Cherry Plain State Park in Hancock

There was no life guards the area was neat and clean

Perfect day

A beautiful place to play, hike, swim, camp !With so many gorgeous parks nearby - itwould be difficult to give a better review ...It is sometimes tricky to get to there from the greater Albany area ...

Just a hike up the Waterfall Trail. A fairly short and easy walk from the Miller Road trailhead. The full hike is a loop. Some evidence of previous settlement, maybe a mill or barn site, and likely later CCC recreational development. Despite low water flow in July, still delightful.

Off the beaten path but well worth the trip. A sweet camping spot off a beautiful lake and family friendly is a treasure. Thanks to Fran.

Nice camping!

Very nice New York State Park. Although smaller in size it has many of the same features as larger state parks. Nice small lake to fish or kayak in. Fishing was pretty good when I went. Just dont expect anything too big. Warm water fishery with bass, sunfish, and pickerel.Nice hiking trails around the lake. Some nice uphill climbs into the woods that surround the park.Several picnic areas in the park.Great place to spend a day!GPS doesnt take you to park entrance. Just keep driving down the road and you will find it.

We camped for 5 days and LOVED every second of it! We stayed on site 16. We had an 8 man tent and large screen house. The site was on a hillside which proved a good thing when we got slammed with rain for 2 days. Plenty of trees for the hammocks. Row boat rentals are like 5 bucks an hour- not too much current so its doable for the kids. Showers were piping hot, outdoor clean up sink, respectful neighbors, playground within eyesight of our camp- what could be better?!?Wood was expensive at 6bucks a bag. If you are going for a week or more, I recommend calling someone local and having a half cord delivered to your site, usually run you 100 bucks or less and you wont have to be stingy with your fires. Happy camping!

Day visit to chill off. Nice to swim across the lake as no fenced area [or lifeguards]. Water cooler than Saratoga lake which was refreshing on a hot day. Bathrooms clean. Families paddle boarding, grilling etc. Nice atmosphere.

Clean, well appointed with grills and campsites....bathrooms and showers clean and readily available...sandy beach....plenty of trails and parking

What a sweet relaxed time and hiking, fishing as well as fresh cool water to swim in... Our grandsons had the best time and met a few new friends. All the management are very kind always available. The facilities are very clean and very well maintained, thank you Dave and all the workers, you really show kindness tending to all campers and day use visitors...You have become a great staple in our lives thru these uncertain days✌️👣

Well it was raining so the place was empty, but the beach seemed rather small. There were other activities on site, including a basketball court. Bathrooms were clean and pavilions were available for party rental. Have to return--- ---- ----- ------So we returned and stayed on the beach. A party rented a pavilion right next to us. The geese were close and comfy. The water was super warm and the weirdest thing about this beach is that you are stepping on algae in the water. There is a sudden drop where you have to begin swimming. We made it to the island in the middle and when we tried laying on the blanket the horse flies were biting so it was time to go.

Absolutely beautiful! Quiet, remote and serene. One of my "happy places." 😊

Brand new hot shower facilities have been added! Lots of new buildings and renovations to the areas. This is an amazing place to camp, swim, play on the beach, playground, hike, boat or cookout! Definitely call ahead to make sure they are open or to book camping and pavilions. During the week its a very peaceful place to walk the trails and enjoy nature.

Rented a shelter for a baby shower. Man was it amazing. Secluded but right near the beach. Super dog friendly, wildlife everywhere, even caught a beautiful snake. Staff was great no lifeguards and Id go back in a heart beat

Visited this park June 2021. . .Beautiful park, quiet and small. Bathrooms are clean and have showers to rinse the sand off. There are boat rentals available. You have to put down a $20 CASH deposit and leave your license/ID with the office at the front gate. Row boats are $5/hr. Kayaks are also available for rental. There is a small playground for kids. Pavilions, tents and pincic tables available. Another good thing to know to (especially if its your first timeis the GPS will tell you, youve arrived before you actually get to the entrance. Just keep going until you see the park sign 🙂

I love Cherry Plain. Camping is nice there as well as just day trip to swim or kayak. It has nice bathroom facilities to boot.

Awesome hike to the waterfall! The first trail on the right side of the dirt rd entering the park. Its a 30 minutes walk on a nice path, followed by 5 minutes a blue trail on the right side in the woods, then on the left a pretty waterfall. The blue trail goes further along the creek but we walked back after a stop at the waterfall.

Great place, these photos are on Thanksgiving Morning, on a foggy, very foggy morning. Very peaceful, great scenery. Has a campground, beautiful park. When its in season. Plenty of trails. I recommend it.

One of the quite and beauty place under the list of NY state park. "Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws" especially during Fall Color. Kids really had gr8 fun at beach. We were only 4-5 family in the state park and near by the beach area which gave us feeling like we had private beach booked. During Fall color drive was one of the best drive I had.

