Green Lakes State Park

Green Lakes State Park is located in central New York, about ten miles east of Syracuse. We used it as a mid-way stopping point on our way back to Boston from Letchworth State Park but it’s also less than two hours away from Taughannock Falls State Park and Watkins Glen State Park. This is a good state park to pair up with others either as day trip or a stopping point on the way to somewhere else. 

There’s no nice way to say this, the campground at Green Lakes State Park is pretty bad. There are two loops, “Rolling Hills” and “Pinewoods”, these names do not describe the loops in anyway. Both loops are basically open fields with a few trees scattered here and there and a lot of campsites jammed in. The campsites tend to run long and narrow which makes you feel even closer to your neighbor. It honestly felt like we were just parked in a grassy parking lot. I walked around both loops and there weren’t any sites that stood out to me as being less worse than the others, what did stand out were the cabins. Behind the “Pinewoods” loop are eight cabins. If I ever went back to this campground to stay I would definitely go for one of those cabins instead of camping. They’re far enough removed from the camping loop to offer a little privacy. None of the cabins (or campsites) are water front but you can see the lake through the trees from a few of the cabins. 

The trail that goes down to the lake also starts at the end of the row of cabins. The draw of this state park are the two glacier lakes. There aren’t many glacier lakes in North America and these are the only two in the Northeast. And the lakes are gorgeous. Depending on the time of day and the area of the lake the color ranges from a greenish-blue to light turquoise. There is a trail that goes around both lakes and it’s the only way to really see the lakes. The only drive-up area is a parking lot by the beach/swimming area. While you can see the water from there, that area of the lake looks different than the rest. If you actually want to see the pretty colors of the lake you’ll have to walk along one of the trails. Because of the fragile eco-system in the lakes you can’t bring your own kayak/canoe, but they are available to rent. Despite how horrible the campground is, the lakes really are worth seeing.