Camp Gateway - Sandy Hook

A beautiful view at sunset time, the people at the office really nice. Everything very organized.
We were not so lucky about the flushing bathrooms because they were repairing them but anyway they solved it with cabin toilets.
We are definitely going back.

We had the best time and can’t wait to return next summer. That being said… We stayed in A4 (right next to the water station) and our campsite was unfortunately infested with wood roaches. I don’t take using that term lightly. There were thousands of roaches just within our site (no exaggeration). During the week we stayed the roaches seemed to multiply exponentially. We weren’t able to cook as much as we planned because they were in our raccoon box, in all of our food and supplies, and seemed to also be inside the picnic table. They crawled into tight folds in our camp chairs and under the attached tarp at the bottom of our tent. When we went to leave to go home there were hundreds of roaches crawling around inside the tarp. We ended up having to throw away the majority of our gear to avoid the risk of bringing the roaches home. We worried we were overreacting by doing this but then when we took our bikes off the car there were about 30 or so roaches hiding under our bike seats, fenders and inside the bells. We were able to spray our bikes down with Raid and took care of that problem but just wanted to put a note here that they will hitch a ride and hang on outside during a lengthy car ride. Again - we had an incredible time despite this and can’t wait to return but will plan for this issue in the future and wanted to give others a heads up.

We had the best time and can’t wait to return next summer. That being said… We stayed in A4 (right next to the water station) and our campsite was unfortunately infested with wood roaches. I don’t take using that term lightly. There were thousands of roaches just within our site (no exaggeration). During the week we stayed the roaches seemed to multiply exponentially. We weren’t able to cook as much as we planned because they were in our raccoon box, in all of our food and supplies, and seemed to also be inside the picnic table. They crawled into tight folds in our camp chairs and under the attached tarp at the bottom of our tent. When we went to leave to go home there were hundreds of roaches crawling around inside the tarp. We ended up having to throw away the majority of our gear to avoid the risk of bringing the roaches home. We worried we were overreacting by doing this but then when we took our bikes off the car there were about 30 or so roaches hiding under our bike seats, fenders and inside the bells. We were able to spray our bikes down with Raid and took care of that problem but just wanted to put a note here that they will hitch a ride and hang on outside during a lengthy car ride. Again - we had an incredible time despite this and can’t wait to return but will plan for this issue in the future and wanted to give others a heads up.

We love this location and the ability to take advantage of all Sandy Hook has to offer. Walking to the bay to look for hermit crabs, horseshoe crabs, snails, etc. Riding to the light house and the big beaches. And the deer, foxes, etc. are amazing. This was our second time here and overall, we had a great time again outside of the camp site. And the staff is great. All that said, at our campsite we experienced a multitude of bugs, including lanternflies, tawny roaches (app identified), no-see-ums, and a couple types of ticks. Some of it is to be expected camping on sandy soil, but we've never experienced insects in these quantities. We do love the spot, and may explore other times to return, but want others to be prepared.

We love this location and the ability to take advantage of all Sandy Hook has to offer. Walking to the bay to look for hermit crabs, horseshoe crabs, snails, etc. Riding to the light house and the big beaches. And the deer, foxes, etc. are amazing. This was our second time here and overall, we had a great time again outside of the camp site. And the staff is great. All that said, at our campsite we experienced a multitude of bugs, including lanternflies, tawny roaches (app identified), no-see-ums, and a couple types of ticks. Some of it is to be expected camping on sandy soil, but we've never experienced insects in these quantities. We do love the spot, and may explore other times to return, but want others to be prepared.

It was good but there isn’t a bathroom to wash yourself in you shower in public and there’s a lot of bugs

It was good but there isn’t a bathroom to wash yourself in you shower in public and there’s a lot of bugs

Staff was lovely, great beaches - wasn't expecting heat and a lot of bugs (our issue, not the parks!).

Staff was lovely, great beaches - wasn't expecting heat and a lot of bugs (our issue, not the parks!).

The campsites are pretty good and well situated. Each site should have its own stand-alone pavilion. Even outdoor showers will go a long way toward making it a better camping experience. There are way too many raccoons moving around where humans eat and prepare food, including on top of the picnic tables, which is a dangerous situation begging for your campers to ingest a roundworm or other parasite that raccoons carry around on their feet. I spoke about this to a young man wearing a park police unform, gun, and badge who was walking around the campsites. His response to my concern about the overpopulated raccoons was outrageous: He actually said there are too many humans and that killing the raccoons would not be "humane." I don't know where you hire your staff from, but that guy should be fired and replaced with an intelligent person who cares about the park visitors. Sandy Hook is becoming a biological danger zone from these artificially overabundant pests that spread disease. Some of your staff are not willing to take the necessary steps to fix the situation, and in fact they are blaming the human visitors for being there as the problem. Unreal. My tax dollars are NOT fully at work here. I expect the National Park Service to operate far more professionally than this.