Please share the good, the not so good and any tips or tidbits of information.
Please rate your experience/facilities with this system.
One-Five stars: One being the lowest and Five being the highest
 E-mail your comments to info@oklahomahorseonline.com

Arizona   Arkansas  Colorado  Kansas  Illinois  Missouri  New Mexico  Oklahoma  Texas New York

Allegany State Park, Salamanca, NY
Submitted by jroot@npacc.net

Allegany State Park, Salamanca, N.Y. is adjacent to the Allegany National Forest but offers a nice horse camp with stalls, water, and bathrooms.  From Rt. 17/I-86 in NY Western NY State, you would take the Red House Area exit into the park.  Reservations are requested to assure a spot in the camp area.  This is a fee area.  Maps area also available from the Park Service.  The horse camp is located on ASP #2 when you come into the park.

The trails maps are broke down with a trail numbering system and coordinate with a map key that gives you the average ride length in hours and minutes rather then miles.  It would be hard to guess how many miles of trails but there is at least enough for 2-3 days with out riding the same trails.  The maps have it clocked at around 24 hours one way but of course this would depend on how fast you ride so it is difficult to judge how many miles of trails are really here.  You also can into the Allegany National Forest in  PA from this park so there are additional trails to be accessed.  A GPS would be handy to travel the trails in this park.

The riding is easy, some single track trails and some wide trails but nothing that I would consider really difficult. Very pretty area located next to the Indian Reservation areas of NY State that also has added a Casino recently.  So there are numerous other attractions for this to be a good vacation area.

Bear Spring Mountain
Submitted by jroot@npacc.net

Bear Spring Mountain has a nice horse camp in the Catskill Mountains of eastern NY State.  The Bear Spring Mountain campground is 5 miles south of Walton, N.Y.  You would take Rt. 17/ I-86 to exit 90, East Branch, take Rt. 30 north to Shinhoppie, turn left on East Trout Brook Road.  Travel 4-5 miles and the Spruce Grove Horse Camping area is on the right.  From Walton, N.Y. you would travel south on Rt. 206 to right onto East Trout Road.  From this direction, you would travel through the park past the campground and boat area to the far end of the park and the horse camping area would be on your left. 

You can reserve sites and up to 2 stalls with each reservation.  This campground is a fee area and you will need to check with the park for current charges.  There are 24 tie stalls, 24 miles of trails.  There is also a beach area open in the summer weather, picnic areas, swimming and fishing areas. The trails are easy for the most part, wide and well marked.  Several pretty ponds that you can view along the trails and water horses. The trail directly behind the barn has some rocky areas but this is the most difficult trail of the entire park.  Most of the trials are grassy easy lanes. 

This is a great park for families because of the other activities that you can also enjoy here.  But I would advise making reservations just because it is a very popular horse camping area in NY State.

Brookfield Trails System
New York State
Submitted by jroot@npacc.net

Brookfield Trails System, Madison County, NY State.  This is another great horse camping area in NY State.  The best area for camping with horses is at the Moscow Hill Assembly Area.  They state that there is 130 miles of horse and snowmobile trails in the 13,000 acres of state forest but some of these are what they have as truck trail roads.  They are easy riding dirt roads but there is some traffic on them.  We mostly ride on the truck trails to access from one woods trail to another.  There are plenty of nice woods trails to ride for 4 or 5 days.  The assembly and camping areas accommodate approximately 150 horses.  You must have all horses in stalls to camp. There are two areas for camping.  The assembly area is a large parking area that is very open and right at the beginning of the trails but has more then enough stalls to use.  There is a bathroom with a hand pump for water.  There is also a small store across the driveway from the assembly area that has camping sites for rent, use of a shower for a fee, and also serves breakfast on weekends.  The regular camping area is a loop that can be accessed at the next driveway on the main road above the assembly area.  This is a wooded camp area with stalls set up around the camping area that again you must have your horse in a stall to camp in this area.  When the stalls are full, you must go to the assembly area to park and use the stalls in that area.  This camping area also has a bathroom and hand pump for water.

Many of the trails are used as carriage trails also.  They will be marked with a carriage symbol along with the trail marks.  These trails are all numbered and correspond with the maps that you can pick up in the assembly area.  From the camp area, you need to access the trails be crossing the creek into the assembly area and follow the 1 main trail out of camp.  The trails are well maintained, gravel, dirt, and very little rocky terrain as well as the dirt roads of the truck trails.  Many creeks and small bridges to cross on your rides, a lean to and horse barn is located on trail #17 and is a very popular lunch spot.  There are several mountain lakes to ride along that offer many pretty areas to see. 

This is a very popular park for horse campers and out of state horses will need coggins and health papers.  Camping is free.  If you where looking for a nice vacation trip, you could visit Brookfield and Otter Creek and make it into a week or longer trip between the two parks.  They are approximately 2 hours drive between them.  To get to Brookfield, from Binghamton, N.Y. you would pick up Rt. 81 north to Rt. 12 north. Stay on Rt. 12 to Sherborne, N.Y. where Rt. 12 turns right.  Continue on Rt. 12 for about 5 miles, you will see a snowmobile shop on the right, just past this will be a turn to the right.  There is a NY State Trail System sign on the end of the road.  Go up the hill to the stop sign, continue straight for another mile or more and you will see the driveway to the Assembly Area on the right with a big sign, just past this driveway about 200 feet is a second driveway to the loop of woods camping sites and stalls.  You can park in either area.

