Samuel F. Pryor III Shawangunk Gateway Campground

Beware ! I booked what I thought was a campsite cause its called Samuel Pryor campground. We confirmed we were coming on the day to campsite # 1. We arrived and set up our tent only to find out via txt message at 6:30 pm it was a vehicle site # 1 and It was $22 a night for a parking spot and I was expected to sleep in my car. I've never heard of a campsite where you pay for a parking spot to sleep in your car. We had to take down our tent in the dark and leave cause there were no available campsites. The person who worked for the campsite was rude over the phone and didn't care. Better campsites in the area. They don't have flush toilets and smell was overwhelming. Never going back!!

This is a brand spanking new campground, and it shows! The location is great for access to Minnewaska State Park and also very close to New Paltz which is convenient for picking up supplies. The sites themselves are tiny and fairly close together. The close together aspect is standard in my experience when it comes to car camping. The small size of the individual sites was a bit of a shock. Their website says only two tents are allowed per site, but it would be impossible to fit more than two tents on the pad designated for the tents, and there is not enough room anywhere else at the site to put up a tent. I use an ultra light weight 2 person backpacking tent and my friend had a larger 3-4 person tent and there was barely enough room on the pad to set both tents up. Basically, if you have two backpacking tents you'll be fine. If you have one car camping style tent and a smaller tent you'll be able to make it work, but if you have two large tents you definitely want to measure before you go because there is a good chance they both will not fit. There is a nice picnic table at each site and a stone tile is provided to cook on top of with a stove. Which brings me to the biggest downside to this campground, fires (including using coals) are not allowed at individual campsites. There is a communal fire at the pavilion with the showers and dishwashing stations, but that's it, which was disappointing. Some of the pros for this campground are that the small camping sites pretty much eliminate large groups, so you'll have pretty quiet nights. Flush toilets at the pavilion and showers for 16 quarters are pretty nice too. Closer to the campsites is another restroom with fancy port-a-potties and sinks with running water. Perhaps my favorite touch was the power strip in this bathroom for easy phone charging, as long as you have a charger. There were also some power outlets at the pavilion, and the washing stations for dishes were awesome. Overall I enjoyed my stay here, and found the staff to be very nice and helpful, but the campsite fire restriction may have me looking somewhere else for my next trip. Rates were about $36 per night per site.

Overall, this campsite was a huge disappointment for its incredibly expensive price tag - $36/night as of writing this. The camp sites are small and on top of each other. We had walk in sites and were unable to pull our cars up. You can hardly fit more than 1 tent in the site and there are no fire pits in the sites which was a real bummer. There is a large shared fire pit, but it gets crowded and is anything but relaxing. You're only allowed 1 car per campsite reservation. Any additional cars have to park a mile down the road in an overflow lot even though there was plenty of parking available when we were there. Location is good in the sense that you are near good climbing and hiking, but the sites are close to the road so you constantly hear road noise. Dogs are allowed at campsites, but not in common areas including the shared fire pit. We obviously were not going to leave our dog alone in the woods at night, and there are no fire pits at the campsites, so we didn't really get to use the fire pit. Many hikers/backpackers have begun using hammocks instead of tents to sleep in. You are not allowed to tie/hang anything from the trees, so hammocks are not allowed even if you have the nicer "save-a-tree" straps. Also after paying $36 for the site, we were expected to pay an additional $3/4min to use the showers. There were a few positives: bathrooms were clean, everything was newer and in good shape, and each campsite has a bear bin. Our bear bin was full of food, fuel canisters, and a full cake from previous campers that were too lazy to throw their stuff out. At $36/nt, it'd be nice if they checked the bear bins between campers and cleaned them out. As they've closed down the free, first come first serve campsites in the area, there aren't a lot of other options for camping in this area of New Paltz. Regardless, I doubt we will stay here again. Far too many rules to enjoy it and way too expensive. We'll look elsewhere next time we're looking to camp near New Paltz.

I am so happy this campground is here and it is a vast improvement over the options available before. But I was greatly disappointed this Friday when we showed up to our campsite to find an open bear box and somebody else's cooler and food spilling out of it. When I told campsite staff at the office about the situation, he responded that I could either "clean it up myself or eat the food." Gross.

This is a very nice campground that's new and well maintained. I wish they would allow you to pick your own site but they are really responsive by email and happy to accommodate so you can put your requests in the "notes" section. We were camping with friends and they gave us adjacent sites that were remote/private (as requested). I love that it's quiet and peaceful -- no loud music/parties -- and everyone seemed friendly/respectful. We enjoy the camp life experience - just hanging out, doing nothing/enjoying nature but it seems that many of our neighbors use the site only for sleeping (agreed with other reviewer that it's a ghost town during the day). The communal pavilion area has large industrial sinks that makes cleaning dishes a breeze. The fee is steeper than other campgrounds but you get what you pay for (cleaniness, flat tent platform, bear bin, solid picnic table, awesome views, access to New Paltz restaurants). However, not all sites are equal as some are bigger than others.

