Best Tent Camping near Centerburg, OH

Make sure you get a reservation at the kiosk by the ranger station in the forest. Do not go to the state park as that is completely different. For the forest office I go to Co Rd 939, Perrysville, OH 44864

Do not camp illegally or without a reservation. They do post signs and ask other campers to report the illegal camping.  

The sunset photo is by the entrance of the parking lot to the campsite.  This is the 2nd easiest campsite to walk into out of the 10.  If you have any mobility issues this is the second best camp site to go to as most of it is along the wide access road and mountain bike trail. The parking lot was clean and easy to access. 

I had limited cell phone signal while here but this had the best signal out of the 10 sites. 

All of the Park and Pack camp sites do not have a bathroom. As you can see from this site I took the time to take a picture of the moon pole.  So do leave no trace of your bathroom habits. 

This site was great for both hammocks and tents.  You could have a small group here and not feel crowded. The camp fire set up is awesome. We had another camper over by that spot so I didn't take pictures of his gear.  He had a hammock and tent set up. He was camping at the spot for a week for his vacation. On our last night at this site another backpacker came through and set up.  Make sure you get a reservation and look closely at the board at the kiosk.  Our main camper at this site was gracious as he had booked the site for the week most folks didn't realize the site was taken as his name was so far up the clipboard.  We weren't alone in not realizing that and he enjoyed the brief company we provided as good neighbors to each other.

We had reservations, but didn’t figure out how to check in. The site numbers were very hard to see and figure out. The numbers didn’t appear to be sequential. The worst part for us was that there were no tent pads for pitching the tent. We were there during a very rainy time and had to pitch the tent in a ditch. Water flowed under the tent so we had quite a bit of mud on the bottom of the tent when we packed up. Luckily our tent kept us dry inspite of its location. Space was extremely limited. The picnic table was on the driveway. There was poison ivy less than a foot from our tent. Restrooms and showers were adequate, but toilet paper rolls would fall in the floor if you weren’t careful. All three showers drained into the middle stall making it difficult to keep thing dry.

A new site for us at this campground, site 59 which is an inside site. We also had friends who booked 2 inside sites very nearby so we were able to all set up in the middle and share a large space for 10 people and 7 dogs. We were able to be socially distant, have space for cornhole and lots of room for the dogs. Our site pad was pretty level. My husband went over the pad just a little onto the grass, as the other side sloped. So when we stepped out of the camp, we wouldn't be stepping down on a slope. This is one of the quietest campgrounds we go to even though there is plenty for kids to do (playground). Had the weather been better, we would have brought our kayaks for the lake. You have three different types of restrooms. The ones closest to use are the drop toilets, a little further is a porta potty and the furthest was the flush toilets (no showers). It's our little slice of heaven so we like to try a new site each time if we are able. We take our dogs with us so we have to be a little more picky so we don't bother anyone.

After staying one night in non-electric we were able to transfer to an electric site thanks to our great camp hosts. They let us know that one had opened and recommended us to call in the next morning. We were able to get an electric site that was on the inside, a site we would have never chosen otherwise as we have dogs and try to find a space with no one behind us. The site was actually really nice. There was grass and some partial shade. We had room for our ez-up tent, our pop-up bathroom and still room to set up our chairs and walk the dogs without bothering our neighbors. Our friends had the site next to us and they were able to use the trees to hang their hammocks. There was a nice fire ring and the pad was easy to level our a-frame camper. We had another set of neighbors who were in a class A motorhome (it was huge!). Everyone we talked to were very friendly. We were closer to the vault toilets (they were kept clean) and the playground. It was Fourth of July weekend and the campground was really quiet. If you have kayaks, you can drive them down the hill next to the campground to get into the lake. If you like to hike or mountain bike there are trails to use as well.

