Campgrounds and RV parks near Garfield, NJ

From Liberty Harbor RV Park, PATH trains, ferries and buses put Lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island within a short ride, which makes it a practical basecamp for city sightseeing without driving into Manhattan. North of Garfield, Harriman State Park delivers hiking, swimming and lake fishing. Harriman State Park covers roughly 48,556 acres in Rockland and Orange counties about 30 miles north of New York City, it is the state's second largest, and its over 200 miles of trails, maintained by volunteers from the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, are a haven for hikers. A nineteen-mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail runs through Wawayanda State Park, the top of Wawayanda Mountain offers sensational views, and more than sixty miles of trails are marked in the park. At Floyd Bennett Field, campers can bike the old runways, tour historic hangars and paddle Jamaica Bay.

The camping calendar around Garfield splits sharply between year-round urban parks and seasonal wilderness sites. Liberty Harbor RV Park in Jersey City operates year round and stays busy with visitors heading into Manhattan. Camp Gateway at Floyd Bennett Field within Gateway National Recreation Area is open April through October and offers tent and RV camping, so check current-season status on Recreation.gov before planning a trip. Inland state parks follow a similar spring-to-fall pattern. Within Wawayanda State Park, the Division of Parks and Forestry campground operates from April through October with drive-in, walk-in, and boat-in access options, and Beaver Pond in Harriman is a warm-weather campground where there will be bear activity in the area during a stay, and campers are provided with bear habitat guidelines that must be followed at all times. Summer weekends and holidays are the busiest inland, with generators and larger groups filling out sites, while spring and fall weekdays tend to be quieter. At an elevation of 1,140 feet above sea level, Wawayanda State Park receives great accumulations of snow in the winter months, and cross-country skiing is permitted on designated trails.

Facilities vary widely by site. Liberty Harbor offers hookups, restrooms with hot showers, laundry and a short walk to the PATH and NY Waterway ferries. Reviewers describe it as essentially a paved marina lot with hookups rather than a wooded park. Harriman and Gateway are more rustic. There are no electrical hookups for trailers at Beaver Pond, and alcohol is not permitted at the campground, and pets are not permitted in Beaver Pond Campground or Lake Welch. At Camp Gateway inside Floyd Bennett Field, generators are permitted during limited hours at RV sites only, and a dump station is available, though RV sites do not have water or electric hookups. Expect black bears in the Highlands, mosquitoes in Jamaica Bay, and to store food and trash carefully at all inland sites.