Lake Eaton Campground

Lake Eaton State Park lies just over two miles northwest of the village of Long Lake, a small hamlet that can provide the basics for a few days of camping or a weekend of debauchery. If you’re looking for nightlife beyond owls, coyotes, loons, and bears…this ISN’T the place and we would suggest travelling further north towards Lake Placid. If you’re looking to get back to nature and enjoy a quiet campsite next to a beautiful Adirondack lake, Lake Eaton State Park is right for you.

While the state park is older and is showing its age, we could not have asked for a better basecamp for our Adirondack stay. We stayed in the early autumn and the eastern-most loop was closed for the season, but the western loop was perfectly fine with the majority of campsites right on the lake.

There are no hook-ups at Lake Eaton and almost all the sites are wooded and basically full shade. Since we stayed for three days, we ended up running our generator because our solar panels (including two 100W portable panels) couldn’t keep up with our energy consumption. There were authorized generator hours in both the morning and the early evening.

We stayed in site 51 and it had a really nice lake access point. All the lakeside sites appeared to have fantastic lake views. Sites 6-8, 47-49, and 56-57 appeared to be the best options for solar due to not having as much tree cover as the rest of the sites. Of those, our preference would have been 47-49 due to their quieter location and woodsier feel.

There is one bathhouse with showers and the others are simply bathrooms. The accommodations were adequate, but old and basic—it reminded both my wife and me of summer camps while growing up. The roads inside the campground are paved, but in pretty rough shape due to age and frost heaves. Drive slow and you’ll be fine. Campsites are all dirt and “relatively” level.

We had a solid AT&T signal without booster. Our Verizon signal was fine with booster. Both were relatively fast and reliable. AT&T was faster in my opinion.

It also looks like the park rents canoes and kayaks during the season.

Pure Adirondacks camping...lakefront, dry camping, no signal...just silence broken by the occasional loon!

If you can get a lakeside spot, of which there are a lot, this is a 5 star campground. Otherwise it’s a 2 or 3. It’s a pretty mixed bag overall. Some sites are spacious and lovely. Some (like ours #128, slanted and covered in sand and hay) are kinda crappy. There’s a swimming area and apparently you can rent boats. Central bathhouse is decent, does have hot water. Scattered restrooms are a little more rustic.

Our cost included a $10 non-resident fee and a $9 online reservation fee. So $59 for two nights.

Made my reservations on Reserve America, it was opening weekend (May 2022) that I stayed. Weather was nice. Lake Eaton offers no hookups...but there is a dump station, water spigots throughout the park for filling your rig or water jugs. Lake Eaton has a beach, boat launch, playground, kayak rentals and a picnic area. Each site has a fire pit and picnic table and has sites that can accommodate large rigs. My site was level, easy to access and even though it was May...the world famous Adirondack Black Flies weren't bad. Roads are paved in areas, stone/gravel in others. Roads can be narrow in spots. There are bathhouses through out the park and a central shower area. I did not see the showers since they were closed because of no hot water. The staff was great and was willing to give information and help in anyway. The hamlet of Long Lake is just down the road and has a few stores, gas, restaurants with bar. Several hiking trails, paddling, fishing and mountain climbing in the area. I have Verizon and maintained a good signal all three days.