Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Ripley, NY

Willow bay campground is run by the National Forest Service. The reservable lots are wide and numerous for a out of the way sight. The campground services tent sites, RV sites as well as small cabins with electricity. There is a central bathhouse near the oak loop. Closer to the boat ramp sites- most of which are tent ready, there are vault toilets. These sites are less than a mile from the North Country Trail. Other, smaller trails are here as well. The New York State lone is less than five miles away- providing access to Allegheny State Park. The closest town of note is Bradford, which is about 18 miles away. It has all you need to get your necessities. The cabins were small- one twin bed and a set of single bunks. You need to bring your own sheets. There is a small heater imbedded in the wall. It keeps things from getting too cold, as it was when I was there. Fire ring and picnic table provided. Charcoal grill as well. The only problem I had was with the wildlife. A mouse or something kep crawling in the space between the roof and ceiling. There is no cel service here, and you shouldn’t need it either. Places to visit are too numerous to mention, but I will give a shout out to the zippo case museum, absolutely a must.

We went to Sara's Campground and walked around the campsite (bayside aka away from the beach and behind the restaurant) from end to end (3 times).  I didn't see a camp host sign or office.  We never did find the main office until the 3rd time when we were driving out of the neighborhood.  They do have a big sign at the entrance but my brain didn't process that they were also across the busy road. 

This campsite is actually on BOTH sides of the road. My passenger spotted them as we were leaving the area after we had passed the area multiple times. It almost looks like they are an extension of the water park for those of us that are out of town. The area is very busy visually so be prepared to accidently drive past it. 

The main campground (bayside) is located behind the restaurants.  The location is awesome as it is right across the road from the beach.  You will want to note that Presque Isle State Park does not have any camping within their park boundaries.  

Sara's charges $30.00 a night and only two adults per tent. The beach camping is first come/first serve (no reservations). No pets on the beach side which may explain why there were some tents over on the bayside (RVs) side of the campground. If you wanted to escape the wind this might be a good spot to tent camp. Also, if you wanted to be close but not too close to the water due to having young children. 

Sara's Diner was closed but seemed to be used for storage for the main business.  We were able to get milk shakes at the eatery. You order at the outside window and then move inside to pick up your milk shake or other food items.  At the other building (Eatery), I asked two employees if they knew where to connect with the campground office but they didn't know what I was talking about.  

We used their cross walk to walk across the main street and we immediately came to the beach.  On the left it was labeled private beach and a wall blocked the view. I didn't realize this might be part of Sara's but also looked like some private property/condos to me. Once on the beach to the right was a long beautiful shore line. It would be an easy walk and carry of beach items. I was hoping we could camp at the site and get a post card to reserve a spot for the upcoming year.  

We did see folks camping in tents behind the restaurants with the RVs. The ground was slightly sandy and they looked comfortable. We looked on with campsite envy. Some folks may prefer this as it is back a bit from the shore so it isn't windy the whole time and less sandy. Either side had easy access to the bike trail and I would have felt safe riding my bike on their bike trail.  It was a smooth paved lane that was mostly away from traffic. 

Presque Isle Lighthouse Open 7 days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.$7— House Tour and Tower Climb$3— House Tour FREE— Walk the grounds Taken from https://www.presqueislelighthouse.org/

We also did the boat tour https://piboattours.com/lady-kate/  This was $16.00 and well worth it.  We were able to learn a lot about the history of the island.  It is naturally windy and out on the open water so make sure you take some layers as it can get chilly even in July. 

We then hit the road to continue to find another campsite.  If you don't mind crowds and noise from the road, RVs, or other campers then this is the site for you.  It has a great location that cannot be beat for ease of access to the beaches.

You really feel like you're camping when you're here!  The campsites are large and not crowded on top of each other.  There are woods between the sites which increases privacy and keeps it really quiet.

Buckaloons is right on the Allegheny River and there's a boat ramp onsite. If you're a paddler make sure to visit Allegheny Outfitters just up the road in Warren and get a river guidebook.  

Given its location on the river this is a great place to make several different runs down the river. You can start or end at Buckaloons and make many different combinations of trips to suit your fancy. 

There is a shower house onsite. Many sites are electric and there is a dump station on the grounds. Pet friendly.

Worth the visit!

Campground Review

I can honestly say that Oil Creek Family Campground is the best private campground that we have ever camped at. Especially if you’re camping with kids, it offers everything that you would want for a ‘great American summer’ style camping experience, without being a cookie-cutter big-name private campground chain. They have a large pool; a few llamas that the kids can feed and pet; a 27-hole disc golf course (recently expanded from 18 hole) primarily in the woods near and around the campground property; a small pond for sunfish / bass fishing; a dog ‘playground’ (enclosed area with some obstacles); a well-maintained hedge maze; a pavilion with ping pong, a pool table, and foosball; a DVD rental program at the main office with about 300 movies; and a small camp store with a small selection of books that you can borrow. They also provide weekly entertainment for the kids, e.g. rock painting or special guests. This weekend, for instance was ‘Jungle Terry and his amazing exotic animal family.’ We don’t typically spend a ton of time actually AT the campgrounds when we’re camping, but we did this weekend - and we had a blast on the disc golf course, fishing in the pond, and playing ping pong. The kids had an awesome time in the pool for hours and running around with the other kids in the maze. And everyone agreed that it was a perfect way to wrap up the summer before the school year starts.

We have a pop-up and my parents (whom we were camping with for the weekend) use a tent, so we had two water+electric sites in the tent camping area away from the RVs: sites A7 and A8. The sites in this area are well-maintained and LARGE, with plenty of room for a pop-up or multiple tents plus one or two vehicles, plus lots of room around the fire ring. There are smaller bathrooms placed around the campground as well as a center bathhouse located adjacent to the pavilion with 2 shower stalls and an additional toilet per gender.

We chose this campground due to its proximity to Oil Creek State Park. The state park itself does not have a campground, and OCFC is right next door - in fact, the campground hiking trail loop has a very short connecting piece to the 36-mile Gerard hiking trail that runs through the park. The park is beautiful with a lot of history (it is the site of the world’s first commercial oil well, and where the oil industry began in the United States around 1860) and Oil Creek - which is really a river - runs right down the middle of the park. It is a stocked creek and it’s great for both trout and bass fishing. Some parts of the creek also have a lot of northern water snakes (we saw 4 near the Blood Farm day use area) which was cool to see.

Overall: fantastic campground in a beautiful part of Pennsylvania - and we will absolutely be back.

Product Review

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get occasionally receive products to test or gift cards for new companies to check out.  Over the past weekend, we tried out one of the Mountain House favorites, freeze-dried Lasagna with Meat Sauce in the #10 can. Lasagna is not exactly a typical camping food, so the fact that we could easily make enough lasagna to feed a group of six people (4 adults and 2 kids) just by heating up some water was wonderful! We made the entire can (boil 8 cups of water, pour it into the can itself, stir a lot to mix up all of the freeze-dried ingredients, and let it sit for ten minutes - EASY) along with some crescent-roll wrapped hot dogs over the fire and it was like a gourmet camping meal. Everyone loved the lasagna - even the two picky kids!