Taconic State Park - Rudd Pond Area — Attraction in Town of North East

What a charming park! beautiful area, stars, sunset over the water! 2.5hr drive from brooklyn/ just under 2 hr from Manhattan. we stayed at the campground thru reserveamerica. the park itself has the common/ day use area and the area for campers only. so the beach, one bathroom building and picnic tables/ lawn by the water as well as the playground are for day visitors as well as for campers. there's definitely plenty of space for all - even during the busy 4th of July weekend. details: the campsites are in 2 clusters: number 1-5 on a hill and then the rest, 6-40 or something on the main "street". we stayed in the small cluster, which is just up the road from the showers, a minute walk. they get most shade, ours was nr 5 which was actually partial shade which was honestly perfect. we felt like 1-4 were actually too dark. 1-5 all spaces have good size platforms for the tent. we have a 6 person tent and there was plenty of space around for chairs etc. the main "street" (sites 6+...) felt a bit too crowded to our liking when we went to check it out, the sites are right next to one another. about half of them have platforms as well. sites 23-24 ish (in the end of the "dead end" street are right next to the dumpsters - don't look too appealing. shower station on the intersection, showers are what you can expect a camp quality shower, could use some upgrading but get good pressure and water gets hot and the facility not as stinky as some we've been to. only 2 stalls per each M/W side but it never felt crowded and i never saw a line there. have a changing table on each side. the sandy beach was perfect for children. not much swimming area for someone who wants to get exercise (good for dipping/ cooling off :) and no lifeguards either. water is warm, clean as can be for a pond. you can rent a kayak or a small boat as well. we saw a lot of people fishing off the shore and off the boat. staff are super friendly. there was no cell reception for us, T-mobile. down the road just 5 minutes away is Millerton. a nice village with everything you need, coffee shop (yesss) - with v e r y s l o o o o w service for us New Yorkers lol but coffee is great. CVS, gas station, market, liquor store, kids time play gym, pizza, chinese food, ice cream, ... , Harlem rail trail, lovely people, slow pace... back to the campground. a few things could get a facelift roads are a bit bumpy/ old pavement, changing station on the beach is boarded off, some tent platforms have splits in the railing and major nails sticking out, some picnic tables are old. otherwise the area is well groomed. we highly recommend!!! (PS don't...

My family and I have been coming to this exact location every year for 10 years. If you’d like a very HONEST review, then please read along ahead. Firstly, this park is beautiful. It definitely is a wonderful getaway scenery. You have a clean, gorgeous pond that you can rent a kayak or boat to fish or ride around in. You can also swim in a designated portion of the pond depending if it’s open the season that you come. We Have only been there during the summer time but we noticed when we went towards the end of August, the swimming portion would be closed. You are outdoors, you experience nature. For a campsite area, you get a porch area, table and a good amount of space to have a tent + park cars & have your kids run around or have space for yourself in. You can also hike & hike to another pond that is nearby the campgrounds, it’s also very lovely for fishing. Bathroom areas are averagely clean but when the park is packed on weekends with campers, you can’t expect workers to clean the bathrooms every 5 minutes. You do have tons and tons of people + children so it’s bound to be messy sometimes but does get cleaned everyday. Showers are clean & water is always warm and good. The park staff is very attentive and friendly. Always wave, and can help you if you need help with anything. When it comes to mosquitos & bugs, yes. It does get pretty bad with bugs but that’s something we have gotten used to from outdoor camp trips and getaWays. You can’t change that considering you’re literally in the woods. I just recommend lots of bug spray but definitely be prepared for mosquitos. Something to be prepared for is that certain phone services do not work here. For example, if you have T-mobile, you will have no service at all in this park or nearby. To get service you’d need to drive out of the campground few miles to have it. That’s the only downside to our trip is that we aren’t able to access our phones through internet or service. Overall, I can’t ever tell you the experience was terrible. I think for a camp trip, this has to be the best type of camping ground for campers specifically throughout taconic state park because we have been to Other locations and this one was the best for campers space & location wise. I definitely recommend this trip especially during the summer & my best advice is to go around August time because it’s not too hot & you get a very true camping experience...

Rudd pond is beautiful BUT some not all staff were very rude. I can say two-three members were very kind and should not be apart of that group. There were a few things I was not pleased with. They emailed us 8 days before our stay to let us know they closed the lake for swimming by that time there was no open campsite at the sister location. Also the rules were very strict. Spoke with a few of the other groups staying in other campsites and they said the same thing ( they also were not bothered by our group). There were a lot of different types of biting bugs but i only had 2 mosquito bites. The others bites were just painful without any red itchy marks. The shower house was clean and so were the bathrooms. There was no toilet paper one night and it was unfortunate to walk all the way back to our camp site for some. Our family made the best of this getaway but did not feel welcomed by ta male employees, we felt harassed every hour. Twice the employee came to our campsite at 5pm and 6pm to tell us we need to keep it down at quiet time; quiet time was at 10pm. Its great that they patrol the grounds to make sure its secure but the trucks do get annoying going by. The row boat was great and the pond was calm. The stars were beautiful at night if you can go into an open field, I actually saw a shooting star. Also the picnic area was well equipped with tables, grill and a playground near by. I don't think I would come back here. Maybe I'll try their sister location because most of the campsites are on a hill. They have platform for the tent but I'm very clumsy. I sat on a hill in a lawn chair trying to warm up by the campfire I caused myself to fall one(maybe twice lol). I would suggest they repave some of the roads to prevent smaller cars from putting a hole in...