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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
Camping is available to both horse and non-horse campers - Horse picket lines (tie lines) are located behind sites 1-10. Sites 11 - 15 do not have the horse picket lines.
$24 / night
$20 - $175 / night
We have built a park in the middle of the beautiful Hocking Hills to accommodate everyone’s desire to get away and enjoy nature. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
$58 / night
Guide
This campground has some features that are nicer than what is found in many state campgrounds. There are some secluded sites back in the woods, so you don't feel like you are camping in a parking lot in a few places. NOTE that most of these secluded sites (along the back edge of the campground) are up a flight of stairs. You have to carry all your gear up a hill or stairs to set up. You will not be near your car, which can get annoying.
The bathrooms were average, not great but not gross. We were there on their Halloween weekend, with a fun site-decorating contest and trick or treat in the afternoon, which was mildly annoying for us because they closed the roads from 2 to 6 so we could not drive back to our site, and when we finally could, someone was in our parking pot for the next hour.
The lakes are quite tiny. The one at the campground is more like a large pond- fine for paddling around on a paddleboard for practice, but don't think you'll get in any meaningful kayaking or sight-seeing on this pond. The other lake is slightly bigger, but still not big enough for kayaking more than a couple hours at most.
The new campground is on the river on what used to be the golf course- I will write a separate review for that.
The lodge has some amenities (pool, hot tub, cafe, bar), but we ate in the restaurant and it was terrible. I do not recommend. Get some apps at the bar if you have to but keep your expectations low. We had pork nachos and the pork tasted old, everything was cold and it gave me a terrible stomachache.
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 camp in Ohio. Lots of small bathrooms. Lake access. Only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was due to the fact there was no quick reentry. Had to wait for rvs in front of me to register.
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.
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
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.
ScoutWe've been to Cowan a few times, first time in this loop and was not disappointed. Bathroom was clean and well stocked through the weekend. Additional vehicles have to pay $3.
Guide
Stayed one night. OHV trails closed for winter. Hiking allowed year-round. Most campsites inaccessible during off-season. Pit toilet closed for winter. Probably busy on weekends during the season. Nice place.
GuideBeautiful area with great hikes and views close by. None accessible directly from our camp which was in the walk in section, separate from the regular camp ground. This area does not have many of the amenities that the other site does, just vault toilets. The walk in can be up to .3 miles so I highly recommend some sort of cart for your gear.
TravelerStayed here for two nights. Saturday was super busy, and we snagged the last available spot with a fire ring. The second night we only had one tent near us. There are plenty of pull-off areas on the road leading up to this trailhead that were being used night one as well. There were restrooms and several fire rings. Cell service was available, but not great.
GuideWe stayed in one of the small cabins and loved it! Very clean, with thoughtful amenities. Hot tub on the back porch. This cabin also comes with two horse stalls. Bridle trail access right from campground.
LegendWe had high hopes for this park because quite a few people raved about it. We did enjoy our stay and got a slightly larger camping spot than some of the others, but the spots were pretty darn close together for a state park. I was staring right into my neighbors door at one point from my camper :( ...we try to avoid campgrounds like tbis...they had a pool which people seemed to enjoy. We did not go in as we don't like busy pools and it was busy, but a nice amenity for some....showers were pretty darn gross for the parks reputation. We have been to many campsites and I'm usually the one complaining about showers and this time my husband came back and said it felt like his tour in Iraq back in 2005 it was so dirty. I did a spray off in our camper after hearing that...... Overall it was quiet though, very family friendly. The trails were peaceful and Old Man's Cave and lower Falls were neat and unique trails, definitely recommend....it was humid and we got rained out during our trip, so didn't do as much hiking as we would have liked. We only had a day there as the next night was booked. We did overall enjoy our time in Ohio!
LegendExcellent location for hiking hocking hills area. Bath houses could really use updating, showers were 50/10 pressure going 200 directions. The only bath house with laundry is the one by the pool. Our site looked much larger in photos but we made it work, although it was pretty steep.
ScoutEvery facility you need. Really engaged staff. Camp Coordinator Linda has a great group of people on board. Very friendly.
