Best Tent Camping near Columbus, OH

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.

We loved the location of Campbell Coves to Old Man’s Cave and hiking trails. We do a family trip to the area every fall and this will be our go-to location. We've already booked for fall 2021. We stayed in one of the rustic cabins. With other family members bringing their RVs. The bathroom facilities were some of the nicest and cleanest we’ve experienced. My parents had an RV site overlooking the lake. I wouldn’t tent camp there. The tent sites were all in the same area with no division from each other. They are expanding and can’t wait to see those offerings.

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.

tent camping two nights. very well run park. great facilities

Great place to visit has three parks in one John Bryant and Glen Helen nature preserve and Clifton Gorge are some of the best hiking trails in south west Ohio. Camp sites are great for tent camping with a few RV spots. You can visit the near by historical town of Yellow Springs.

Tent camped on a non-electric site in early May.  Great campground.  Clean, relatively quiet, and great bathrooms.  The camp sites are right off one of the main trails in the park, so very easy to get out for a hike.

many electric sites,usually busy, some rustic tent sites, 3 camper cabins in park. some shower houses . state park also offers cabins that sleep 6 with amenities also hike in campground in area.

This campsite would have been perfect if not for the bathrooms littered with bugs, insects, and spiders. Otherwise, the campsite was quiet, the tent sites were nicely spaced out, and the bathrooms were easily accessible.

Tent site was nice. We could make dinner and there weren’t any mosquitoes even though it was right above a swamp. It was a nice driving distance from Hocking Hills and a neat place to camp.

This is a huge campground! I tent camped by myself--felt very safe.  Happened to be next to the park host. No choice of where to locate my large tent.  Showers/bathrooms were OK--older facilities.  Wish this park had a laundry facility--another Ohio park I recently stayed at had a fairly new shower facility that included a laundry facility!  Did not appreciate the waste management company emptying the dumpsters at 4:00 AM!!!  There is a huge, lakeside beach that was just packed with people (no social distancing) and there was trash everywhere--not enough dumpsters.  Near to shopping (Polaris), if you are interested.  Will try to get a lakeside site next time.

This 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!

Great tent sites on mowed lawn under old growth trees. Our night’s rest was interrupted multiple times with airport noise—airplanes and helicopters. Note that at this time (COVID) you cannot just pull in and occupy a site. You must call in for a reservation.

Stopped here during a road trip with a friend. Very family friendly. Tent sites were nice and flat, felt a little cramped though. Bathrooms were clean. The lake was very nice, clear, and refreshing. Flet good to be close to it! Easy to find the campsites and pretty affordable.

We had a great time in the walk-in, non-electric section — easy to get to with its own dedicated parking. These sites had good space between them, but no real barriers from other tents, so just depends who’s staying near you!

The full electric sections were packed with RVs and trailers, looks like a fun place to be for a bit, but glad we weren’t tent camping between them all. Access to water sports and trails is great!

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.

We have tent camped here three times. Small but nice campground. Nice lake close to the campground just down an access road. I would give it a higher rating but there are no showers, concrete floored, hole in the ground 'outhouses' (one men's, one woman's) by the playground and port-a-johns at the other end of the campground. The last time we were there in September 2016, the port-a-johns were absolutely full and nasty despite daily phone calls by the camp caretakers that they needed serviced. They were finally serviced just before the weekend campers came in and we were leaving. Small adequate camp store. Movie for the kids at the outdoor theater.

We have returned to this camp ground four times! Everything is quite outdated especially the park and mini golf. With that said it was a great time. It has mini golf, a pool, park and small game room which is awesome for camping with kids. It offers rustic cabins for those that dont tent camp or have a rv. On this particular trip it was chilly and we were staying with small children so we went the rustic cabin route. There's a small pond for fishing and a church from the 1800s and all together a beautiful place to walk around. The best part is you can walk to ash cave from your campsite! There is a connecting trail right at the front of the campground. It was a fairly simple hike too.

Great camping experience! Waited too late to book in hocking hills state park but found a site here instead. We are tent campers and stayed in site 106 on"Northridge". Loved that the non-electric tent sites were so isolated from the RV campers. Site 107 gets muddy with a lot of rain. Sites 108-112 have a pretty significant slope. Each site in the loop has a picnic table and fire ring. There's a dumpster, pit toilets, and water. It was a short drive to the rest of the campers, a great hot shower, fantastic general store, miniature golf, and the beach to swim or lake to kayak. Took us at least 30 minutes to drive to the common hocking hills hikes but well worth it. We would return.