Pawtuckaway State Park — Attraction in Nottingham

OK - this is a huge state park in Southern New Hampshire - I'm giving this an "average" rating after weighing he pros and cons related to our 1 night transient stay in late June. Our impression is that it's a lovely area with several notable caveats. We camped in a 26' RV - no hookups, no problem but we felt like we had arrived on opening day and the park was NOT ready for campers. The brand new dump station was not open and the sites and roadways were not very well (if at all) cleaned for the season. There are some obvious new amenities but it almost seems like they have a lack of funding to provide proper general landscape and site maintenance. If you are looking to stay with a CAMPER OR RV LARGER THAN 26', there are only a handful of site level enough and wide enough to accommodate you on Horse Island - it's not immediately apparent online so make sure you do your homework ahead of time. Fortunately, we were able to do a tour and select from many open sites when we arrived relatively early on a Friday afternoon. PROS: Serene sites mostly on the water on Horse Island Brand new bath houses are gorgeous and modern Plenty of things to do and areas to explore by foot, boat, kayak CONS: Access road is in dire need of repaving Lack of goose control on the beach and around camp sites = turds everywhere Many very large felled trees and old logs left in place cluttering the environment No threaded connection at water stations for on-board RV water Dirty water and bad pressure from spigot close to our site Sites and roads were not well cleaned for the season Fire rings and sites had oak saplings all over late in June Again, this is our impression at the time we visited - would definitely stay again but with a bit of...

I have been camping here since I was a child, and everytime I am there I have nothing but fond memories of those days. We always reserve a waterfront campsite when we go, because we always bring at least one boat, kayak, canoe, etc. It can be quite peaceful there, and it's a great place to take a little vacation in order to recharge your batteries. Even though we only live about 25 minutes away, it feels as if we are worlds away from home when we are there. If you go in late June/early July, there are TONS of blueberry bushes everywhere that are ripe for picking. We usually go island hopping to find the best ones. Nothing like fresh blueberry pancakes for breakfast the next morning. The fishing is usually pretty good there too. I have caught many small mouth, large mouth, pickerel, etc. There is also a public beach area with picnic tables and grills, restrooms with hot showers, a couple of boat ramps, a camp store where you can buy firewood and other necessities, (still miss the old snack bar) canoe and kayak rentals, mountain climbing trails, a lookout (fire) tower, and plenty of dirt roads and trails to ride bikes on. There is lots to do there, including just simply lazing the day away in a hammock. It is fairly rustic, so if you are one of those people who refuses to camp anywhere that doesn't have any electric/water hookups available then this is not the...

A great place to camp and hike with family and friends with pristine woods, bodies of water, and land.

I went camping for 2 nights over a weekend with a couple of my friends. There were plenty of camp sites to choose from, though if you want one by the water then you'll need to book it in advance. There are bundles of wood available at the main office for $6/each if you want to have a camp fire. The place is kid friendly, I saw many kids of all ages playing and riding their bikes. That being said the camp grounds are also adult friendly. We stayed in the walk-in sites which had some good distance from others and as we stayed up late we didn't seem to bother anyone.

The park also has some great hikes. I'd recommend hiking up to the tower. Be careful because the maps which are provided are hard to follow and not always correct. We found ourselves lost at one point even after continuing to follow a marked pathway for which the symbols didn't change. Thankfully we ran into a kind hiker who knew the trails well. If you are unfamiliar with the park he suggested getting a guide book and taking any opportunity to review your planned hike with an official. Make sure you take extra water and food in case your hike is a few hours longer than intended. And...