Mid Winter 2012 Updates on fishcreekpond.com

[CampADK]

Just a short update on things, here on the website...

I'm glad to report that the recent addition of Google Adsense ads is working out pretty good. By my calculations they should be able to cover much of the hard costs associated with running the site. Unfortunately a necessary 'evil' to keep the site going

    .

Photos for Watkins Glen, Letchworth and Eight Lake are now available

     for all campsite. See campsite photos

    .

Some noted out of date info has been updated. If you notice anything I didn't catch, be sure to send me a message/email.

Ask RJ and Ranger Jane are back for the season

In April I'll be moving to a much newer/faster server which will help not only access wise, but also will keep the running costs down. I'll also be upgrading the phpbb forum software as well which hasn't been upgraded since 2007! Will try to limit the down time as much as possible.

I'm looking at expanding the campsite guide

     (basic guides compared to FCP though) and campsite photos this spring, to include other Adirondack State/DEC campgrounds. The focus will be on campgrounds that feature waterfront campsites. Possible campgrounds (State or DEC only) would include:

Old Forge area: Nikes Lake, Limekiln, Brown Tract Pond

Speculator / Great Sacandaga Lake area: Popular Point, Little Sandpoint, Point Comfort, Lewey Lake, Moffitt Beach, Northampton Beach, Lake Durant, Lake Harris

Northern Adirondacks: Cranberry Lake, Meacham Lake

Time and weather will dictate which campgrounds I am able to cover in the spring (May/June).

Cheers!

[jldeni]

This site continues to be a great resource and has become my "camping bible". It must be consulted before making any major plans. Thanks Dave!

[Anne&Bernie]

Wow! Thanks Dave!!!! I was just thinking that I wish we had pictures of more campgrounds with lake front sites! Are you taking all of these photos yourself? Have you camped at these campgrounds?

Thanks,

Anne

[CampADK]

The photos I posted for Letchworth, Watkins Glen and Eighth Lake where

     shot when

     we took on our June road trip last year.

This year I'll be camping with a bunch of Fishcreekers/teardrop bunch at Limekiln in May at which time I'll do some of the campgrounds in that area. In June our road trip is out east to New Hampshire ending in a few nights at Lewey Lake. While there I'll do some of the others in the area. I'm also in the ADK's in late May which should offer another opportunity. I'll only be doing campgrounds that offer lakeside camping.

There is a site (campsitephotos.com) that thankfully has photos (alas one only per site) of some campgrounds (few in Eastern US though). They have photos of Pawtuckaway in New Hampshire. This was great except that you can only see the site from the road, 1 photo. So I couldn't tell how close a specific site was from the water or compare the waterfonts. I think most of us 'lakeside' enthusiasts would prefer to see the whole campsite so you know what

     the shoreline, view and water access are like. My inspiration is the frustration we have had each year when planning camping trips.

I should be coming back from that trip with photos as well of some awesome lakeside State Parks in Vermont and NH as well.

I have my 'system' down pretty well for both organizing/taking the photo shoot, as well as uploading and coding the photos so its a lot less work than when I did FCP/Rollins. Mind you for FCP I did take a LOT more photos lol.

If there are any other campgrounds that I might have missed that I should consider, let me know.

I do have photos as well for some sites at Moreau Lake (C and D loop only).

[Anne&Bernie]

That Campground Photos site is nice. But I see what

     you mean about the pics leaving a lot to the imagination. But when combined with Bing Birdseye View we may be able to find

     a good site. Now I want to visit Fishermens Memorial State Park! I am sure I will have fun looking at all the campgrounds.

Thanks!

Anne

[CampADK]

I have also looked at the possibility of allowing campers to login via Facebook. Maybe once we are on the new server.

[mistermatt1984]

Dave I would skip Brown Tract Pond. I don't think it gets a lot of Campers. I drove back in there 2 years ago.. Yikes! Unless you have a Crossover, SUV or Truck don't bother. And there are not very many good trailer sites. All very tight. Might wanna do something like Golden Beach. While it doesn't have a lot of Water Front it does get alot of Business. Fair Haven or Selkirk are other good ones to maybe do. If your interested I would go take pictures at Hamlin State Park this spring now that I live 5-10 minutes from it.

[CampADK]

Thanks for the info on Brown Tract Pond. I'll make a note of that and add Golden Beach. I should have Lake Eaton on there as well.

I'm focusing mainly on truly lakeside campgrounds. Some campgrounds are pretty generic, and a site is a site if you know what

     I mean and/or they don't have any sites that are directly on the water. If I get inspired down the road, or happen to be in the right place at the right time (as per last years Finger Lakes trip) then I'll take photos of a campground, otherwise I'm not likely to bother.

Yes if it isn't a problem and you want to do Hamlin that would be great!

