emerald lake state park

I stayed 2 nights, dry camped in a small camper. Be prepared to either go up a hill or down a hill. The campground is absolutely clean, beautiful, and quiet. The park staff were friendly, helpful and obviously care about their park. The lake is as pretty as described and truly emerald green appearing. There are many hiking trails which I plan to try next time. The only down side is that there's no path around the entire lake. One side of the lake is bordered by the highway, which you can here in the dead of night. The bathrooms were well lit and clean. The lift up handle on the shower got stuck, locking me inside briefly, but opened after a few tries. Thank goodness there's cell phone reception. This will be my go to park for Vermont, as it was the best I found with my 2 week tour, using only state park campgrounds.

We stayed two nights with our camper. It's nice enough -- there are lots of trees and you don't feel like you are overly crowded. We were disappointed that for the price there was not an electric hookup on our site. We have the capacity to dry camp and don't mind it, but they should lower the prices to reflect the lack of any hook-ups. The lake is a bit of a walk from the campsite. There are some nice hikes in the area.

We loved the lake and the hike. The facility by the lake was very clean and nice.We stayed at Pine in the leanto. We heard barred owls hooting every night as soon as it was dark. It was really cool. The squirrels were out to get us by dropping the pine cone bombs on our head. It's very dense. When it's dropped from 100ft above, it's a weapon!!! It even broke one of our dish.The dumpster had no recycling option and was over filled for the three days we stayed. The shower #2 had no hot water at 5PM when I tried the first time and all the shower heads were caked with the mineral deposit which I had to take out a needle to clean one of them. I asked a staff the next morning when I saw her cleaning. She admitted the hot water system is iffy but advised me to use #4 which I finally got a nice hot shower as the temperature dipped down to 58 for a couple days. The bathroom and shower are very gloomy.

Nice clean park, friendly staff. We did a hike around the lake and everyone was friendly, not too crowded,

We had a great stay here at emerald lake very nice and friendly location. The only thing I would say that needs to improve would be the wood needs to be chopped smaller. We stayed in a lean to it was very clean and well kept! The only issue I had with the site I was on was it is very rocky and close to a cliff. Over all we had a wonderful vacation and will be back next year !!!!!!

A wonderful, quiet lake, with an easy put in, nice vistas and swimming. A lap is about 3/4 of a mile.

This was the first time we have stayed in a Vermont state campground and it was pleasantly surprised with the hospitality. We arrived after the park office had closed but they had our reservation card sitting right in the folder for us to pick up. We had no problem finding the camp site and it was exactly as the person on the phone had described it-no problem fitting our large tent. Their website I found out later also has and interactive pdf where you can click on the the campsite numbers and see photos of the sites. Some of the sites have a pretty big drop off on the edge of them that you may not want to stay at if you have small children.They have firewood right behind that office for you to purchase for $5 an arm full which was quite handy since we live too far away to bring in our own. There is quite a bit of space between the sites and lots of trees which kept it cool even when it was 80 out. There is traffic noise from Rt 7 but it didn't bother us. The lake was quiet and calm with a small clean beach. We did the short trail walk around it early one morning which was quite relaxing. Not sure how busy it becomes later in the day. Overall a nice campground to stay at.

You can rent a paddle boat, or canoe and explore the beautiful lake, surrounding by pines. Picnic tables are available as are camping sites.

Tiny beach, crystal clear, green lake water. Took a look at the camp grounds for future visits. Excellent location, lots of trees and space between camp sites.

