Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Columbus, OH

Best state park in Ohio for sure! 2 1/2 hour drive from Cincinnati, 1 1/2 hour drive from Columbus, and 3 hour drive from Cleveland. This park has plenty of trails for all types of people, my favorite is conkles hollows, so I highly recommend that!

Alum Creek State Park is just under 40 minutes from Columbus. It makes a great weekend getaway from the city. The campground offers some spots next to the water which have a wonderful view.

Alum Creek State Park is a beautiful park and great campground just outside the hustle and bustle of downtown Columbus and minutes away from attractions such as the Columbus Zoo.

The campground has good sized sites and is wooded throughout with clean bath houses, well maintained roads, and easy access for big rigs.

There is also a very nice dog park in the park including dog beaches with lake access for your pups to swim.

We love this campground and the beautiful lake and appreciate the easy access to local attractions, shopping, and more.

This was the only park we’ve gone to this uear with both a large dog park AND a fenced in dog beach! Folks were friendly at the dog park with bunches of chairs set around like a conversation pit. Lots of water and dog tennis balls were available.

The dog beach was fenced so your dog can be off leash. There is even a fenced in area out in the water to keep the pooches from swimming across the Lake chasing geese.

The campground itself was quite nice and spacious. Some of the most private camping sites I’ve seen in Ohio. Shower facilities we a bit above average mad seemed to be looked after at least once a day (we were there in the off season).

IMHO, one of the nicest campgrounds in the state.

I get asked "where should we go camping or hiking in the Midwest?" Hocking Hills State Park is always my go-to answer. 

It has a ton of different terrains, it's easily accessible from Columbus, OH, and has great hiking opportunities. 

This particular campground is amazing because it's located nicely to many hiking trails but far away that you aren't overly crowded so you still get the feeling that you're in nature.

I've been here a ton growing up in the horse campground area, but most recently was there for tent camping. We were surrounded mostly by RVs, but we fit in quite nicely into our site. 

The sites were nicely spaced out and the hiking trails were all nearby.

Beautiful park. There is a camper’s beach and a dog park

We chose A.W. Marion State Park on this particular weekend because it's relatively close to home (Columbus area). While I had come here to hike the 5 mile trail around Hargus Lake in the past, it was our first visit to the campground. 

We reserved site #4 in the non-electric section. Unfortunately #4 isn't the best site in the campground - it was very small and wide - one of our 3 small tents ended up right next to the car. But we made it work and really enjoyed our stay. It was right across from the porta johns, so that's something of which to be aware. It's right next to #3 (obviously), which is not available for reserving because it's the extra site that remains available if someone has an issue with their existing reservation. Regardless of these little issues, we had a great time. This primitive section of the campground is really nice overall, and far away from the noisy RVs. The hosts were super nice, as were the other people camping. The distance from Columbus makes it a quick and easy weekend trip.

In addition to having a pretty lake, lovely campsites that are spread apart nicely, clean facilities, lots of shade, boat ramps, etc.. this park is unique for it's Dog Park facility.

2 large fenced in field areas. One for small dogs, and one for large. There is enough room for several games of dog frisbee to happen at once. Then, there are 2 large fenced in areas for lake access. Balls, dog doo bags, trash bins.. all there. Lots of shade, water fountains, and plenty of running room. I can't rave about this park enough!

The only downside is there is poison ivy lacing the trail from the campsite down to the water, and the Dog Park portion is about 2 miles from the campsites.

Alum Creek State Park

Campground details

Very clean, well maintained. A lot of nearby activity, private and open sites, lake, beach, trails, marina, bikes, putt putt, dog park, playground, laundry, water close, electric at sites, many "comfort stations" "wash houses" so not far from one.

Nice campgrounds with a big reservoir for boating and fishing. There is a beach area as well for sunbathers. Fenced dog park in the area that I use often. Located between Sunbury and Delaware so there are plenty of places to restock.

Lots of room! Privacy, some sites have accommodations for several tents as well as full hook up for campers. Some are adjacent to the playground There are tons of things to do: Miniature golf Disc golf BMX trails Small dog park Golf course Horse camp

We really love this campground with large sites, lots of vegetation to add privacy and a great hiking trails. The park also offers a marina, dog park , mountain bike trails , bridle trails and disc golf. This time of year they even have a holiday light display.

Great place to take the family and unwind. Good dog park for the furry ones. Bring your boat for some water fun, fish, or simply float around. 3 easy trails to venture out on and take in the parks amazing scenery. With more than 280 campsites and several cabins there’s something for everyone.

great state park campground. There are some full hook ups but mostly just electric. They have pancake breakfast on Saturday mornings through summer and doughnuts on Sunday. Helpful camphost. There is a campground beach and boat launch. Lost of hiking paths in the campground and in the park area. A great dog park with lake entrance for the pups. tmThere is also some mountain bike trails. Plenty to do for everyone.

Very peaceful campground. There is a train track in the vicinity which every now and then you can hear.....but not bad. The lake is within walking distance from the campgrounds. Our dogs love this place especially when taken for long walks along the pavement. There is a market with great pizza nearby.

There is a nearby dog park as well.

The original check-in station burned down last year and the park has a temporary hut for check in. I hope they rebuild the check-in station and bring back the store. There are a lot of downed trees (either naturally fell or man made) which need to be cleaned up. Some sites can get flooded or become very muddy with heavy rains. The past few years have been problematic with ticks...so be vigilant.

Only weekend stays and it ends in wintertime. I’m sure it’s pretty and all, but it’s hard to find legit, free dispersed camping in Ohio! Oh well, rest stops always work for car camping.

This campground wasn’t level and the spots are so tiny I should have stayed at the KOA across the street for larger spots. That’s how small these are here. Our spot is on an incline. Full hookups are nice but dog poop galore. The pet owners here (not all of them) just let there dogs go anywhere and leave it. Sad. The camp store is nice and the staff is friendly. Restrooms are clean too.

Alum Creek State Park is one of those parks with the main attraction in the middle and the different areas strung out along the outside. So you need to be careful going from one area to the next, busy road. Old State Rd is the main thoroughfare through the area. Off Oh I71, take either Cheshire Rd or Rt 36 to Old State Rd and follow the signage.

Plenty of sites to pick from in the large camping area. I liked A due to the space between camp sites. I also drove through J enroute to a boat ramp and the sites there are a little closer together. There are cabins also available. Showerhouse centrally located in each area.

The sites are mostly level, with gravel area and picnic table. There was a playground, basketball court and nature center on site. There is a internal roadway if you like to bike ride or run and trails.

In another section of the park is the beach, there is a paddling only area (north end), plenty of fishing and boating left to enjoy, horse trails, bike trails and hiking trails.

The dog park is awesome, they have their own beach!

This walk in camp ground was located just minutes from Old Man’s Cave. It’s a family friendly and pet friendly camp ground. Our stay was quiet and relaxing.

Everyone 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.