Shawme-Crowell State Forest

Stayed with a group of friends @ a group site. Had a great time. Bathrooms and showers were kept as clean as possible. (It is a camp site!). However, I think this must be the year of the daddy long leg spider. Some kind of jubilee year or something. Way too many! Stand still for 30 seconds you WILL have a few crawling on you! Other than a possible arachno attack, perfect camp site.

The forest was very beautiful and the employees were friendly and professional. However the driveways off of the main road to reach the campsites were HORRIBLE. You basically need a truck/​suv to reach the campsites, my car barley made it down the road and it sounded horrible with all the scraping. Many of the campsites also had no privacy whatsoever (ours included), and the bathrooms also had a lot of bugs. Would definitely return, just with a larger vehicle and a better selected campsite.

The one thing you should know about this place above all else is that it doesn’t have water of any sort IN the park. There are beaches in the area, and I understand if you have a parking pass for the campground, you have a parking pass for the beach. Not being my thing, that doesn’t bother me at all. The «B» road seems to me (after driving around before I stayed here) to be the place to stay, as all of the campsites are off the road for the most part. There are rays of dirt roads off the main path that contain campsites, so you feel as if you have some seclusion from the real world. The rangers never bother you unless you are being an idiot, so note to self: don’t be an idiot. The camprground itself has all the usual amenities, showers, toilets, and is also very clean. The sites themselves have the usual picnic table and stone circled campfire with a small grill over it. All in all, a nice place to stay for adults. but the children might get a little bored from the lack of a pond or a beach.

Definitely will return to Shawme-​Crowell. I’ve camped at Nickerson before and found it too loud, although I know noise level is totally a crapshoot. I went just this weekend (May 31-​June 2) and since school’s not over yet, think that might have played a role in the peacefulness. I lucked into scoring a yurt, and was surprised that two yurts on our loop remained unoccupied over the weekend; I’m guessing that these were walk-​up reservations only. Shawme-Crowell’s the sort of place I’d return to for tent camping, though — the sites were spacious and pretty private.
The yurts are great, although keep in mind that it’s not like being in a hotel. Depending on your level of comfort, you may want to bring a mattress pad, as the mattresses aren’t exactly Posturepedics. There’s electricity, but no heating, and it can get pretty cool at night. While there’s no running water inside the yurt, there’s a water pump at the site, and the water is potable (and tastes pretty good, too!). What was awesome was the kitchen sink — with hot water — outside the bathrooms. No need to heat up water and wash dishes at the camp site!
There was a fire pit and picnic table behind the yurt, and we looked out onto woods. It was relaxing to just sit out there, read and drink coffee. We left some things outside while we were off the grounds sightseeing, but (to a point a previous reviewer made), didn’t have any problems with theft. Park staff regularly patrol the grounds and aside from some initial Blair Witch Project-​angst the first night (if you live in greater Boston, like me, you’re not used to total darkness and quiet!), I felt safe.
As for cleanliness, well, it’s up to yurt guests to sweep the floor out and clean up the site before leaving. I’d say that things were «clean enough.» Some aspects of the bathroom were a little mildewy, but I was just happy to have hot water for the shower (and free, too: no coin-​operated showers here!).
The camp store is small but keeps pretty much anything you’d need on hand: sunscreen, bug spray, firewood & firestarter, cold drinks, etc. We didn’t spend a lot of time in the park itself during the day, but I will if we go back. It’s a very pretty spot in a great part of the Cape. I think the areas near the bridges sometimes get ignored as people speed on through to get to other parts of the Cape, but there are some cool things to see and do in and around Sandwich. Go to the Cape Cod Canal Visitor Center and check out the film about the construction of the canal — fascinating stuff. (Yes, really.)

The sites are great here! Quiet, on the more private side, beautiful surroundings. The bathrooms aren’t what I call super clean, but I didn’t want to throw up each time I used them either. It seemed like a good mix of families and couples/​adult groups.

My family spent a week here. My parents had a yurt, which was really nice — had its own deck, water spigot, picnic table, fire pit. We had a tent site, which was spacious. The campground is pretty wooded. We stayed in area 2. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize our site was in a sort of valley until we got there, and it rained, which turned into a river through our site — we ended up having to move our tent. We had to walk up hill to the bathrooms/​showers. We’d pick another site next time (we had B19). The prices are very reasonable. I wish they’d charge a bit more and do a better job with maintenance. There was some litter on our site when we arrived, and a pile of ashes I guess from prior fires. Not sure why that was there? Saw the host sweeping/​mopping the baths and emptying trash, but there was black mildew all over the seat in the shower — looked like some additional cleaning was needed. There isn’t a lot to do at the campground, but we did other things on the Cape each day. Can’t beat the price.

Tried to get in to old favorite Nickerson State Park to camp for memorial day weekend and it was all sold out. I found Shawme-​Crowell through the web, booked online, and it totally met my camping needs when we arrived.
Staff was very friendly and nice, the campsite we were given was delightfully private feeling, and the whole park was very quiet and relaxing. There is a super Stop’n’Shop about 5 minutes away, as well as a camp store if you don’t want to drive for all your food and firewood needs.
There are no amenities like an on-​site lake or beach, but if you just want straight camping and value not having to drive too far to get the experience Shawme-​Crowell should be perfect for you. There are many beaches and attractions a short drive away also if you care to branch out.

We stayed at this campground in July ’09 at site C22. We had the unfortunate experience of having our campsite robbed while staying here. It was extremely unnerving to return to our site to find our sleeping mats, pillows, towels, sleeping bags, flashlights, and even propane tanks stolen! After talking with some campers that had stayed at this campground longer, we found that a previous camper had been robbed at the same site the year before. Apparently, homeless people sometimes walk through the campground during the day stealing things, though we suspect we were robbed by the campers at the next site over. We do not recommend this campground on account of these safety issues. I have been camping my entire life and never had even one item stolen. This campground apparently needs to work on security.

Officially my new favorite last-​minute weekend plans. Shawme-​Crowell State Forest is a 1 hour drive from Boston, just over the bridge onto the Cape, and about 10 kinds of awesome.
For MA residents, $ 12 a night you get a campsite, up to 2 cars, up to 4 peeps and pets are allowed. They have nearly 270 sites, mostly tent but some RV, hiking trails, free showers, potable water AND your pass gets you into Scusset beach which is typically $ 7 to park for the day.
There’s a camp store on site for all your marshmallow and firewood desires, the rangers and staff are friendly and accommodating (we forgot the poochie’s rabies records… oops) and the bathrooms are incredibly clean.