Brighton State Park — Attraction in Brighton

We stayed here with two other groups of people for a long weekend. We booked a leanto and tent site. The biggest thing talked about his past weekend was how not a one out of the 7 of us would be coming back. We’ve always booked state parks throughout the summer in VT but this one was new to all of us. We all, separately, had extremely rude interactions with the staff and were not happy with the way we were treated or how unhelpful they were. It was ridiculous the rudeness we were met with during simple interactions such as passing by a staff, getting wood, going to the bathroom, and just sitting at our site.

Bathrooms: The water faucets don’t shut off in either of the men or women’s bathrooms so they are running constantly, leaving their water pump on constantly which was quite noisy They would close the bathrooms down between 7:30 and 8:30 every morning. Just as soon as the park was waking up and there were many people waiting to use them. They were always covered in mud on the floor and the sinks full of hair even when they left from cleaning and we were finally allowed in. They wouldn’t put new toilet paper on the rack, just placed the rolls on top of empty ones.

Road: the park was not very booked and we had lots of empty sites around us but the road was considerably busy due to the park staff constantly circling the park in trucks, personal vehicles and on UTVs.

Wood: We were given a hard time getting wood. Which shouldn’t be a problem, I’m giving you money for the item you’re selling. We had two sites, and we wanted 12 bundles for 4 day stay. After playing 20 questions with the staff woman, she finally allowed me to pay for the wood. “How many people?, how many days?, what site are you on? you know it’s supposed to rain tomorrow right you won’t be having a fire tomorrow.. Are you sure you need that much? How many people do you have there? If you don’t use it you have to bring it back to us… I’m going to have to call someone now if you think you need that much.. ugh, you’re paying cash…”.

of people: we were asked and stopped multiple times by staff asking how many people were on our site. We had two sites and 7 people. The max PER site is 8 people.

Pets: There is no area that dogs are allowed to be in the water and there were signs at the one small beach that said no pets. We respected this but one day we left the dogs behind and went down, there was a group of staff there who had their pets with them! So the rules didn’t apply to them apparently.

Dogs: One of the staff followed behind us when we first checked in to our site as we were arriving. We got out of the car, opened the back door to let our dog out and she immediately came running over screaming that the dog needed to be tied up. The dog was less than a foot from my car and had just gotten out.

Cleanliness: many of the sites I saw had not been cleaned properly including a fire pit that was full of trash someone partially burned and staff left. The one small “beach” area was very dirty and not maintained. The “trails” were not maintained or trimmed back.

Anytime we were driving through the park to leave, explore, get wood etc we were stopped by staff and asked “can we help you?” No… just exploring. It felt like we weren’t able to enjoy ourselves nor leave our sites.

Sites: another lean was so close and facing towards ours. You could see directly into their lean to and they could into ours.

The upsides: The leantos inside were nice, had a coat rack in them which was a cool add on we utilized, and it was a very quiet park at night.

Had the staff been nicer, or even willing to be personable, we all would have had a better time and been writing a different review.

Unfortunately, this park was not one we will return to, nor recommend to others.

It’s one thing to have one person have a rude interaction with a staff ranger but it’s a whole different thing when all 7 of us had separate conversations with staff during various times of our stay and each been shocked at how we were talked to...

EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED! We arrived with the family to enjoy a beautiful day at the lake and unloaded at the picnic table….. there was goose poop EVERYWHERE. This is not an exaggeration…it was in the grass, on the beach, around the picnic tables…..…… So we decided to just clean it up a little to have a place for the baby to play. We sat our chairs on the beach and tried to make the best of it. Within minutes the baby picked up a large piece of broken glass which was the end of our short stay. Completely unacceptable conditions!!!!. I grew up in this area and pretty much lived here as a kid…. It was ALWAYS clean and pleasant. I really hope someone sees this and makes the necessary changes.

The staff was very nice and apologized, offered us a refund, and also urged us to report our experience so that something will be done about the park. I realize you cannot keep wildlife out but they can make a better effort to keep it clean!

So we packed everyone up and headed to Maidstone where we had a BEAUTIFUL...

Brighton is a gem of a State Park tucked away in the Northeast corner of Vermont near the shores of Island Pond. Spectacle Pond provides a sandy camper's beach with plenty of opportunities forbswimming, paddling, fishing, as well as nature watching. Expansive undeveloped Boreal forests provide hiking trails with points of interest. The village of Island Pond not only gives another water activity option with a State and Town Beach, but has restaurants, convienence and country stores, a Market with butcher shop and a hardware store. The surrounding area lovingly known as the Northeast Kingdom has many attractions such as Silvio Conte Wilderness Refugee, the Clyde River, Kingdom Mountain BikingTrails, Lake Willoughby, Burke Mountain and Jay Peak Resort and Indoor Water Park. If you are an outdoor enthusiast, Brighton will deliver an excellent place to camp. Clean facilities and a friendly staff make it a park a home run for anyone wanting to get off grid. Cell service is extremely spotty...