Hickories Park Campground

When we arrived, only one 30 amp FHU spot was available. This was your typical no-privacy, packed-in RV park type of place. The parking was half mud, half gravel, and the utilities were nicely organized (not true for all spots, as many had 50 foot hoses stretched to get water to their rigs). The train is close by, blows its horn, and runs all through the night. The groundskeeper drove his gator right next to us at 8 AM to shovel ash from the neighboring fire pit. Many cars driving in and out throughout the day. Would stay again, but only in a pinch and would try a different camping area.

When we come to Owego, we stay at Hickories Park. It's an excellently green city park, with mostly ample campsites nestled into sprawling acres of old trees, bordered by the Susquehanna River. It's relatively quiet - with the hum of the highway audible, but not distracting. The grass is sweet with clover and various other varieties of fragrant vegetation.

This park is popular with locals, with many sites occupied for the season. There have historically been suitable sites available for the park's first-come-first-serve patrons, however. This go-round, we scored campsite 25, which sits low but offers a large grassy area and is well-spaced from other campsites.

We review this park each time we stay, and our experience here is consistently in the five-star realm. The 'ritzy' upper area of the park offers 50A, H20, and sewer at the campsites on the exterior of 'the loop', and 30A, H20, and sewer at the interior loop campsites. The hook-ups at these sites can be awkwardly placed, so come with spare hoses. There are pull-through full hook-up sites too - but these tend to be pretty tightly packed in for a city park. There is another swath of campsites lining the river area, with varying degrees of hook-ups, but no sewer. A third section of grouped sites is placed behind the band-shell, which often gets claimed by groups of campers looking to enjoy together time.

If you're concerned about grabbing a campsite, call the morning you're headed towards the campground. If you promise to pay, the campground attendees are typically willing to pop an occupied sign on a site for you. We also note lots of 'occupied' signs cropping up a day or two in advance of a camper's arrival - we assume they are paying for the unoccupied nights, but can't confirm.

The park itself offers nice walking and exercise areas, a nice dog park, picnic areas, pavilions, volleyball courts, a playground and bathrooms for campers. There is also garbage disposal for campers (it's a carry-in, carry-out park) near the dog park.

A 1st come 1st serve location in an area known as the Twin-Tiers it is very cost effective and most sites are level, or close to it. Sites on the outside of the lower loop are 50 amp, approximately 20, the remainder are 30 amp. There is no cable service and you must carry out you own trash. Highway and train traffic are attenuated by the surrounding trees. We will return.

Our second stay here (and second review of) Hickories - and this time, with the knowledge of how the park's 'first come-first served' model actually works, and armed with extra water hoses and a power cord extender, we are willing to give this place a 5 star rating.

Not much has changed since our first stay - the hospitality and laid-back style of the park manager continues to make this park an 'easy going' place. While we knew that we could call the morning of our arrival and 'reserve' a spot - we chose to just pull-in on a Monday morning and see what was available. We were surprised to find the upper area of the park (the area with sewer hook-ups) near chock-full. We were able to snag a pull-thru site (these are a bit closer in proximity to your neighbor than we like - and much closer than the back-in sites on the upper loop!). We stayed put in this site for about a week until a site we liked on 'the loop' opened up. Management easily allowed us to shift to site 17 and still allowed for us to pay the monthly rate. After realizing we were going to need to stay another month, management gifted us with a 'seasonal' rate (I guess they have so many the can allow to pay that rate at a time). Anyways, we really like the management here - super friendly and easy-going.

This is just a really nice public park. Great walking/running opportunities, several pavilions that are almost always in use on the weekends, sports fields, a playground and an AMAZING dog park (we don't even have a dog and we liked to go check out the dogs there).

We didn't see the flooding/puddling issues we endured during our first stay here - it was a dryer year. We also noted more 'big rigs' down in the spots by the river - which don't have sewer, but many do have electric/water. These sites are cheaper - and for $5 the town of Owego will send down a sewer truck to pump you out every other week if you wish. Or you can use the park's dump station.