Very pretty area but definitely not a campground for familys to camp at. The sites are very small and most are sloped. If you have a tent, screen house, tables etc..... Forget it! You will never fit. We were on site 24 which we were told the best site.... Wrong! Its like a boat launch directly into the water and was all rocks. Who wants to put there tents on rocks and very sloped? No where for a tent and supplies not to mention the trench running directly through the site for all the water from the hill to run into. I have been to several NYS parks and this was by far the worst. Very poorly planned and laid out. No privacy, everyone is on top of one another.

Great state park, a hidden gem. Especially good for families for day use activities. Bathrooms clean - 5 stars! Great activities for kids, like playgrounds, kayaking, swimming. Not heavy on hiking trails, but we enjoyed walking along access road (no vehiclesto other end of the lake. Fair warning - expect no cell service (at least no Verizon)

The beach at Cherry Plain is kid heaven. The water is warm and super shallow. And theres a playground right next to the beach. Water is brown because of pine needles and that freaks out some people. Boat rentals and camping! Yay!

Nice campground. Be advised a lot of sites are sloping. However, they really are trying to make improvements. Great playground for kids. Swimming in pond. Hiking. Biking. Boating. Some sites are walk-in

Usually quieter than other beaches, able to swim and use floats, and the whole lake is open...no lifeguards, the pavilion was available and free of charge for our large group...it was a very pleasant day...

We did camping this year after for the first time in 10 years since our last trip. The park has come a long way with updating shower/bathrooms. The sites are very well kept and I had a wonderful time camping. My personal favorite sites are #21, #24 and #25. Fishing was pretty good too, caught some perch and bass.

Campground was awesome. Services by the staff were superb. Bathrooms were clean and there was even a washer and dryer available. Great getaway from the hustle and bustle from the city.

Very nice family friendly state park. Modern facilities, safe lake for young children and easy trails

My husband and I just saw a baby black bear coming out today around 8pmish. Be careful hiking bears nearby in forest. It ran back in the woods at night when it seen our headlights coming. Nice beach and park. Just be alert if you dare to hike or camp.

This place is my heart and soul. I have many childhood memories here, and its so great to see how the place has transformed and evolved over the years. There used to be a little island in the middle of the lake, they took that down years ago. There was no camping when I was younger, but there is now. You can rent row boats, there is a big hill where wild strawberries grow, and I see people saying theres no trails ...silly... you have to know where to look! =there is an EXTREMELY long trail that even I didnt discover until I was in n my 20s and it goes MILES AND MILES into the state land. Its easy to walk right past if you are on the smaller trail that leads to the other end of the lake where the small water flow is. This is where I grew up, and this will always be home to me. My father still lives up that way, and I will be coming out to try out the camping experience this summer! I always bring the kids for swimming and the park, so I cant wait to see what its actually like to legally camp there lol...(we used to pitch tents way on the other side of the lake right in the middle of nowhere on state landgood times. This is a very clean place, and unlike most parks or attractions, its nowhere near any place that would be considered "residential" if it wasnt here in the maps, one would even consider it to be in the "middle of nowhere" LOL I would reccomend ANYONE to go ANY TIME!

It’s very quaint and private. We went on the weekend and I thought only a few people were there but it’s just wonderfully designed. Also they had the cleanest bathrooms and facilities I’ve ever seen in any campground. I could of ate off the floors

This is one of those parks that are truly just a hidden jewel. Its nearby to Grafton but closer if you live in the east greenbush / nassau area.Great pond and beach, fun trails and beautiful campsites. Really friendly and helpful park staff and a convenient selection of goods at the front office.

What a beautiful and cozy state park. Went when they were closed for season but the park was still great and had a fun time. Bush walks to the beach (including a very cool bridgewas awesome. Beach area is spacious with kids play area. Didn’t go any further but sign showed there was plenty more. If ur feeling venturous, There is a path that leads to a 19th century charcoal kiln, but I couldn’t find it. The path is well marked u til a large area with lots of trees, at which point I couldn’t find markers anymore.

Nice place, typically clean except for being ruined by people who cant seem to understand to not leave their trash behind. Nice big new and clean bathrooms done over past several years. Super easy to camp, sites are varied, beach is clean and has a great view. Always a nice stop over on way to next destination for many years.

Great spot not crowded can rent boats (no motorsfishing not bad

My familys favorite state park for day trips. Clean beach, awesome playground and a new bath house complete with warm showers to clean up before driving home. Thanks for making this my familys summer destination year after year! We love it here!

