Best Tent Camping near Cuyahoga Valley National Park

 This KOA is only a few miles from Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which is our reason for coming to the area. It's also close to Akron & Cleveland.

 I was pleasantly surprised at how scenic it is. I expected an urban KOA. This one is in a rural area outside Streetsboro. There is light industry behind the campground- trees cover it, but you can still hear it. There's some train & traffic noise.

 Nightly rate for the weekend is$10 higher.$69.99 seems a little high.

 There's 4 ponds, 2 that you can fish. There's a pool, playground & jumping pillow grouped together. Very noisy (we had site  2 right across from it), but it settles down after sunset. 

The main office has a gift shop/store. They have scoop ice cream & fudge. 

The sites are nice. The main area has some pull throughs, Some of the back in sites have a view of the pond. The tent sites are at the bottom of a hill & IMO too close together. Also too far away from the bathroom.

  Which brings me to the bathrooms/showers. I requested a site near a bath house since my husband is mobility impaired & we don't have a shower. We had site 2, which is right by the shower house& bathrooms. This one of those bathrooms where there's no Mens/womens, just individual bathrooms. After the first night the showers were all closed...for the duration of our 4 night stay. We had to drive to the back where there were 4 or 5 shower/bathroom combos. All for the use of the entire campground! It was a busy weekend& the bathrooms were VERY dirty. It got better Sunday evening, but when you know a lot of people are going to be in the bathrooms you need to step up your game!

Silver Springs Campground is a small 27 site campground in Stow, Ohio, a convenient 17 minutes from Cuyahoga Valley National Park and a bargain at $18/night for a site with electrical hookups. 

While there isn't much to say about the privacy at this campground, because you are generally just staying in a field, the manager was absolutely wonderful and gave us all kinds of maps and information on Cuyahoga National Park when he came around to check us in. 

The campground can get very muddy during the wet season- the town offers a good description of each campsite on their website and we found the descriptions, as well as their warnings about flood potential, to be very accurate. Our site had a large mud hole, so we joked that we had a waterfront campsite and just rolled with it- the sites were large enough that we didn't have to park near the water. 

Despite having a dog aggressive dog, we were able to check out Bow Wow Beach nearby because we went early enough in the morning that nobody was around. The dog park is really fun and offered a great opportunity for our dog to run around before we got back on the road. 

We were really happy with this campsite and would definitely return at some point if we needed to visit Cuyahoga again.

This state park has a lot to offer with the highlight being a large 2,650-lake that appeals to fishermen, boaters, and swimmers. The park is over 5,000 acres and not only has camping but hiking, volleyball, fishing, playgrounds, picnicking, hunting, horseback riding, and more.

The campground is divided into three loops with nearly 200 sites. Campsites include those with full hook-up (50 amp), electric only (50 amp), and some with no electric. This campground is suitable for everything from large RVs to tents. Sites and roads are paved and each site has a picnic table and fire pit. In loops where there is no water directly at the site, water spigots are scattered throughout. The restroom/bathhouses in our loop were really nice, modern, clean, and had laundry facilities which is a real plus at a state park campground. Campsites can be reserved online up to six months in advance. Since we were here in April, the campground was practically empty and getting a site was no problem. But, if you want one of the 29 full hook-up sites in the summer, you better book early.

We really enjoyed the hiking trails and being able to leave our campsite and be right on the trails. There are approximately 12 miles of hiking trails and an additional 20 miles that are open to horses and snowmobiles. (Be aware that hunting is permitted in certain areas.)

The park is about 15 miles from Cuyahoga Valley National Park which is a fantastic place to explore with a lot going on for the whole family! If you are interested in football, the National Football Hall of Fame is just down the road in Canton. The town of Hudson has a pretty, historic downtown with a fun old soda fountain.

We would definitely stay at this campground again. It was a perfect place to stay while visiting family in the nearby town of Hudson. Loved having a paved site with full hook-ups especially since there was a lot of rain while we were there. The lake was perfect for kayaking and had we been able to stay longer we would have spent more time on the water.

Friendly staff.  Definitely insanely overpriced for low-impact tent-campers.  (They charge based on the assumption you'll be using their electric and water hook-ups at tent sites, for example.  For the record, I consider $25 to pitch a tent, have a campfire you fund, and get a hot shower they fund to be absurd.)

Bathroom facilities are poor and not well-maintained, but count as (barely) serviceable.  Make sure to bring sandals so as not to step in the animal shit that covers the floors of the restrooms.  Large campground.  Could be worth it for tent campers if you plan to make use of other amenities they offer, such as their swimming pond with diving board.

Would I go again?  Maybe, maybe not.  Probably not, but your mileage may vary.  Their primary audience is clearly the RV crowd.  Every single one of their tent sites has water and electric hookups, and no serious tent campers (car campers, glampers) want or need that, but are expected to pay for it anyway.

If you're going to this place, you're probably in the RV crowd.  Look for reviews from those folks.  For mostly primitive tent camping (i.e, a place to pitch a tent plus a hot shower), I rate this place as a C+.  This rating is based almost entirely on value (D) and quality of the bathroom/shower amenities (C).  The well-maintained land and the additional amenities many will not care for give it a boost to the C+ range.