Well, here's my Aug 2009 review of Turkey Swamp. It's a sure winner! The park itself is lovely. It has several miles of nicely marked hiking/biking/equestrian trails, several geocaches, a large lake for fishing & boating, a very nice archery range, a couple of playgrounds, & picnic areas. Swimming is available & free with the camping permit at an offsite location.
The campground is great. I particularly like that you can walk from the campground, on trails, anywhere in the park. You don't need to drive. Your pet can accompany you throughout the entire park. Firewood is available in the camp office for a reasonable price. The guy across the main road also sells it, but believe it or not, this park welcomes you to bring your own from home. Aren't they worried about the "emerald ash borer?"
As for the sites, like Adam mentioned above.... they are huge! Every site is a relatively level pull thru with W/E and it's own metal trashcan & recycle bin. The water spigot is on your site .... but far away. We had 40' of hose & it wasn't enough. All sites offer quite a bit of privacy, some more than others. The campground is mostly all shaded under tall trees, with wild blueberry bushes surrounding all the sites. All of the roads in the campground are 1 way, which at times make the site "backwards". However, we saw plenty of campers pulled in the opposite way, so it seems as if the rangers may allow you to do so if your site is like that. Now, for the roads, I'll be honest, some spots are very tight with a large trailer. The roads themselves are packed sand/dirt, which is fine, but in some places there are trees on each side which make maneuvering through the bends a bit tricky. On the plus side, the narrow, curvy road also keeps speed down, so we never once saw any traffic zipping through the loop.
The bathhouse & laundry facility is centrally located, but there are no shortcut paths to it, so you have to walk the entire road. It's not terrible, but if you are on one of the outside loops (A/E) it is more of a distance than most state parks. One notable thing to mention is that the showers each have their own curtain, but no private dressing area. You exit the shower into a group dressing area. It is separated from the main restroom by a curtain. The facilities were well maintained & even on a crowded wknd, never ran out of paper products or soap. A big blower fan was placed on the floor to help keep it dry near the shower area.
There is a beautiful state of the art playground in the campground geared to the younger set. The sign says "under 5", but I think kids a bit older could enjoy it, too. One downfall seems to be that when packed, like our wknd, sound really traveled in this park. It quieted right down at Quiet hour, but during the day, it was noisy. To be fair though, we had one rather "loud" bunch that seemed to be the biggest culprits. The parents appeared to let the kids run wild all day. Because the sites are so huge, most had 3 tents on them which meant we had many large groups & multi-family sites. Nothing obnoxious or rowdy, just noise.
The rangers were very friendly & helpful. They patrol FREQUENTLY in truck or mountain bike. There is a dump station in the campground, located on one of the loops. The campground also has a large group fire ring area with benches, a table, & electric outlet. The park is very easy to get to, a short drive on 195, not far from the NJ Tpk.
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Topic: Turkey Swamp Campground (Read 3804 times)