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Fish Creek Pond Campground
Fish Creek Pond Campground (DEC)
Tupper Lake, NY (Adirondack Park)
Location: ///distinctly.popping.hills
Status: CLOSED but opens in 168 days on Fri May 9
Season 2025 Dates: Fri May 9 to Sun Oct 12, 2025
9 Month Booking Window: Thu Aug 21, 2025
Campground Overview
Fish Creek Pond is considered by many, the finest and most attractive of all the Adirondack campgrounds.
It is located in the northern Adirondacks of upstate New York, about 15 minutes north east of Tupper Lake, 45 minutes west of Lake Placid, 3.5 hours north of Syracuse and Albany.
Fish Creek offers 352 sites accommodating all equipment from tents to 40ft RV's with a natural sand shoreline and water access for most campsites. 319 sites are directly on the lakeshore. Most have excellent access to the water. Many of the sites offer a small sandy beach area as well. The sites are well treed with balsam fir, white pines, maple and birch trees dominating on sandy soil.
Fish Creek will typically be visited by over 100,000 campers each summer (107,264 in 2000). A vast majority of campers will treat Fish Creek as their main summer vacation destination.
As with all DEC campgrounds, there are no hookups at Fish Creek, although generators may be used in the mornings and evenings (restricted hours). There are lots of nearby water taps, a fill and dumping station as well.
Campers are provided with pristine rivers and ponds accessible to both motorized and non-motorized boats. Square Pond and Fish Creek Pond (the two bodies of water around which the campground is situated) are open to motor boat usage. Also, motorboat operator's can enjoy miles of open water on Upper Saranac Lake. A trailered boat launch with a small temporary parking area nearby receive steady usage throughout the camping seaon. Campers seeking non motorized boating opportunities are usually referred by the campground staff to the ponds in the Rollins Pond Campground area or the nearby St. Regis Canoe Area (approx. 3 miles north of the campground). The campground offers a variety of other recreational opportunities including: Interpreter Activity Program, canoeing and boating, fishing, hiking, and bicycling.
Fish Creek offer the longest season of any campground in the Adirondack with a season that stretches from mid April through late October.
Nov 17, 2024: 1,861 new updated full set photos of 72 sites at Fish Creek now available. Log in with your BaseCamp account to view them all!
Currently working on updating the new detailed watersite categories for all watersites.
Status: CLOSED but opens in 168 days on Fri May 9
Season 2025 Dates: Fri May 9 to Sun Oct 12, 2025
9 Month Booking Window: Thu Aug 21, 2025
Campground Phone: (518) 891-4560
Region: Adirondack Park
Weekend Occupancy: Very High
Minimum Nights Reservation: 3 nights
View 15,783 Campsite Photos of Fish Creek
Reservations (Reserve America)
Fees
| Base Fee | $22 |
| Out of State Surcharge | $5 |
Facilities
| Showers | very large shower building, 30 showers for men, 30 showers for women (now free!) |
| Washrooms | many flush toilets throughout the campground |
| Dump Station | triple lane dump station |
| Recycling Station | two recycling centers |
| Boat Launch | Boat launch available right in the campground, as well as a state launch on Upper Saranac for larger boats. |
| Boat Mooring | Campers can moor their boats right at their site. Many build temporary makeshift docks. |
| Cell Coverage | Verizon: Works ok around 70% of the campground. Data gets bogged down during the day during the peak summer months and weekends due to the number of campers. AT&T: limited/poor service. T-Mobile: No service. |
Campground Summary
| Lakeside Rating | 5 out of 5 lakeside stars! The ultimate in lakeside camping experience with most sites directly by the water. 323 sites are directly by the water with excellent water access. Located on the shores of 3 interconnected ponds with access to other waterways including a larger lake. Enjoy all forms of water activities including swimming, paddling, boating and fishing. |
| Total Campsites | 352 |
| Reservable Sites | 323 |
| Non Reservable Sites | 29 |
| Lakeside Sites | 323 |
| Lakeside Tent | 23 |
| Lakeside 20ft | 72 |
| Lakeside 30ft | 130 |
| Lakeside 40ft | 98 |
Site Details
| 20ft Trailer Sites | 78 |
| 30ft Trailer Sites | 137 |
| 40ft Trailer Sites | 113 |
| Tent Sites | 24 |
| Hike-In Sites | 1 |
| Pull thru sites | none |
| Hookups | no hookups, dry camping only |
| Site Pads | a mix of level and somewhat unlevel pads |
| Ground Cover | mainly sand |
| Tree Cover | Very wooded with a mix of pine and birch, but not as densely treed as some other DEC campgrounds in the Adirondacks. |
| Road Access | Narrow although paved single road around the ponds with some pot holes. Can be difficult to navigate due to two way traffic during busy summer months. Site driveways can be challenging to back larger trailers into off road due to turning radius required. |
| Pets Allowed | domestic pets |
Featured Activities
| Water | Situated on three smaller interconnected ponds with boat access to Lower Fish Creek as well as Upper Saranac Lake. The 3 ponds are small but large enough for many boats to enjoy water activities at once. Upper Saranac Lake is quite large at 7.5 miles in length and a maximum width of 1.8 miles. Approx 40% of the shoreline is forever wild where as the rest of the shoreline is dotted with great camps. Upper Saranac has a surface area of 4,774 acres. |
| Beach | Smaller sandy beach area with approx 180ft of shoreline. |
| Paddling | Offers some of the best and most extensive paddling opportunities available right from your campsite. Paddle up Fish Creek to Floodwood and up into Rollins Pond or several other interconnected ponds. Some require short portages. Paddle up into Follensby Clear Pond with its many primitive campsites on several islands and shorelines as well as other ponds via short portages. Paddle up into the larger Upper Saranac Lake via a boating channel. |
| Boating | Excellent boating right from your site with the three ponds that make up the campground, plus Lower Fish Creek and Upper Saranac Lake (via a boat accessible channel). |
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