Lake Taghkanic State Park Campground

This campground is one of the best that I've been to. The bathrooms are extremely clean and tidy. There is a camp store that is open on the weekends in case you forget any essentials like firewood, fishing bait, etc. There are various picnic areas, a beach, and different lodging options (cabins, cottages, camp sites). I love that they enforce quiet hours to remain respectful to our neighbors, and the views are absolutely breathtaking! We went kayaking for $10 an hour, which is a great price. We went around the entire lake for $20!

We camped here on P12 for 2 nights in June 2024. Campground itself is on hilly terrain so most of the campsites are platforms. The platforms are decently maintained but the trees shed a lot (leaves, seeds and other stuff) so you'll find yourself cleaning every couple hours. Also this place has spongy moth caterpillars and a lot of them. So keep and eye out for them as they sneak up on anything in no time. Also since the area is very foresty, you'll find a lot of bugs in general. Our site was missing a bench when we arrived at 8.15pm, so we ended up grabbing a bench from one of the nearby empty sites. The state park and campground staff are very chill. A park ranger swung by in the morning to let us know that we have to check in at the camp office (that's next to lake beach that's 2-3 miles away). The men's restroom near our site was an old one and very basic with 2 fairly exposed shower stalls, 2 toilet stalls and a urinal. But a very nice long timer gentleman let us know that the showers near G012/P033 sites are newly built and you get entire private rooms where you can shower and use the rest with some dry area as well (see attached pictures) which was awesome. It also has a community hall with chairs and table where you can hang around on a rainy day/charge your devices. Also just an FYI, T-Mobile had amazing 5G coverage throughout most of the campground. Except for the missing bench on arrival everything else was great. I'd come again to stay but wife wasn't happy with the amount of bugs so 🤷🏽‍♂️. EDIT : we realized that since our campsite had a lot of tree cover, the platform got a lot more dirty (& mucky when it rained) compared to the ones with less tree cover.

Really nice and clean park. Camped here for 4 nights and enjoyed the lake everyday. There is a beach area but along the lake there are several picnic areas where you can enjoy the lake and lunch. It was very clean. There was garbage collection several times a day and the staff were always helpful any time we encountered them. The bathrooms were always clean and stocked. The sites are close to each other and there isn’t much privacy between most sites. But there are some sections that offer a little more seclusion. There are platform sites as well as just ground sites. We drove by the cottages and cabins and those looked real nice as well but we like camping. There’s a grocery store about 7 minutes away and they have a little camp store but it’s pretty bare bones.

The restrooms are decent for campers and day users. The cabins are rustic, as described which is great for our needs, however pets are not allowed. Make sure you know the map or have over with you, the camping area only has one entrance/exit, not a loop, so many people ever up turning around at one of the dead end roads. The lake loop hiking trail is fairly well kept, there are a few downed trees you need to navigate. The campers trail should be avoided with old, falling apart bridges. The park has a significant amount of poison ivy, so be careful if you are allergic. Most of the ivy is easy to avoid if you watch for it.

Stayed in a 2 bedroom cabin and we found it to be fairly clean and in good condition. Some of the tent/platform sites are a little packed in though… Word to the weary- our car broke down and there is no car service or taxis in this area. Took us a long time to find a friendly stranger to help us get our car to and from a mechanic. None of the staff could be bothered to assist, even for cash. Not that they should have helped us necessarily but seeing as we were traveling alone it would have been nice. We almost had to spend another night just because we were stranded. Thank goodness for the help of a couple friendly strangers.