls, onto County Rte 18, and follow it to the campground entrance. From the North: Take the NYS Thruway (I-87) to Exit 21, at Catskill. Turn left onto Rte 23 East, to Rte 9W South. Follow Rte 9W through Catskill to Rte 23A. Follow 23A West to Haines Falls. Make the first right turn in Haines Falls, onto County Rte 18, and follow it to the campground entrance.
$22 per night (out-of-state residents surcharge an additional $5 per night)
This place is one of the best campsites in New York. The campsites are clean, everyone is friendly and the bathrooms and showers are close to your site. Now this goes out for the solo campers who are looking for peace and quiet, unfortunately this place is just packed with families with loud children. Now I get it's a family friendly camping site, but just know you won't have peace and quiet, kids will be screaming, parents will be screaming at them. Besides that, the trails and the lake is beautiful! Worth it for the hiking!
Great campground! Beautiful! I would have liked a more convenient way to dispose of trash. I understand issues with bears, but there was only one central dump station that was quite a distance away. There are bear resistant dumpsters available these days that are far more effective than storing your trash in your car as they instruct you to do.
The trails appear well maintained and they have nice facilities available at the lakes.
Absolutely beautiful campground. We arrived late Friday on Oct 20 and the fog was so thick we were unable to see past 10ft the closer we got to the lake. On the campground we were able to setup and wake up to the most beautiful fall foliage and stream. It was a magical experience.
At first, I was at Devils Tombstone, amazing camping but there was no showers, so I decided to ask the office where I could shower, the staff told us that we had two options, go to another place to shower or go to North/South Lake Campground. Me and my family went to North/South lake instead as it was minutes close to us. Later on, as we arrived to the North/South Lake, we asked the office if its possible to shower as the Devils tombstone staff told us to come here, the staff said yes that we could shower, and once we arrived to the bathrooms with shower rooms, all of a sudden the North/South Lake park staff noticed that we didn't have the registration camping paper and we specifically explained the reason why we were here but the staff decided not to listen and tried to forcefully kick us out, making us go to the office again and book another two days just to shower but, we didn't put any tents as we only came here to shower and the North/South lake staff AGAIN tried to kick us out even though we had the registration paper on our hands and they still wanted us out of the park, having them even follow us to the exit of the park!!!! Horrible staff!!
