The park is beautiful: swimming beach, boating, great trails. We did it all and had a great time. Our site was plenty big especially when we had visitors; we had 8 people and two dogs on site without a problem. Some of the tenting sites are really amazing: parking pad on the road and then you set up camp back in the woods or up against the lake! This park is new to having pets and the rules are restrictive. You can walk them in the dog designated section, on the main road and on the trails. You are not allowed to even walk them through the other sections of the campground. Hopefully these rules will relax as they get used to having dogs in the campground. The only other complaint is that the bathhouses are old, they were clean earlier in the day but nasty towards the end. We will definitely camp here again. We loved it and so did the kids. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
We found this park to be OK, but nothing special. There were some nice trails to hike, but that was about it. Many of the sites are quite small, which is fine for tents and pop-ups, but not ideal for larger units. There is a big group area, and the park seemed very popular with scout troops the weekend that we were there. Overall, for the weekend rate of $30 we expected more than an small, electric-only campsite. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
Good camp ground while acknowledging that it is a State Park. Rates are reasonable and they are working on renovating site throughout the campground. The newer sites have flat level pads with a fire ring, table and lantern hook. Older sites have a blacktop pad that are not always level. Bathrooms are clean but utilitarian. We would stay again. We camped here in a Tent Trailer.
Nice quiet campground. Gets VERY busy on weekends. We used this campground as a base camp for Gettysburg and Hershey. Lots of trails to hike on, some are not marked though. Could use a little more playground equipment in area A though. Roads are paved, camping pads are gravel. Restrooms are OK and could use a bit of updating. We would stay here again. We camped here in a Tent Trailer.
This was "home base" for our trip to Gettysburg one one day and our drive into Philadelphia on the next. We had Site 107 which was a nice, generally level, hard driveway with picnic table and firepit. All was in good condition. Campsite was quite adequate in size. There was room for our MH in the back-in site and room for our CRV before the MH. Bathrooms were older and ours were clean, others were not quite as well maintained. Don't go to the park office when arriving, rather go directly to the campground at the SE corner of the park. Our Garmin took us on the very narrow and winding roads, better routes exists (look at your map and stay on the main highways). I had decent cellular and data coverages in the park. Were I coming to this part of PA again, I'd stay here in a moment. We camped here in a Motorhome.
This is a very nice campground with lots of families. There are activities for the kids, for example the weekend we were there, they had a bug hunt by the nature center in the day use area of the park. The campground has its own beach. The beach is nice and the lake water was warm. Bring an umbrella for shade because there is not much shade on the beach. The bathhouses were clean but there was no soap for hand washing so be sure to bring some in with you.Our site, #141 in the A loop was nice and shaded but the fire pit on our site was located close to the campground road. We would have preferred it to be closer to our camper and picnic table. This was probably due to a large tree that was on our site, because the other sites nearby had the fire pit located in a better spot. There was poison ivy everywhere but it was easily avoided so we had no problem with it. There was lots of wildlife to see. We saw three large owls in the trees behind our campsite, and a black rat snake in the campsite next to ours. We also spotted a black rat snake near the nature center. The kids found a salamander. There were lots of chipmunks, too. We will definitely come back. We camped here in a Tent Trailer.
Really nice campground. We are regulars here. The park rangers have been around for us and other guest when ever there has been a problem with any kids causing problems with other kids. The bathrooms are situated close enough for easy access for use. They don't give you one bath house for 50 people or more to use. The bath houses also give you an area inside the shower stall to get dressed in privacy. We camped here in a Tent.
Camped 14th - 16th of May. The weather was perfect. Bugs were hard to find. Showers and bath house were clean in section B. Campground host was very friendly. The DNR personnel made rounds on foot, in car, and ATV. This was our first time here and it was very pleasant. There seemed to be about 100 kids which was good for our kids to play with. The Frisbee golf courses were not groomed so we were not able to play. We did not bring our bikes and that was a big mistake. BRING YOU BIKE! We had great camping neighbors. We will make another trip later this year. We camped here in a Tent Trailer.
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.