RE: Niagra Falls area

[tlhdoc]

 
We woud like to camp on a long weekend in the Niagra Falls area.  Public campgrounds are where we like to camp.  Electric is nice, but not needed.  Any ideas?[]

[campingeyedoc]

 tlhdoc
There is A KOA on Grand Island next to Martin s Fantasy Island amusement park. Some of the sites are right up against the NYS Thruway,and it looks somewhat crowded, but I think I have seen some good reviews on this old board. It is probably 10-15 minutes to the actual falls.

[DiW]

 tlhdoc
Tracy,
 We really liked 4mile state park on the US side. I think it only took about 15min to drive to the Rainbow Bridge. You can park free there (show them your state park cg site card) and walk over the bridge to the Canadian side. You still go thru customs but no line (since you re walking thru). I think they charge you $.50 to use the bridge or something ridiculous. We did this trip a couple times and also drove in one day so we could look around the area. Reminded me of the Jersey shore. Used the people mover to do the touristy sites one day.  Kids loved the live butterfly museum, something I thought they would dread. The kids loved the peoplemover bus system so I guess it was worth the money (Parking at the touristy places didn t seem bad). My kids are weird. We spent a week in DC and they liked the metro the best of all.
 
 Had NO traffic at all on the roads to the cg and we went the week before Labor Day. Although we spent Friday morning in Ontario, we returned to the cg for the aft & dinner and then headed back down to the Rainbow Bridge for the free fireworks (I think every Fri). Sure was convenient. Bring chairs! We were right up at the railing and had a great view. Also toured around on the US side while we were waiting for the fireworks to begin.
 
 Fort Niagara is close to the campground and we toured there as well. Kids enjoyed it up to a point but we had to drag Chris away. I think they have a swimming pool there but can t remember.
 
 NY State parks are cheap ($16/night for electric, $13/night dry) and our sites were big & square. We stayed in the electric loop near the cg s entrance. At first glance, we thought " Yuck" . The sites are all open, maybe 2 trees per site. But once we set up, we realized the site (52) was plenty large with an open " alley"  behind us - keeping the site behind away. No one site seemed better than another but there s a field inside the loop where kids run around and play or cut thru to the bathroom. As usual, we made last minute reservations so had to take what we could get. For Labor Day weekend itself, we had to move to a dry site (93) and it was nice too. It was on Lake Ontario. There was pavilion way behind the site where the ranger did nature crafts with the kids, but this didn t interfere with us at all.
 
 Didn t really see the dry loop but the other elec loop (200-285) seemed to have more interesting looking sites, esp some of the water sites. I ll see if I can find my old site map if you re interested in more specifics. You can look thru Reserve America to see what s available. The bathrooms are typical state park type - could use more showers. We actually walked to the 200-285 loop to avoid lines. You know I prefer wooded sites and our sites were anything but ... that said, I would definitely go back to 4mile if I returned to the area.
 
 We drove to the Ontario KOA and it wasn t our style. Very busy area (lots of motels and fast food places everywhere near it). Much more relaxed atmosphere where we were.
 Di

[DBGCAMP]

 tlhdoc

We really liked 4mile state park on the US side.

 I second the opinon: Four Mile Creek State Park was very nice! There are also a lot of nature trails running along the gorge on both the US and Canadian sides. Niagra on the Lake (Canada) is also worth a visit..

[GaryWT]

 tlhdoc
I have not heard good things about the KOA in NY but I have stayed at the KOA in Canada, Lundy Lane.  It was nice with an indoor pool and my favorite, site to site fruit and veggie deliveries.