Our biggest complaints about this park are a train that runs near enough by that it hampers deep sleep at 2am on weekdays. And the 'janky' hook-ups situation on some sites (be prepped with extra hoses). Also - it was WAY more crowded/busy with rigs than last time we were here. Many nights saw every site on the upper loop taken - although there was always space down in the grass by the river.

Stayed one night to visit family. Beautiful park with access to big rigs. Large spots mostly grass but level. First come first serve but large number of spaces. Cash or check only. Our water was out of reach but that was our fault for choosing the spot. 50 amp and sewer available easily. Bathrooms and showers available. Several pull throughs but we chose s large back in. Very nice to sit with the dogs tied out. Nice trees area for tent camping by the river. River spots in lower level. Wouldn’t recommend for big rig. Also some highway
noise in that area. Our spot quiet. People were very friendly. Large dog park and many areas to picnic. Also recommend MJ restaurant. Excellent food with quality menu on the river.

Hickories park is part of my childhood; I grew up in the area and spent many a summer evening playing on the playgrounds (past and present - they have been updated with time), searching for crawdaddies in the creek, and learning to ride a bicycle.

Now, as an adult, Hickories Park has provided an awesome place to park the house on wheels and visit with family for the month.

The campground is towards the back of the public park, cutting down on traffic, but not placing the camping area too far from activities. Speaking of activities - there are plenty. I am currently watching a silver haired gentleman swing a golf-club on the putt-putt range that substantiates a central area in the campgrounds. When I look out the window on the other side of the rig, I can watch a plethora of children swinging about a playground.

The park also hosts: a border on the Susquehanna River for fishing, boating or kayaking, a creek for splashing about (ok, so the park posts 'no swimming', but no one ever says anything about splashing about in the creek), a fitness trail, several pavilions and picnic areas, large grassy fields for ball play or trouncing about, volleyball and basketball courts, and a super nice dog park complete with a dog training area.

There are well-kept bathrooms spread throughout the park, and the campground boasts two shower/bath houses that are both cleaned daily and with pride. Showers are free (so are toilets).

The park is impeccably clean and family friendly.

The campground area has a few different sections. Up near the office/creek area you will find 40 of the full-hook-up sites (~20 of which are pull through), which have 30A or 30/50A, water, and sewer. These sites are asphalt/gravel mixtures of varying levelness - although none of are obnoxiously un-level. Some of the sites have questionable water hook-up situations (we needed almost 75ft of hose to cross under our rig and reach our spigot). Most of the sites are nicely spaced, with the pull-through being closest to each other. Each site in this area has a picnic table and a fire ring.

In a slightly separated area near to the river you will find several back-in or pull-in (your choice) sites with 30A and water (no sewer) or that are dry. These sites are grass. There is also a tent loop in this area.

The park is first-come-first-serve, and while I have witnessed the full-hook up area being filled, there is usually someplace to squeeze in down by the river. In addition, if you stop by the park office in the morning and pay up front, they will place a site reserved sign on a site for you if you're already in the area anyways.

50A sites are $30/n , 30A sites are $25/night, and dry/tent sites are $17/n. There is a monthly rate of $600, or a 'seasonal' rate of $500/m (stay entire summer). There are a few long term units here, but since they must all be cleared out at the end of the season, nothing is permanent.

Now, the park is not quiet - but it's also not 'noisy'. There is a hum from the highway (across the river) and occasional helicopters flying overhead (Lockheed Martin is ~1mile away). There is also typical park sounds during the day - kids playing, cars driving slowly by, bicycles, etc. The park isn't noisy either - just a park. Quiet hours start at 11pm (the park closes to the public at 10pm, but there isn't a gate) til 7am, and while we've been here that has been respected.

Hickories does have a history of flooding - usually in the early Spring or late Summer / Fall. However, the town has plans in place for evacuating (alternate entrance / exit) in case of emergency - and has gotten pretty good at predicting when flood levels are possible.

The town of Owego is an adorable place with an active old-timey downtown area boasting antique shops, art galleries, restaurants, and a coffee shop. Nearer to Hickories Park you can find a plethora of fast food chains, a grocery store, and a few other modern conveniences.