The type of campground warrants whether I bother to take one (or more photos). Usually one with the campsite in it so I can identify the campsite, then another from the opposite side of the entrance. Additional photos are a bonus. I don't bother unless the campsites are along the lines of a Fish Creek/Rollins watersite. You can see checking out the photos in the campsite photo

     browser how I normally take them. I'm shooting a bit wide at 15mm which works out well (Fish Creek was done mainly at 17mm). I take the first shot of any campsite with the campsite showing to one side (depends on campsite orientation) first, then additional(s) shots. That way I can identify the campsite 's when I load the photos into my campsite photo software.

I took 2 of each at Watkins I believe (sometimes a few extras showing the road views to get an idea what the campground is like), Letchworth warranted only 1 photo of each site, Eighth Lake I took two of each site.

For reference, Eighth Lake took me about 2.5 hours I am guessing to do. There are 116 sites at Eighth Lake, 248 at Hamlin Beach. The sites look closer together... I'm thinking it would still be about a 4 hour job? Campgrounds like Rollins where

     the hardest. That took me 3 days at about 3+ hours a piece... maybe 10 hours total running around (and 2500 photos later) so the blackflies wouldn't eat me alive lol. Thankfully there aren't many campgrounds around to shot like Rollins!

[mistermatt1984]

I'd be happy to take pictures anywhere. If I am planning on going

     somewhere

     even for a day I will let you know. There have been several times that I needed to book

     a campground site where I have never been for an event or such and I had no idea what site to choose. I think the more pictures of campgrounds across NY the better to be honest. It would be kind of neat if you could create a sister site that showed up in search engines for just pictures of sites in NYS campgrounds. Perhaps google adsense on that page being that it would get more hits would make it worth it.

[CampADK]

You bring up a great point Matt.

My plan was to use our personal site campadk.com as the main 'host' for something like a 'Guide to Lakeside Camping', mainly featuring the Adirondacks, but other waterfront campgrounds as well we have been to in VT, NH, Maine and Ontario. So it would end up separate from the fishcreekpond.com and rollinspond.com websites. Maybe more of a blog along with a basic campside guide, and off course the photo database.

NY and Maine are way behind other parts of the county. They offer a single photo (a thumbnail at that) to represent the whole campground. Hard to believe here in the year 2012. Vermont State Parks at least have one photo now of 'most' campsites which is a start. Here in Ontario, they have one or two photo of each campsite for many of the popular provincial parks. Its a low tech setup, but at least you get to see a few views of each site. I notice that some states that use Reserve America

     now have single photos of campsites at some state parks. I see them for some California parks. Maybe this is something we'll see across the board by 2050

Google adsense on such pages don't do much actually. They work the best on content rich pages. The ads here on the campsite photos and campsite guide

     only make a few dollars a month. You need a TON of traffic to generate any amount of measurable revenue, unless you plaster the page with ads... not a good thing. Such pages wouldn't generate anywhere near the volume of traffic there is on fishcreekpond.com. Consider for example that only 1 in every 1000 visitors may be interested in an ad on a page and click it. That click on average would be worth 35 cents. When you are only serving a few hundred visitors a day... well you can work out some math.
While on that, you will be seeing some ads for products from Camping World in a few weeks. Mainly promoting items that Fish Creek campers are likely interested in. That 'might' work better than Google Adsense, and be more relevent as well... we'll see.

[BigDaveyL]

Dave I would skip Brown Tract Pond. I don't think it gets a lot of Campers. I drove back in there 2 years ago.. Yikes! Unless you have a Crossover, SUV or Truck don't bother. And there are not very many good trailer sites. All very tight. Might wanna do something like Golden Beach. While it doesn't have a lot of Water Front it does get alot of Business. Fair Haven or Selkirk are other good ones to maybe do. If your interested I would go take pictures at Hamlin State Park this spring now that I live 5-10 minutes from it.

It's a small world - my girlfriend works 5-10 minutes away from it and I live down the road.

[mistermatt1984]

Haha, that is funny Big D, I live in Spencerport now.

[BigDaveyL]

Haha, that is funny Big D, I live in Spencerport now.

I'm in Greece and my neighborhood backs right up to the Lake Ontario State Parkway.

[Jesse]

I too love this site and never make a reservation without consulting it. I also would like to see pictures of Golden Beach. I want to make a reservation there and was there a few years ago but don't remember what the sites are like. I tried google maps

     but didn't have good results.

[kkirsch]

Would be nice to have some site views for the campgrounds in the thousand Island area. We have been stung several times with sites that are just slightly bigger than our RV (and it is only 17 ft). There were bigger sites at Kring point and if I remember some even on the water. There were other campground that may be nice (long point was surprisingly nice) in the thousand Islands but have been spoiled buy having all these pictures for FC and Rollins.