Schodack Island State Park Campground

Schodack Island's campground just opened in Spring 2016, and is one of the first New York state parks to offer ample electric hook-ups for RVs. Water spigots are located throughout the camping loops, and there's a very easy to use dump station.

The sites are very spacious in size. Many of the back-in sites were marked as only for 30' RVs, however we would have had no problem in any of them with our 35' - and saw many 40' RVs parked in them during our stay.

Possible dings: Sandy surface, that does track inside. Non-NY residents charged $5/extra per night per site. And no waterfront views from the campground (despite being on an island) - in fact there were very few viewpoints even along the trails.

Ours was a pull-thru site, and it could have easily parked a 100'+ rig (if such things were made).

The park is located just a few miles south of Albany, and situated on a long island in the middle of the Hudson River. It offers ample hiking/biking trails, and a kayak trail around the island (study tidal charts in advance however!). While the campground is new, the park has been a local favorite for a while, and is a center of community activities - including concerts in the park, geocaching hunts and family picnics.

We had an absolutely lovely stay at the park.

You will need a cellular booster or antenna to get reliable cellular signal however (which we were able to do for 4G Verizon and AT&T.)

An attractive state park that recently added a campground that is nicely laid out and maintained. This was the best campground that we located in the greater Albany and Berkshire area that was big rig friendly. Regardless, we were pleasantly surprised by the natural beauty that was retained when developing the campground, but at the same time the mature trees and other plantings were very well trimmed (i.e., big rig friendly). The interior roads are paved and the sites are primarily sand.

Note: RVs that are taller and/or over 10 tons should not take some of the more direct routes to the park from I-90 (e.g., Maple Hill Road, Scott Avenue and other similar roads)—these routes have many low tree branches and 10 ton weight limits. The best route for larger RVs, that we located to date, is traveling solely on US-20/U.S. 9/Columbia Turnpike and NY-9J, between I-90 and Schodack Island State Park. A similarly route to/from the NY State Thruway/87 is on I-787, US-20/U.S. 9/Columbia Turnpike and NY-9J, between the Thruway and Schodack Island State Park.

Had a hard time getting over our first impression of this place. Campsites are large and well separated but as we pulled in the brush and undergrowth gave it the feeling of being not well maintained and dumpy. It's possible it would be better in the summer when everything is green but at least in the late fall it's not that pretty of a setting. We did enjoy the massive cottonwoods growing around the park.

Showers were clean and hot but water pressure, at least in the one that we tried was terrible. There are paths that you can walk around the campground and off into the woods, our favorite feature of the park. There are however a lot of ticks and they are the tiny ones that are hard to spot.

You will get constant traffic noise that's not too audible inside but the trains are loud and run through the night. Found several good beer spots in the area, Browns Brewing, Wolff's Biergarten, Chatham Brewing and Hudson Brewing.

Verizon was 4G and was the first time we needed to take advantage of channels other than B13. We did need a booster to get a decent signal and the speeds were good but we would experience times of degraded quality. Our best result was 8 down 6 up.

My original review was based on my 1-night layover in 2016. I met with friends from PA and CT for a 5-night stay over the Memorial Day weekend in May 2017,
The gate staff were very welcoming and helpful. You can buy firewood sourced within the park ($5 for a good-sized bundle) and ice ($2/bag) at the park gate--in person or by phone. Either way, they will deliver it to your site at no additional charge. All proceeds go to the park programs. The delivery staff are great.

There are special programs offered throughout the camping season. During this weekend, there was a 'Strum in' of 6 bands on Sat with a firefighter BBQ, a Memorial Day service, and a Geocaching event. There are lots of well-maintained trails.

The new washrooms are very clean and well maintained. the showers operate with a push-on control. You cannot adjust the temperature. It took me 5 push cycles to get hottish water. The flow was affected by toilet flushes. There is an outdoor wash station at the back of each comfort station. However, a sign should be mounted at the front of the building to promote its use. While I was there, I saw some of the tent campers washing dishes at a water faucet in their loop.
There is a take-one/leave-one bookshelf at the washrooms for sharing reading materials.

On my first stay at Schodack Island, I was on a drive-through site in the Riverside loop. At that time, there was little ground cover between sites. I was concerned about the fragility of the sparse undergrowth. Fortunately, there has been considerable regrowth between the sites. However, some of the larger trees appear to be stressed due to sand around their trunks.
On this trip, I was in a back-in site on the Creekside loop. If you're looking for orivacy, I would recommend one of the back-in sites.