Traveler
We went camping in June during the strawberry Moon. We are tent campers, we booked site 185. But once we got there we discovered that the site was slopped down from the pad and not a great place to tent camp. So, we had to find another site. They were booked so we had to cut our vacation short because the only site open for us was reserved for the following weekend. Bummer! There are not alot of spaces for us tent campers no matter where we go. We have to at the least have electric hook ups cause my better half has a CPap he has to sleep wearing. They did have a few premative sites for tent campers. Camp is very well maintained and they are having some construction done on many sites to make them bigger, full hook ups and even Handicap accessable. Great place to ride a bike, or hike or just go for a walk. The shower houses and restrooms were recently redone and in great shape! Though the shower heads could use a changing. Weekends were a bit crowded, but by sunday night the place was cleared out and the rest of the week was quiet and relaxed. Over all a great week. Friendly and helpful staff too. the only issue I had was the state of the Beach, trashed(People there didn't seem to care about throwing their trash around. Shame on them! Also,the sand was so compacted it felt like concrete. Not the best beach. Fishing, well. It seems we didn't have the low down on good fishing spots. All of the public fishing spots were of course taken and along the dam so not great. Lodge is beautiful, and they are doing some construction there. I did not like the food. Guess I am too picky, but when my salad comes out warm and my chicken is cold I do have an issue with that. Didn't seem like they were taking food safety too seriously.
GuideTent camping sites were set back, in the woods, down a private path (about 75’) and totally secluded.
The park had a clean, nice outdoor movie theater, mini golf, and a lake with rentables.
ScoutGreat hiking trails and people are friendly
ScoutThis was our first tent camping experience and over all went really well! Our particular site wasn’t very tent friendly and was overall a little awkward with the placement of hills and our fire pit, but I think that was a one off. We made it work and had a great time! The sites are close together so be aware if you aren’t fond of neighbors :) we will definitely be back!
LegendThis isn’t a very big campground. And some of the pad lengths are really really short. You should know that on the campground map they have written the pad lenoon them which is great. There are two shower houses which are really nice with flush toilets and showers. The only thing about the showers is there is no bench inside the stall and not really anywhere to hang your items so you will get wet. Shawnee State Park is very hilly. There is a campground store, very small and closed during the off-season. The comfort stations are also closed in the off-season, but they are spread out throughout the campground. Some sites are really best fit for tents only or you can hammock and at the actual tent sites they have nice tent pads for them. There is a playground, putt putt course, small lake that you can kayak or paddleboard in. They’ve got a great little nature center with lots of trails and again it’s hilly so pick your trails wisely, but very very pretty. We were the only people on our side of the campground.
LegendWe decided to camp on Thanksgiving weekend. The weather was very mild and the camper was very quiet.
Our site had a pretty level pad and could fit our small camper easily with room for our vehicle. The site itself is big - it’s got a lot of room for tents, an ez-up and plenty of space for chairs. It sits deep and there’s a little trail in the back.
Two shower houses were still open, clean and not far from our site. All of the comfort stations were closed for the off season.
We saw deer, heard coyotes and even saw a flying squirrel one night - really cool.
We ordered pizza from a local shop and they delivered. The lodge is close enough to go get food too.
LegendIt was a wet Veteran Memorial weekend. We were at site 80 not too far from the shower house.
The site was on the end but the fire ring is on the backside of your camper. A nice spot for non rainy days as the fire ring was full of water.
The shower house was pretty clean, flush toilets and warm. There is also a too with a washer and dryer.
Plan to take a hike if you can and go early to beat the crowds. We were dropped off at Ash Cave and hiked back to the campground- about 5 miles. Plan for steps and hills and a lot of beauty to see (even in the rain).
The road up the campground is very curvy - take your time and you’ll be fine. The rest of the campground was not too busy but know that a lot of the sites are close together, some pads are short and you may not have a lot of green space.
GuideWe came in October for a few days and it was so beautiful one of our favorite state parks we have ever been to! Our site was a little angled but views made up for it!
Traveler
We have hiked in and hammock camped at Zaleski a handful of times. Twice it rained so much some of the trails were uncrossable but even then we still enjoyed ourselves. The is one spot about 3 miles in that is pretty far off trail, flat and on top of a hill. It's where we usually start our trip.
