Nickerson State Park

The rangers are nice and all, but when we arrived to our campsite, there was a bunch of junk (including beer bottles everywhere which of course isn’t allowed but whatever) set up on our camping spot (that we paid $ 50 for). The ranger had to search the squatters down and ask them to leave. He was super sweet, and should have fined them or something, but they actually felt entitled to chew HIM out, saying it was HIS fault and the CAMP’S fault for not informing them properly.
Mind you, there were signs everywhere and it was CLEARLY a campsite, and the day pass visitors had to be in a different place entirely.
Still, they copped an attitude the whole time, after which the ranger profusely apologized and offered THEM a FREE CAMPSITE. Excuse me???
WE were the ones put out of a spot that we paid an arm and a leg for, and had to sit around for two hours while these people were made to leave, and THEY get offered a FREE campsite AND a free day pass on top of it!!!
Unbelievable.
So much for accountability.
I’ll be choosing a different campsite next time.
Plus it’s just a land full of screaming children anyway. Not the kind of environment you want for a relaxing camping experience.

Without rambling too much, this park is wonderful. I used to frequent it as a Boy Scout and our troop had many great outings and memories here. Wonderful bike trails and camping grounds abound. Highly recommend you visit it if in the area and you love nature walks or exercise. Love it.

My man, my dog and I tromped through the trails and snow on a gorgeous 38 degree winter day. This place is magical in the off season when no one is around.

Nickerson is a beautiful park right off the Rail Trail perfect for all things outdoors– running, biking, swimming, kayaking, and camping. Personally, I’ve been running and biking through the Nickerson trails for years and I never get tired of the quiet scenery. The loops make the paths easy to navigate and there are plenty of hills to keep you on your toes!

I recently spent a night camping at Nickerson (the last weekend of summer, even though summer unofficially ends on Cape Cod on Labor Day). Last year on the same date I started a camping tradition with my 7 year old son here, and this year my 5 year old joined us. I hadn’t been to Nickerson for ten years or so, but I’m glad I went back!
One thing that’s nice about this park, is all of the large ponds that afford water access to many campsites. There’s a great network of paved bike paths, and it’s also a mountain biking destination — check out the Cape Cod NEMBA site for more info.
Once you’ve been here, you can scout out the best sites for future trips. The entire park is scenic, but some campsites are better than others.
I am strictly a tent camper, although Nickerson has plenty of sites for RVs in addition to tents. Personally I don’t get the allure of «camping» in an RV, and I prefer a campsite that’s surrounded by other tents. Some of the areas within Nickerson have both, some are more oriented towards one or the other.
There’s a nice little camp store in case you forgot any essentials, or if you need firewood, or you don’t feel like cooking breakfast in the morning. There’s also a really nice playground, which my kids loved. The location of the park is great, as it’s close to the national seashore and some nice throwback Cape towns, and only about 45 minutes over the bridge.
We’re already looking forward to next year’s trip to Nickerson. We’re lucky to have such a nice spot not too far away, that still has an element of the rustic/​old-​school camping experience.

Great fun and a perfect stop on the Cape Cod Rail Trail. Kids loved the steeper hills at the park instead of the gradual slopes on the CCRT.
Youngest wants to camp here next year.
We will we brought swim suites and towels for a quick dip to cool off!

This is a beautiful campground with spring-​fed ponds, tons of campsites, and the feel of New England woods out on the Cape! I recommend Area 6 for sites with a little more privacy, though you should not expect too much even then. The best thing about Nickerson is its location — close to Cape Cod attractions but a fraction of the price for other lodgings. The drawbacks — restrooms and showers need to be cleaned more often, and quiet hours rules need to be enforced.

This is becoming one of my favorite camping spots. We camped here with our 2 dogs and brought them swimming on the National Seashore. Last year our campsite had an almost private access to the beach. Great if you want to take a swim or take out the Kayak.
There are several different swim areas, great walking trails and it’s close to the bike path.
The campsites we have had thus far have been big and yet still plenty of privacy.
Only thing they don’t have is electricity.

This is a beautiful park and ponds! Great for kids. — easy hiking trails — and on the pond can rent out paddle boats, ext which is fun! $ 5/​car admission or buy a seasonal pass. Great for days too windy to be on ocean beach but still want to go swimming and be outdoors!

Inside the park has rental for paddle boat, canoe, sea cycle, surf bike, sup board sunfish and kayak. Also a swimming and camping areas. About 100 feet before you get to the park, there is a bike rental area. You can rent a bike and go on the bike trail. The bike rental price is very reasonable. Nice park, but need to pay $ 8 for resident parking. For non resident is $ 10

Awesome hiking and not well known for this. Fishing, camping, and other light to medium walks available but with the Fall foliage this is a grand place to go for an extensive stretch of the legs.

I have been camping at Nickerson for years, it is my favorite place to camp on the Cape. Awesome campsites, and only $ 15/​night. It’s a state park so the sites don’t have running water or electric. But you can find that at the bathrooms and shower houses. Great ponds for fishing, boating, kayaking, sailing. Tons of paved and single track trails for hiking and biking. Just beware of poison ivy. It is everywhere on the sides of the trails.
I will continue to camp here for years to come.

