Lakeside State Park — Attraction in Town of Carlton

We really enjoyed our stay here last weekend. I have to say, we've stayed at almost all of the state park campgrounds within an hour or two of our home in Clifton Springs, and this was one of THE nicest, most spacious sites of them all! And right on the water?! Are you kidding?

We had A14 and I'd say it was the best site of the entire park, and we just lucked out when making our online reservations over the winter! Nice shady area back at the waterside to listen to the waves crashing and watch the boats, sunrise and sunset! Plenty of room between us and our neighbors.

People have mentioned it being "outdated and let go". I can see where some might possibly say that, but to us, it wasn't in any way that mattered. Like the bathrooms were the older style, but functioned perfectly and were clean. Likewise with the playgrounds - didn't matter to us on this trip, but they're not the fancy new huge playgrounds you see in many parks the last few years. But there were things to do and several playgrounds available, including one that looked like it was even more geared towards toddlers, which you rarely see.

The camp store was 150 degrees but had most of the basics you might want, and a very nice lady running it.

We had lots of fun on the disc golf course. Us noobs with our full-sized frisbees playing, and the WIND from the lake! But 36 holes of frisbee golf available - that was awesome! Nice day use area over by the courses, too.

I would honestly day the worst part of the whole experience were these really weird FLIES?! They looked to us like regular flies, but they BIT! A lot!!! Didn't appear to be deer flies or horse flies, but I have never come across flies that bit like these! Didn't leave any marks somehow, but caused a lot of flailing and yelps over the weekend! We only had a low Deet spray with us, but only thing I found that seemed to help was to slather on sunscreen. Also, keeping your feet off the ground helped eliminate the bites, which were almost 99% only on our legs for SOME reason? Weird, but true!

Overall, we'll be back. At least in our loop, definitely overall seemed to be an older crowd than most parks we go to, but we had a relaxing, fun time. And did sneak down by the shore unauthorized to watch the sunset! (Oh and I should mention hubby was SO impressed with the triple pump station, which we've never seen at any other...

I was camping here this past weekend and this was the best State Park I have ever camped at. I generally like large, private, shady, and close to the bathroom sites and the site that I had hit every single point on my perfect campsite list for the first time ever. I was camping with my my Mom (56 years old), Grandma (76 years old), Sister (33 years old), and Nephew (5 years old).

The people at the office when I checked in were very nice, polite, respectful, and friendly. They offered me a map of the park and gave me directions to my campsite and said I hope you enjoy your stay. All the staff that I ran across were nice and always said hi when paths were crossed.

When I went to the Men's bathroom they were exceptionally clean compared to other New York State Parks I have camped at. The Bathrooms at other New York State Parks are also always clean but the ones here at Lakeside Beach State Park were exceptionally clean.

We had one Park Aid that came up on our site because he noticed that we had three tents and he said that their was a 2 tent limit and then asked how many people we had on the site and we stated five. He then stated that really is not to bad and said that it is okay with me and told us if anyone else was to complain about the three tents to tell them that he said it was okay. I have camped at many New York State Parks and I have never had any park staff say anything about having three tents. What I do respect is that it shows that the staff are very attentive and want everyone have a safe, fun and peaceful camping experience. The park aid just wanted to make sure their was not a bunch of young kids that were there to party. He seen that there was a four generation family camping at the park and made the assumption there was not going to be trouble.

All tho it is called Lakeside Beach State park there is no Beach but you can take your camping permit and go down the road Hamlin Beach State Park with no fee.

I would definitely recommend Lakeside Beach State Park for your future...

I have nothing negative to say, we had a great time there, but I leave 4 & 5 stars for truly exceptional places.

3 from me for a place like this basically means it's exactly what I expected it to be.

In this case, it means this is a beautifully maintained campground. Our site, C13, was almost perfectly level, there was nothing in the tree canopy looking questionable about falling and damaging the tent (this was thunderstorm-tested and not one little branch came down).

Camp staff, though baking in an extreme heat index, were friendly and polite, and fellow Campers were quick to smile and say hello everywhere.

Several places for great views of the lake, right from the edge.

FYI, though - well maintained campsites with no ruts, with good drainage so no mud...

Creates a minor catch-22.

Invest in Coleman metal stakes or similar, since the gravel-embedded ground will hopelessly bend the simple thin metal ones that come with most tents.

I always carry extra, and on this trip used Coleman heavy duty plastic stakes, which took a little bit of a beating on their tips, but...