Otter Creek Horse Trail System
Submitted by jroot@npacc.net

Otter Creek Horse Trail system is located in the Adirondack Mountains of upper New York State.  This trail system features 100 roofed tie stalls, two stud stalls, water faucets at each barn, and handicapped mounting platforms and toilet facilities.  Camping at this park is free but out of state horses need coggins and health papers.  The system is a series of old sandy roads, wooded trails, creeks with bridge crossings, water falls, small lakes, and one trail system that runs along the Independence River. 

Trails are marked with red, blue, and yellow markings and the maps are very well marked to guide you through the trail system. You can also follow signs off the Blueberry Trail to Bucks for lunch and beverages.  You may see wildlife such as deer, bear, coyote, fox, grouse, wild turkey, snowshoe hare and others. Trails can connect to make 1 hour to all day rides.  There are several great over looks for Kodak moments along the trails.  The Burnt Creek trail brings you to a pretty over look where they have a picnic table that you can tie up and have lunch at.  There is also a nice lunch spot at Little Otter Lake, also with a picnic table.  In the southern section of the park the favorite lunch spot is along the Eatonville Trail.  You can ride down off the trail to Otter Creek and sit out by the falls for lunch.  There are plenty of tie up spots among the trees.  A great over look is along streamside Trail where you can again stop at the picnic tables for lunch and see Otter Creek below.  The trail then winds down along Otter Creek if you are heading south and can give you many options to circle back to camp or continue onto Eatonville Trail to Catspaw Lake Trail.  There is another falls that you can tie up at the hitching posts and walk down to see the falls along the upper part of Otter Creek.

For the most part, the trails are mostly sandy with some mixture of sand stone and rock to sandy soil along the northern part of the park.  Good place for and extensive stay with plenty of opportunity to ride different trails every day.  There is also a good restaurant in the town of Lowville at the hotel that we highly recommend for good home cooking type meals and they just love to see big groups of horse people come for dinner.

To reach the Otter Creek Horse Trail System, you want to take Rt. 12 north of Utica, N.Y. to Glenfield.  Turn into the little town of Glenfield and turn east onto Greig Road that crosses the Black River.  Take the first left turn onto Chase Lake Rd.  About 1 mile this road comes to a T, turn left across a small bridge over the Independence River, then right onto Chase Lake Rd.  The entrance to the trailhead parking is approximately 3.4 miles on the right.  When you pull into the driveway at the NY State Horse Park sign, there is an overflow parking lot on the right; the road will wind around to the first area.  Stay to the right to follow around to the 2^nd and 3^rd loops or you can park in the 1^st area as you come in.  You have to tie your horses in the tie stalls when you camp at the park unless you are in the over flow area.  There are stalls in each of the 3 loops and access to bathrooms in each loop also.

Sugar Hill State Recreation Area
Submitted by jroot@npacc.net
 
Sugar Hill State Recreation Area or Six Nations Horse Trails system.  This is another very popular horse camp in NY State.  Groups of over 10 campers must request a free permit.  This is a first come first serve campground but you can usually always fit in some where.  This is a free camping area.  You can also park and camp along Tower Hill Rd. in several pull off areas.  There is also a second primitive horse camp just outside of Monterey, NY on Evergreen Hill Rd. but there are only  4 stalls and about 6 trailers can fit in the camp area.  There is a creek for water and bathroom at this site, but you also have to deal with the prisoners from the Camp Monterey shock camp that march past every morning very early.

The fire tower area off Tower Hill Rd. is the preferred camping area.  From Watkins Glen, N.Y. you travel south on Rt. 414 to the light at the top of the hill.  Turn right and go past the Watkins Glen Race Track, through the town of Dix, take the first right turn outside of town on County Route 21, follow this round around to a stop sign, turn right, continue on County Route 21 to a left on Tower Hill Road.  The fire tower parking area is a left turn about ½ mile on Tower Hill Rd..  This area has a bathroom, numerous faucets for water spread around the large parking/camping area as well as near the barn.  There are about 16 tie stalls or you can use portable pens, picket lines, or tie to your trailer.  Maps are available at the info board.  It is recommended to contact the Regional Ranger district in Bath, N.Y.  607-776-2165 before traveling any distance because there are several weekends each summer, usually August and September that the Archery Clubs reserve the entire area for tournaments.

The park has 40+ mils of trails traveling through mountain areas that separate Keuka and Seneca Lakes and the Finger Lakes Hiking Trail also crosses parts of this recreation area.  There is also history in this area with the abandoned goldmine area that is still referred to as Goldmine Hollow.  Snowmobiles are also a popular sport here in the winter months.  Trails are well marked and easy to follow.  Most are easy, not a lot of rocky terrain, but can be muddy in the wet seasons.

Top of Page

Home