Our Best Campsite Yet! Four Mile Creek State Park
My trip-planning included a lot of scanning along the shores of Lake Ontario for the perfect waterfront site. We thought we had found it at Association Island, but as it turned out, the mosquitoes found it first. Leaving that campground early, I was crossing my fingers that I'd redeem myself with a beautiful waterfront site at Four Mile Creek State Park.
Four Mile Creek is the place to stay if you're RVing to the US side of Niagara Falls. It's the only state park in the area with RV camping, and it's basically all campground. There are also tent camping spots and a few yurts available to rent. The campground is about 25 minutes from the Falls themselves, but the road to get there is convenient, with the literal end of the road right at the entrance to the campground. That road also brings you along the many Niagara River state parks on your way to the Falls, making the campground a perfect jumping off point for all kinds of adventures. We would spend 11 nights at Four Mile Creek, splitting our stay between two sites.
Sometimes, the effort of packing up and moving our rig is worth it, like when a waterfront site has availability for only half our stay. Plus, the state park has electric-only hookups, meaning we'd likely want to dump our tanks and refill our water at some point anyway. If we're going to do that, then let's also move to a baller site!
I don't want to just talk about our second site, though, because our first site had its perks too. I purposely planned our stay so that our first site would be conveniently near the bathhouse, which also housed the laundry and dumpsters. It was also near the office, so when the time came to switch sites, we could easily check in with them to see if site #2 was available yet.
Let's actually backtrack and talk about how awesome the workers were at this state park. We called them on our day of arrival and let them know we were coming from up the street, so we were wondering if we could get into our site early. This has worked well for us in the past, particularly at state parks, but the last time we did this, it wasn't as successful. The workers said they'd let us know when our site was ready, and they kept in contact with us through the morning. We were out of Daisy Barn and into our Four Mile Site in no time! The ladies at the office were also very excited to meet Tanner, as one of them had an Eskie back in the day. After we settled in, we stopped by the office with Tanner, and they invited him inside and gave him a treat.
Alright, let's talk about site #1. It was a back-in on a grassy field, in the middle of all the activity. The field behind us was a sports field, with a playground next to it. Most of the campers checking in seemed to choose this area, probably because families could enjoy being close to the amenities, and these sites were 50amp electric while the other loop was not. As with many campgrounds where we stay, we got to have a quiet week followed by a bustling weekend, as the campers piled in for a couple nights' getaway. Most chose to set up their outdoor TVs and catch the Bills game, so the night was aglow with flickering fires, TVs, and the Harvest Moon shining down upon us.
We were smack-dab in the middle of our hiking challenge when we arrived to this site, so we scrounged around for nearby trails where we could get in some miles. Across our campground loop was a short trail with some lake and marsh views. Nothing spectacular, but good for some short walks to keep up our momentum. Those were our main views of the lake during the first half of our stay, but we didn't mind, because we knew where we were going.
A few times earlier in the week, we had ventured over to the 200-loop of the campground, where our second site would be. It was audibly quieter, and we noticed near our site a little field with some trails. We hiked them one day, hoping to find more miles, but the trails were all dead-ends. Still, we found some beautiful lake views, as well as the haven for the monarchs. It really was a little gem of an area nestled in the back of the campground.
Our second site was filled most of the days we walked by, but we scouted it out as best we could. That site is incredible, not just for the views, but for the vast amount of space surrounding it. State park sites are often spacious, but this site came with a literal yard. The land adjacent to our site was simply too sloped for them to put another campsite, and so they left it as-is, with a little grove of trees and a small grassy field. I couldn't wait to walk with Tanner around there.
When site #2 was occupied, we took notes. A little class C backed in at an angle so they could enjoy the lake out their windows. Brilliant idea, and there would certainly be enough space for us to do the same. We decided that, when the time came, we'd back up at an angle, so we'd get views out all three pleasure-side windows, plus still have our patio facing the water when and if we had a chance to use it. We were ready for some serious site finagling!
The day of our site switch, the class C had left early in the morning, so we were able to immediately leave one site and head straight to the next. Funnily, the journey across the campground actually took about 45 minutes because we had to fill our fresh water tank and then dump both our gray and black tanks. Then we took our sweet time finding the optimal angle for our rig, while still trying to be relatively level. That was the good thing about site #1; we were almost perfectly level left-to-right without even trying. This site was on the edge of that slope that was our "yard," so we had to get up the slope and then over to a flat area. But we eventually did it, and we knew this was going to be a good five days.
We had to be patient because the first couple of days were rainy and cloudy, so we didn't get much of a blue lake, but the space around our site was divine. Some days we also didn't have a neighbor on our other side, which gave us the perfect opportunity to take updated family photos with our rig.
Remember that beautiful field I told you about? Turns out, our site had a path behind it that connected straight to that field! With lake views the whole way. There's no doubt in our mind that this was the best site in the campground.
We actually only put the patio down once. All the nice days were spent out hiking, but we knew we had to make a point to put it down on our last day. It was a gorgeous day, in the 60s and sunny. We both had a ton of work to do before leaving Niagara, but the workday was so much better with the fresh air coming into the trailer. I also seized the opportunity to do some recording on the patio, with the lake as my backdrop.
This site checked off all the boxes for us. It was quiet, it had both shade and sun, had tons of space, the lake view, and the path leading right from our site. This was easily our favorite site to date, and only 37% the cost of our cramped, buggy Association Island site. Another state park for the win!
A few notes about this campground: the cell service is terrible. We got about 1 bar of AT&T service, which was enough for some calls and texting, but our hotspot detected no cellular internet. We used our Starlink satellite internet and it worked great. That's what happens when our "clear view of the northern sky" is Lake Ontario. You can't get much more unobstructed than that! Another note is that, if you have pets, make sure you have copies of their rabies certificates. This was the first place we've been that actually checked. Lastly, the 100-loop sites are mainly 50amp, the 200-loop sites are mainly 30amp, and the 300-loop sites are primitive (but that loop didn't seem open when we stayed).
Campground:
Four Mile Creek State Park, Porter, NY
Site #1: 65, electric only (50amp), back-in, firepit, picnic table
Site #2: 240, electric only (30amp), back-in, firepit, picnic table, lake views, walking path