North/South Lake Campground — Attraction in Town of Hunter

I don’t normally write reviews especially a negative one. We had a very upsetting experience at North-South Lake. We drove over two hours to visit my husband’s childhood campground for the first time with our three kids (ages 5, 7, and 9). When we arrived at the entrance, we were asked if it was a day visit, and we said yes, we were only staying for the day. We paid the fee, received a map, and drove in. My husband was so excited to finally share this place and create memories with our children.

Looking for a place to park, we thought we were lucky to find an empty campsite in one of the loops where he used to camp as a child. We parked the car hoping to enjoy the view of the lake, take a walk, and maybe make the kids a couple of s’mores before heading home.

At around 2:15–2:30 p.m., the “SUPERVISOR” in the white Kia approached us in an extremely rude and nasty manner, speaking as if we were committing a serious crime and comparing our situation to “sleeping in someone else’s hotel room.” She asked us if we had a reservation; we said no. She said, “Someone else reserved this spot.” We were very apologetic, embarrassed, and immediately put our stuff in the car. I said they could have told us; we would have moved right away. I’m sorry. She said, “They aren’t supposed to talk to you; that’s why they send me here.” She told us we had ten minutes to leave, waited there while we put our chair, blanket, and s’more cookies in the car, and refused our 9-year-old daughter access to the bathroom while we packed up our three things, and even followed us out of the loop to make sure we didn’t park elsewhere. My daughter came to us crying because the lady told her she couldn’t use the bathroom and had to get in the car. Well, she had an accident in the car right as we were pulling out.

We were mortified and apologetic. My husband even offered to leave the firewood we had just purchased for the next campers, but she was dismissive and harsh about that as well.

The following day, I called and asked to speak with a manager to explain how we were treated. The manager was just as unfriendly and miserable sounding as the supervisor. I was told they had been looking for us “for hours” and that it’s “common sense” not to park in a campsite. She actually said it’s considered trespassing.

So, a friendly warning for first-time visitors: Apparently, if you don’t know that “day use” doesn’t mean “park in any empty campsite,” just for the day, you’re officially a trespassing criminal—at least according to the manager. Yes, really.

Reading the website now, I see that check-in for people with reservations is at 2 p.m., which was the time we were trying to make a small fire, so unless someone left their site and returned, it’s unclear how they could have been looking for us “for hours.” We were right there at 2pm.

The website also states: Day Use • Anyone who is not camping is a day-user. Day-use hours are from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Day-users are not allowed between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.

We were not camping but didn’t realize we couldn’t park in an empty campsite. I think “common sense” would be to inform DAY USE visitors at the ENTRANCE to use public parking, especially for families or first-time visitors who may not be camping experts.

Bottom line: this was my husband’s childhood family spot. We just wanted to take a beautiful fall drive and have a special day with our kids. We understand now that we needed to reserve the parking spot ahead of time, and it was an honest misunderstanding. I would have even offered to pay for the campers’ stay for their trouble. What we wish for is that the staff had approached us respectfully and explained the situation instead of treating us like criminals. Imagine being such a miserable person and working in such a BEAUTIFUL and peaceful place for families.

This was meant to be a special family day, honoring memories of my father-in-law and creating new ones with our children. Instead, it became stressful and humiliating. Sadly, this is what our children will remember about the day and about...

This place is beautiful itself. However, the staff were not it. Even though the cleaning staff were very nice, the rangers were very uptight, rude and a bit discriminatory. They were enforing rules that werent part of the rules of the site.(I included all pictures of the rules of this site with this comment) On one occasion, while some of our friends were done eating and others were still eating. The adults who finished started heading toward the bathrooms to clean the dirty dishes(since there were rule about how to not keep food out or dirty things out because of bears🐻) and some of the kids stayed to finish their food. When the adults weren't around a white KIA car rolled up to them and told them that they had to "clean up ALL OF THE FOOD"😑. The kids confused since they were still eating just answered ok as to not start any trouble. We thought it was weird but we just brushed it off. The next day things were a bit weirder when we went to the south lake to have a barbecue. To unpack easier we parked on the grass not knowing we couldn't do that. Then a ranger (A mid-aged lady with blondish whitish hair) rushed over in her golf kart and tells us that we can't do that since it can ruin the grass, we apologize of course since we didnt know and went to find parking. After a while we finished unpacking and started our BBQ. That's when me and some of the kids of the other family started noticing that the same kart lady was kinda circling us. She would only stay in the area that we were staying at driving very slowly when she would get near us and would go no were else. That's when we noticed that the other family we didnt know near us was also a Latin family like us, and we started thinking if she could possibly we watching us just cause of that. Through out the whole time we were there we kept spotting her watching us a few times, staying parked far enough that she thought we couldn't see her and shed keep watching us, I even caught her a few times and she'd quickly look away. It wasnt until my brother had to give her a death glare for her to leave where she was parked only for her to come back to circling us a few minutes later. Then hypothetically a few other people, who just so happen to not be hispanic, started to also park on the grass to do the same thing we wanted to do and the ranger lady didnt jump in to reprimand we had to look at her and the people who were doing it for her to step in. I really hope that the reason she was doing all of this wasnt because she was being racist🙏. Now for the last incident involved quiet hours. The rules say that quiet hours is from 7am-10pm. We were playing and enjoying our music our last night there, that was until around 9:40ish the same white KIA from before with 2 ranger ladies told us to start turning off our music for down time. We were all confused and asked them if it was 10 already❓️ They said not yet but that we should start shutting off our music either way. That's when my father started getting upset and told them to leave us alone until 10pm! The rangers got upset and told us that we better have the music off before they come back or else. To not cause trouble we just turned everything off. I honestly wouldn't recommend this place to anyone to genuinely likes have fun spending time with family...

First time camping at this camp ground. Very well maintained sites and facilities. We stayed in Loop 4, which is on the northern edge of the campgrounds, behind our site was just lush forest, great for the kids to run around and explore. The bathroom was well maintained with a family bathroom, an outdoor slop sink with hot and cold water, 4 private shower rooms. The bathrooms were clean, although there were plenty of daddy long legs roaming about. There is no garbage cans or dumpsters in the loops, just one recycling center near the campground entrance that is surrounded by an electric fence to ward of bears. We had to store our garbage in the car at night before heading to the dumpster before our hikes. Quiet hours are from 10pm to 7pm, which is greatly appreciated since it allowed for a peaceful night of sleep and reminiscing of the days adventure with the little ones. Firewood can be bought at the main entrance for $9 a bag, which also comes with a fire-starter. Some of the homes and shops near the towns sell firewood anywhere from $6 to $10 a bundle. The firewood at the campgrounds is stored in a building so it remains dry. There are a lot of great hiking trails near by, just a short drive to the trail heads, just beware some of the trail markers or routes are not so clear and the distance listed on some of the trail maps are a little off. Catskill mountain house is definitely a place to visit and its an easy hike. You can park by the beach or drive a little further down past the beach parking lot towards the boat launch, there is a gravel road that goes up and to the left to the right of the covered picnic area that you can park and be closer to the trail entrance to the Mountain House. There was no sign stating this is the trail head to Mountain House, but look for the metal gate at the beginning of the gradual incline through the forest. If you walk along the road by the boat launch that goes around North Lake, (following the electrical lines) towards South lake, you can find some cool beaver markings on some fallen trees. The staff were super friendly and very helpful. We would definitely come again. Btw, there is almost no cellphone reception at all, if you are going with another family or group, I would suggest in bringing some sort of communication device such as walkie talkies or something and don't forget to put your phones on airplane mode or your phone batteries will be dead by...