Glimmerglass State Park NY
Camp New York: I’m talking with Rayana Young today. She’s the Office Manager at Glimmerglass State Park in New York. Rayana, why don’t you get us started with telling us about how long the Park has been there and a little history about the Park?
Rayana Young: Well, the State acquired the land back in 1963. And camping came to be in the early ’70s. We currently have 39 sites with electric, 37 are reservable. We also have a water and dump station, and we have a beautiful shower facility with nice, hot showers that no one has to pay for.
CNY: Okay. And what are some of those popular activities you have at the Park there?
Rayana: Well, before that, we also have a primitive camping area with 19 sites and six are reservable.
CNY: Okay.
Rayana: And there are no extra amenities over there other than a water spicket and port-a-johns, but people are welcome to use the main campground bathrooms and showers if they need to.
CNY: Okay, perfect. So, camping for just about any type of camper.
Rayana: Exactly.
CNY: Someone wants to rough it a little bit more, perfect.
Rayanag: Yeah.
CNY: And what are some of those popular activities for guests there?
Rayana: We have many trails of hiking. All different. We have open field hiking and we have wooded hiking. Our most popular thing is our beach. We have swimming from Memorial Day until Labor Day.
CNY: Okay. And what are some of your favorite attractions in and around that area outside of the Park?
Rayana: Well, we are only nine miles from the Baseball Hall of Fame.
CNY: Nice.
Rayana: Yeah, you take a right out of our Park and you drive directly to the Hall of Fame. There’s also about a half hour away our Hell Caverns and that is a local attraction with people who like to go underground into caves and they have tours there. And then there is also the local hometown brewery, which is called Ommegang.
CNY: Ommegang Hannepin. I know their brews well.
Rayana: There you go.
CNY: Yeah, they have some really good ones.
Rayana: Yeah, they’re about 12 miles from the Park.
CNY: Okay. Now, Rayana, have you been down to the caverns? Is that your thing?
Rayana: I do not go to the Hell Caverns. I’m claustrophobic.
CNY: That’s the last place you should be then if you’re claustrophobic.
Rayana: Right.
CNY: Two more questions for you, Rayana.
Rayana: Okay.
CNY: If you were going to spend just one hour at Glimmerglass State Park, how would you spend your time there?
Rayana: In the summer I would spend my time probably at the beach. And then also I might do a little biking around because our open field trails are also suitable for mountain biking.
CNY: All right, perfect.
Rayana: Well, in the winter, we have year round camping here in our primitive area and we have two (Unclear 3:20.3) that are rentable. And we have snow tubing in January and February. We have ice fishing and we have cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
CNY: Okay. Do you get much for winter campers?
Rayana: We don’t get too many, but we do get some. What we get in the winter mostly are scout troops that are doing badges and we do a group camping for them.
CNY: Oh, okay, sure. So they’ll come there and their teeth will chatter all night long to get that badge.
Rayana: Correct.
CNY: They deserve it.
Rayana: They do. They definitely do.
CNY: Last question for you. If you were just going to spend one night at Glimmerglass State Park in New York, which specific site would you stay at and why?
Rayana: The site that I like best is Site 25, because it’s a prime site. It’s actually a double site for just a few dollars more. In New York State you can only have six on a campground, but on a prime site you can have eight people, so I could invite more family and friends to stay with me.
CNY: Oh, perfect. Nice.
Rayana: Yeah.
CNY: Well, Rayana, thank you so much for taking a little bit of time out of your morning to tell us about the surrounding area and to let us know more about Glimmerglass State Park in New York.
Rayana: Thank you very much, Clint.
