The New York State campsite guide is a campsite photo project created by Dave McGrath beginning back in 2006 for campers who enjoy camping in New York state. More specifically those who prefer a lakeside camping experience.
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The aim of this project was to provide New York state campers with a resource for helping them to choose specific campsites at State and DEC campgrounds, mainly in upstate New York, that offer a true lakeside experience. It's main feature is the thousands of high resolution photos taken of each campsite at each of 92 (currently) New York State and DEC campgrounds. These include campgrounds in Adirondacks, the 1000 Islands / Lake Ontario region, the Finger Lake, Western NY, and Catskills/Taconic regions.
Multiple photos taken from different angles are provided of each campsite so campers can visually see how a particular campsite will or will not accommodate their camping equipment. For those with children, you can see what the water access and shoreline are like, as well as distance from the road. Cross site views provide for some sense of the privacy of a site as well. Check out photos for Fish Creek Pond Campground as an example.
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History
Initially the concept of the campsite photo database was developed back in 2006 after Dave and Kate had camped many times at Fish Creek Pond Campground and started to take photos of each site at Fish Creek rather than writing notes and trying to rate sites. A few years later Rollins Pond was added. The Fish Creek and Rollins database are quite elaborate and go beyond just photos and basic guide. They also include individual campsite details and ratings. A complete Campers Toolkit provides the ultimate resource for campers at Fish Creek and Rollins. See fishcreekpond.com for more info.
Having done Fish Creek and Rollins which are the most extensive photo guides, Dave moved on to shoot an additional 78 campgrounds starting back in 2011 and expanded his Parkware Campground Manager software to simplify the process of managing and coding the thousands of photos. As time permitted, photos for each campground were added to the database.
In early 2016 the Parkware management software was again upgraded to streamline the process of adding/managing photos and provide for many for features such as maps, satellite maps, related links, more campground info and Dave's tips.
As of Feb 2016, 40 campgrounds with a total of 6,800 campsites and 33,000 photos were available online.
As of Dec 31, 2018, 82 campgrounds with a total of 11,900 campsites and 65,000 photos were available online.
As of Dec 31, 2019, 92 campgrounds with a total of 12,682 campsites and 80,204 photos were available online.
In March 2020 COVID hit Dave and Kate with a loss of income and Dave had to make the hard choice to either shutdown the website as he could no longer afford to cover the costs or keep it going by charging a minimal fee to keep the site afloat. Dave took a gamble and expanded the site adding many new features over the next year and introduced 'BaseCamp' accounts in May of 2021 for a introductory fee of $15/year. The fee was later increased to $22/year in June of 2021. To check out all the new features visit our BaseCamp Tour. To sign up visit the Join BaseCamp page.
As of Oct 31, 2023, 95 campgrounds with a total of 12,934 campsites and 130,195 photos are now available online with another 42,686 new high resolutions to process covering 24 campgrounds.
For all the latest news on BaseCamp development visit NYCP News.
Welcome to NYSCP 2022 and BaseCamp!
This will be our biggest reshoot year yet with approx 38 campgrounds to reshoot. We expect to nearly double the photos availabile to BaseCamp members with approx 80,000 new photos. As with recent photoshoots all sites will be taken with a minimum of 9 photos and a maximum of 25 to show all angles and site details. They will also be taken in higher resolution/quality available with 2X zoom to BaseCamp members. Non members will still only have access to one low resolution photo per site. Included in the reshoots are campgrounds that have been reconfigured/renumbered including Bowman Lake, Buttermilk Falls, Caroga Lake, Selkirk Shores and the new full hookup loop at Southwick Beach. Campgrounds previously missing will also be added including Hearthstone, Luzerne and Scandaga River. As a BaseCamp members your subscription and support will help to cover the costs and time of the many photographers that will be involved to make this all happen. Should take about 4 months to process/code all the photos. Yup NYSCP is more than a full time job these days!
You can contact Dave with comments or suggestions at dave@campadk.com or 
.
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