Golden Beach Campground

Staff was very friendly and accommodating. Make sure you pre-register to save time checking in. The sites around the entrance are very close together, and the ones by the lake also. I was on site 135. The surface was grass and packed dirt, also the fireplace was in need of repair. The site looks like it's meant for a family or friends camping together. The adjoining site(137) is right next to you. Luckily it was unoccupied during our stay. Best sites are outside the campground around the lake. Dump station at the entrance, and water spigots around the campground. Nice clean bathrooms with flush toilets. Showers with hot water. Nice beach with boat ramp. Sidenote: if you have a diesel truck, Old Forge has diesel fuel. As for cell service, we had none with Verizon. Drive to town for service. A friend had AT&T and had one bar. We camped in a 24 ft. hybrid travel trailer.

This is a large campground that is probably very popular (not sure as I’m a visitor) and it has a very nice beach. The CG offers a boat ramp and the sites appear to each have a beach and fire pit/grill. I did not notice any store, but the showers are hot and included in the cost of your stay. I’m in site 37 and feel I have decent privacy for a large camp. I also have 2 bars LTE with AT&T.

Compared to other state parks in the area, Golden Beach is right on Rt. 28, making it centrally located and easy to go in either direction to the small towns and area attractions. It is a large campground with a variety of sites. Some are level, some are not, and some had steep drives to a level area. The sites along the road past the gate are grass, open to the sun, and close together. Other sites are packed dirt and very wooded. Some have good privacy, many don’t. It seems many of the sites are only good for tents and there were many tents here. We were very happy with our site. It was level, wooded and close to the showers. The entrance road to the campground was right behind us, but it didn’t bother us. When I first saw the showers I thought “No thanks”, but actually, except for water on the floor of the shower house, they were clean - surprisingly so considering how many tent campers were using them. My only complaint: there was no adjustment for water temperature. You press a button and the water comes on for a very reasonable length of time, with good pressure, but the water was extremely hot. Bearable, but took some getting used to. It seems many campers come for the access to Raquette Lake right at the campground beach. Both boating and swimming are possible. If you are interested in hiking, look for maps at each town’s information center. Or better yet, pick up maps at the Fast Track gas station in Old Forge. We intermittently had 1 bar of TMobile, but with our WeBoost we were usually able to search activities and text or email. Our rate includes the $5 per night extra fee (for non resident? or daily vehicle fee?) and tax.

I made my reservation through Reserve America. Golden Beach is on Route 28 on Raquette Lake, Blue Mountain Lake to the north, the hamlet of Raquette Lake to the south. Upon arrival at the main gate I met the caretaker. Nice gentlemen, I never been there before so he was giving me the layout of the campground. I was off to my site, first thing I noticed is the sites are very close to each other. The road in is very narrow and windy. Being nearly 50 feet long and traveling a road that twist around tree's as well as having branches scrub the sides as well as the roof......I just was not pleased about that. I got to my site which was large, but the only way to back in was either to jack-knife in or go onto the site across from me to get in. The site had a fire pit and a picnic table and there are no hook up's in this campground. After setting up I explored the campground, the bathrooms/showers are decent, plenty of water spickets to fill your tank. Very large beach area with boat launch. There are sites off Route 28 that are on the water but are not for large trailers or motor homes. There is not much privacy from site to site and many sites I would be scared to use the fire pit if there was campers next to me.....yep that close. It's a nice area as there are plenty of lake/rivers to paddle and trails to hike. They recycle everything and there is not much for stores in the area, so come stocked up, including gas. The closest station is in Inlet. I would go back if I had a smaller trailer and now that I know the park a little better I'd pick a site that has room in between.