belleplain state forest

Large, flat, clean camp sites. Nice trails. Beautiful cedar lake. Close to the shore. Close to the Cape May County zoo. Who could ask for more?

I booked a yurt trip at Belleplain on the recommendation of another camping family, and was hopeful due to the reviews read here. The yurts were great, and we will definitely look to camp in yurts at other places. It was great to be able to walk around and organize things within our dwelling. Also the mattresses were very comfortable. Also the park itself is impressive. Great biking trails, diverse forest, the lake and dock are beautiful.There were far too many negatives though to make a return trip. The person who checked us in was very uninspired, which I might expect at a private campground but not at a state park. Our site was not cleaned after the previous renters left. We needed to do a sweep of the entire site and pick up lots of litter that was left around. The site was spacious, design of the picnic tables and fire rings are very good. Having stayed at many campgrounds and parks I was disturbed at the amount of food left around at all times of day and night. It appears that the parks service makes no effort to inform people of the dangers of leaving food items out. It's not just harmful to campers, but also to the wildlife! Raccoons don't need to be eating Doritos. Almost every campsite had food and garbage left out overnight. There was litter in the forest and on the paths. It was sad to see a state park in this condition. There is supposedly a no alcohol rule, which is absolutely not enforced. Along with the fact that there was no staff (no staff at all in a huge state park with hundreds of campers!) on duty on a Friday overnight during a very busy weekend in July to enforce the quiet after 10 pm rule, we had a nightmare of an evening. We literally listened to people speeding around in their cars, yelling, blasting music, playing drinking games, and crashing bottles until 2 am. If we didn't live 3 hours away we would have left, it was that bad. I called the state police twice, and they drove through twice and warned people to be quiet. The quiet lasted until the police car was out of sight. The second night was quiet after a number of us complained at the office (when it was open) and the park police drove through many times. That should be a regular occurrence, not something that needs to be asked for. When I complained at the office, the counter person told me that "yeah, sometimes this becomes a party place." If that's what they are going for, then advertise it as such. If you are going to try to be a beautiful, natural environment to offer peaceful camping, then enforce the rules so it doesn't become a party place! There are no dishwashing facilities, which is fine for us because we know how to wash dishes while camping. However, many campers decided to use the bathrooms to wash dishes. There were toilets filled with food and sinks with food residue at all times except immediately after the morning cleaning. It's disgusting to try to brush teeth in a sink full of food. People were brewing coffee and charging laptop computers and phones in the bathroom outlets. The bathrooms nearest the yurts are badly in need of upgrading. Broken and missing tiles in the toilet areas, the showers are ridiculously out of date. The bathrooms are not cleaned nearly enough. We stayed 2 nights and probably had the pleasure of an appropriately cleaned bathroom twice. The bathrooms near the CCC site were much better, and thankfully the showers were updated and functional. You need to ride a bike to get there from the yurts. The location of the park is great. I wish we could return, but the state really needs to put some resources in to upgrade, maintain, and staff the park or it will fall into ruin. Campers have other options and will take their business elsewhere, I know we will.

The park is beautiful, the beach by the lake is nice, and the bathrooms are clean and well kept. After a few days of rain, however, the trails are mostly impassable by foot (bike riders should be fine, if muddy) and I have never seen so many ticks in my life. No high grass, but just on the gravel/dirt paths there were tens of ticks that ended up on me, my husband (at one point we pulled 5 or 6 off of his socks), and our friend's dog (at least 12 on him). All after only walking for about 15 minutes on the Goosekill trail.

What a beautiful campground! It is safe, quiet and clean - the kids can ride their bikes around the campground without an adult tailing them. There is a beautiful life-guarded lake to swim at and some fun nature trails. You can stay in a tent, cabin or Yurt. We stayed in the Yurt - lots of room and weather-proof. We spent one day at Wildwood (about a 30 minute drive - $10 to park and free beach/boardwalk) and the other two relaxing. The ranger station sells wood and s'more kits! There is a small interpretive/nature center that is good for younger kids.

Large state forest campsite & shed like cabins. Lake with beach & playground.Snackbar & canoe rentals

Belleplain State Forest is one of our favorite South Jersey places to hike. It offers several interesting trails of various length. They are well marked. Some have still wet areas requiring by-passing but most trouble spots were fixed by the boardwalks especially on 7.2 miles of East Creek Trail.It is good to pick up a map in the visitor center. During the summer the Lake Nummy beach is open but we have never seen the Interpretative Center open. The trail around the lake is pleasant and easy, most of it handicap accessible.Bellplain is also a place to camp but we have never done that.

