Best Tent Camping: Ohio: Your Car-Camping Guide to Scenic Beauty, the Sounds of Nature, and an Escape from Civilization

by Robert Loewendick

Overview

Perfect Camping for You in Ohio!

The Buckeye State provides a spectacular backdrop for some of the most scenic campgrounds in the country. But do you know which campgrounds offer the most privacy? Which are the best for first-time campers? Robert Loewendick traversed the entire state—from Lake Erie and its fantastic fishing to the rich Native American culture of southwestern Ohio—and compiled the most up-to-date research to steer you to the perfect spot!

Best Tent Camping: Ohio presents 50 private, state park, and state forest campgrounds, organized into six distinct regions. Selections are based on location, topography, size, and overall appeal, and every site is rated for beauty, privacy, spaciousness, safety and security, and cleanliness—so you’ll always know what to expect. The updated full-color edition of this proven guidebook provides everything you need to know, with detailed maps of each campground and key information such as fees, restrictions, dates of operation, and facilities, as well as driving directions and GPS coordinates.

Whether you seek a quiet campground near a fish-filled stream or a family campground with all the amenities, grab Best Tent Camping: Ohio. It’s an escape for all who wish to find those special locales that recharge the mind, body, and spirit. This guide is a keeper.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781634042895
Publisher:	Menasha Ridge Press
Publication date:	05/12/2020
Series:	Best Tent Camping
Edition description:	2nd Revised ed.
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	1,036,437
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Robert Loewendick is an award-winning freelance outdoors/travel writer and guidebook author, with work regularly published in print and on the Internet. Although his passion for outdoors adventure lures him throughout the United States, born and raised in Ohio, Robert still calls the Buckeye State his base camp. Whether fly-fishing a mountain stream, cruising a Great Lake for angling adventures, hiking miles of trails, or paddling across a placid lake, Robert’s days regularly end at a campsite. 

As a young boy, Robert explored the creeks, hills, and ravines of rural southeast Ohio daily, which fueled his fire for adventure early. Today, Robert shares his outdoors adventures with the goal of encouraging others to get outside more and connect with the real world. Robert is an active member and past president of the professional outdoors journalism organization, Outdoor Writers of Ohio.

Read an Excerpt

Beaver Creek State Park
Beauty: 4; Privacy: 3; Spaciousness: 3; Quiet: 3; Security: 3; Cleanliness: 3

Key Information

• Location: 12021 Echo Dell Road, East Liverpool, Ohio 43920
  
• Contact: [phone], parks.ohiodnr.gov/beavercreek
• Open: Year-round; limited facilities in winter
• Sites: 44 nonelectric, 6 electric
• Each site has: Picnic table, fire ring
• Wheelchair Access: None
• Assignment: Walk-in sites first come, first served; others may be reserved at 866-644-6727 or ohiostateparks.reserveamerica.com
• Registration: Self-registration station
• Amenities: Pit toilets, sun shower, playground, nature center, pioneer village, horseshoe pits, archery range
• Parking: At each site
• Fee: $24; deduct $1 from fee Sunday–Thursday; deduct $3 in winter
• Elevation: 1,102 feet
• Restrictions:
  
• Pets: On leash only
• Quiet Hours: 10 p.m.–7 a.m.
• Fires: In fire ring, which must not be moved
• Alcohol: Prohibited in public areas in every state park but may be consumed within the confines of a rented cabin, cabin site, lodge room, or campsite
• Vehicles: 2/site
• Other: Gathering firewood prohibited; maximum 6 people/site

Explore the home of the Little Beaver Creek State and National Wild and Scenic River.

Coming from the north, it’s soon apparent to visitors that they have arrived on the door- step of the Appalachian Mountains. Beaver Creek State Park covers 2,722 land acres and only 4 miles of river, but the river is the main attraction. Little Beaver Creek has been designated a National Wild and Scenic River and rightly so. Slip a kayak into its clear waters and shoot over a few, short rapids for some whitewater fun, or simply lean back and admire the cliffs that contain the river. At the center of the park is a pioneer village that relied on the river to turn millstones during the early 1800s. An iron bridge crosses the river at the village, which is also where the park office is. South of the village, 0.87 mile on Echo Dell Road, is the park’s Wildlife Education Center, which features live animals and 300 mounted specimens. The center is open May–October on the weekends, 1–5 p.m.

