The best camping near
Blacklick Estates , OHIO

I love the buckeye lake koa. Great cabins and amazing fishing.

Our first time camping at Alum Creek this past week (our vacation for 2020) and we were at site G27, at the end of the cul-de-sac. Our pad was very level and the site was a nice size with neighbors blocked by trees (a bonus). We did have a path next to the site, not necessarily for hiking, but a few kids rode their bikes down it. The fire ring was nice and big with a great cooking grate. Only bad thing thing about it was that it was so high off the ground that your wood would burn quickly. We tried to pound it in more, no go, so we added rocks around the outside to help. We had plenty of room for our ez-up/kitchen and our privacy tent to try and stay self contained. We were really happy with the site and would book it again. 

We saw a ton of birds, deer, racoon, cat and even a snake in the campground.

The campground had plenty of trails insides itself including a nature trail for the kids (and big kids too). By our site there was beach access for swimming or kayaking (no dogs allowed on this beach). A playground was up by the entrance - a far walk for kiddos from our site. The bathrooms were kept clean and the bathhouse showers were decent as well. They had the bench inside your shower stall which is always a plus.

The campstore was closed during the week, but I understand they have wood and other items (credit card only). But, you can buy wood right down the road from two houses. The one we went to had $5 bags and $10 bags (exact change only). We saw the park staff daily driving around and the Sheriff a couple of days. 

You can even order from the local restaurant and they will deliver it straight to your site - the pizza was delicious!

We enjoyed renting a cabin with the family at several different times.  

The mountain bike trails are so rugged and fun, difficult for biking.  You can hike them too, and they offer nice views of the lake.

The area seems to have a skunk issue at times, and it can get smelly near the cabins.

The cabins have nice fire pits and kitchens have enough space and facilities to make a nice family dinner.

The lake is large enough to boat on and you can do paddling sports there easily. 

The park has tennis courts and lots of other recreation: boating, hiking, swimming, biking.

This campground is nice.  They are all designated campsites but they are first-come-first serve. They are hike-to only.  

It is great for hiking and backpacking camping but if you are looking for car style camping, this is not it.

The trail is challenging terrain, especially when backpacking.  It can be very wet and muddy in the spring (or after any rains), so be prepared for that.  

The road to it is difficult also (as are most with dispersed camping).

There are no amenities except for an outhouse in the parking lot.

This is pack in/pack out.

Site 9, non-electric on Halloween weekend was great. We were one of two campers on our circle. Site 9 has a pretty level pad and has the biggest area to camp in. We are across from the dump station and the flush toilets. Not horrible, but e bathroom does have a light so it could bother some people. Most sites in non-electric have some sort of shade but not all spaces are created equal. Some sites are small and the pads can be unlevel . The electric sites are the same where some have shade and some do not while some pads are level and some are not. There are vault toilets closest to those sites and no full hookups. They have a nice playground and plenty of trail to hike. The trees were past peak leaf season but still very pretty. The camp hosts make it a point to stop out and say hello which is one of the reasons we keep coming back. It’s a tiny park, a diamond in the rough.

We camped here in 2019 and fell in love. It's a great campground with so much to do. Lots for kids of all ages. We had plans on going into town for activities but there was so much to do we spent most of the time in the campground. We swam in the lake and pools. We loved the paddle boat ducks and swans. The kids had the best time at archery. We watched them feed the fish at the lake in the morning, that was such a fun experience. I've never seen that many fish that big up close. The tent area was right next to a hiking trail which the kids loved exploring. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. The bathrooms were clean and well maintained. We can't wait to go back

Site 29 - this was a nice site in tall pine trees and colors all around. The pad was gravel and pretty level. We had trees in our site that could be used for hammocks as well. We were able to set up our ez-up and still have room to walk our dogs. It wasn’t the biggest site, but definitely not the smallest. We had electric for our camper. We had a good storm one night that caused a small pool of water out front and around the fire ring, but both areas drained very well the next day. There are vault toilets at the end of the road and a very nice shower house as you drive in that were clean all weekend. The park had a couple of playgrounds for kids, disc golf course and lots of hiking trails. The camp store is now open with limited hours. Wood is available but it’s all slab cut. There are also permanent cornhole boards. There are full hook up sites as well but are right next to one another and not a lot of trees. You can drive down to the lake and kayak and fish. It’s a very small campground with a very big park.

Beautiful hiking, great views of the lake. Nice place to put a boat/kayak in the water. Downside, very few sites have water/sewer hookup. They do have locations to get potable water and a dump station on the way out of the park, we were just hoping to have a water hookup on site.

Great spot for walk in or hike in camping! There are a couple of campsites at the trailhead and quite a few all along the trail. There is a 5 mile loop or a longer ~15 mile loop that you can hike and there are campsites every couple of miles. The sites themselves are just semi-cleared areas with stone fire rings so it is totally primitive camping. The trails can be a bit muddy after it rains and probably take a long time to dry out down in the valleys. While there is water in the valleys I wouldn’t use it even with a filter. There are signs posted at the trailhead that advise against it plus there is still active oil drilling in one of the hollows (the only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars) There is cell service when you’re up in the ridges but there are a lot of dead zones in the valleys and even at the trailhead. Overall, it was a beautiful, quiet place and I only saw 2 other people in the trail while I was hiking out the second day.

Cool little campground. First come first served with no reservations accepted. The sites are clean with picnic tables and fire rings and can accommodate small RVs. There are a couple of vault style outhouses, dump stations and a couple of water stations as well. No electric or water hookups, though. Came on a Thursday and there were only two sites occupied so it was nice and quiet even though there is a bit of road noise from the nearby roads. There’s also an easy 1 mile trail down to Burr Cove proper. The sites are $15 ($10 in the off season when the water is turned off) and you pay at an honor box at the entrance once you pick your spot.