Half Moon State Park

Vermont is gorgeous, and this is one of the best places to camp.

I recommend one of the sites on the south side of the pond - there are other sites that are right on the shore of the pond but they are more cramped. we stayed at Aspen and it was very spacious, complete with a large lean-to which proved very important during the wild summer thunderstorm. you can buy ice and firewood at the ranger station and rent boats to paddle around the pond. There is a strict Quiet Rule in effect after 10 pm, guaranteeing a good nights sleep. There is a 5 mile, well-marked trail from the campsite leading to nearby Lake Bomoseen.

if the park staff had refilled the soap dispenser in the bathroom, it would have really been a 5 star camping experience.

I went camping at Half Moon State Park in the summer of 2015. We stayed in a lean-to on the south side of the lake, which is a little bit of a walk to the beach although not too bad but the spaces are larger and more spread out than the ones right on the water on the northwest side.

Like other Vermont state parks, it's very clean and well kept. The problem that we had for our first three nights, there was an an ill-behaved child next who threw temper tantrums one after the other, and often all night long and well past sunrise the next morning. To make matters worse, the parents were actually more ill-behaved than the child, did nothing about it and actually would bait the child into throwing another temper tantrum. The park rangers talked to them multiple times (and I don't think we were the only ones complaining either), but it continued until they left. Once they left, it was quite quiet.

It is a bit of a haul to the nearest grocery store to get supplies. I found an Aubuchon Hardware next to a supermarket and gas station in Castleton, but my GPS re-routed me in some weird, indirect route and it took me nearly a hour to get back. I would recommend looking at an actual map before going, as it could have saved me nearly 40 minutes on the way back.

First time to half moon state park, but certainly not my first to Vermont state parks.

My mom and I went to half moon for our annual girls weekend.

We got a nice big campsite that had a basic picnic table and a nice fire pit. A little too close to the neighbors and they had a dog that barked at us constantly and once the dog got loose and made a run for us. It was just a pug and not intimidating at all, plus I love animals so it really didn't bother me much.

The park itself is very nice, the bathrooms are top notch for a state park, I was very impressed with them! One of the stalls was out of TP the first day that we were there and on the second day the middle stall was out of order. The park is nice and quiet at night despite there being quite a number of people, I think 10 pm is reasonable time to ask people to be quiet past. If anything that's a generous time, 9:30 would have been alright too! I'm happy to hear they reenforce the quiet time rules because some people like a good night sleep and if your coming here to party, go else where.

The pond is small but a interesting ecosystem, we rented two kayaks and floated around the lake for about a half hour before heading back in. The Lilies were beautiful! At the beach some people must have been feeding the fish because they were grouped up close to shore and when i stepped into the water, they seemed very interested in me to the point of following me around like little water bound dogs. It was really remarkable and for some reason or another I really enjoyed them.

Glen lake is just up black pond road, huge lake with clear, clean water and it would make a really good place to go boating. There is a trail that is probably around 3-4 miles, pretty easy and has a lot of nice views of the lake especially up on the vista which is a slightly more difficult hike up, hiking shoes would be useful here because its a little steep and rocky in places. Very quiet trails, we only saw 2 different groups of people.

If you find you need some supplies, go right on to route 30, will go down to lake bomoseen and castleton area. There is a nice general store that actually accepts credit cards! We picked up some cabot american cheese for our burgers and gram crackers for s'mores. Penny candies (5 -25 cents) too, I couldn't resist!

All and all it was a wonderful weekend.

If you like camping very close to people and enjoy being told to keep quit by park rangers this is your type of camping. Gravel campsites, cramped together not at all impressed.