Burlingame State Park Campground

General: HUGE state park with over 700 sites. It does not fully open for the season until May 1 and when we were there in mid-April, only two sections, Fish Camp and Mills Camp were open. The Ranger station is staffed 24 hours a day, with a ranger on site until 11 pm. You need to show your pass to get inside the gate leading to the campsites. There are no hookups in any site (as far as I could tell). Sites are designated for tents, small trailers, large trailers, and RVs. As with other RI state parks, non-residents pay double the price of residents which kind of ticks me off (I don't mind a nominal upcharge but double is excessive IMO).

Site Quality: The site numbers throughout the park are painted on rocks but the sites themselves are not very clearly defined. There is no designated camping pad. Our site (114) had a water view but was not level. It was large enough for us to park horizontally and make it work for one night. Some sites had excessive roots and also were not level. Some picnic tables have been replaced with new ones, but others badly need it.

Bath/Shower house: The one in Fish Camp was adequate and clean. There is hot water, but you need to run it for a while before you get any. There was no garbage receptacle, and the toilet paper is so thin, that you can see through it. Showers are $.75 to get it started for the first three minutes. After that, the amount per minute increases to $1, $1.25, $1.50, and so forth. Machines take up to 22 quarters. There is a change machine at the Ranger Station. I did not use the shower so I cannot comment on how well they work. 

Activities/Amenities: There is a camp store that offers wood, ice, coffee, basic groceries, propane, and canoe rentals. It was open with limited hours during our stay. Fishing, boating, swimming - all in season. Even though the park was only about 10% occupied, there was a strong Ranger presence. He circled our small loop three times just before check-out time and wanted to make sure we were leaving not a minute past the designated time. 

This was just an overnight stay for us in a convenient location but there is no way I would stay at the height of the season!

Burlingame state park campground is 3100 acres and many of the 739 reservable campsites are well spaced out and you could obtain great privacy if you know which site to pick. The condition of the park has steadily declined since about 2016. Plans are in the work to update all bathroom facilities, but it keeps getting pushed back year after year. Burlingame State Park campground is the only state park managed by an outside corporation who assumes the day to day responsibilities for campsites, dumpsters and bathrooms. Ongoing issues, especially on holiday weekends have been noted by hundreds of campers.  The new pre-registration offered through Reserve America has been a great improvement. It allows to avoid the long lines at the check-in station and drive straight up to the gate. Lack of staff on the management level, and Rhode Island state park department level definitely shows. Rhode Island DEM is allowing this wonderful campground to deteriorate. Flooding issues during even minor rainfall is apparent in a large portion of sites, so beware which campsite you reserve. Camper created group called Bound4burlingame has filmed every campsite and put them on YouTube and has created a private group on FB where the camping community of Burlingame contributes daily to an extremely popular public forum. Best place to gain info and insight. Get campsite recommendations straight from the people who actually camp there.

Burlingame is a HUGE state park campground with over 700 sites. The location is fantastic, but with this many sites (so, with this many people), there are bound to be pros and cons.

Pros:

Lovely location - it's in the middle of the woods, has a pond, has pond swimming. It's just minutes to the ocean by car. Hiking and biking for miles.

Camp store - well stocked.

Price - dirt cheap if you are a RI resident, but pricey if you aren't.

Spacious - even with all those sites, there's plenty of room between sites and tons of open space for kids to run around, fly a kite, play tag, hide and seek.

Real camping atmosphere - fire rings at each site, wooded sites (and open grass sites if you like that better). Wildlife (listening to the several types of owls is a favorite pastime at night). While RVs are welcome (and we have tent and trailer camped here), this is NOT an RV resort. No hook-ups.

Cons:

No hook-ups, lol. This is a con in the heat of the summer if you want/need AC. 

Bath houses - are usually pretty filthy, and that's because there are too many people per bath house, and people are gross.

Noise / Parties / Drunks - again, too many sites means too many people and nowhere near enough park staff. On the weekends people can get out of hand with the partying and it's not uncommon to have to listen to noise late into the night. Do not come on a holiday weekend, it's packed.

Overall, if you are a camper's camper, this is a great place. Close to CT so a day trip to Mystic is easy, close to several gorgeous beaches, close to great restaurants, ice cream, and shopping. Swim in the pond. Fish in the pond (catch and release). Bike. Hike. Hammock. Avoid holiday weekends and the heat of August if you can. Be prepared for dirty restrooms and come armed with hand soap (they no longer provide any), paper towels, and Clorox wipes.

This campground is one of the largest ones we have ever visited.  You will need to dry camp if you have an RV but they have several dump stations throughout the park.  It is primarily tent campers but those days are in our distant past.  Plan to arrive early or on an off day as check-in can create a line, especially during the COVID-19 period.  With that said, the staff had an organized structure and the process went smoothly....have a mask, your license and vehicle registrations.  We stayed site 143, this site has a slight incline to get to the RV location and you will need to navigate some rocks but it is well worth the effort.  In front of the site had a port-a-potty, you will find these throughout the campground in addition to the bath houses.  I highly recommend you bring bikes, hiking shoes and kayaks.  The campground will keep you busy trying to ride each loop and discovering future campsite locations.  You can venture to Watchaug Pond, the name fools you as the pond is large enough for boats pulling tubes.  I recommend keeping to the edges while kayaking as the boat traffic and waves could put you at risk.  Their is a nice hike, called Vin Gormley Trail that you can enter and exit from the campground, it is an 8 mile loop around the pond.  Highly recommend the hike, we did it on a Sunday morning while most campers were packing up which is recommended since there are alot of narrow walk-ways designed for one-way traffic.  Follow bound4burlingame on Facebook and Instagram, they share stories and even little scavenger hunts that we tried.  The beach can get busy but what beach isn't on a hot summers day.  Dogs are welcomed, please keep them on a leash but I know our pups enjoyed this campground and it was nice not to be on top of your camping neighbor.  For a State Park its hard to ask for more, if I had one option it would be nice to have electric sites.  You can use your generator from 8a-8p but those hot summer days could get warm.  We will be coming back here to try other loops....Happy Camping from WickedRVAdventures

I've never camped in Rhode Island, so I was curious to see what a state park campground had to offer. Rates are reasonable for state residents, but quite high if you are out-of-state, given the amenities. There are no hookups, but dump stations are available. Bathrooms have flush toilets and coin-operated showers. There's a small beach at the pond, a boat ramp, and proximity to wildlife refuges and the ocean. It's a HUGE campground, with 700 sites and 20 cabins. Canoes are available to rent.

There's a nice playground, a camp store, and a naturalists cabin. Trails are available for hiking and biking. The beach is sandy and there's a small parking lot there, but I suspect most people walk to it. No alcohol allowed. 

I didn't see more than a handful of level sites, with varying degrees of slope, but many are quite large. If you have an RV, plan to level; if you have a tent, be sure to bring good mattresses to protect you from the roots and rocks and orient your head to the uphill side. Most of the sites have some degree of visual separation from their neighbors, but there are places where it's hard to tell where one site ends and the next one starts. Site have fire rings and picnic tables, but if you plan to cook over the fire, bring your own grate or plan to use sticks and/or aluminum foil. 

If you don't have a tent, consider reserving one of their rustic cabins. These offer two sets of bunks (no mattresses) and a small porch with a picnic table and fire ring outside. Some are located along the pond.

3-4 bar cell phone coverage. No road traffic. East Beach is nearby, but parking fills early.