THE SACANDAGA CAMPGROUND

  The Sacandaga River is a picturesque, rocky, swift-moving river in The Adirondack Park in New York State.

The river is so shallow you can walk across it. Or you can hop the rocks across it if you’re brave and strong and don’t mind skinned knees.  There are a few places where the current has made deep spots, pools 4 to 5 feet deep, but normally the river is a "“babbling brook”, approximately 50 to 100 yards across. 

The river has two branches coming down out of the mountains and where those two branches meet is a wonderful place to camp. It’s called, appropriately enough, the Sacandaga Campground.  It is the oldest campground in New York State.  

We have many happy memories of camping there with our family over the years, and although time has wrought many changes in us, the campground remains much as we remember it, quaint and quiet. There are no electrical outlets so there is no radio or TV noise. The bathrooms do have modern toilets now and there is a shower building where you can get a warm shower for a quarter.

The dam that held the water of the east branch to form a swimming hole burst a number of years ago and it was not rebuilt. Therefore, the campground offers nothing to do but play in the water, sit and enjoy the peace and quiet, play in the water, hike, and play in the water. 

When the water is high, we see canoes, kayaks and rubber boats fly by our site. When it is more reasonable, we take inner tubes and tube the river from one end of the campground to the other, about a mile and a half. Our favorite site, the one where we usually camped when we had kids with us, is the last site on the upper end of the west branch of the river; the hike back after shooting the rapids we chalked up as aerobic exercise. Example of high water/low water:

Low

High

When the water is low, we become civil engineers, moving rocks and excavating swimming holes to wallow in.   Wherever we camp we decorate our piece of the river with dozens of small rock sculptures, sort of marking our territory while we are in residence.

Low

High

A one-lane bridge crosses the east branch of the river to get to the west side of the campground. It becomes a gathering place at night to enjoy the stars and visit with other campers. We’ve watched meteor showers and a lunar eclipse on that bridge. We’ve shared thousands of stars with our children there and on a cool night you can stretch out with a blanket of stars above and feel the warmth of the sun still radiating from the pavement.

The whole place is beautiful, nestled under stately pines.  There are picnic areas for day use and two small towns nearby if we need supplies.  There are plenty of hiking trails in the area and over the years the children and my sister and I have traveled many of them.

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If you’re interested in seeing the campground feel free to go to: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/do/camping/campgrounds/sacandaga.html

To drive, the campground is located on route 30 North of Amsterdam NY. It’s in the Adirondack Park between Northville and Wells. It’s a state park and well marked. If you go and want to enjoy the river be sure to take water shoes to protect your feet. Those rocks and the occasional fishhook can hurt.