West Thompson Lake Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $15–$30Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 24All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
West Thompson Lake Campground is located near the wooded shoreline of its namesake lake in northeastern Connecticut. The natural setting surrounding West Thompson Lake can be enjoyed year round. Visitors come to the lake for camping, fishing, boating, kayaking and hiking. Keep reading
Recreation
West Thompson Lake provides great boating, kayaking, canoeing and fishing opportunities. It has an excellent population of warm-water fish, including bass and small panfish. A boat ramp is located near the campground for easy access to the water. The Thompson Section of the Quinebaug River Water Trail offers a leisurely three-hour outing for paddlers who are comfortable with moving water. The trail has no rapids or portages and meanders through extensive wildlife habitats. An 18-hole disc golf course is located on the lakeshore and is free to the public. This challenging course is known for its long drives and scenic views of the lake and dam.
Facilities
The entrance gate to the campground is closed from 9pm - 8am. The campground offers 11 campsites with electric and water hookups, 11 basic sites without hookups and two Adirondack lean-to shelters. Amenities include accessible flush toilets and showers, and a dump station. An amphitheater, playground, basketball court, and interpretive trails are located on-site.
Natural Features
The campground is nestled in a forest of Eastern white pine, Northern red oak and Shagbark hickory. Shade is abundant throughout the campground, and autumn leaves put on a beautiful show. An overlook at the dam offers pleasing panoramic views for sightseers and photographers.
What the agency tells you
Entrance gate is closed from 9pm - 8am
Alcohol is prohibited
There is a 14 day maximum stay within a 30 day period
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Cash is not accepted. Credit card transactions only.
Walk-ins are not currently allowed
Swimming is not allowed at this lake. Swimming opportunities are available at a nearby state park. There are no waterfront sites.
Speed limit on the lake is 5 mph
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 24 · 2 cabin
- Hookups
- 11 electric, 10 water
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…shelters. Amenities include accessible flush toilets and showers, and a dump station. An amphitheater,…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Amenities include accessible flush toilets and showers, and a dump station.”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Disc Golf
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 1.7 mcd/m²
- Bortle 4
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $15–$30 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
24 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 24 mapped sitesAll 24 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 24 of the 24 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| A | 01 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 86 ft | 855 ft | $30 |
| A | 02 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 85 ft | 884 ft | $30 |
| A | 03 | standard electric | 40 ft | Electricity Hookup | 71 ft | 959 ft | $30 |
| A | 04 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15 amp | 71 ft | 1,025 ft | $30 |
| A | 05 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 81 ft | 1,041 ft | $30 |
| A | 06 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 76 ft | 994 ft | $30 |
| A | 07 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 81 ft | 1,038 ft | $30 |
| A | 08 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 92 ft | 942 ft | $30 |
| A | 09 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 67 ft | 933 ft | $30 |
| A | 10 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 67 ft | 945 ft | $30 |
| A | 11 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 72 ft | 975 ft | $30 |
| A | 12 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 97 ft | 1,076 ft | $15 | |
| A | 13 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 88 ft | 1,138 ft | $15 | |
| A | 14 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 88 ft | 1,123 ft | $15 | |
| A | 15 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 90 ft | 1,046 ft | $15 | |
| A | 16 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 80 ft | 1,010 ft | $15 | |
| A | 17 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 85 ft | 966 ft | $15 | |
| A | 18 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 80 ft | 940 ft | $15 | |
| A | 19 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 97 ft | 871 ft | $15 | |
| A | 20 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 76 ft | 841 ft | $15 | |
| A | 21 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 72 ft | 788 ft | $15 | |
| A | 22 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 72 ft | 746 ft | $15 | |
| A | S1 | overnight shelter nonelectric | 86 ft | 788 ft | $20 | ||
| A | S2 | overnight shelter nonelectric | 95 ft | 1,043 ft | $20 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Westville Recreation Area12 mi
West Hill Park19 mi
Tully Lake Recreation Area (MA)50 mi
Indian Hollow56 mi
Hop Brook Lake Recreation Area68 mi
Otter Brook Lake Recreation Area72 miFrom I-395, take Exit 50. Follow CT Route 200 east to Thompson Center. Turn right onto CT Route 193 south and proceed 2 miles to traffic light. Continue straight over the railroad tracks on Route 12. Take the first right onto Reardon Road. In 0.5 miles turn left onto West Thompson Lake Recreation Road and travel approximately 1,000ft to the campground entrance on the right. Follow up to the Campground Registration Building.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mechanicsville, CT
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 61°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 15°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
West Thompson Lake Campground is in Connecticut’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Joe Courtney (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →