Horse camping is the perfect way to enjoy Clarence J. Brown Dam and Reservoir. If you're an equestrian lover who prefers nature-based adventure, yet still wants comfort, this is the perfect opportunity for you. Finding a place to stay in Ohio while traveling with your horse is easy. These scenic and easy-to-reach Ohio campsites are perfect for your horse camping excursion.
$23 - $35 / night
Large campground features shady sites for all types of camping. Pets are welcome on designated sites.
An equestrian camp has 30 primitive sites available on a first-come, first-served basis.
286 electric campsites offer both wooded and sunny areas, some of which overlook the lake. Each site has 20-, 30- and 50-amp electrical hookup. 24 full-service campsites offer electric, sewer and water hookups Heated shower facilities with flush toilets and dump station Beach and boat ramp for exclusive use of the overnight guests Basketball courts, volleyball, miniature golf, horseshoe pits, and playgrounds Nature programs Equestrian camp has 30 primitive sites available on a first-come, first-served basis.
This recreation area is part of Delaware Lake
$15 - $28 / night
From Nov 1 - April 1, water service is not available in the Ohio Expo Center campgrounds.
$50 / night
Traveler
We camped on lot 57 and the view of the lake was awesome! The new bathhouse is open year round
Legend
General: 214-site campground, all with electric hookups. Campsites are in four loops.
Site Quality: All sites are paved and appeared to be level. A fire ring, picnic table, and electric hookup complete each site. Generous foliage provides separation between most sites.
Bath/Shower: Fully contained all-gender units in the third loop. Each one has a bench and a baby changing station. Soap and air dryers. A more traditional bath/shower house was in the fourth loop (don’t know about the first two loops).
Activities/Amenities: Several hiking trails (but it was raining when we were there so didn’t explore), a small putt-putt course (free use of putters and balls), disc golf, shuffleboard, basketball, tennis, and a small camper store. Each loop has a playground and other recreational options (i.e. volleyball net). The marina offers water toy rentals.
My five-star rating is based on the possibility of what our stay might have been if the weather had cooperated! Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy during our stay in June. We will definitely be back again to take advantage of the marina rentals.
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.
Ranger
First time visiting this state campground and we only stayed one night, did not explore entire park. Grounds well maintained, clean and decent amenities. The sites are well placed and a good size. But no water view on any of the “premium water view” sites in loop L, other than one L17 (the picture with view) Same for loop K. Guests and hosts were friendly and welcoming. Quiet except for the road noise due to nearby busy roads. The boat launch to lake access is very nice with plenty of parking and space. Not bad for a stop when traveling through or a weekend. We stayed with 34’ camper. Site L15 (picture with red truck)
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.
GuideVery well maintained, established state park. Sites are paved, level, and generally ample in space. Ample shade and privacy if needed. Amenities include boating, fishing, disc golf, MTB trails, live music select evenings, etc. Facilities are cleaned regularly. Staff are friendly and helpful..
ScoutMy kids always loved fishing here was a great place to hike as well
GuideBeen here before came back because we liked it so much. Sites are good sized compared to alot of state parks good for tent and rv. Cell service is good, bathrooms are older and could use updating but are decently clean for use.
RangerAlum Creek State Park is a very well designed State park. Its located north of Columbus, Oh just off I-71N. The sites have level pads. The park is very neat and clean. Our particular rv site was an electric only site (L06) but water was just across the street so if was convienent to fill the camper. This was a very pretty campground with boating and water sports as the main activity.
When approaching the campground make sure you GPS is set for the campground and not the park. the two are separated by a few miles and signage at the park to the campground is not clear, especially, at 11:00PM when it is dark.
While were there they had a trivia night which was fun and a free pancake breakfast on Sat. morning which was quite delicious.
For Astronomers this is a Bortle class 4 site with an SQM rating of 21.27. I did not get observe from this site as it was cloudy due to wildfire smoke. Overall we had a great time at the park.
The electric only sites were priced at $33/night.
GuideSpent the weekend would've spent longer if not for work. Some sites were bigger than others but all had plenty of space and alot of tree shade. They put in a put put course recently, had disk golf. We were in section c it had upgraded single person shower house and I was told there in the process of upgrading all of them to that style. huge beach area and each section has its own playground for the kids. Cell phone service I had verizon which was 1 bar but the wife has att and her phone worked no problems.
RangerMy wife and I have begun our full-time RV living. We stayed at this state park during the transition from selling our house. We did not have time to enjoy everything this park has to offer. However, the staff was friendly, the campsites were well maintained and it was quiet.
Legend
Large park with a marina, archery range, disc golf and more. Trails to lake covered with shade.
