Kettletown State Park

Had a pretty good time here and would definitely recommend the campground to families or people who value convenience and comfort more than isolation.
Pros:
Nice marked trails
Beautiful sunset on the lake
Close proximity to bathrooms and water faucets
HOT showers!
Relatively clean bathrooms
Cons:
The campsites are CLOSE to each other. There are no trees separating the sites. If you get a big group of people listening to music, you will be listening to their music as well. (Bring earplugs)
They don’t enforce quiet time enough — we had a big group nearby listening to reggaeton late into the night. It was annoying.
All in all — I would return. But I would have preferred more space away from my camping neighbors.

Been coming here all my life! Located in the small town of Southbury, this place is great for BBQ’s and has cool hiking trails. It gets pretty busy on weekends & holidays so get there early if you need to use one of their built in charcoal grills all around the premises. Great place to launch my kayaks from and to go fishing. Unfortunately, they charge $ 9 a car for parking. Also, lake zoar’s water is pretty sketchy, it literally has had human remains found in it. But if you can get over that, its a great place lol

Kettletown State Park is everything that comes to mind when you think of a traditional sleep-​away summer camp on a lake, except it’s open to family and group camping as well as large youth group camping, and you can come here just for a day. There’s a small beach area for lounging and swimming, and the rest of the large lake is used for water sports such as boating, canoeing, and fishing. The water’s pretty murky in the swimming area, but that’s to be expected for a lake. I went swimming and found it to be cool and refreshing on a hot day. Behind the beach is a nice picnic area with charcoal grills and a good number of picnic tables under shady trees. Past the beach area is a small amphitheater with screenings of family movies at night (Madagascar 1 and 3 last weekend), plus daytime activities like a reptile show. Campsites aren’t too far from all of this action, and the walk from the camping area to the beach consists of a beautiful hike on clear trails and boardwalks through the woods and over a relaxing stream. I camped here with a group of friends last week, and we all had a great time.
Camping is very reasonable at $ 17 a night for Connecticut residents this year. Our site was clean, right across from a drinking water pump, and a short walk to the bathrooms, which are cleaned daily and include a shower. Each site includes a fire pit. Cabins are available for $ 50 a night for up to 6 people, which isn’t a bad deal either. There is an alcohol ban this year from June 7 to Sept. 9, which may or may not deter my camping here in the future. We made it in before the prohibition, but there were still large signs everywhere about the no alcohol rule. I’m not sure how strongly this is enforced, but we did see a few police cars drive through the weekend we stayed. Quiet hours start at 10 p.m., so the police cars may have been driving through to enforce that. Overall, this was a really nice place to spend a weekend.

full of challenging hiking trails and beautiful scenery (camps next to river and near waterfalls)