Brendan Bryne Campground
Brendan Bryne State Forest
New Lisbon, Burlington County, NJ
Address:
Highway Route 72 East,
New Lisbon, NJ 08064
(Note that this the address for the forest, the campground is not located on Route 72, but is inside of the state forest near Pakim Pond)
Coordinates: 39°52’23.10″N, 74°31’24.58″W
Directions:
Turn into the park off of Route 72. Turn right and pass the park office. Stay on that road until it dead ends at a “T”. Turn left and pass Pakim Pond. The campground will soon be on both sides of the road.
Access: All paved park roads.
Website for official info:
https://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/parks/byrne.html
Website for campsite booking and pricing:
www.camping.nj.gov
Campground Map:
Pet friendly?: Yes, in Family campsites 14 through 82, rules and regulations here. Accurate as of December 2018, call ahead or check their website to make sure nothing has changed before booking a site.
Brendan Bryne Campground, the only campground located in Brendan Bryne State Forest, has 84 tent sites and 3 group tent sites, all of which are open year round. This is the nicest of the pine barrens state park camp grounds in terms of amenities. There are also three cabins that are open part of the year (End of March to end of November in 2018, availability may change year to year). The map shows three yurts, which are no longer there, but have been replaced by the cabins. R.I.P. yurts.
Facilities (campground):
Water: Eight water pumps (actually spigots, as you don’t have to pump) are spread around the campground.
Bathrooms – There are flush bathrooms and showers. They also list laundry facilities as available.
Nice bathrooms.
Showers available.
Food protection – no bear boxes (low bear risk, but have been spotted in the area, most famously on the school playground in nearby Atco). Store food in car, especially if you don’t want to make friends with skunks or raccoon. When backpacking, take appropriate precautions.
Facilities (each site):
Group campsites – Three group sites, each available for up to 30 people. Each has a fire ring and picnic table.
Regular campsites – Eighty-four family sites. Each site has a small fire ring and a picnic table. Closely packed in in places, I like sites #7 and 8 as being a bit further away from the other sites.
Seasons:
Other tips:
As with all sites in the New Jersey State Parks – no alcohol is allowed. They can and will write tickets.
This site is a good stopping point along the Batona Trail, as the campground is a 3/4 of a mile walk down the park road just after Mile Marker 44. It’s just under 9 miles from the end of the trail at Ong’s Hat.
More info on the Batona Trail.
Permit pick up is from the Brendan Bryne Ranger Station. It closes really early (4 PM) when it is open, so be aware. The park police are pretty good about if you don’t get there to get your permit in time, as most people work, but its a good idea to at least have a print out or screen shot of your online reservation (which is NOT the same as your permit). No park entry fee for Brendan Bryne.
Positives – HUGE campground, which means you can almost always get a spot. Lots of amenities here.
Negatives – None, other than a large site means potentially a lot of people camping, which some people dislike more than others.
Nearby trails and things to see:
The 52.7 mile long Batona Trail runs through the state forest, and the nicest stretch of this trail runs through the adjacent Parker Preserve.
The 8 1/2 mile Mount Misery Trail is another nice trail in this state forest.
The Cranberry Trail is a 3 mile, ADA accessible trail in the state forest.
Whitesbog, which is technically in Brendan Bryne State Forest, is a short drive away. It has an ever expanding network of trails, plus a ton of history as the place where the blueberry was developed as a viable crop. It also hosts an annual Blueberry Festival.
Experiences at the campground? Helpful hints for folks? Please leave them in the comments for folks to see, or e-mail them to southjerseytrails@gmail.com and we’ll tack them onto the bottom here!
Our group recently camped at this park, here here my comments:
ticks, ticks, ticks – in the first hour we were there we found 3 ticks on us. Can you spray or control some how?
The restrooms – need an outside light higher than the building. You can only see the building light if you are standing in front, off to the sides or back, total darkness. The drains in the women’s bathroom did not work causing the floor to flood, On shower stall door would not close and swing into to you (cold and I kept hitting my elbow), the second one had no door, so the water would shoot over everything. The man came to clean the restrooms between 7 – 8 AM. Really POOR TIMING – that is when campers need to use the restrooms.
Nice maps of roads, but the roads are not marked, so it was impossible to know where you were?
Bottom line, I will not come back or recommend anyone else camp here.