I can't give Emerald Lake State Park a glowing review as I had hoped. I had made a reservation ahead of time to secure a site and was never informed that there was a $6.00 registration fee for reserving a campsite. I had a long drive to North Dorset, Vermont so when I arrived at Emerald Lake State Park it was already dusk and there was nobody at the park office to check me in. Luckily I found an employee at the park ranger house who told that there was a box at the park office with assigned campsites for registered guests. I found the registration card and headed to my campsite. I was given the smallest campsite in the park which was fine but I was disappointed that there wasn't much space to pitch my tent. The other campsites were so much larger and pristine than the one I was given. As for the showers; there's a cost for using the hot water so bring plenty of quarters to insert into the machine that's adjacent to the shower. You can hear the cars from Route 7 and during the night I could hear quite a few cars passing my campsite on there way to their campsite. I didn't sleep that well during my two nights at Emerald Lake State Park. Emerald Lake State Park is quite big and there are some good places to hike. The best thing about the park is Emerald Lake. It's a very refreshing lake for swimming and the beach area is great. One could spend hours just hanging out at the beach and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. VERMONT is a gorgeous state and one of the best for camping but Emerald Lake State Park could use some improving when compared to other Vermont state parks. I will NEVER camp here again.

I've been coming to Emerald Lake for 25 years. I came there the first time as a teenager and now I am taking my own kids there. I hope to go there camping for another 25 years.

Like others have said, it is a good basic campground with the bonus of a nice little pond, a beach and some human-powered boat rentals. Also noticed a volleyball net near the check-in station and a basketball hoop near the beach. The campsite we had was private, but most of the others I saw were closer to each other that I prefer. The lean to was large and in good condition, but had no nail hanger/hooks inside. Picnic table was in good shape. The bathrooms were OK; clean enough and nothing broken. Didn't use the showers but they looked OK as well. The only drawback is the noise at night from traffic on Rt 7, a major North/South highway in VT. The campground is on the west side of Rt 7, about a quarter mile from the road and about 150 feet above it on a plateau on the side of a large mountain. On the east side of Rt 7 is another large mountain. This forms a natural amphitheater for tire and engine noise from passing cars, trucks, and of course the "load pipes save lives" dingbats on Harley's. (I'm a motorcyclist, but the loud pipes have really reached the ridiculous stage). You don't notice it much during the day, but if you're a light sleeper then you will at night. You can hear them coming from a mile away and for a mile after they've gone by, and it really doesn't stop all night (don't ask how I know). So, if you like the sound of crickets and maybe a flowing stream to lull you to sleep, look elsewhere; if you can sleep though anything, this place would be OK.

My husband and I were visiting Vermont and we decided to go to Emerald Lake to go hiking and swim in the lake. We took a short hike up the Vista path but it wasn't completed yet (should be completed soon). By the beach there are canoes/paddle boats/kayaks to rent and they have have a small snack stand. Great place for families or couples.

We just drove by and decided to take a late afternoon walk by the lake while vacationing in Vermont. It was late in the day so there weren't really many people there. We took a nice stroll thru the woods along the lake. The lake and trail were beautiful and super clean. It was very enjoyable for us.

Hubby and his BF and his BF's two boys (14 and 12) went camping sans dogs this Fourth of July through July 6th. Was scheduled to camp until the 7th but it rained EVERY night since the 4th we decided to come home lated on Sat the 6th.Just to make it quick...there are new Campground volunteers here this year and they were terrific people. I mentioned one time the ladies room was out of toilet paper so it was replaced immediately and secondly we needed to jump our truck, sot they graciously provided us with jumper cables. They are very sweet people and their dog Chief is so gentle and nice. I played with him a bit during our stay. As usual the lake was perfectly cold but nice swimming. It was packed, since it was the 4th weekend with lots of "groups" and LOUD kids. If you can zone those things out, unlike me, you will enjoy it. Rentals were cheap and avaiable.The reason why I only gave this review 3 is because our campsite flooded at one point during a HEAVY downpour on Friday night and the ladies bathroom floor in Area A - our sites were #4 and #10...was always filled with water, especially the handicap stall. It was like walking into water at times. I noticed a fan was put in the bathroom, at one point, to dry the floor off (I assume) but it was still dangerous (to me) to have the floor be that wet. Don't understand why park services was not in there with a mop. Maybe water coming up through tiled floor - not sure. Also, as I said site #4 flooded in one area so much so that we had to move various things around. Thank goodness our tent was not flooded.I would just say that from two years ago to now, I saw increased wear on campsite #4 and #10. #4 especially needs more soil and/or rock added.Other than that, I love the campground as it's quiet and such a quick trip to Manchester.