Sampson State Park — Attraction in Town of Romulus

Very large, lots of sites we always stay in loop 2. outer ring sites are level and easy to back into. inner ring sites on the west side of the loop tend to have an uphill drive up to them which can make leveling a challenge. Bath houses are decent and clean. Lakeside area is nice for cookouts or picnics. There are tons of miles of roadways in the park for bikes and walking for exercise. They have a phone app type program now to use to call in to hear a short narration about when the property was a military installation- it was interesting but the need to call in a little awkward and redundant-a dedicated phone app would be better.

We truly wish the state of NY would upgrade these campsites to have water hook ups at each site at least if not full hook ups. The major downfall of this park is the lack of multiple fresh water drive up hook ups and septic dump areas. There are water stations in the loops but if campers are in all sites, you cannot access them to fill your tank without hogging the roadway and running super long lengths of hose! The current 2 stall dump station (pretty antiquated too) and ONE fresh water fill near the check in is woefully inadequate. The fresh water is located too close to the 2nd dump bay so if someone is filling their water that dump area becomes inaccessible. The water pressure is set so low it took us nearly 45 minutes to fill our 55 gal fresh water tank. If you are checking out on Sunday be prepared to wait in line to dump your tanks too unless you get there by 8 AM. They have acres and acres of land especially near the exit on right side to build a new multi lane dump station and should do so for the very next update to this facility before anything else. There are over 250 sites and only 2 dump stations! Staff were pleasant but appeared very unprofessional (would be nice to at least see them in a NYS Parks shirt) event bulletin board was nice idea but had not been updated 2 weeks after the month had changed. Seems like the state is basking in the laurels of subleasing out part of the campground to a for profit development/leasing agency who is installing full hook up sites and tons of cabin rentals and the state parks are forgetting about the true mission of a state campground which is to provide services and respite to traditional campers who now are subjected to substandard services on the...

Challenging to say the least. Had site 201 with Class C RV. Spent over 45 minutes and numerous attempts to level the camper on the gravel driveway, all to no avail. So gave up and drove to the grassy space behind the tree near the end of the gravel drive since that area was fairly level. We only went as far behind the tree as was needed to open the awning. All looked good and seemed OK. We saw a park truck drive by and the ranger look over but he didn't stop to say anything so we figured we must be OK. Then on Day 4, we come back to find a note taped to our door stating we were not parked within our campsite and would have to move. Went to office and had them send a park manager to come explain why. I'm parked in the middle of the site side to side between electric box a nearby common water spigot directly behind the gravel drive. Thus we were not encroaching any neighbors to either side and only 20 ft at most behind the gravel drive. We did not put out any mats/carpets that might kill the grass just to be respectful. Nope we are not on the site and are encroaching the sites behind us was his reply. They were well over a 100 ft away. So I said look around, we are not the only ones not on the gravel drive. His reply well it's going to be a packed weekend and they didn't want to give other people any ideas. And the other campers? Oh, they aren't as far off their drive. In summary, they are not enforcing rules uniformly, they said they couldn't get hold of us and had been trying to call us (only one not very friendly voice mail left on the home phone), and that we must come to the office immediately. However, they must have driven by at least once a day while we were on the site and said nothing. So all in all, a bitter taste left after this encounter. Will I go again? NO! Would I recommend it...

I have been camping at Sampson since I was 3 years old and now 27, we’ve always had multiple dogs which we train and are very well behaved.m from my family growing up to the family I’m trying to build. We’ve camped here with park rangers stopping to pet all of our dogs numerous times. The lab barks so we bring a bark collar to correct the behavior, which it works every single time. Yesterday after traveling back and fourth to Rochester twice a week every week for a month for fertility treatments we decided we can finally relax. Little to my knowledge Sampson is no longer the same. We got kicked off our site for having our 4 dogs after being told by the office we were able to keep 2 in the camper and 2 out of the camper, mind you we live 2 hours away and just had a fertility treatment an additional 2 hours from our home. We have all vaccine papers and everything everywhere we go. There was an old couple diagonal from us who immediately got on the phone once our dogs got out of my car and into their fenced in set up. Our dogs didn’t bark, didn’t whine, or anything. They got in the fence, peed, and we put 2 in the camper like we were told to alternate them. Long story short, not the same park. Too many snobby rich old judgemental people with too much time on their hands they have to get a young couple struggling with life right now kicked off a site that was supposed to help us keep our focus on anything but a baby. I don’t recommend this park to anyone anymore after...