Maurice K Goddard State Park — Attraction in New Vernon Township

Security "deputies" were rude, place was crowded and sites were small.

I went with 4 other groups of my friends memorial day weekend. Initially, it seemed pretty good. They had volunteers escorting us to the site. The campground rented us primitive sites and said we could park our campers. It wasn't too bad getting in.

We all had purchased very quiet inverter style generators and moved them in the center of our group and only ran them intermittently. Our neighbors didn't mind but I overheard the permanent residents from 500 yards up commenting on the generator as they rode by. Security came by shortly after and made a scene. No where on their site was it posted you could not use an inverter generator. (I'm sure it is now though!) We asked to speak to management and next thing we know we have 3 golf carts surrounding us with guys in security t shirts. The owners came down and they admitted it wasn't in the rules and asked we didn't run them during quiet time 10:00pm to 8:00am. We didn't have a problem with that. I also witnessed security taking kids bikes away if they were riding after dark and they threaten you with a $50.00 fine.

The bathroom nearest us was closed so you had to walk down to the pool (which wasn't filled on Memorial day weekend) which was a 5 minute walk.

The permanent sites were 15 feet apart and cars lined the narrow streets.

I wouldn't recommend a permanent site or renting a temporary site. There are much better campgrounds for less $$$ per night.

I don't have a problem with rules and Ii want to respect others while visiting, but I do have a problem with volunteer security guards that take their job way too seriously and permanent residents that don't want renters. I would camp in my driveway before I...

It was in 2014 in the month of July that our family visited this amazing park. We were in Hermitage with our son at that point of time and had our daughter and kids visiting from Dallas. At the suggestion of friends we hired bicycles to do the trail at Maurice Goddard State Park. The bicycles were delivered at the site by a friendly lady who also guided us. Our son and grandchild did tandem cycling and our daughter took a cycle with a carrier for her child. This was the first experience for all and was quite an adventure , something to remember forever. Even as my daughter struggled with a cycle too big for her and a sleeping child to boot and lost track son and grand child did manage to complete the trail but not easily. When they were half way through they decided it was enough but tracing their way back would be same as moving forward so they completed the 12 mile track and met the others at the starting point guided by the bike rental lady who came to warn about an imminent tornado. Tornado or not they decided to have their picnic with their friend and guide while talking about their victorious...

We went on a perfect day! Rented a standard pontoon boat at the marina. $132 for 6 hours was great. Sun was shining, great breeze, kids all in good moods and good food. Then the pontoon boat breaks down almost running ground because the 3lb. Anchor was obviously insufficient to hold such a boat. Called the marina and they talked us through troubleshooting the engine. Couldn't get it to come back to life. The guys at the marina came to rescue us. The solenoid went bad but the managed to start it somehow. We only had about an hour and a half left so we threw in the towel and headed back to the dock. The guys who work here are great and even refunded $32 for the trouble we had without even saying anything. My words of advice if you come here....rent a deluxe pontoon boat, if your boat has a bunch of spider webs on it it may have been sitting for a while, ask for a different boat, make sure you have a cellphone on you. The marina sells all kinds of fishing tackle like hooks, sinkers, bobbers, worms, minnows, reels...