Letchworth State Park

Letchworth State Park is also known as “The Grand Canyon of the East” and is located in western New York, about 45 minutes south of Rochester. It’s one of the more famous NY state parks and has been ranked as one of the best state parks in the country. The park itself, like most NY state parks, is very well kept and maintained. This area tends to get a lot of rainfall even in summer so it’s usually pretty green with lots of grass and wildflowers. The park is massive at almost 15,000 acres and has several large waterfalls plus the canyon that earned it it’s nickname. Coming from the Boston area is a long seven hour drive which is why we stopped roughly halfway on the way there and the way back to make the drive and the trip more enjoyable. On the way there we stayed at Moreau Lake State Parkand then at Green Lakes State Park on our way back. The best way to describe the campgrounds located at Letchworth State Park is “convenient”. The campsites are sequestered in their own area of the park which is only accessible to the campers so the only traffic you are to worry about is from fellow campers. In the campground area there is a store and several fields for kids to play in. There is also a pool in the park but this is located outside the campground area. Each campsite has either a 20amp or 50amp hookup. They don’t have water hookups but around each loop there are several spigots that you can hook up a hose to. 

There are eight loops in the campground area. We stayed in Loop 100 which is probably where I would try to stay again. It’s the last loop on the campground road and felt a little more quiet and removed from the rest of the loops. The sites on the outer side of the loop are surrounded by trees which offer you a little privacy but not a lot. The sites in the middle of the loop are much more open. From what we saw of the other loops they all follow this pattern. None of the sites offer a view of anything and while some of the sites offer a little more space and privacy there weren’t really any standout sites. The point of staying in this campground is to have close proximity to the rest of the park, the campground itself is nothing special. There are also a lot of cabins and Glen Iris Inn if you want to visit but not camp at the park. As previously mentioned, this is a huge state park. It’s popularity stems from the gorge that spans part of the park with the Genesee River winding though it. There are also three major waterfalls in the park referred to as Lower, Middle, and Upper Falls. A well-maintained and relatively flat path runs along side part of the gorge down to Middle and Upper Falls. There are also several parking lots along this path including a large one down by Middle and Upper Falls. This trail is very accessible and felt similar to a lot of National Parks that have walking trails along their major viewpoints. The best views from the park are going to be found along this trail, it’s also going to be the most crowded. If you want to avoid the crowds or want to explore more of the park there are plenty of trails running throughout the park. If you’re interested in rafting there is a company that offers guided rafting tours through the park. Outside of the park there really isn’t much. A couple very small towns that had a couple restaurants and shops. I’d plan on spending most of your time in the park itself and not the surrounding area.

This is the largest developed state park in New Hampshire and has 101 campsites plus some cabins. The first two loops are the most tightly packed and offer the least privacy, these are sites 76-93, 1-11, and 35-45. Sites 12-30 are a little quieter because they’re away from the mayhem of the other loops. Sites 49-94 are somewhere in-between with certain sites like 55, 56, 94, 95 offering more privacy. None of the sites have electric/water hookups but there is a dump station with potable water and there are water outlets scattered around the camping loops (I can’t confirm if you can hook a hose up to these). Bathrooms are central located in each loop and have showers. There is a lot to do at this campground; hiking, boating, fishing, softball, archery, etc. It may be a bit crowded but the trade-off is that it’s very well developed.

There are over forty miles of hiking trails in the park and a lot of trailheads that start in the campground. Beaver Pond is nice to boat around in, boat rentals are available if you don’t have your own. Archery Pond is available specifically for fly fishing and across the road from that pond is another small pond that is just for children under twelve to fish in. If you’re interested in photography there are a lot of interesting landscapes around the campground for sunrise/sunset and astrophotography.