The park has a few ponds, with small quiet beaches off the trail that loops around the ponds. The park, the water and the beaches are clean and being a short walk from the parking lot, is a nice, getaway– bring a mat, lay down, read, take a dip or hike (the loop around the small pond is 1.5 miles, while the one around the large pond is a little over 3 miles).
We did not go camping there, but there are campsites as well, with easy access to some of the beaches.

Went camping at Nickerson in August 2013. It was a perfect and less expensive way to visit the cape. Lots of shade over the sites and bath room facilities are a short walk away. We had no problem with loud noise and enjoyed having a campfire every night. Brewster is a great location and an easy travel to other towns on the cape. We will be visiting Nickerson State Park again for sure!

The camping facilities are just OK. No privacy, you’re right on top of your neighbors. The Kettle ponds and their beaches, though, are beautiful, and worth paying the day use fee if you’re not camping.
The 3-​star review is primarily for the reservation process: a nightmare. The Reserve America interface is not the smoothest, and its difficult to get a sense of where and when specific sites and areas are available. Worse, it’s extremely stressful trying to book a campsite for the summer months, even 6 months out! Sites literally became unavailable as I tried to reserve them. We had to make a really quick decision on dates and location in order to get a reservation at all.
Partly, I think the problem is that its too cheap for the demand. My husband and I just booked a week in August, not knowing if we’d actually be able to get time off to stay the entire week, because we could easily afford to burn a little cash and have the wiggle room.

Excellent choix pour faire du camping en tente, nous étions la derniere boucle au bout du chemin, le parc est propre, les toilettes propres. Ce parc est situé au centre de Cape Cod, à proximité d’une épicerie, en face d’un liquor Store. Nous étions sur un road trip sans réservation en plein mois d’Aout et il restait qques sites disponibles. Endroit idéal si vous voyagez à vélo. Bref, j’y retournerai c’est certain.

Nice beaches, and really helpful staff

My family loves camping here. If you like large private wooded campsites, ponds, lakes, fishing, hiking, biking– then this is the campground for you. There are so many ponds & lakes that not one beach is ever crowded, very often you could be the only person there. Biggest downside is the TICKS… My family went camping 3^rd week in June & now three of us have been diagnosed with LYME & BABESIOSIS. If you have flu-​like symptoms that come & go, headaches, feel tired. I highly suggest asking for blood tests. — Other than that– Enjoy !

Occasionally I splurge and buy a site instead of just day use. I completely ignore my site and proceed directly to Flax or Cliffs and have a rollicking good time on the shoreline all night long. Orleans to Cliff/​Little Cliff is a pretty good bike ride on the bike trail.

Outstanding camping on cape cod. Paved bike trails inside the park, long hiking trails around several ponds, excellent fishing and in a great location on the Cape. Campground is VERY clean and attractive too.
The Cape Cod Rail Trail literally goes through the northern section of the park. If you haven’t biked this trail, it’s one of the premier rail trails on the East Coast. Make sure you take a right at the northern end and continue about 0.75 mile further along a paved road to LeCount Hollow Beach (9.5÷10).
Try to stay in one of the yurts if you get a chance. Book them 4 – 6 months in advance and be aware that they are full-​week only in the summer (in the off-​season, you can book for 2 or more nights).
Bike rentals are available only 0.3 mile west of the front entrance of the campground.

I am still in shock and awe right now this very moment with the fact that this park has not one, but TWO free parking lots! That is simply unheard of in high peak cape cod season! Nuts I say!
Plus the main free parking lot is literally on the cape cod rail trail so if you bring your bikes which you definitely should, easiest day trip ever since you can leave your car there worry free! There is also a bike rental shop in the parking lot next door even if you don’t have a bike rack to bring your own bike, and biking on that rail trail is the definition of awesome.
Camping here, well? There are definitely pros and cons. First pro is those campgrounds are cheap!!! $ 15 a night plus a $ 10 online transaction fee definitely makes it cheap! BUT you can only bring a max of 4 people or «one family» whatever that means ha So for large groups of friends, you will have to be crafty and look ahead in getting two sites near each other. And you’ll want to do that anyway because some sites are awesome here and other sites are not so secluded… So just try and study those sites out in advance if you can! And I hope you aren’t a light sleeper, because the bathroom door every time it closes sounds like big bang that really just seems to resonate throughout the campsites, but I guess you get used to it. These sites are also drive in sites, so car camping if you are camping hoarders like we are, is definitely possible. But there is only one grill/​campfire spot per site, so if you have 10 – 15 pounds of meat to cook like we silly campers all ended up bringing for one night (crazy I know ha) it may take you a while to get all of that meat cooked ha
Long story short, cheap spot to camp, access to lots of lakes in the park some for swimming too, free parking lot, and rail trail! And with online reservations makes it easy to book something last minute too which we did about 2 days before we went ha