Belleplain State Forest — Attraction in Dennis Township

Short story- yesterday we got home. Great time camping with family! 2 Park workers harassed us, one made a homophobic type comment towards us and a state police officer was called on us as well.

Long story- We got there Friday around 3, had a really great night with the kids and family, though it got pretty cold! Unfortunately the bathroom right next to us was closed since COVID, and no one gave us a heads up, which would have been nice especially with all the kids. the next morning as we slowly rose from our tents to make coffee, a Bellplain state park employee, an older man named Tom approaches My partner and immediately is mean and rude and talking over her.

He doesn’t tell us how to fix that we had too many cars (one over) like he did with my cousins site, (apparently they have a parking lot you can park at.) He tells us this huge log that was ALREADY THERE FROM THE WOODS and we need to take it home with us and not to leave a mess behind. He said we have too many tents to a site (one was a tarp not a tent, and we had a one person mini tent extra. Easy, we can move it. No problem. He said we didn’t register our dog, Yes, we did. He said we had too many people on our site (we have two family sites and our site was the meet up communal site, we were not over) he said also, a camp site should be between a married man and wife. LOL yeah. My partner said “oh, well, my ‘WIFE’ is right there.”

Instead of saying these are the things you can do, he immediately was vicious and pointing the finger instead of being helpful. My partner was as sweet as ever as she is, and tried to calm him down, assure him she’d “fix” it and apologized... and he just said “well if you don’t want to comply I’m calling the state police.” I was so stressed and shaken up on a campsite WE paid for, and on our vacation.

Uh ok?

So the police officer came, I was worried but he was super sweet. He said he was on call for a noise complaint with us last night (out of the 20 things Tom said we did wrong, odd he never mentioned that?? How weird!) we explained what he did- He said that’s a shame what he did and said. He said we were fine. I felt better after he came.

It wasn’t long before ANOTHER park worker came (named Peter.) he was warning us the state police would be checking on us at night, that “my friend Tom told me you guys were giving him trouble and were too loud last night) and to “chill” and be respectful. Every time I tried to speak he just put his hands up and kept talking.

I had enough at this point and was severely anxious, had heart palpitations and my camping trip almost ruined by harassment. Tried to call the office over and over and they apparently were closed during open hours. Kinda think it’s not fair they can harass me at all times but I can’t complain to them. We decide that if they do it again, WE are calling the police. We tried to get the superintendent’s number but was told she was retiring in two days and it wouldn’t matter LOL there was no one else to contact.

Luckily, no one else came and we had a good rest of the night, but it really left a bad taste in my mouth the way we were treated.

I give so much time and money to state parks to be treated so poorly.

I’m done with state parks. Our one entire full day there was almost ruined by these people and we...

CONS: Given wrong campsite at check-in, ended up staying where the Jannsen's were supposed to be instead of where the Johnson's (meaning Us) were supposed to stay--very awkward and weird when they showed up at like 9pm wanting us to move. Also, previous campers--at the wrong site we had been given--took until 1:15 for them to finish cooking over the campfire/eating and packing before finally leaving so we could set up.

I didn't have high expectations for the bathrooms, being that it was a State park, but the floors were essentially sandy/muddy, there needed to be a lot of repairs. Things were just gross. Cleaning crews spend maybe 15 minutes around 11AM getting everything back to status quo, and it left a lot to be desired. Maybe bathrooms on the lower side where the RVs and cabins are situated were cleaner, but I couldn't tell you. A portable shower/outhouse setup would be nice for this type of campground.

The camping areas were big, there were huge camp cities on certain campsites--I don't think the 6 person per campsite rul is enforced. There were multiple campsites with 10 kids and maybe 2 adults. Because of this, things were often loud. Sound carried a lot, and I felt like I was involved in everyone's conversations. Not peaceful. People were nice enough, but nothing felt private.

PROS: Cheap, and given you could set up a bare minimum campsite, and use facilities at many of the nice beaches around that are all about 30 minutes away, you could set up a quick tent, sleeping setup, and just spend all your days somewhere else. Noticing how many campsites had little tents, but never used the fire ring or never seemed to have anyone in them, I think this was what many people did. Being that our campground was near the entrance to the tent section, it seemed like everyone was leaving really early and coming back late and spending their...

One star simply because of park services and amenities they claim they have. Showers are not really showers and super cold at that. The dryers don’t work so don’t waste your money. Park is beautiful but Meagan’s attitude is not. My son got super sick, and was running fever we had to leave late at night (couldn’t see to pick up). So while my son and I were in the hospital my husband went back and tried to pick up before noon. Turns out my son had a deer tick, so my husband rushed back to the hospital so we could hall be inspected. The State Police called and said Meagan said we left some things. My husband called the office to explain and to tell them he would be there in the morning because it was Tick situation. Megan called him liar, said we didn’t have a medical emergency and we went to the “furthest” possible hospital. Granted we are out of state we had NO cell service. I lived in Jersey for 3 years about 12 years ago and all I could think off the top my head of Cooper’s University so that’s where we took my son. If we had cell service I’m sure there were closer hospitals but when your child had a fever of 103 throwing up, you are not sitting around waiting on cell service or walking around trying to get it. You act, instinctively you act and go to what you know. I know the tick isn’t their fault, but the way my husband was spoken to and the...