Stoney Pond State Forest — Attraction in Town of Nelson

Beautiful forest with gorgeous campgrounds for primitive camping, boat launch for canoeing or kayaking, and if you can get out further in the water, you can give fishing a try (you won't have much luck fishing off the shore). There are 15 sites for camping. I believe the last few are for rv camping, but only primitive camping on the rest. It is moderately clean, though some inconsiderate people leave a couple sites full of trash and nails from burning things that you should not be burning out in nature, such as pallets or anything with nails or the like in it. Please be considerate of nature and your fellow man. Some of the sites are a little lacking in privacy, and some are more tucked back and less visible. The trails are plentiful. You could spend a day exploring all over. Lots to see. Bugs aren't too bad, but definitely bring spray. Camp sites have fire pits and some have picnic tables. If you bring an axe, you can find plenty of fire wood on the road leading to the entrance of the forest. There are a couple Porta potties there, but you'll have to walk a bit to get to them. Overall it is absolutley Beautiful from any perspective, of which there are many. You're supposed to reserve your site online or in person with nysdec, but many do not. If you go and someone is in your site, just go to the next one, no use ruining your good time. Unless you're handicap, and someone is in one of the handicap sites (#3,5,7), then hopefully they would be understanding. Contact a ranger if you absolutley need to. There is a board with map of the trails and contact numbers. Remember to take what you bring and...

So much potential but so poorly maintained... The pond ( earthen damn wetlands ) is beautiful and so is the surrounding area... We had a difficult time even finding the unmarked entrance. * To be fair there was road work being done on the parks dirt road entrance. Once " in " the park, it is poorly marked (if marked at all) where anything is. We had to keep driving around until we found something that resembled a hiking trail. Be forewarned the " trails ", even the supposed main trail around the lake is often just a very narrow , muddy , overgrown dirt path that would likely be mistaken for a deer trail most other places. There was ZERO maintenance done all year on the trails from the look of it. Prepare to wade through waist and shoulder high weeds and brush . Most of which could have been easily mowed or cut but has fallen into neglect. So much for NY States hoopla about tick prevention...they won't even mow down the number one transfer spot for ticks...tall grass. I get the appeal of a " natural " hiking area but let's face it , this is not the high peaks ... This is a reasonably small State park/campground with a mile or so of trails. This is and should be a great area to get away and camp , walk near the lake with kids, walk the dog on the trails , etc. But lack of trail maintenance has made it almost unusable.

We also came across many garbage strewn camp sites with discarded coolers, junk , food wrapping , etc.

Come on NY ! We pay the highest taxes in the country!!! The people...

I really enjoyed this campsite. It was nicely forested and quiet. I called and made a reservation the wednesday before I wanted to stay on Friday. This was in early september so I was a little surprised it wasnt all booked. Check out their campsite map before calling because they let you choose. I tried to find descriptions of the campsites ahead of time and couldn't find them so here is my 2 cents. The "water front" seeming campsites are not super water front, you dont have a great view because there are many trees, additionally the sites are closer to the road so cars will drive by alot more and you have less privacy because the sites were all next to each other without much brush between them. I personally stayed in campsites 8 and 9. I really liked them because they were deeper into the forest and had more space between the campsites for privacy. Campsite 8 was MASSIVE. Thick brush between the campsites there. Alot of openings for tents. You could have 4-6 tents set up there. Campsite 9 was pretty large as well but its fire pit was a stone circle rather than a cooking pit. Most sites had a cooking pit, none of them had a picnic table. Not great visibility upwards if you wanted to see the night sky, I had a friend bring a telescope he couldn't use. I would return to this state park and this campsite. I would recommend...