Getting to Floyd Bennett Field (Brooklyn, NYC)

[DrewE]

For better or worse, I've booked a reservation at Floyd Bennett Field for next weekend. I was wondering if anyone with more local information than I have would recommend a reasonable route to get there from...well, the rest of the world.

The obvious route is the garden state parkway to maybe exit 137, wend around to I-278 and across the Goethals Bridge and Verrazano Narrows bridge, and then take the Belt Parkway around...but of course I can't use the Belt Parkway. 86th St to Avenue U to Flatbrush Avenue looks doable on paper; I'm under 12' high, so the limited clearance oughtn't be a problem.

Anyone have any brilliant route suggestions?

(Edited title to indicate where in the world Floyd Bennet Field is...sorry for that omission. I know it always bugs me when I see requests for routing from "Springfield to Grant's Park" without a state or anything, and here I went and did the same thing.)

[DrewE]

Well, I just got back last night, and had a good time in the city...though of course a long weekend is not enough to begin to scratch the surface of what one can see and do in New York City and the area.

I did end up taking I-95 to I-278 over the RFK (Triborough) bridge, whence it is the BQE. Going to the park I tried to follow NY27 (basically Prospect Expressway to Canton Avenue) and there catch Flatbrush, but the signage for NY27 was a bit lacking and confusing and I ended up muddling around a few couple narrow, local streets before getting to Canton. Going back, at the recommendation of the very helpful park rangers, I took Flatbrush all the way, which is a better route on the whole (and free of any low clearances, for those who may be interested). This road can be rather congested if busy, and New York City driving is something of a world unto itself, with trucks unloading from the travel lanes and some sort of a secret code to horn taps and so forth.

It turns out there is a perfectly fine dump station at Floyd Bennett Field, despite it being omitted from the campground map. (Well, perfectly fine aside from the wash out hose being missing from its spigot, but that's relatively minor.) I didn't see any obvious signs of drugs or sex or dead bodies, though I wasn't going out of my way to hunt them down either. The worst lawlessness I observed were some people having fun in a car by attempting to wear out their tires in one night, doing donuts and so forth on the (enormous) concrete pad around which the RV sites are scattered. They did at least keep pretty well away from the RVs and other people and vehicles; but even so I wasn't at all disappointed when the park police came and put an end to that activity.

[ependydad]

DrewE wrote:
The RV camping looks to be just numbers painted on a big parking lot and a couple picnic tables...no hookups, nor even a dump station.

espendydad wrote:
I have no information, but wanted to find out how you made reservations?

You get reservations via reacreation.gov, search for "Camp Gateway—Brooklyn, New York." If you search for "Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, NY" instead you get a rater confusing and contradictory entry that says they do not accept reservations via recreation.gov at the top but lower down, in the description, says you can make reservations via www.recreation.gov.

1- I didn't realize they didn't have a dump station. Hmm, that puts a wrinkle in how long we can stay. But, we'll have some dry camping under our belts by when I'm thinking of going.

2- yes, it was pretty confusing! :? Thanks for the different park name. I'll look it up.

Have you looked at the reviews on Campendium? Drugs, sex, and dead bodies!

[DrewE]

BurbMan wrote:
That's kind of the long way around, you could come down I-95 into I-278, Gowanus Expy in the Bronx the Brooklyn-Queens Expy (BQE) when you get on Long Island. Either way you wind up in te same spot, at the East end of the Verrazano Bridge. Honestly not sure about which local roads in Bklyn are better. I wouldn't worry too much with a C, but I would be extra careful pulling a trailer just because of tight turns.

Maybe see if you can get a local number for the CG and ask them. I grew up here and never knew you could camp there....

I'll check out that route, thanks. I certainly won't be towing anything!

I think the camping is a comparatively new thing (like maybe the past decade or so), at least for RV access. At one point plans were afoot to greatly enlarge the campground, but that hasn't seemed to have happened. Tent camping looks pretty nice, with grass and trees separating the sites and fireplaces and so on, but is walk-in only/no vehicles at the sites. The RV camping looks to be just numbers painted on a big parking lot and a couple picnic tables...no hookups, nor even a dump station.

espendydad wrote:
I have no information, but wanted to find out how you made reservations?

You get reservations via reacreation.gov, search for "Camp Gateway—Brooklyn, New York." If you search for "Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, NY" instead you get a rater confusing and contradictory entry that says they do not accept reservations via recreation.gov at the top but lower down, in the description, says you can make reservations via www.recreation.gov.

(Edited to fix formatting and minor corrections)

[ependydad]

I have no information, but wanted to find out how you made reservations?

[BurbMan]

That's kind of the long way around, you could come down I-95 into I-278, Gowanus Expy in the Bronx the Brooklyn-Queens Expy (BQE) when you get on Long Island. Either way you wind up in te same spot, at the East end of the Verrazano Bridge. Honestly not sure about which local roads in Bklyn are better. I wouldn't worry too much with a C, but I would be extra careful pulling a trailer just because of tight turns.

Maybe see if you can get a local number for the CG and ask them. I grew up here and never knew you could camp there....