If you like someone to tell you it’s quiet time and to keep your voice at a whisper this place is for you. We had two campsites right next to each other and not close to anyone else but the lady thought she would come harass us anyway. Old lady if you’re reading this please get a life and stop ruining other people’s fun. As soon as you did that you killed everyone good time. Thanks for nothing

This place is beautiful and a very peaceful, quiet and clean park! My kids had a great time. There is a small playground close to the beach. There are trees near the beach if you want some shade and a few picnic tables. My mom camped here and said it was a great experience.

We love it here, especially like the waterfall trail. My first camping experience was great - nice staff who lent me a lighter for my camp fire. Guess Im not the only one who forgot matches. 😄

Absolutely beautiful! The perfect NYS park for our family thus far!

Great place to go to beach for the day and cook out! Nice playground, plus new bathrooms with showers. Also a nice place to camp overnight.

Beautiful area, nice little beach nearby picnic tables. Nice view of the water!

Love this park, great for day trips with or without kids. Some great sites for tenting as well.

We have not camped here, but have visited for day use. The swimming beach is nice and quiet. They have a great playground that is good for kids of all ages (a smaller one for the preschool crowd and a big one that will challenge older kids). There is a nice little trail that goes along the top of the reservoir. And I highly recommend the waterfalls trail (blue to red markers). I wasnt impressed with the bathrooms in the changing house by the lake, but thats the only negative.

Beautiful deep woods. What a place to be one with nature. The employees and visitors both so kind and upbeat. My daughter and I got to see a black bear about a quarter mile down CCC Road head to the park entrance. No worries though, you have to travel quite some distance before you get to the campground. I found it to be extremely safe when it comes to security. As soon as you pull up, day or night, employees are on their toes keeping visitors safe. They have quite a huge lake with a boat entrance. We even saw families board paddling too. Facilities are amazing! Dogs are allowed too. I spend a lot of time in Lebanon over the summer, soI will be back to this campground definitely! Only one thing I didnt like is the ground on each campsite. No grass but I give the employees two thumbs up for reconstruction of the grounds so at least there is no mud/mess each time it rains. To me camping is about making the best with what youve got.

Worst camping trip of our lives. I tried to find a secluded campsite for my family, my dogs and my husband and I. I read all of the reviews on this campground, and everyone ranted and raved about how private it was and small. What a crock!! We checked in on Saturday and not only was our campsite not secluded, no one at the campground mentioned that there would be 60 people there for a wedding right next to our campsite! We have two dogs, one is a BLoodhound and he can get loud at passersby, but we were under the impression this would be a "private and secluded" campground. Needless to say, this was no vacation for us. Besides the dogs barking, we had a ton of small unattended children just walking onto our site to pet our dogs. A ton of people that thought our Bloodhound was some sort of spectacle and would constantly stop into our site. We even tried blocking our site with our cars, and it was just awful, people still kept coming. The staff on the first night was running their gators and four wheelers ALL NIGHT LONG, SO we had no sleep. Then we tried to play some music the next day (we could barely hear it on our siteand a female staff member walked down and said she could hear the music at the office. This wasnt even QUIET TIME!!! IT was dinnertime around 6 p.m.! Then we were talked to about our dog barking, which, in my opinion, he was just being a dog, by the same female staff member. We will never return to this campground, and frankly, we deserve a refund!! We ended up leaving a day early also, this place sucked!

Cherry Plain Campground is a great little spot. Its quiet and small. No wifi or electricity at the sites. Water is nearby. So if you want to get away from it all, this is the place for you! They didnt get a 5 star rating only because while nice and new, the bathrooms could be cleaner.

This is my favorite campground that I have been to yet. We stayed at site 12, which was a hike. It was kind of a pain to walk up and down to bring our stuff up but we managed. The lake was beautiful and the campground itself is small and feels private. They have rentals and the beach was clean. I have no complaints but they did complain about us for letting off mini fireworks. I could understand because they arent allowed in State Parks. It was Fourth of July weekend so we were just following the people below us who were letting them off. The only thing that bums me out, is because its small - we can never get there in time to get a spot and theyll usually full. Other than that, its a great getaway.

Prestine and peaceful, Cherry Plain was a perfect tent camping escape for our family. The lake was clear and clean, fish, water fowl and beavers made for exciting nature experiences. The beach was clean and the swimming area had no lake weeds, which my kids appreciated. We also enjoyed the hiking trails, which were manageable for a family of varying ages. Our campsite was quite and secluded and we had the very distinct feeling of leaving the hustle and angst of the day to day grind behind to enjoy a relaxing yet active getaway experience.

If you really wish to stay at this beautiful park, you must go to 10 State Park Rd, Petersburg NY. The address given on this site is incorrect and your GPS will not take you to Cherry Plain NY.That said this is a beautiful park. Facilities are clean and well maintained. A great place if you have kids.