Hamlin Beach State Park — Hotel in Town of Hamlin

Extremely frustrating experience with the park ranger after a beautiful day celebrating our baby shower with family and friends. First of all, to the 3 young men who came and assisted us early on with unloading vehicles and moving picnic tables inside of the shelter THANK YOU. You were so helpful and kind. To Craig, thank you for offering your assistance, although as I will explain further on down, there needs to be a much clearer explanation of the service and assistance you were offering to myself and my guests. To the park ranger. I understand that there is absolutely NOTHING I can say or do to make you understand the negative impact you had on me at the end of a very special day with my family, friends and my children. You're above all of that right? You can say and do what you like, with no consideration or understanding and the NYS Parks will support you. But i'm sitting here at 3am in the morning, crying and upset at 38 weeks pregnant with ONE memory of my day superseding ALL of the beautiful ones I have and that's your absolute nastiness and aggression with a situation that only required a 10th of what you expressed. I'm not some hardened criminal repeatedly breaking the law and you're not a sheriff anymore. I had only just become aware that there were 3 vehicles that had pulled up to the pavilion to load up from my baby shower. I was frustrated that they didn't seem to be moving their cars as quickly as needed because I understood that they weren't supposed to be there. You pulled up and I immediately came out to apologize and to tell you they were moving. I wasn't rude or dismissive. But I also wasn't the one who drove each of those vehicles up there and I was, as the renter of the pavilion, attempting to get them to move. You unleashed and said we had been told repeatedly that we needed an esport for the vehicles when we had only been told once that morning and not very clearly by Craig. Maybe many people have used that excuse, so I STRONGLY encourage Craig to be more descriptive with what the park is offering. But you didn't care, I explained what I thought was told to us and you dismissed me and were nasty, talking over me when I was being respectful and understanding of your explanation. And ALL the while you berated me, the 3 vehicles promptly cleared out as requested UNESCORTED. And I got an additional dig from you about how fast one of them was driving. It was more important for you to sit there and make me feel terrible than for you to facilitate the VERY thing you were SO adamant we follow. I am not saying you were wrong. You were right and as the renter I should have been more on top of things. If I had truly understood what was explained to me that morning, I would have absolutely done exactly as advised. I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt or to cause any damage. I was there to celebrate my baby girl being born in a couple of weeks and I think my complete submission to your demands was proof of that. Yes, my boyfriend was a but more snippy than me. He is protective of me and my stress levels at almost full term with his baby. But even when I approached you privately, you continued to be incredibly aggressive with no desire to read the situation or me. You treated me like I was some scumbag who wasn't apologetic or trying to work with you on correcting what was wrong. We had only been told once about what was expected of us, NOT repeatedly and if someone HAD come like you said they did, they should have sought me out, the renter and the person who paid, not my guests. And the worst part is, I had met you before! I don't expect you to remember me, but you were kind and amazing to talk to. You have lost your humanity, your ability to read a situation. Everyone is bad in your book, including a woman 38 weeks pregnant who is apologizing right from the start and willing to work with you. I know I should have been more vigilant, but you could have been firm AND compassionate. You did your job, good for you and you have given me a horrible memory and ending to an otherwise...