A cautionary note: One of my friends was on a drive-through site. While sitting around the campfire just before dusk, my friend noticed that there was a large vine of poison ivy (oak?) climbing one of the large trees in the middle of their site. It was evident from the debris around the trunk that the staff had recently used a weed wackier to cut it back. My friend reported the ivy to park staff who drove by. The next day, two men came to rip out the remaining vines. I suspect that they will just grow back. While geocaching, we met a woman who lives in the area. She told us that poison ivy is rampant in the park.

There was considerable traffic noise from the surrounding area--both from highways and railroads. However, after a while it just seemed like background noise to me.

On both visits to Schodack Is, I was using a Bell travel package for my cell. Unfortunately, the carrier was usually T-Mobile E, and I had no internet service. Occasionally I would get AT&T 3G.

Nightly rate includes out of state charge.

I really wrestled with a 3 or 4 star rating for this park. The park is clean and well maintained. The bathrooms are new and clean! Sites were mostly level with part gravel, part grass and part mud. Each site has a picnic table and fire ring. And yes you can call the office and they will deliver firewood and ice right to your campsites. Speaking of delivery to your site, Friday through Sunday, the Good Humor man sold ice cream treats throughout the campground. Looks like most sites also include electric.

Why the 3 star consideration? Sites are good size with dense vegetation between each site. This stuff was 4-6 feet tall. Add a little water and the mosquitoes had a great time. Noise from the overhead train and car tracks were definitely noticeable.

We picked this campground partially due to the kayak. When we went to explore the kayak launch, you drive down an rough road to a woodsy area, slide your kayak down a kayak ramp and jump into the muddy brown creek/river. Sign at the kayak warns not to get out of your kayak even if you get stuck. Supposed to wait for the water to rise. You could launch the larger boat dock and kayak in the Hudson. We decided to pass on both.

Again, this is a nice clean state park. Good for a night or two.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here in Mid September. The sites are huge, really pretty level and private. We were in a pull through site but could have easily fit in almost all of the back in sites with our 32' trailer.

The bathhouse was the cleanest one I have ever seen. Water was super hot - which I loved but hubby didn't.

I noticed on some reviews there were concerns about the large growth of natural vegetation between the sites. I found this to be awesome and provided for a very private area. The sites were all neatly mowed and each had a picnic table and huge fire ring with grill.

Water spigots were located in convient spots throughout the campground- I'm pretty sure I had enough hose with me to have run a hose from spigot to trailer should I have needed more fresh water.

There were walking trails galore. The dogs and I explored many of them on our frequent walks. I would go out of my way to stay here again.

We visited Schodack State Park on a trip from Boston back home to Toronto, staying for one night.

Staff welcoming us were incredibly friendly and welcoming. Firewood is delivered to your campsite for $5.00 and is sourced from the park itself. The park was nicely decorated for Halloween and there's a lovely free library for books and magazines.

The washrooms were beyond spotless and incredibly clean at all times, with lovely hot showers. We had a pull-through site with water on site that could have accommodated the biggest of trailers. The water is supposed to be shared, but we could fill our tanks on site with no issues.

The park is nice, but perhaps not the prettiest I've ever seen. Despite being on an island, it has no sites with water view. There's also a hum of traffic, from both cars and trains, that, while faint, is always noticeable. One thing keeping in mind is that, when arriving from Highway 90, and if your GPS takes you down Knickerbocker Road, there's a very steep hill ending at a T junction that demands care and good brakes.

It was a great place to stay the night, but we would not go back for an extended stay.

A relatively new (2008) State Park Campground. Each site has electricity with water close by (generally within 100' of each site). Easy to fill your fresh water tank on your way in.
Very clean, quiet park with spotless restrooms.
The road into the park needs repaving but once past the check_in booth, everything is packed stone including the level sites.
Biggest complaint is that there was no patrols - the neighbors had a party till midnight (quiet time is listed as 10PM) and another camper had to ask them to quiet down.

Super clean bathrooms and well patrolled. Right on the Hudson River, with boat ramp and a separate area to put in kayaks and canoes.

Super clean bathrooms and well patrolled. Right on the Hudson River, with boat ramp and a separate area to put in kayaks and canoes.