Bowman Lake State Park - Oxford, New York

While New York campers are very familiar with parks in the Adirondacks and the Finger Lakes, the state is also home to some hidden treasures. Bowman Lake State Park is one of those treasures. It’s located about halfway between Syracuse and Binghamton but it feels like a whole other world. It’s a beautiful drive just getting here…all lush green hills and sprawling farms. Gorgeous views all the way! Online directions are a little wonky…best to use GPS.


The park itself is very clean and well-maintained. There are 198 campsites on 653 acres (40 are tent sites). Getting a site without a reservation hasn’t been an issue any of the times we’ve been here. There are some sites which are apparently “reservation only” which we found out when we drove in and chose a really prime site (#58). Nope, it’s for reservation only. This was on Friday. Sunday came and there was still nobody in the site. That sucked. But that’s really the only complaint we’ve had about this campground. Sites start at $19 per night. The sites themselves don’t have electricity but the restrooms do. There’s always a water spigot nearby, wherever your site. It’s really best to drive around and look for a site that suits your needs, as some are really exposed and have heavy traffic past them. Some sites get a little swampy after it rains. Our site, 131, had a tiny stream that ran down past the tent. You could hear the sound of the water once it was really quiet at night. It put us to sleep in no time!


The campground is really quiet at night! The sites are far enough apart to afford a lot of privacy and people do respect the “quiet hours” of 10 pm until 8 am. The fire pits are concrete block, raised off the ground and have a grate attached that you can use for grilling. There are also standing charcoal grills at the sites. You can buy firewood at the office. It’s a dollar for four pieces and you choose your own from a stack out front. There’s also a lot of downed wood in the forest if you’re ambitious!


The restrooms are old but VERY clean! The older restrooms look like they have the original wooden stalls and fixtures but they’re in excellent condition. The shower houses are more modern and also very clean. The shower stalls have mosaic tile floors and tiled walls and are immaculate. The showers are the kind you have to keep pushing the button to keep the water going (ugh!) but the water is hot and plentiful.


Wildlife seems to be limited to raccoons, hummingbirds and slugs. There are bushes of little orange flowers that attract the hummingbirds and you can watch them flitting around, collecting nectar. We had a platoon of slugs that invaded the site during the night. At least they’re harmless! Bowman Lake’s brochure warns that there’s a large and active raccoon population in the park but we have yet to spot one. We saw a lot of deer on the roads outside the park, though.


The lake spans about 35 acres and has a wonderful sandy beach. Beach hours are from 11 am to 7 pm and there are lifeguards on duty. There are three swimming areas, each deeper than the one before it. You can rent paddleboats, rowboats and kayaks here. We got a paddle boat and traveled the whole length of the lake, in just about a half hour. Total cost: three dollars! It was a beautiful day, sunny and 85 degrees. Paddling the lake then swimming afterward was just what we needed!


If you like blueberries, you’ll want to make a trip to Stone Hill Blueberry Farm in Afton. It’s about a half hour from Bowman Lake but SO worth the trip! It’s a U-Pick farm, organic, and loaded with many different varieties of berries. We spent about an hour there and came back with nine quarts of the most delicious blueberries you’ll ever taste. I made a ton of jam from the berries I picked last year and it was fabulous! If you don’t have GPS, get directions online before you leave. Otherwise, set your GPS for Afton and follow the signs from there.

http://www.stone-hill-blueberry-farm.com/