GuideThe site was angled so we had to turn around before we could back in/park - our 5th wheel is 43’ and it was tight even with all spots not full. The pad was level and full hook ups but the site was small and the fire pit was RIGHT next to the camper. Beautiful wooded view behind us.
There was also quite a bit of mud at the front of campsite which we used fallen leaves to cover but there should be material added there.
Walking distance to all state park trails which was great! Bathhouse was warm and clean.
GuideI stayed at a standard electric site with my truck and 19’ travel trailer. It was November so the pool was closed and a large portion of the campground was closed. The site was sloped but the parking pad was flat. Some of the sites were pretty close together but it was all pretty standard for an Ohio state park. The best part is that there are several trails leading out of the campground directly to Old Man’s Cave and the visitor center so there is no need to drive to get to the most popular camping sites. I did not use the dump station, showers, but I did fill up a few gallons of potable water. Overall I was pleased with my short weekend visit.
Guide
If you ranked all the Ohio state park campgrounds from best to worst, this would have to fall along the bottom. First, there is no lake. There is a murky pond that you can swim in, but it doesn't look good. This is a small campground that runs along the length of a loud road. There is no escaping the sound of the cars on the road, many of which have broken mufflers, and they roar through all through the night and day. The campground is a skinny patch of land between two high ridges, which makes for very strange acoustics- you can hear noise from all over the campground, no matter where you are. I was at the far end, yet I could hear the loud, echoing screams of children from the front end. They screamed until 11pm at night. In the morning. I was awoken by someone running a leaf blower up the road for hours, because sound here seems to travel very far. It was far from peaceful, and I was there in November! The campground did have a new bathroom building, with four unisex toilets and showers for the entire campground. It also seemed to have a lot of shade (I don't know for sure, because I was there after the leaves had fallen). So it gets its one star for clean bathrooms and shade.
LegendGeneral: 172-site state park with a mix of full hook-up, electric, and no hook-ups in separate areas plus a 33-site family hike-in camp, two group camps, and three cabins. All sites need to be reserved – no walk-ins are allowed. There is a beautiful visitor center, and the camp office has a small store as well. There is a very nice coin-operated laundry room. Don’t count on cell service– with a fleeting one bar of Verizon, it was just enough to tease us, but the break was also a welcome respite.
Site Quality: Standard issue for state parks with paved driveways, picnic table, and fire ring, however, there are a few things to note: Some sites are decidedly not level (#105 is very sloped). 103 and 101 meet at a V at the back end and this impedes the separation between the sites. Our site (103) had a drop-off between the driveway and the rest of the site that could pose a tripping hazard if you are not careful. All of the restrooms emit a hum, but the wastewater treatment facility is very loud and is located directly behind the first 9-10 full hook-up sites.
Bathhouse: The restrooms were clean, but the showers were just adequate (not the worst camp shower but definitely not the best I have experienced) but at least there was hot water.
Activities: We came for the hiking, and we were not disappointed. This park is gorgeous! We hiked the Blue trail (Grandma Gatewood Trail) to Cedar Falls, taking in Upper and Lower Falls, and Old Man’s Cave along the way, and returned via the Rim Trail, which was much easier (fewer roots and up and down). We received a color-coded map of the trails upon check-in but had difficulty deciphering it, especially the mileage. We went to the Camp Office before starting our hike to get clarity. Once on the trails, they were well-marked with either signs or blazes. While you could do a long hike (12 miles one-way) from one end of the park to the other), don’t miss Ash Cave – we drove there the next morning before leaving. There are also mountain biking trails, two playgrounds (the one more centrally located is a bit dated and does not look very safe but there is a newer, larger one at the very end of the road (near the lake trail) and there are also horseshoe pits and a volleyball net there. In season, there is a large swimming pool.
The campground itself gets 3 stars for some of its flaws but the scenery is so beautiful, 4 stars are merited, in my opinion. I would recommend reserving in one of the “spurs” as there would be less traffic.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular equestrian campsite near Chillicothe, OH?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular equestrian campground near Chillicothe, OH is Hocking Hills State Park Campground with a 4.4-star rating from 107 reviews.
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TheDyrt.com has all 14 equestrian camping locations near Chillicothe, OH, with real photos and reviews from campers.