Site 32 - A new site for us at this campground. We had shade in the morning but lots of sun in the afternoon. This site is on the outside and backs up to trees. There is lots grass and space - good for us to walk the dogs and not have them pee and poop where we were sitting. Bathrooms were cleaned regularly and they have flush, vault and portable toilets. There are no showers. This was our first time to kayak which you can launch right near the campground. It’s a little mucky at the bottom of the hill but if you take the path off to the right there is a small beach which is much easier to launch from. There is a small island that has two spots you can stop on and then swim. Lots of birds to see and plenty of other kayakers and fisherman. They are now selling wood and ice at the campground but the store is still closed. A gas station is right down the road in case you forget anything.

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.

Site 56 - We have stayed at this site before with electric. You don’t have close neighbors and the trail is right off your site. Good for you but invited others coming off the trail if they don’t know where they are going. We put up a piece of flagging tape to block off hikers and bikers. It’s a smaller campground with both electric and non- electric sites. Currently there are no walk-ins permitted so the walk-in sites have been made reservable. There is a playground with two vault toilets in the electric - which were very clean. They also have portables in the other end which is non-electric. There are also two flushable toilets by the group campsites. The camp hosts (Diane, John and Steve) were great and very friendly. No showers, sinks or full hookups so come prepared. The marina is on the other side of the lake, just a short drive if you want to kayak. If you like to hike or mountain bike the trail is 5 miles around the lake and very pretty.

This was a last minute decision to camp which led us to getting a non-electric site. The pad was level and the site was mostly shaded. There was hardly any grass and a ton of dead leaves. My husband brought the leaf blower so we were able to clean up the site a little more. If it had rain, it could have gotten a little muddy. There was plenty of room for our ez-up tent for our kitchen set up and plenty of room for 1-2 tents. We have an a-frame popup camper so we had more space to walk around. The fire ring was nice and it had a grate you could use to cook on it (not all of them do). We were along the main road, but it's not a very busy park so we weren't worried about noisy traffic. Across the road were the flush toilets which does have a light that comes on at night. The restrooms were kept clean (no showeres). Next to the bathrooms is the dump station and it can get stinky if they happen to come by to do maintenance (which they did). If you have kids, this site is really far from the playground but there is a basketball court and volleyball net near by and an open field for play. There are also three porta-potties in the non-electric if you don't mind them. It's not a bad site especially since it offers shade. There is a very helpful camp host at the entrance of non-electric as well. (3 stars for a non-grassy site and the close to the dump station)

This was my second time enjoying Mohican State Forest’s Park & Pack sites. I took my daughter to site 10 for an overnighter.

If you’re unfamiliar w/ the Park & Pack system I found this PDF to be extremely useful.

http://www.backpackohio.com/etrails/bpo_mohican.pdf

As others have stated, make sure to sign in at the kiosk, you can find it here:

950 ODNR Mohican Road 60 (County Road 939), Perrysville, Ohio 44864

There’s no reservations, you show up, see what sites are available, sign in and drive to the appropriate parking area.

After signing in at the kiosk we drove and parked at the upper parking area for sites 8-10. The last 1/4 mile of the road is pretty rutted, so if you have a low profile vehicle you may need to park at the lower area (which isn’t much of a parking area and the Rangers don’t really want anyone parking there).

Site 10 is about 3/4 of a mile down the trail from the upper parking area. Well marked and easy to find. There are plenty of areas to set up shelter and hang hammocks. After my daughter and I set up camp near the fire ring we explored and found spots below the SE edge.

You can find a short “trail” at the NE edge of the campsite that leads down to a ledge where a couple unofficial fire rings have been built. You can also get there by continuing east past the last Site 10 trail marker. The trail is a bit over grown but was still easily followed. It will loop around towards the south then back west leading into the lower area.

The whole area is beautiful and scenic. I’d like to head back in the fall and or winter to enjoy the view of the gorge in different seasons. The site is fairly remote, we only saw a hiker while hiking in and heard mountain bikers riding down the trail NW of Site 10. The only con I would give the site is there’s no water source, so you have to pack in all your water needs. Being the middle of summer that was quite a bit for my daughter and me. Packs were much lighter on the way out.