Independence Dam State Park Campground
Lee D.The Dyrt PRO User
Reviewed Sep. 8, 2019

Not feeling the love

When researching our trip, I came upon this state park right on the Maumee River and was very surprised to find it had not been previously reviewed. The website indicated the sites were tent only but when I called, I was told we could park and sleep in our campervan. When I tried to make reservations, there was a two-night minimum on the weekends and we were just passing through so I decided to see if we might be able to snag one night if there were sites available. 

There is a two-mile road to the campsites once you enter the park and along the way, we passed many pull-out day-use picnic areas on nicely manicured grounds. Once we reached the campsites, there seemed to be less attention paid to the area. Turns out that there were only a very few sites that had paved pads that would accommodate our van; the rest were clearly for tents only (but there was no way to tell this from the website). Even though I had seen that about half of the sites were reserved, there was no one there at 4:30 on a Friday. There did not seem to be any staff or rangers on-site and there is self-registration. The rates seemed kind of steep ($19 on weekdays; $20 weekends and $22 on holiday weekends) for sites with no hookups and only porta-potties. We saw some people fishing near the dam and perhaps the campground would be suitable for these folks and/or people boating/kayaking in who portage down the river (there is a marina) but it just did not feel like a place we wanted to camp.

Month of VisitOctober
  • Review photo of Independence Dam State Park Campground by Lee D., September 8, 2019
  • Review photo of Independence Dam State Park Campground by Lee D., September 8, 2019
  • Review photo of Independence Dam State Park Campground by Lee D., September 8, 2019
  • Review photo of Independence Dam State Park Campground by Lee D., September 8, 2019
  • Review photo of Independence Dam State Park Campground by Lee D., September 8, 2019
  • Review photo of Independence Dam State Park Campground by Lee D., September 8, 2019
  • Review photo of Independence Dam State Park Campground by Lee D., September 8, 2019
  • Review photo of Independence Dam State Park Campground by Lee D., September 8, 2019