Are you in need of a campground near Athens, OH? There are tons of hikes and other fun activities to partake in, as well as sights to see and explore. Find the best campgrounds near Athens, OH. Read helpful reviews and tips to find the perfect camping option for you and your crew.
Hocking Hills State Park offers camping all year round - electric sites, camper cabins, group camps, and primitive sites.
156 electric sites (with 20, 30 or 50 amp electric) and 13 non-electric sites.
Each site has a paved pad and can accommodate up to a 50' unit. Heated showers. Flush toilets. Laundry facility. Dump station. Camp store. Swimming pool for registered campers. Playgrounds. Volleyball court and horseshoe pit. Tent-only group camps are available by reservation. There are also 30 walk-in family sites with pit latrines.
All Hike-In Campgrounds are off the main Entrance and depending on the Site No. It requires up to 0.5 miles to hike from the Parking Lot. You have to drive to a different Parking Lot on State route 374. All sites starting with "H“ will be on the different location.
$29 - $46 / night
Pets are permitted on all sites. Sites 44-60 are electric. Sites 1-43 and 61-95 are non-electric. Sites 65-81 are tent camping only.
There are 78 primitiive campsites and one group site available for organized groups. Latrines, waste drains, picnic tables and fire rings are provided 10 sites are available for campers with pets
Lake Snowden is a 675-acre education and recreation park, featuring the largest of four lakes, which form the Margaret Creek Conservancy District.
The lake covers approximately 136-acres offering camping, boating, fishing, picnicking and swimming. The serene setting reveals natural beauty while maintaining the convenience of being just 5 miles from Athens, Ohio. The shelter houses, restroom facilities, beach, shoreline fishing holes, and fish hatchery make Lake Snowden a full-featured recreation park.
Lake Snowden was built for the Margaret Creek Conservancy District in 1968 with federal funds through the Farmer’s Home Administration and the Soil Conservation Service in an effort to control flooding. It opened to the public in 1972. In 1998, Hocking College purchased Lake Snowden from Le-Ax Water District.
Burr Oak Cove Campground is a small densely wooded campground on the northwest tip of Burr Oak Reservoir in Athens County. The campground has 19 camping units, including walk-in sites which offer additional seclusion to the camper looking for solitude.
$10 - $15 / night
Hocking Hills State Park offers camping all year round - electric sites, camper cabins, group camps, and primitive sites.
156 electric sites (with 20, 30 or 50 amp electric) and 13 non-electric sites.
Each site has a paved pad and can accommodate up to a 50' unit. Heated showers. Flush toilets. Laundry facility. Dump station. Camp store. Swimming pool for registered campers. Playgrounds. Volleyball court and horseshoe pit. Tent-only group camps are available by reservation. There are also 30 walk-in family sites with pit latrines.
All Hike-In Campgrounds are off the main Entrance and depending on the Site No. It requires up to 0.5 miles to hike from the Parking Lot. You have to drive to a different Parking Lot on State route 374. All sites starting with "H“ will be on the different location.
$29 - $46 / night
Pets are permitted on all sites. Sites 44-60 are electric. Sites 1-43 and 61-95 are non-electric. Sites 65-81 are tent camping only.
Guide
Easy pull-thru site for our small travel trailer. Each pull-thru is set-up for horses, but RVs are allowed (according to NFS website). Maybe because it was Halloween night, maybe due to hunting season, I dunno, but there seemed to be more traffic than expected for this road. Our only neighbors got a little... rowdy, but it was okay.
Campsite fee is $15 on the honor system. If you have a National Park's Golden Age or Access pass, they honor a 50 percent discount.
I had good 4G ATT cell service. Worked well, with no drops. Data was a bit slower than usual but still good.
The only facilities here were a single pit toilet (surprisingly clean) and a trash can at each site. There may be more services during the height of the season, at least water for horses, but nothing else I could tell.
A short distance further down the road, just after it turns to gravel, at the Old Stone Church trailhead, there are grassy places to back in smaller campers/RVs. And even further down the road, after it turns back to asphalt :D, there's a private campground with utilities, I think, but we only saw it and didn't check it out.
Guide
Autumn is the best time to experience this Park. Less crowded than summer. 5 million visitors last year. More than Yellowstone. Guided hike was the best.
Traveler
Tent site was nice. We could make dinner and there weren’t any mosquitoes even though it was right above a swamp. It was a nice driving distance from Hocking Hills and a neat place to camp.
