Sylvan Lake Beach Park

I took a quick escape to test out my new RV and found this location within a short drive from my house. I was very surprised with a nice gem of park. It was very clean and well maintained. The view was great and the sites well well spaced. The staff was super friendly and we’re waiting outside the office when I arrived. It was an easy relaxing escape. Great for laying out in the sun by day and star gazing by night. The hookups were easy and in case you need to use their amenities, the rest rooms and showers were very clean. I will definitely be back.

Overpriced for average, at best, park. Site was OK, hookups at very back needed to break out the sewer hose extension. Nice lake, small playground for kids, but otherwise nothing to do. Psycho neighbor definitely does not want you wandering onto their property, ample signage warning you off. The location is well off the beaten path. Asked for an open site for satellite, they said they had 1 only, which they gave us, turned out to be next to trees (no satellite), and the other more open sites did not fill up the same night. Hope Junction area is in no danger of being labeled a big city, we asked for location of nearest diesel fuel but the employee had no clue. Not much signage to help locate the park. Overhanging trees need trimming & there is a low hanging wire/cable at the turn-around loop near the lake which tried to take my antennas off.

My title sums it up! We had previously pulled into the Jellystone park and they would of charged almost $80 per night for my family of 5...and the KOA in Newburgh was almost as high (thankfully we got a BOGO deal and stayed there 4 nights...it was a great place and you can read my review on it). However we needed something with a more affordable weekend rate to visit family in Poughkeepsie. This fit the bill. We were able to snag a reservation with 2 days notice and we had full hook-ups. The location was not bad for visiting Poughkeepsie to the north and West Point to the south. The lake is closed to swimming this time of year but open for fishing and boating (no motors permitted). I was expecting the worst from this campground, however we were surprised...it was very quiet and there were some nice units using it for a stopping point while passing through...just as we were doing. There are also longterm seasonal staying here. This is definitely not a destination campground, however considering the other options in the area...it worked great for our needs. We had a gravel pad with a fire pit and picnic table. I do feel that it is overpriced...however it sure beats the alternatives in the area when it comes to price. There was no deposit required when making the reservation and they accept cash and cards. If you visit this park...read their driving directions on the website. Do not follow your GPS directions that take you on the Tatonic Parkway...you will get a ticket for taking any kind of RV on it....and note that we choose to take our F250 truck on the parkway when we were not towing, however we have heard about travelers receiving tickets for driving a dually on parkways due to its size and weight.

We got the impression this park was mostly for seasonals and long term residents. As you enter the campground, you can see a number of campers that basically look like trailer homes and there was various debris stored here and there. None of it was terrible, but it was noticeably different than the other RV parks we've stayed in.

While the campground is located on a lake, and the loop we were in was ok, it definitely did not seem like a destination campground. When we first arrived and walked into the little campground office, I said hello and the guy just stared at me. I actually wondered if we'd walked into the wrong office or something. I said we were checking in and he just responded: "last name?" Not exactly warm and fuzzy. He handed me a couple pages of rules to sign off on and then directed us to our site.

Our loop was a large grass field with RVs parked along the perimeter. The sites are large and level and there was good site separation. There were no trees or bushes between the sites. The hookups seemed ok, but we lost power twice. Once was during a thunderstorm, so no surprise there. But the other was just random with no obvious reason.

The lake has an area buoyed off for swimming and the green spaces are well kept and pretty, but the buildings look pretty run down. We tried walking around the perimeter of the lake, but ran into these lovely signs from the friendly neighbors. It might have been nice if the campground management mentioned the fact that some lunatic gun nut lived nearby and threatens to shoot their patrons....

In any case, other than the FDR historical sites in Hyde Park, there's not a whole lot to do in this area. It was just a transit stop for us and that's all I would recommend it for. If it was $30 or $35 per night, I might feel differently. But for $50 per night, I expect a bit more than unfriendly welcomes and death threats from the neighbors.