We had mentioned to friends and family that our first stop was on a campground on an island. I don’t think people understood just how much of an island this campground was! But check it out on this map – the entire campground was the island in the waters of Lake Ontario. Talk about remote!
With us wanting our first big destination to be Niagara Falls, and that trip being over 8 hours from Northern Vermont, we wanted a spot in between to chill for a couple of days. We found this campground along the shores of Lake Ontario when searching for Sun Outdoors campgrounds.
We loved the one in Saco, Maine we stayed at (read that review here) for its big sites, cleanliness, and overall amenities. This one turned out to be great as well. This spot on Lake Ontario looked like a great spot to stop and catch our breath before continuing on to Niagara and was only about 5 1/2 hours of driving the first day.
With only a couple of stops on the way for bathroom breaks and to let the dogs out (check out the dog harness we got Roxie to get her to stop pulling), we arrived when it was still daylight. The entrance was a narrow road surrounded by water which was very cool and showed just how remote this place was.
As we came to expect at Sun Outdoors resorts, we were escorted to our site by camp staff in a golf cart. They give you your map at check-in but also guide you on the right roads for ideal camper access to your site. We were on site number 1, so we didn’t have far to go. (See the campground map here). It was light out long enough for us to get our site set up.
The dogs were happy to get their fence set up (here is the one we bought) so they could roam free for a bit to stretch their legs after being cooped up in the truck for that long. We took them for a short walk around a loop of the campground, without venturing out too far without our map.
What was cool about this nighttime walk was that we spooked 3 or 4 deer that were just grazing in the grass around the campground sites. I’m not sure if we spooked them or they spooked us more as we didn’t see them until their tails went up and they took off, but one was so close we could have bumped noses.
Given that we were on an island, I couldn’t wait to get up in the morning and see the sunrise. While it was still pretty, it was overcast, and I didn’t get up quite as early as expected to see the sun as low as I wanted.
The good of camping on an island – it’s beautiful. The only thing on this island was the campground. There wasn’t other traffic or people – just campers camping. It was also the end of September, so the busy summer months had gone by so there were many empty sites. On our morning walk, we got to enjoy Lake Ontario on all sides of the island.
There was a nice walking trail along the shore connecting two different areas of the campground. We thought we might walk up on a deer or two here too, but didn’t. There was a nice beachy area on this trail with picnic tables. This made for a great place for Aliyah to do schoolwork that day.
What was really neat on this beachfront though was a tree stump that was just covered with rocks that people had written on (see our Instagram post here). There were signatures, drawings, inspirational messages, etc. Aliyah had the most fun creating rocks to add to the collection. If you ever visit here – try to find our rocks and send us a picture!
Now the bad for camping on an island – the wind. You are surrounded by the lake on all sides and nothing to cut the wind down. And man was it windy! Again, this was late September so not mid-summer where you want some wind. But the trees were blowing sideways at times. Our camper was leveled perfectly so it was not shaking, but the second you stepped outside, you were nearly blown away. With this wind, we didn’t sit outside at our picnic table at all, nor did we have a campfire. But we were also only there one full day (2 nights) so didn’t feel like we were really missing out.
After our school work was done for the day, the kids elected to visit the nearby Zoo New York (about a 30-minute drive). This wasn’t a big, commercialized zoo, but rather a small, quiet zoo. There was an owl, a Bald Eagle, goats, bears, a lynx, chickens, goats, etc. On a weekday, the zoo was very quiet and left us plenty of time to go at our own pace and really complete the different activities offered.
Given our short stay at this campground (and the time of year we visited), we did not take advantage of all of the amenities this campground offered. There was a tennis court, playground, swimming pool (which was still open because of how nice the weather was), and a restaurant. There are also boat slips to rent while you stay there, which I’m sure are incredibly popular in the summer!
This campground is a beautiful spot to visit if you find yourself traveling to Western NY. Maybe if you just need a couple-night stay to break up your drive, or you just want to vacation in a quiet, remote area. But we would definitely recommend it and will stay again if we find ourselves in the North Western, New York.
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