Our visit to Burnham Point State Park was a last-minute surprise camping trip that we were invited to. Consequently, we had no idea what the park was like, nor what the campsites looked like, for that matter. We were flying blind. We learned a valuable lesson about first impressions on this trip that we won’t soon forget.
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Our first impression of this small state park was not great, but we were very quickly won over by the stunning beauty of the shoreline in front of our campsite and the vast number of activities we could enjoy there. We discovered that this park really does have much to offer regardless of its size. We truly enjoyed our stay here and wholeheartedly recommend it.
Camping
We arrived at our campsite after dark, which is never a good way to start out a camping trip. Setting up in the dark is a giant pain in the butt. It was difficult to really get a lay of the land, and the park felt overwhelmingly crowded. We were fortunate to have a site right on the water but felt crowded in by the sheer amount of campers also on the water. This is not a usual experience with New York State Campgrounds, and initially, we were intensely disappointed with the campground. We decided to set up our site and go to bed, not feeling any real promise about this particular park.
When we woke up in the morning, now able to see our campsite properly, we were able to assess our situation properly and found that it wasn’t as bad as we first had thought. We discovered that other than the site to our one side (which appeared like they had put their tents on our site.) We had plenty of room to spread out. The campsites were very open, so real privacy was out of the question.
Incidentally, the campers who were encroaching on our site noticed and moved their tents into their site without a word from us. This is one of the great aspects of camping in the state parks, being that 99 times out of 100, you are around genuinely good and courteous people. People more or less keep to themselves and are respectful to the other campers around them.
This is an exceptionally small campground, especially by New York State Parks standards. I wasn’t sure how the small shower/bathroom building was going to accommodate 42 campsites. I was more than a little surprised and very pleased to see that the flow of bathroom traffic moved fairly consistently, and we never really had to wait for an occupied restroom more than twice. This campground had almost brand new facilities, which was also nice.
On The Water
The park has a very limited selection of actual waterfront sites. These campsites are directly on the St. Lawerance River, and if you don’t mind the lack of privacy, you get some amazing views as well as the ability to swim and fish right in front of your own site, which we took full advantage of. The water is fairly shallow right along the waterfront and exceptionally clear. You can see straight to the bottom. We had a giant raft that we anchored to the river bed and just floated on the river in. Very relaxing. We saw other people follow suit with a variety of floating devices.
There is a boat launch that has a small amount of docking space on the pier. We noticed a lot of people fishing off this dock as well. My son has a blast fishing from the rocks right in front of our campsite. Although this area is known for bass, walleye, pike, and muskellunge, he really only caught a few perch and lots of gobies. There is no lifeguarded swimming area at Burnham Point State Park, but we saw people wading and swimming next to the dock.
There is a pavilion in the Park that can be rented for day use, as well as several picnic tables and grills down by the shore near the pier.
Gorgeous Views and Magnificent Sunsets
One of my favorite things to do when camping is sitting and enjoying a good book. I loved that I could sit in front of our fire pit (which faced the River) or sit among the rock directly on the River. It was incredibly peaceful. The setup of the campfire pit is perfect for those looking just to relax and enjoy the gorgeous scenery. We were able to view magnificent sunsets just sitting in front of our fire. One night we witnessed the most colorful sunset accompanied by someone playing bagpipes somewhere down the shore. I couldn’t help but get all emotional and weepy watching our sunset with the built-in soundtrack.
Getting to Burnham Point State Park
GPS Coordinates – 44.161236, -76.263924
340765 NYS Route 12E, Cape Vincent
Google Map Link
Have you camped at Burnham Point State Park before? What did you think? What is your favorite Thousand Island State Park? We would love to hear from you. Please leave us a comment below.