pillsbury state park

I camped at Pillsbury largely because I had never been to that part of New Hampshire. It's a basic straight up campground, and what I liked most about this place was its availability of remote sites, and also the privacy and quiet I was able to get at a regular site down at the end. Most of the sites also seem to have water access, although it's not a swimming lake because of leeches. The park is pleasant to get away to for a night or two. It's got some of the feel of being much further up North , but without driving the extra couple of hours. I brought my dog, lots of other people do too. As always the park staff were very friendly and helpful. You can get supplies and some takeout in Newport, about 10-15 minutes up Route 31 on the way to Sunapee. The home of 19th Century president Franklin Pierce is also an interesting stop along the way. The landscape doesn't blow you away but it keeps reminding you of things that you like about New England.

Really love this campground. Although we are car campers with a 10 year old, we like private and rustic. We had a remote site that requires carrying all your stuff. It is worth the trouble. Pit toilets are fine. Bring big water holder because spigots are far apart. Canoed on pond and just hiked and relaxed. There is a small playground that my daughter appreciated. If you like to rough it without being a backpacker it's for you

A good "pet friendly" primitive/ rustic style campground in NH that is not too far from Boston or Providence. Site #22 is a walk in site(short walk- only 29 paces) that has the most privacy. The sites located near the lake are very open and too close to each other in my opinion. The 8- mile round trip to Lucia's lookout is well worth the not so exciting scenary along the way, because the vista at the top is gorgeous!! When you think you've reached the summit, keep going right....that's when you see the full 180 degree view. My photo was taken 9/28/13.

Had a nice stay this past weekend. Quiet campground,actual woods. No rec halls, arcades and trailers with cable tv. Great lake to canoe on and rentals at office. Water is dense with plant life and there is no swimming. Pit toilets clean enough . Water can be a hike depending on where you are. Nice trip overall

This was a great for relaxing in nature. No crowds, fairly quiet, large private site. A long way to resupply, so bring what you need.

We loved this campground. It's remote, it's peaceful, it has some great campsites, and there are lots of outdoor activities in the area. Like most of the NH state campgrounds, there are no organized activities or a recreation hall or anything like that, so if that's what you're looking for, this isn't the place. There's also no beach, and swimming isn't recommended. But if you want to be in the woods away from it all in a really peaceful place, this park is great. We had campsite 26, which is a fantastic site. It's huge and extremely private, and it has a tent platform and its own path to one of the ponds. You can only see one other site from site 26, and that one's pretty far away, through woods and over a brook. (The only downside is that it's a long walk from your car to site 26.) There are quite a few other sites that are excellent too. We hiked at Mt. Sunapee (about a 20 minute ride) and used the showers at the beach at Lake Sunapee (access to Lake Sunapee is included with your Pillsbury camping fee). We also rented a kayak at Pillsbury and saw two loons with a new baby up close. There are hiking/biking paths within Pillsbury State Park, but we didn't have time to do those this time. We will definitely go back to Pillsbury.

Not as far as you may think! The sights and wildlife abound. Fall foliage is just awesome - great fo a hike.

We had a great trip in the beautiful foothills of the white mtns last weekend. The ponds are pristine, plentiful with fish. The kids had a great time casting off shore. They do rent canoes and kayaks (pretty pricey - we should have brought ours with us, oh well). We did rent a tandem kayak to use & got much use from it. Love the hiking trails as well. Wish we spent more than 1 night, although it would have been rough without showers there. It is nature at it's finest, no doubt. Must be amazing in the fall. Would highly recommend this park to any serious campers looking to relax and unwind.

Great place to kayak. A ways out for us but a wonderful drive. Launching a kayak is somewhat easy. We bring our own boats but you can also rent. The only place I have ever noticed windmill power generators. Interesting sound but the only sound except for local wildlife and a few people.

I'm a little off from the other reviewers on this campground but I can only give this place 3 stars based on our experience here and the many places we have camped in NH, VT and ME. You expect different things from different areas of the country and we really enjoy some of the NH and VT state campgrounds due to often spacious, private sites and/or wonderful scenery. Now there is nothing "wrong" with Pillsbury at all, we just didn't find anything special about it. I honestly am not sure if the water here is a lake or a pond - it's separated in two halves one of which is fairly weedy. We did see quite a few bass fisherman there so maybe it is stocked for that. You can canoe around it all in a couple of hours and it is pretty peaceful there but nothing we would consider spectacular. We had a pretty "remote" site up by the generator but after driving around, very few of the sites had anywhere near the kind of privacy we like - especially the ones on the water (except for the few canoe in sites). I will admit, we are picky about that as we don't like to disturb or be disturbed be our neighbors but even more so, when we're tenting in the woods, we want the feeling that we're IN THE WOODS. We've found some great sites like that but this just wasn't one of them. Also, I'm not sure what this is close to but we were awoken around 11PM by some extremely loud nightclub type music that went on for several hours - please note I'm not going to hold that against the campground, just something curious that you might want to be aware of. The amenities are fine - camp store, bathrooms, etc. - it's about a 10 minute ride to any stores.So like I said, there's nothing wrong with the place at all. We might stop here again on our way to a destination but just for an overnight. It just won't be our main destination.

I camped here for 3 days mid-June. What a great retreat! I had a campsite right on the edge of a small pond...with no other campsites around. It was completely private; I had my own dock and my own private (rustic) toilet! I hooked up my solar shower and was all set. I did some hiking and kayaking and some sitting by the pond. This was a drive-up site, others are hike-to only and there are two reachable only by canoe. Trails, canoe/kayak rentals and peace and quiet. A fantastic get-away.

The pond is beautiful! Rent a kayak or canoe & putter around listening to loons & looking for the cranes. There are very few campsites...at least one of which you must canoe to get to...& its outhouses up the hill. Peace & quiet...and frankly, well worth pitching a tent on a Thursday night to get a good site, even if you can't stay till the weekend.

Stopped at German John's Bakery in Hillsborough and bought rolls, cold cuts and other picnic items. Drove west and thought about stopping at Mt. Sunapee but saw this park and drove in. Camp sites on the lake, lovely foliage, picnic tables. Had a quiet, relaxing lunch and the atmosphere was as good as the food from German John's.