GuideIt's easy to get there. The non-electric sites don't have a lot of space or privacy (ie; trees) between them, definitely no hammocking. There's also a private camper's beach that is absolutely serene, probably not safe to swim in. Due to it being a holiday weekend, it was busy & loud like you'd expect, but it was so rowdy we left early. When we showed up, someone dumped all their trash in our firepit, absolutely disgusting behavior. Two different camp groups, one in electric and one in non-electric, got into loud verbal fights that resulted in the police being called. Fireworks and loud music were played all night long. No quiet hours, or if there are any they're not enforced. It's still great for a night visit if you're in the area, but it's not a dream weekend getaway by any means.
GuideFound this SP during a cross-country trip for a quick night stay. Big site, clean bathroom. Worked great for our stay.
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.
ScoutGreat hiking trails and people are friendly
TravelerPark Staff was great and very friendly. Was lucky enough to get a Creek Side spot. Nothing like coffee with the Morning sun on a cool morning.
ScoutClean and empty at this time of the year. Tried to do the right thing and reserve for the night however the booking site through the state wouldn’t work. Slept for the night after a long day of driving
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.
LegendEveryone online is constantly raving about Alum Creek so we finally decided to try it out. Initially we had site A9 but when we arrived we realized the main road (55mph) was extremely close and loud. We ended up looking at all of the open sites and picking C3, which literally might be the best site in the park. Even still, the constant road noise and insane amount of small plane traffic is extremely annoying. The fire station across the street doesn't help either. The park seems to be roughly 80/20 mix of small sites to medium/ large sites. Usually my reviews are a ton of positives, then a few negatives. This one unfortunately is almost all negatives. The oddly places bathrooms have no parking, only the two shower houses on our half of the park did. I say oddly places because they are kind of in the middle of the woods with multiple paths going to them. You would definitely benifit by finding these paths before it's dark or you'll be lost like we were. Also you may not want a site with one of these paths if you don't like people walking through your site. Due to looking for a better site and it being October, it was dark by the time we finished setting up. One of the few nice things about the park is how dark it gets at night. Unfortunately, there are barely any signs around the park and the ones they have ahine green in your headlights and are almost illegible. Kind of like the light yellow site numbers on the grey electric box. The park does have many nice amenities like, miniature golf, a large dog park, many trails and a nature center. Down the road is a very large beach, a dam and parks. The absolute best part was the camp store. Literally the nicest people in the world were working here... I'm pretty sure we wouldn't stay here again, especially in the summer when it's probably crazy busy. Especially when Delaware state park is 10 miles away and literally our favorite park in Ohio. The two are complete opposites.
GuideAlthough it’s quite a bit off the main road, it was a nice place to stay. Gate was manned when we arrived just before 8:00 pm. Clerk told us to book online once we picked our spot, as she had just closed the register. We just chose an open spot that was level as we could see in the dark. Weary from a day of travel, we put our heads on the pillow and were fast asleep. Shortly after 9 we heard several rounds of gun shots; that was alarming because it was well after sunset. All in all it was a nice spot with electric only. Several gray water dumps were situated throughout the campground. Dumpsters were full from I’m sure what was a busy weekend of fall camping. The lake was beautiful with ability to rent kayaks. Frisbee golf was onsite too. Commissary for ice and basic sundries, with playground nearby. We didn’t visit the bathhouse, so I’m unsure of it’s condition. Tenant sites with no electricity were down by the lake. Cabin rentals were in a separate spot, off the lake. All in all, in was a nice place with lots of things to do. More of a destination park, for sure.
Traveler
Stayed here for a concert next door at Historic Crew Stadium. We practically had the place to ourselves and the sites were pretty decent. Definitely isn't cleaned as much as it could be. Only the female restroom was unlocked and it was pretty ratchet.
GuideThis is my favorite Ohio State Park to camp in so far. Good ATT coverage, look carefully at length of pad as some are shorter. Lovely beach nice views. Only problem was some street noise and the Trick or Treating and Halloween events first weekend of October meant there were a lot lot lot of cars and people and 1.5 hours with the streets closed for activities.
TravelerWe camped as a family if a full service site. The sites are large enough the kids can run around and not feel like they are in someone else’s area. There is a nice park for the kids, mini golf, and the small camp shop was very helpful for some newbies. It was the perfect place for our family to start our camping story.
GuideNo frills place to park for events at the Expo Center and Fair Grounds. Helpful staff but they can get overwhelmed during large events.
GuideDeer Creek SP is conveniently located between Cincinnati and Columbus. Bath and shower houses have been updated and were kept clean. Some sites are shaded while some are in full sun. Was a nice quiet place to relax for a weekend.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular equestrian campsite near Clarence J. Brown Dam and Reservoir?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular equestrian campground near Clarence J. Brown Dam and Reservoir is Buck Creek State Park Campground with a 4.4-star rating from 30 reviews.
What is the best site to find equestrian camping near Clarence J. Brown Dam and Reservoir?
TheDyrt.com has all 8 equestrian camping locations near Clarence J. Brown Dam and Reservoir, with real photos and reviews from campers.