I love staying in the yurts and cabins of Belleplain, but I've stayed there twice in the past year, and both times came home with lots of small red itchy bug bites. Beware! Don't keep your clothes on the floor, don't sit or sleep on the floor.

Went here for a day with family and friends to swim in the lake! Nice, clean beach for children to build sand castles, etc. The lake was clean and the bottom was smooth. The kids had a blast swimming and there was plenty of shade and clean tables & benches for the adults to relax on. The bathroom was clean and there are large changing rooms available. There is a concession stand that offered fries, funnel cakes, and the like for reasonable prices. Although we didn't stay, we were already talking about returning for the hiking, canoeing, and camping before we even left! Will definately return!

Just returned from a week stay camping in the CCC loop. The park in general is very clean and all the staff are congenial. The restroom however is very outdated which I wouldn't care too much about except that any time I went to use it, it was fairly dirty. Now I will give the park the benefit of doubt considering there was a large group camping there at the same time. I have a 26 ft. travel trailer and I will say that the sites are fairly large. There a lot of trees so I would recommend actually calling them and seeing what sites would best suite your needs. I took a bike ride through the other loops and would not have been able to get my camper around the tight corners. The one major problem I had was that there were no park rangers to be seen after quiet hours. There was one site two lanes over (Loop CCC has 3 lanes) that was screaming and playing loud music at least until 2 am. After the second night I had to call the number for the NJ DEC for someone to come out to stop the noise. In any other state park in NY or PA that I have stayed at, the rangers are very diligent at keeping the noise levels under control. The beach is clean and well maintained and my kids and I had fun bike riding on all the trails.Overall the park wasn't bad but I can't see myself making it a destination.

We were looking for a stop to break up our trip to Ocean City and came across this place. I can't say enough about it. First- no crowds. Great little beach area with paddle boats and lifeguards. We hiked the trail which was not long but scenic. We saw lots of wildlife. The visitors center was extraordinarily helpful. Their is something unique we have never seen. The Eagle Scout Adventure trail was a super fun and challenging little obstacle course. We love outdoor fitness and loved this. I'm a marathon runner and it was actually pretty hard! All of my kids, ages 6-20 were able to do it. We did not camp but checked out the camping and I would definitely stay in the CCC section. What nice sites and very family oriented. This is a great and worthwhile stop.

Good place to camp with kids. Yurts and lean-tos (with heat some times of the year) are available. Good place for tent camping. Nice swimming beach that never seems to have a lifeguard. Technically you aren't supposed to be in the water without a lifeguard but I have been there several years and never seen one. Nice place to canoe for an hour or so. Trails for hiking and biking. Beware the ticks.

Heard so many nice things about this park. We took a drive there yesterday on a very dreary February afternoon to give it a proper check out before the season starts. Easy enough place to find. They were obviously hit by hurricaine sandy and a lot of trees are still down. I can see that they are working hard to clear them. Hope they can get it all done in time! Place looked nice otherwise, like a fun place to camp! Took note of lots of really nice sites that were much to my liking. Woodsy place, lots of shade trees, privacy. Will be lovely when summer comes. Lots of drinking water faucets too. The driveways that wind through the sites are kinda narrow. Was a little put off by that at first. Then, I thought how it was actually an advantage: forces people to slow down, especially if you have a larger vehicle. Safer for the kids, etc. who shouldn't have to be in danger from some folks driving too fast. The lake was pretty too. There was a beach, looked nice for kids and sunning yourself. Sorry that I didn't get to check out the bath houses like I had planned. The North Shore side of the campground was closed for the the off season, so we didn't get to check it out, just saw Meisle field and the CCC areas. The CCC area's campsites are somewhat larger. The lady at the park office was super nice too. Lots of yurts and lean to's also if you're in to that. Will probably wait till later in the season to go down and then I will update my review.

We honestly do the East Creek circuit hike 3-4 days a week--it is 7 to 8 miles--depending on detours. It is a wonderful quiet back to nature experience. Last year the employees worked very hard to build bridges over the very wet areas--making this an even better hike. Go often and watch the seasons change in the different parts of the park.

the new biking trail is one for beginners as well as advanced mountain/train bike riders. The SJ Wheelmen did a great job working on that trail last year for all to use.

private wooded campsites, trails galore. Clean bathrooms / showers.Used to be very crowded on summer weekends, now, almost empty, which is a huge plus.Great for couples, families, everyone, as it is an easy drive into Stone Harbor, Wildwood of Cape May. Love this place for over 20 years!