Beaver Creek’s family campground offers the picture-perfect place to pitch a tent. As soon as you pull into the campground, your mind will instantly transition to relax mode. Site 42 is the first one on the left; it’s only a dozen yards beyond the entrance, but its appearance and layout resemble a campsite in a western forest, with big pines spaced far enough apart to make it feel open and a plush carpet of pine needles underfoot. After passing site 42, a road to the left leads to the best sites of the campground—sites 43–55. All are reservable.

This shorter road of the campground has sites on the upper side only. Site 44 is several feet wider and deeper than the others, with white pines towering like giant soldiers. Site 46 lies in a slight swale that dips through the pine-covered ridge. Avoid this site if rain is in the forecast. This specific campground road goes 0.1 mile before ending at a cul-de-sac. Near the turnaround, site 50 invites tent campers to spread out on its wide layout. At the rear of these sites, the forest closes in and songbirds entertain while flittering about the open and dense woodland. There is a pit toilet across from site 48, but no water source is available in this section. Across from site 46 is the trailhead for the Dogwood Trail, which leads trekkers down to the star of this state park, Little Beaver Creek.

Back to the main campground road and near site 2 is a pit toilet and self-registration station with details posted regarding the park, campground, and any planned activities. Across the road from the registration station are the sun shower and the amphitheater. Sites 32 and 33 are situated farther off the road’s edge than their neighboring sites. Next to the parking spaces for these two sites is a playground. It’s the perfect scenario for a couple of tent- camping families with small children. Site 23 sits at the end of this second campground road and offers campers an overlook of the valley cut by the Little Beaver Creek centuries ago.

The North Country Trail (NCT), a 4,600-mile hiking trail that stretches from North Dakota to New York, meanders through Beaver Creek State Park for 6.3 miles. The NCT includes various hiking challenges, from creek crossings to roadside walks. Hiking at Beaver Creek is not to be hurried; don’t simply walk through, but pause and absorb the diverse sights and sounds. Look for remnants of historic river locks while maneuvering along the trail near the river. Before hikers reach the valley floor and Little Beaver Creek, the trail winds around the sides of forested ridges that warrant enough pauses to enjoy the place. Hikers should allow an extra hour or two for the daily hike plan.

GETTING THERE From East Liverpool, travel north on OH 11 for 5.45 miles to OH 7 north exit. Follow OH 7 north 2.98 miles to Leslie Road and turn right. Go 0.81 mile to the campground entrance on the right.

GPS COORDINATES N40°43.857' W80°37.374'

Table of Contents

Ohio Campground Locator Map Opposite Page

Map Legend vii

Acknowledgments viii

Preface ix

Best Campgrounds x

Introduction 1

Northwest 11

1 Kiser Lake State Park 12

2 Lake Loramie State Park 15

3 Mary Jane Thurston State Park 18

4 Wolf Creek Park 21

Northeast 24

5 Beaver Creek State Park 25

6 Big Creek Park 28

7 Fernwood State Forest: Hidden Hollow Campground 31

S Findley State Park 34

9 Harrison State Forest: Ronsheim Campground 37

10 Jefferson Lake State Park 40

11 Nimisila Reservoir Metro Park 43

12 Punderson State Park 46

13 Tappan Lake 49

14 West Branch State Park 52

Southeast 55

15 American Electric Power (AEP) Recreation Land 56

16 Barkcamp State Park 61

17 Blue Rock State Park 64

18 Burr Oak Cove Campground 67

19 Burr Oak State Park 70

20 Forked Run State Park 73

21 Hocking Hills State Park 76

22 Jesse Owens State Park 79

23 Lake Alma State Park 82

24 Lake Hope State Park 85

25 Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area 88

26 Leith Run Recreation Area 91

27 National Foiest Covered Bridge Scenic Byway 94

28 Piedmont Lake 98

29 Salt Fork State Park: Primitive Campground 101

30 Strouds Run State Park 104

31 Tar Hollow State Park 107

32 Wolf Run State Park 110

Southwest 113

33 Germantown Metropark 114

34 Great Seal State Park 117

35 John Bryan State Park 120

36 Miami Whitewater Forest 123

37 Paint Creek State Park 126

38 Pike Lake State Park 129

39 Scioto Trail State Park: Hike-In Campground 132

40 Shawnee State Park 135

41 Stonelick State Park 138

Central 141

42 A.W. Marion State Park 142

43 Delaware State Park 145

44 Dillon State Park 148

45 Kokosing Lake Campground 151

46 Mohican State Park and Forest 154

Lake Erie Region 158

47 East Harbor State Park 159

48 Geneva State Park 162

49 Kelleys Island State Park 165

50 South Bass Island State Park 168

Appendix A Camping Equipment Checklist 171

Appendix B Sources of Information 172

Index 173

About the Author 177