Ok, I'm going against the flow here for several reasons. I agree it's clean and new. Love the picnic tables. But that love only goes so far. $36 is way too much considering the negatives. Some road nose. Parking is small (spot 31). My motorcycle hugs the common road. No flush toilets near campsites. No private shower changing area. You share the enclosed area with the other shower. No individual fire pits. The kicker for me was the coin operated shower. $3 for 4 mins. It's no fun finding that out when you get in the shower and oops. I need quarters. Never seen that at a campsite before. No lake no pool. There are better values out there.

We stayed here in August 2015 for two nights while visiting the Catskills region. We chose this location for its proximity to the Mohonk Nature Preserve. This is the newest camp ground I have ever stayed in. While I wasn't exactly head-over-heels for the campground, I do recognize a lot of thought went into the construction of it in order to cause as minimal impact on the environment (since it is in the preserve). Things you should know if you are going to stay here: - No fires. There is a large fire pit in a common area in the evening. It's nice that they provided this option, but I missed having my own fire at my own site. The one night we tried to go there were a few families there and half a dozen kids running around the fire. Not really my idea of relaxing. - You don't get to choose your site. The one we ended up was ok, it could have been worse. We could at least pull our car up to the site. Many sites are walk-in. There were a few sites that I saw in the middle of a parking loop. They were TINY. - Our site was tiny, too. There is a level tent pad made with really fine gravel and a border. I would say it was about 12' x 12'. Our picnic table was right behind it, and there was no where else to move the table. - There are shower facilities located in one spot on the campground--you have to pay $3.00 for four minutes. I grit my teeth at this one, because we were already paying $76 for a site for two nights. Charging people more for a shower is sort of ridiculous. I would suggest they give each guest a shower token or something. - If you have kids, there are no playsets, swings, etc. All they can do is run in the road because the sites are sort of too small to even play in. Ok, all that being said, the point of this campground is to put you close to the Gunks/Mohonk. AND IT DOES THAT WONDERFULLY. If you are looking to actively camp (sit around your site, drink, listen to music, etc.) don't go here. The campground is pretty much a ghost town during the day because everyone leaves to go hiking, climbing, etc. In the evening (at least when we stayed there) it was very quiet--I imagine everyone was tired out from their active days. The campgrounds are kept so clean. I don't think I saw a single scrap of trash there. Guests are very respectful, too, and use the bear-proof recycling and trash areas. In the common area all the picnic tables were clean, the floors were clean, sinks were clean, etc. In summary, I was bummed by a few things at this campground, but it was still fine and ultimately it gave us close access to the preserve for our day activities which was what we really wanted. Also it is just down the road from a great restaurant, Mountain Brauhaus, which is enough reason alone to stay there.

I can verify everything the other 2 reviews said. I loved the quiet and lack of generators. It's a great way to enjoy Mohonk, rail trails etc. Not a destination campground. They did give me a drive in site as requested in advance.

Too bad to read a couple of bad reviews; this campground is amazing! Very secluded, plenty of space between sites, large raised pad to set up 10ft x 10ft tent. Walk-in meant park car in lot, walk about 50 yds to site, very convenient. Bear box at site, picnic table which we put camp stove on to cook, lots of room to eat. Bathrooms a little further down road w/outside wash basin for dishes. Water spigots on road leading to tent sites. Main pavilion at entrance w/showers. No electric, no water at tent site, no fires, very quiet...loved it! We were there w/4 other adults, 1 teenager, 3 sites together. Spent 2 days biking/hiking at Minnewaska St Park, last morning hiked across the street and took stone steps trail up to Under Cliff carriage road (free Visitors Center across street). Lots of places to eat in New Paltz 6 mi away, Deli w/the best craft beer selection and a Brewery Restaurant 1/2 mile in opposite direction at T-intersection.

Great clean better-than basic campground, mostly overnight use by rock climbers, hikers and bicyclists. Not many people around in the day, everyone is out playing in the Gunks. All tent-only campsites with picnic tables, some walk-in, with 2 bathrooms, one bathroom includes a shower ($3/4 minutes). There is a central area with a campfire area and a large sheltered pavilion with picnic tables and big sinks that make clean up easy. No campfires at campsites. Campsites are fairly close together, with limited privacy but was fairly quiet at night while we were there. Not a party place. Management was pleasant and helpful.

Beautiful new climber's campground. Be sure to become either an AAC or Gunks member to grab $$ discount and support the places we play!