We camped at the campground in this park for 8 nights in August. We had a site in loop E, which is the smallest loop and doesn't allow pets. Our site (#205) was private enough and there's adequate distance between all the RV/tent sites (I guesstimate 30 feet). The site was nice enough when the weather was dry (picnic table was somewhat stained), however we had a few days with significant rainfall and that made the picnic table/fire pit area into a mud bath. We have a small travel trailer with an outdoor kitchen. We cook outside and sit outside to eat and it was no fun traipsing through the mud puddles. We had the area covered with canopies and tarps, but a lot of rainwater still got under it and made a muddy mess. At one point, I had to cover all the mud puddles with plastic table cloth. Then the word "mulch" was mentioned by a family member, and as I had discovered a big pile of mulch in a far corner of the park on one of my bike rides, we went out there one evening and loaded up bins of mulch to spread over the muddy areas on our site. That definitely helped and I didn't care if that wasn't allowed. I was not going to traipse around in the mud anymore and track it into our camper as well. My husband also ended up getting a severe case of poison ivy from a tree covered with this plant at the entrance to our site. He reported it to a lady at the visitors center, who apologized profusely. He has also reported it on the park's Facebook page. We're not sure if anything was done to remove it in the meantime, but if you reserve site #205 and you see a tree near the entrance covered with ivy, beware it's poison ivy. Other than those negatives, our stay was pleasant enough. We decided to stay here because the park is located on Lake Ontario and is within a short driving distance of the Empire State trail, of which we biked several sections. The beaches (5 areas) in the park are relatively small (it's not one continuous beach, they're interrupted by piers) and only two of them have lifeguarded designated swimming areas, which are small as well. During our stay, only one of the swimming areas had lifeguards on duty. You could go in the lake at the other beaches although it was technically not allowed, but people did anyway. We also found very mucky, brown water washing up on parts of every beach, but if you walked 20-30 feet further you would find clearer water. During two days of our stay at the park, they closed the beaches for swimming due to high E-coli concentrations. On another day, we were told swimming was not allowed due to "waves." We went to one of the unguarded beaches and went in the lake anyway. What's the point of going into a great lake if you aren't allowed to catch some waves? There's a 1 mile long paved multi-use trail that runs along the beach areas. At one end, you can take it into Devil's Nose, a tree-covered dune area of the park that juts out into the lake and has sandy trails. Some of the trails go close to the edge of cliffs down to the lake, and you can watch pretty sunsets from there. At the other end of the paved main trail, you can access the Yanty Creek marsh area. We walked through it one evening (it's a 1 mile or so loop) and it didn't leave us very impressed. At the main entrance, there's a sign with photos of 'interesting' things to see, but most of it was overgrown or just not that interesting. There's a boardwalk that takes you into the marsh area. Presumably you can observe turtles and other animals there. On two separate occasions in the evenings we observed a beaver in the lake, swimming close to the shore and exiting the lake in a small inlet. Not ever having seen a beaver in the wild, and it not being bothered by our presence, this was a cool experience. We also watched at least one really pretty sunset on the lake. The park has 5 separate areas near the lake with large parking lots. Area 3 has a bathhouse with changing rooms, showers and toilets, and this is also the lifeguard station. There are many picnic tables with charcoal grills near the paved...

First time at Hamlin for the 2023 4th of July weekend. Myself and sister with 3 kids and friend with her two kids arrived to check in approximately at 12pm Saturday. I called the park to see if Friday night was available to add to my reservation, the woman on the phone right away said “I guarantee we are full.” I asked if she would please look, as reserve america showed it was open. She replied “fine” and looked in a quick moment. Replying “someone is there til Saturday.” My parents were already there camping, and Saturday morning texted me informed me that no one showed up and in fact was open. So, when we arrived Saturday I knew the site was open and didn’t think there would be a problem with an early arrival as I’ve done it several times at 4mile and even lakeside state parks.again, we arrived about noon Saturday in hopes of beating the rain during set up with all the kids. A woman named Lisa rudely would not allow us to check in, making us wait an hour with young kids (immediately I knew she was the same woman on the phone the day before) She again told me someone was on my site with pure assumption because she had not looked at my site number yet. I clarified to her, my parents in fact were already there and confirmed no one was on the site. Lisa kept repeating saying early check in is 1:30pm. I even offered to pay the nights worth of camping given she lied to me on the phone saying it was booked when it was not. She told me no, that I needed to wait. Another coworker woman chimed in behind the desk stating “if you keep arguing we will make u wait until 3pm.” I was appalled with their lack in customer service and lack of care for the kids who have been sitting in a car for 2hrs. With no other explanation of “early check in is at 1:30pm” was unprofessional. When the time finally came and was time to drive back to the site, lack of signs made for an unnecessary drive around the entire park before finding the camping area. Upon arrival to the site, we discovered that the entire campsite was surrounded by poison ivy and tall grass. Huge disappointment, not to mention lack of drainage as the entire campsite flooded with rain the whole weekend. Lastly here’s the kicker; they allow a child to work behind the counter at the camp store, who sold my friends 11yr old son a hunting knife! Just complete lack of care for their campers as a whole. I’ll go back to my trusted 4mile and Lakeside state parks and avoid Hamlin...