Scout
Bathrooms very clean. Loved the free games. Cabin was very clean and had comfortable beds. Doesn’t make sense to have quiet time at dark when bar nearby plays loud music outside till late.
Scout
Drove past Sandy Hollow which is another great Dispersed Campground with around 82 sites to cover all types of vehicles within a mile of Hook Lake.
Hook Lake has less sites but also sites to handle all types of vehicles.
I am here in October and there are very few other campers, two at the moment.
I chose a site on a hill that I was able to get my 40+ rig into, I was all by myself with a great view.
I have Verizon which is almost constant, and TMobile which is spotty. Other sites might not have as good of cell service.
They have trash, but no water.
Both of the Camp Grounds mentioned there is no danger of getting a big rig into and not out of so don’t be afraid.
Guide
Small campground with sunny and shady spots. Host on site. Pit toilets clean but a few insects flying. Dumpster available by bathroom. Register at kiosk by bathroom. FF sites only. Besides host only 1 camper. FREE!!!
GuideThis is a great place to visit and camp. I am a tent camper so I was in the non electric site. The hiking is fantastic. Rose lake is also a wonderful lake and quite beautiful. Will always come back
Guide
Was a “okay” small area to stay at for free. There was a lot of bees, yellow jackets. The bathroom was clean, but the "non-flush" toilet was just gross.
Ranger
I stayed in the non-electric, tent-only campground NOT the RV campground. Out of curiosity, I drove through the RV campground and it was so loud and cramped! But the tent-only area is separate. Walk-in sites with pit toilets and potable water. The map of how the sites are laid out online is extremely inaccurate, I would not have picked my site if it had been accurate. But there was only one other camper and we all had plenty of space - I could barely see them through the trees. All sites appeared to have a picnic table and fire ring. Many miles of trails / dirt roads for hiking and biking. Clear skies at night. Very relaxing.
Scout
Stayed with the family for 5 days/ 4 nights and had a wonderful time. The KOA had a lot of amenities to offer. The staff was friendly, courteous and great to deal with. The sites were nice and wide but not all level but it's an area that has lots of hills. The pool was wonderful, the bathroom was clean and spacious. The camp store has everything you may need with a Walmart 10 minutes down the road. Close to the park to go explore but the KOA had a lot to offer for your stay.
Scout
This campground has been a staple of Hocking Hills for decades. Finally some new owners took over in May ‘24 and have really done an amazing job renovating things. The staff is super friendly, large primitive campsites right on the river with tons of shade trees! They are even building treehouses to stay in. We love it here!
Legend
Narrow roads getting to state park. Campground in need of an update and targeted maintenance. Ensure your rig can fit into your selected site prior to booking as sites can be small and hilly. Sites are asphalt. Not many sites are level. Most patrons seem to be local - weekends full of loud music and drinking.
Scout
Tent sites are on a steep uneven hill, we had site 4. Tent sites are super close, we can hear our neighbors perfectly as if they were talking to us. Only a few feet between each site. Map showed we would be right next to the lake, this is incorrect, lake is not accessible or even visible from campsite.
Scout
If you tent camp they don’t allow access to the bathrooms other than a porta potty open to the public and no showers either. Kinda messed up. The fish were not biting for anyone. It’s part of a public park. The staff were excellent thought, and the price of $20 a night unbeatable. Cheapest to visit the Mothman
TravelerIt was a good campground, we had a hard time getting our rv to be level but overall we enjoyed it.
Traveler
Did a quick one night stop while traveling. Just what we were looking for. Friendly family owned campground with nice quiet environment. Nice scenic drive to campground only 7 miles off of Hwy 35. No
Traveler
I highly recommend pop's place. I stayed there Aug 2024 and as of that date the rustic tent camping was $20. This is an ideal base camp for riding your motorcycle on the scenic roads in that area of Ohio such as the triple nickel. The owners are very nice people and helpful. The porta john and shower were very clean. The shower uses an on demand water heater. The narrow cabin you see in some photos is now a gravel pad for RV type camping with electric. The wider cabin in the photos is still there, but was currently rented so he couldn't take me on a tour of it. He took me on a tour of the new cabin he is building and it will be a nice play to stay when he is done. They sell firewood for $5. The common grass area has wood lounge chairs, common fire ring, playground, and cornhole boards. If you are tent camping and need to charge your phone he has no problem with you using the electric outlet at the RV site if no one is there. I forgot to suggest to him that maybe add an external electric outlet at the shower house since electric is there for the water heater. There is a spigot on the outside of the shower house to get drinking water. There is a basketball backboard near the current cabin if you happen to bring a basketball for your kids to use. There is good verizon cell service there, I did not expect it because of the location and hills in the area. I don't hammock camp, but it looked like there were trees far enough apart in the line of pines for hanging 2 hammocks. One of the photos showed 3 picnic tables for tent campers. There was only one when I stayed, but I assume it's a temporary or cyclical thing and I was the only tent camper and would have shared it anyway.
