The swimming beach at Caroga Lake Campground and Day Use Area sits on the southeast shore of East Caroga Lake in the Town of Caroga, Fulton County, inside the southern Adirondack Park. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) runs the facility as an intensive use area of the state Forest Preserve. The beach is a short strip of sand in front of the old waterfront picnic grounds, about a mile southeast of the hamlet of Caroga Lake and roughly ten miles northwest of Gloversville, with Johnstown a few miles beyond that.

The entrance is at 3043 State Highway 29A. From Gloversville, follow Route 29A northwest for about ten miles and the campground is on the left. Drivers coming up from the Thruway at Canajoharie take Route 10 north to 29A, turn right, and the gate is on the right. Day visitors stop at the ticket booth, pay, and park in the day use lot near the bathhouse, a short walk from the sand. Pets are not allowed on the beach or anywhere in the day use area, so leave the dog at home.

Day use costs $8 per car, $4 per motorcycle and $50 per bus, so it is not free, though the fee is a modest state charge per vehicle rather than per person. The campground and day use area are open only from mid-May to early September. Outside that window the facility is closed and nobody maintains the beach. Call the campground at (518) 835-4241 for current conditions.

There are no lifeguards. DEC runs its Adirondack and Catskill campground beaches as unsupervised swimming areas, so you swim here at your own risk. DEC asks swimmers to enter the water only from the designated beach, and campground staff patrol it. Swimming is banned from a half hour before sunset to a half hour after sunrise. Inside the swim area, DEC does not allow inflatables, beach balls, underwater swimming gear, glass containers, alcohol or ball games. The lake is a small, sheltered body of water with no current to speak of. At close to 1,500 feet of elevation it stays cold well into June, so plan around that if you have children who aren't strong swimmers.

Boats share the lake. Motorboats are allowed on East Caroga Lake, and a small craft launch sits a couple hundred yards southeast of the beach, so keep an eye out for boat traffic beyond the swim area. Rowboat, canoe and kayak rentals are available at the campground. Anglers fish for smallmouth bass, chain pickerel, yellow perch, splake and bullhead, and a fishing license (sold online, not at the campground) is required.

The site has a long history. The Conservation Department built it in 1927 and opened it just after the Fourth of July in 1929, and the stone sea wall along the picnic area went in between 1929 and 1931. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the camping loops in 1933, which left the waterfront free for swimming and picnicking. Today the grounds also hold 105 campsites, picnic tables with fireplaces, hot showers, an 18-station exercise course that winds through the campground, and an accessible restroom in the day use area near site 70. Ferris Lake Wild Forest and Shaker Mountain Wild Forest, both with hiking trails, are a few miles away.