Where to car camp with a dog either a) along I-90 in OH or NY, or b) along the northern shore of Lake Ontario?

June 19, 2009 5:23 PM

we're two women driving from milwaukee, wisconsin to central vermont with our dog, and we'd like to car camp along the way. we need a camping place that's dog friendly, not loud and obnoxious, and isn't run by religious fundamentalists (we're clearly total homos). any recommendations on sites?

we're not sure about the route yet - our two options are going up through michigan and canada and then back down through northern vermont, or going the way we always go, which is straight across I-90. our hope is to leave home around 6am, and drive for about 12 hours, which will give us enough time to set up the tent before it gets dark, and give our poor dog (and ourselves) some much needed exercise. so if the campground has access to a clean lake/pond, trails or any other fun exercise-type thing, that's an added bonus. for the route through canada, driving for 12 hours will land us somewhere around kingston on the northern shore of lake ontario. taking I-90 will get us to new york state, somewhere around buffalo.

also, we'd like to not have to travel too far off the highway. however, we also don't really want to stay in a campground that's incredibly crowded, with only a couple trees and a bush between campsites. ideally, we'd like our accomodations to be no more than a half hour off the freeway, but if there's something really amazing out there that we should know about that's further, by all means, share away.

finally, on the way back, we'll definitely be traveling the I-90 route, as we'll have an extra passenger w/o a passport. so any recommendations on sites between 9 and 12 hours from montpelier would be awesome (for the record, this is basically the state of ohio).

in your response, i'd love to hear why you like this particular campground. thank you so much for your time and assistance! after the trip, i'll post about where we ended up and how it was.

posted by binocularfight to travel & transportation (4 comments total)

The Allegheny forest south of Buffalo is a beautiful state/national park. I've been on a few hike-in camping trips there and love it. It's a little out of the way, but not too much, and being a government operation I expect it to be relatively homo-friendly. Here's camping info for the NY park.
posted by waxboy at 5:51 PM on June 19

Also, a map.
posted by waxboy at 5:52 PM on June 19

I second Allegany. It's an amazing place and a great place to camp. The tent areas are something like $10 a night and all have close facility access. There's a lot of nature (obviously, but there are plenty of parks that are more tamed and manicured) and things to do there, but if you're just looking for a place to crash it'll suit fine. It's huge though and if you're pulling in at night it can be a little difficult to figure out where you need to go if you're unfamiliar with it.
posted by rob paxon at 7:26 PM on June 19

I have always found dog-friendly helpful - though I would caution you to call and confirm (as with any guidebook.)

If you don't already have some, you might also want to take along some tie-out cables. It's nice to know your dog is safe while you're busy building a fire or whatever.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 11:31 AM on June 20