Of note for motorcyclists is that the road the campground is on is paved (good riding to the north of it) and the campground drive is decent gravel for street bikes.
Traveler
I was here before they sold out and seeing it now makes me sad. The bathrooms were gross, the arenas had weeds shooting up. This was a very nice place to take the horses, now it's an overpriced average campground with absolutely nothing to write home about.
Traveler
Very quiet campground with little to no other riders around. Only complaint would be the non equestrians staying in the equestrian area
Guide
This campground has been around since the 1800s. It has a lot of permanent residents and we had a lot of fun checking out the different set ups.
There are a lot of amenities but they need updated. The playgrounds need replaced. The activities building had a pool and game room area, which we used a lot. These were dated as well but our kids had a blast and that is all that matters.
Everyone we engaged with at the campground was very pleasant. We went midweek so it was not very crowded other than the permanent residents. The park is very quiet.
We did a couple day trips down to Pomeroy, which is a nice little river town with ice cream, playgrounds, and shops less than five miles from the campground.
TravelerWe stayed there years ago. Our only complaint was how close the sites are together. Some are down over banks & some are on a slant. It was rather noisy when we were there too. Nice beach area for swimming though!
Scout
This is our first time staying at a non state park. I was a little nervous, but I already booked our next visit here ! To start, the staff are absolutely amazing and so kind. We stayed at site 61 and the lake view is perfect. Bring your hammock because there are plenty of trees !!
There is a great playground for kids and a swimming hole. The bathrooms are so clean. You can kayak on the lake and they do have rentals .
Ranger
Camped at the west side of the vaulted toilet lot. Arrived about 5 PM and all 3 camping spots were empty. Lots of trucks and toy haulers heading up the various roads into the late evening. We slept soundly, made breakfast and were on our way. Great stop over location. Vaulted toilet and garbage cans were a welcome bonus.
Guide
We spent one night of dispersal camping here. It was a beautiful area with a vault toilet. We felt safe enough to leave our windows only screened.
There were fishermen coming and going several times through the night.
The vault toilet had not been cleaned recently, nor had trash been emptied.
RangerThis is a very nice campground near all of the attractions of Hocking Hills, Ohio. We had full hookups that were excellent, but if we didn't there were several new restrooms throughout the grounds. The camp store has the usual stuff you'll find and is always seems to have a friendly attendant behind the counter. There are several fun things for the kids to do, including a very large bounce pad and a pretty nice looking playground. There's a somewhat small swimming area, but it seems to be pretty clean for a pond. The campground is right on Lake Logan and there's access to the water at the bottom of the grounds. There's also boat rentals right around the corner.
ScoutMy kinda place
Guide
First time at this park booked last minute so options were limited wasn't sure what leftovers we would get but ended up with 2 great sites. We lucked out and had 2 trees just right for hammock relaxing but it seems like lots of sites have no trees just depends on the section of park not alot of privacy between. Sites but there huge so you don't feel stuffed in next to everyone. Shower houses are limited 1 in each section but plenty of flush bathrooms located all over and kept very clean. Internet works very well verizon and att.
Camping near Athens, Ohio, offers a mix of beautiful landscapes and outdoor activities. Whether you're looking for a family-friendly spot or a quiet getaway, there are plenty of campgrounds to choose from.
Camping around Athens, Ohio, has something for everyone, from families to RV enthusiasts. Just remember to plan ahead and enjoy the great outdoors!
Frequently Asked Questions
What camping is available near Athens, OH?
According to TheDyrt.com, Athens, OH offers a wide range of camping options, with 122 campgrounds and RV parks near Athens, OH and 9 free dispersed camping spots.
Which is the most popular campground near Athens, OH?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular campground near Athens, OH is Hocking Hills State Park Campground with a 4.4-star rating from 107 reviews.
Where can I find free dispersed camping near Athens, OH?
According to TheDyrt.com, there are 9 free dispersed camping spots near Athens, OH.
What parks are near Athens, OH?
According to TheDyrt.com, there are 27 parks near Athens, OH that allow camping, notably Wayne National Forest and Dillon Lake.
