Junius Ponds Campground and Cabins

We have made Junius Ponds in Phelps, NY our home for a month. We have been pleased with the campground, facilities and location. We wanted to tour the Finger Lakes, visit Niagara Falls, and do some biking along the Erie Canal. This campground is located at the northern end just about halfway between the two largest finger lakes. That gives us good access to our primary goal for being here. We are about 125 miles from Niagara Falls, but just a mile from I-90 which takes us there with little time and effort. We are a little farther from the Erie Canalway than I would have liked to be in order to bike there more often. However, we have access to other bike trails close by. There are several other campgrounds within a 30 to 50 mile radius of our location, but for what we wanted to do in the area, we think this worked out well.

Junius Ponds is a large campground with about 150 sites. At least half of those sites are rented to folks staying for the season. They have a more permanent look with flower gardens, yard art, and even a few fences.

The sites are nice. They have both back-ins and pull thrus—all large sites with lots of grass. Some sites have trees and some don’t. All are very well maintained.

The facilities are great. There is a very nice pool, a small store with your basic “camping” foods—mayo, hotdogs and a few canned foods as well as a basic supply of hardware—water hoses, sewer hoses, and campground t-shirts, 4 small cabins similar to KOA Kamping Kabins, a pond for fishing, and a playground for small children.

The campground has several organized activities each week—bingo on Tuesdays, breakfast on Saturday, and dinner a couple nights a week. There is a pavilion for these large activities and it is a great way to meet your neighbors.

There are a couple areas where there could be some improvement. With so many campsites and the number of people here, especially on the weekend, there is not enough bathroom/shower capacity. There are only 8 showers (4 each for men and women) and only 12 toilets (6 each). Even though most people use their own facilities in their campers, there are still a large number of tents and pop-ups on the weekends that warrant more bathhouse space. There is only one shower house located roughly in the center of the campground, but it is a long walk for the tenters who are on the perimeter of the park.

My chief complaint has been the laundry facilities. For this large number of seasonals, there are only 2 washers and 2 dryers and one of the dryers does not work. I finally figured out that the best time to do laundry is very early in the morning and only one load a day. I wait for a sunny day and hang my clothes on a line to dry.

There are always some negatives about any place and there are a lot more positives about Junius Ponds than negatives. If my greatest worry is laundry, then life is good indeed. I would recommend this campground for anyone visiting this area.