This was our 1st stay at this park. Very clean and nice, would stay here again. We had site 113 and had the lake behind us. We watched the fish jumping and splashing. It offered the usual picnic table and fire pit. My only complaint is people. two sites down there were 4 adults. I don't know why but they decided to start playing their instruments and singing most of the night. I know shame on me for not saying anything but you never know who or what yo are dealing with. We camped here in a Truck Camper.
If you are looking for more rustic camping then this is your place. The campground itself is nice, just not great. The sites have a asphalt pad which is nice and most sites are heavily wooded and private. We had a lakefront site though you couldn't tell because of all the tree's. If all of the smaller trees were cut in a 12ft path to the lake the view would be priceless. The bathrooms are cleaned by "host campers", our bathroom was always clean, its just very old and dingy. There are no paper towels, hand dryers or soap, so make sure you bring something to clean your hands after. The picnic tables were old and rotted in our section but they looked new in others. The park was quite at night and seemed to be 95% families. This park is about 40 min to gettysburg, 1 hr to Hershey, 50 min to Lancaster county (Amish country) and 1.5 hours to downtown Baltimore. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
In my opinion, this is one of the nicest facilities in the PA State Park system. An extremely nice campground, many great sites, fantastic hiking trails and activities, and a pretty lake. While we don't have pets, many of our friends do and (as noted ina prior review) the ridiculous State Park pet rules makes camping at a PA State Park with a pet pretty restrictive and, realistically, not worth it. They have very strange and arbitrary pet rules. We camped here in a Motorhome.
We had the worst experience here. This park gives you the impression that you can bring your pet with you. Well, thats true... you just can't leave your campsite with your dog. You can't even walk around the campground. We had our (very well behaved) dog on a leash down by the water while my kids paddled the kayaks. There was a sign that said all pets had to be on a leash and ours was. So you can assume from that, that pets can be in this area. Out of nowhere this extremely rude old lady starts yelling that I can't have my dog sitting there with us. Though nowhere does it state this. So I put my dog in our truck to wait for the kids. A few minutes later she (now I know "SHE" was the campground host! Unbelievable). Anyway, a few minutes later her goon of a husband and another "bouncer" were sent to check if I had removed the dog. They said she could not even be in the truck in this area. Totally Ridiculous!The point of this weekend was to get away and relax as I had just been diagnosed with MS and really needed to just chill out. I felt like I was in prison! They did have a dog trial, but it was ungroomed and strewn with rocks, muddy and inaccessible to someone recovering their mobility. Park Rangers, never around either. We couldn't leave fast enough and will not stay in another PA state park ever! We camped here in a Tent.
This is one of the nicest state park campgrounds I’ve seen. It has a huge variety of sites, and they make it fairly easy for us with long rigs to maneuver around. Park has swimming, boating, and plenty of hiking trails. Verizon wireless signals are strong, and Verizon wireless internet works at broadband speed. Most sites are level, and offer at least a little bit of privacy. It certainly isn’t far out in the country, but if you want to camp somewhere that is still close to shopping and other amenities, this is the place. You are about half way between Harrisburg and York PA, and less than 25 minutes from both. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
Overall, the campground was fairly clean and maintained. We stayed in site #337, which was 3 sites down from the boat launch. Oddly, the first night there were 675,497,853 bugs in the park….all but 3 of them, in our site. The second night….none. The site driveway was fairly level; although the site sloped down from the picnic table (a little too close to the driveway, due to the slope) to the fire pit. We were a little worried about the kids stumbling down the slope, into the fire. There was plenty of room for the slide. Around the park, there are excellent areas for picnics, and swimming. A lot of boat rentals are available (canoes, rowboats.) Downsides….there are no dumpsters within the campground. You have to hold your trash, until on your way out of the campground, to drop into the dumpster area. The bathrooms, while clean, are a little old. The shower areas are NOT private, by any means. Lastly, I would be the last person to hold against the campground, the fact that there were a LOT of noisy neighbors (laughing and loud talking, as late as 3:00 AM.) However, after experiencing this on Friday night, we complained to the ranger. Their response was that there was a concert on Friday night…so Saturday night should not be as bad. Well…it was worse!! I NEVER saw a ranger making any rounds around the sites. And, at midnight, when I tried calling the station to complain….I only got the answering machine. When we first arrived at the campground, we asked where we could buy wood (being as how it is a crime to bring any.) We were floored that they don’t sell any firewood in the park. When we asked where we could get some…..we were actually told “I don’t know….I never use any.” Essentially, there was very little service out of the Ranger group, at this park. Pitty, cause otherwise…it is a nice park. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
The park itself is beautiful with many shaded sites and a lake with swimming access. The problem lies in the cleanliness of the restrooms, or lack thereof. We had to go out of our way to ensure we had and kept our shower shoes on when showering because the showers appeared that dirty!! If not for this one problem, I would have been inclined to rate this State park much better. Each site has it's own fire ring. Each site has a macadam spot for the rig. The parking was rather lacking though. I would stay here again because of the beauty of the area and would hope that the restrooms were better taken care of by then. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
Of all the state parks we've camped at in Pennsylvania, Pinchot is by far our favorite. Most of the sites are roomy and reasonably private, especially in the B loop. Some of the A loop sites are closer together, but still not at all bad. The sites are all paved and most are fairly level. Some sites do have a drop-off going to the fire ring and picnic table. The shower houses are a bit dated but are clean. There are no sites with water but there are several spots throughout the campground where you can fill your tank. We always try to reserve a spot in the B loop, close to the beach or one of the sites with access to the lake from the site itself. The 300+ acre lake is great for kayaking, canoeing, sailing and fishing. The campground has its own beach for swimming. There are miles of hiking trails, all pretty well marked, and the roads through the campground are paved for walking or bicycling. There are some ranger-led programs in the park, and quite a few things to do in the immediate area outside the park. We camped here in a Tent Trailer.
Park is great. Many different sections to camp in. We always stayed in slot 210. Across from the bath house. I recall they have several bath houses. Clean and quiet park. Spacious lots, and gravel with black top access roads. Good step off point for the state capital visits. No major highways so quiet. Camping sites have their own beach. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
This state park is just average. Our site was nice, but not as spacious as we like. We had shade, but some sites do not. The bathrooms were old but nice & clean. The lake was a big disappointment. We had planned to swim, but the water at the campground beach looked so murky that we didn't want to go in it. You can rent canoes or kayaks, & those looked relatively new. The park was nice and quiet on thursday night, but filled up on friday. We camped here in a Tent Trailer.
A nice, cheap state park located between Harrisburg and York. All of the sites are paved and level, which is a plus. Most sites feature privacy - lots of room for a campfire or outdoor dinner. The lake is nice and has a swimming area with polite lifeguards. You can rent boats, go hiking, frisbee golf and other activities. The park is mostly flat and features several streets, which is great for biking. There is no water or sewer here, which leads to busy moments at the park's four-input dumping station. There are several locations to fill up on water. This park appears to be favored by tent campers. There were several the weekend we stayed overnight and the park was incredibly busy over the Memorial Day weekend when we visited for the day. We'll be back for another quick trip. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.