Over the years the we’ve found that different campgrounds have very different vibes. This year we didn’t do any summer camping other than the "Not a Rally" due to the COVID pandemic, but by the time Fall came around we decided to take the Shasta out for another quick trip within New York state. First we headed to Watkins Glen, one of our favorite places and an area that we used to live in so it’s sort of like camping and going back home. We like this state park because many of the sites have some space between them and when you are there it is a bit like hiding in the woods. Being mid-week and early October we found the campground very sparsely populated despite the reservation system showing that it all the sites we booked. I wondered if the campground had artificially booked sites to keep population down, but after a few days folks showed up to claim pretty much every site. Overall we were impressed with how people respected the pandemic guidelines and generally kept to themselves. We hiked from our campsite to the gorge rim trail and found it fairly busy because the park was routing foot traffic to follow a one-way loop returning via the rim. Seeing this we decided to further upstream where it’s always less populated and we’re rewarded with a great hike into some areas of the park that we had not explored before including a small lake above the falls past the railroad trestle. We also spent some time hiking a few other less known trails near the village of Watkins Glen and Montour Falls and made quick stops on a couple favorite wineries. A highlight of our time in here was visiting a vintage camper friend who had just completed a full restoration a a Spartan Manor, it was great to see him and check out his amazing work before it headed out to its new owners.
Before heading home we decided to keep camping for a few extra days and to visit family in the Syracuse area. We booked a campsite at Green Lakes State Park and headed north. When I made the reservation it was slim pickings with just two sites available, after we were there for about 2 minutes I realized that I should have probably chosen the other site. We had not been to Green Lakes before but knew that it was a popular place with a generally more “social open space” vibe than the “camping in the woods” vibe we typically enjoy. Our site was conveniently located a few feet from a large kids playground and also pretty close the bathroom house. When we first pulled up it almost didn’t look like a campsite but after checking it out we were indeed in the right place. When times are normal this is the type of site we would typically avoid but during the pandemic it was shocking, especially after having been in the woods for a week. Once we were acclimated we enjoyed visits from one of our daughters and our sister in-law and did some hiking in the park and along the old Erie Canal. The park has a couple of amazing lakes with unusual mineral deposits that make it look really green, it’s super super cool and unexpected in this area. So tend while this campground was definitely not our “vibe” we had a good time and it was great to see family and see something new.
