Lincoln Pond Campground — Hotel in Town of Elizabethtown

Please see Meghan MacRae's review below mine. I stayed in site 34R and it was the worst experience I've ever had at a DEC campsite. It is abundantly clear to me that the caretaker has no clue what goes on over at the remote sites. When we arrived at our site, there was no pit privy to be found. The DEC's webpage specifically states that there are no "flush toilets," which I took to mean that pit privies were available. Perhaps that was my mistake, but I spoke with the family at site 35R and they said they had one up their driveway a bit. However, they said it was so absolutely disgusting they didn't use it anyway. They seemed to be a family that camped regularly and wouldn't have unrealistic expectations about pit privies, so I trust that it was indeed unusably dirty. Not only did we not have a pit privy, but our campsite was COVERED in toilet paper in various stages of decay and even plastic tampon applicators. There was also broken glass, old rotting bedsheets or linens of some kind, sweet potato carcasses, fish stringers, beer bottles and cans, cigarette butts, aluminum foil, bent and charred tent stakes, and other various large and obvious debris. The fire grate there is close to unusable. It was blatantly obvious that no one had gone to look at or clean the site, maybe in months. I don't have high expectations for DEC campsites, but this one was just awful. When I complained about the lack of pit privy and all the trash, the kid at the desk seemed wholly unconcerned and said, "yeah, it's not set up very well. I'm sure the people at 32/33R wouldn't mind if you used theirs." They did go clean up the bigger wads of toilet paper and the tampon applicators, but that's literally it. When I spoke with the caretaker (or his wife... I'm unsure), she told me the same thing and then told me to write to the DEC about it. She seemed shocked that the site was in the condition it was in. The people that are responsible for this campground are the most clueless people I've ever dealt with at a DEC facility. Usually they've got it together. To top it off, we had loud and obnoxious kids walk through our campsite to fish in a spot next to it, which would have been fine if they were not so presumptuous, entitled, and loud. We also had a boat launch next to us that's incredibly busy. There was constant traffic, which I was not expecting as there's a couple of other boat launches closer to the main campground. We've stayed at several great DEC facilities and won't go back...

This campground was a mix of great and terrible. The location is beautiful and the sites are really nice and large. The beach is also quite nice. The campground is also will situated if you want to go biking in the high peaks. Despite me giving it three stars, i would stay here again because the good outweighed the bad for the most important things.

Now for the terrible... First, the place is poorly managed. There were a lot of RVs. Most of them were down by the water but we had one up on the hill right next to us. Their generator was extremely loud and they had it running until almost midnight one night. They were not the only ones running loud generators outside of hours that were permitted, but there was nobody doing rounds to check anything. The campground send to be run by two teenagers that were for the most part minding the entrance. On the topic of noise, the campground is close to the road and to the lake and there are large motorboats and jetskis. The first night that we were there the nose of all the motors was very loud and disturbing. After that it seemed to have calmed down. This is not the fault of the campground, but it's something to be aware of.

Second, the facilities are run down and not very clean. This is not a huge deal for me since when i go camping it's to be outside, but it's worth mentioning.

Third, the beach is nice but they force you to swim inside of a corded area which is the size of a pool and would come up to my waist at the deepest point. We swan the first night and there was no life guard so we swan where we wanted. The water was nice but there was quite a bit of seaweed in the beach area. The next day there was a lifeguard and she enforced the rule, however she was very unprofessional. At first she was watching but eventually she went to lie with her boyfriend on the beach and started making out. We decided to go swim around the corner. The water was a little more choppy but there was less seaweed so it was nice. The only downside was that there was not much Beach there for the kids to play. When we came back, the lifeguard was making out with her boyfriend...

We have camped at this campground ~ 20 years ago on several occasions. Understanding that the DEC ADK campgrounds are in varying degrees of upgrades I don't expect more than a semi-primitive experience. However, the outright neglect of this campground is truly appalling. The bathhouse bathrooms and showers were never cleaned once while we were there for 5 days (nor was the other bathroom), the toilet paper was finally replenished with one roll per stall and then only put on the back of the toilet. There are 2 showers, the handicap is not usable in my opinion, the shower head leaked and there was standing water onto the floor. There was mold and mildew on the walls and curtains in both showers. There were items left in the beach house that were never claimed nor discarded. The garbage can and sanitary napkin container were not emptied at all while we were there. The parking lot had litter as did the beach area. Our campsite also had litter and I picked up things from the empty site next to us as well. I inquired when we checked in if we could get ice later on and was told there were a few bags but they weren't receiving deliveries for some reason. Most of the time the entrance booth was empty even if you wanted to buy ice, wood or rent boots. I NEVER saw an adult employee here, there were two young men (my guess is less than 20) at the booth and riding around in the cart- but not cleaning or doing anything I could discern. The garbage collection area is a mess with no real way of knowing where the garbage should go or the recycling. I am so sad to see this campground so neglected. I wrote to DEC to express my concerns and hope they follow through with more supervision of staff. We have camped at DEC ADK campgrounds for over 40 years and never encountered the lack of care and run down conditions as we...