Looking for the best Dillon Lake tent camping? The Dyrt is an easy way to find tent camping spots near Dillon Lake. Whether you're looking for a quiet, dispersed site or an established camgpround with amenities, The Dyrt makes it easy to find the perfect place to pitch your tent.
Get away to Pop's Place Camping and Cabins. A small primitive camping area in SE Ohio. Where you are 10 minutes away from Burr Oak State Park, Tecumseh Trails Off-road and Scenic Trails Recreation Land. Other areas of interest are The Triple Nickle, Perry Forest ATV Park and Wayne National Forest. A hunters or ATV riders place to be, off the beaten path. We are tent, Motorcycle & ATV friendly. Please call ahead for availability.
$15 - $125 / night
The horse camp has ten sites are provided at the campground, each with a 45' long by 15' wide parking space. Two sites are fully accessible for people with disabilities. Each site has a covered paddock, fire pit, grill, and tent pad.
Primitive camping is allowed at no charge at the Old Stone Church Trailhead.
This trailhead is part of the Stone Church Horse Trail System. Named for the skeletal ruins of an old stone church nearby, the Stone Church Horse Trail System provides a great opportunity for scenic riding on 21 miles of trails. Various loops for other distances are available. The horse trail winds through the rolling hills of the Wayne National Forest. The trails will lead you through a variety of vegetation: open fields, brushland, mature forest, and new forest. Along the way, you may glimpse wildlife, and will recognize the influence of humans, both now and in the past. You will also pass many of our land management activities.
$40 - $125 / night
Recreation areas with activity Dispersed Camping: Elm Trailhead Long Ridge Trailhead Monday Creek Trailhead New Straitsville Trailhead Red Oak Trailhead Scarlet Oak Trailhead Sycamore Trailhead White Oak Trailhead Camping is allowed at during the OHV and mountain biking open season.
Providing a place for all God's children to grow in Faith, Fellowship and Fun through Christ-centered camps and outdoor ministries. Located in the beautiful Hocking Hills in southern Fairfield County, Ohio, it is a quick and convenient drive that feels a million miles away - providing the serenity and connection with God's creation that only being emerged in nature can provide. Learn more about who we are, what we do and how you can participate in or support our work. As a non-profit with a seasonal mission, we still must maintain our facilities throughout the year to allow us to adequately support our mission. Lodging is a great way to help support our camp and help us cover our basic costs throughout the year while enjoying the outdoor experience and facilities that Geneva Hills has to offer.
$35 - $600 / night
Dillon Lake is approximately six miles northwest of Zanesville, Ohio, and twenty miles east of Newark, Ohio. Access to the lake is provided by State Route 146 via State Routes 16 and 586 from the north and US 40 and Interstate 70 from the south. The office is open from 7:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, but the area is open 24 hours.
Plenty of recreation is available throughout this area including water sports on the lake, great fishing and hunting, biking, and extraordinary wildlife viewing. We offer an accessible fishing pier below the dam and a trail with exercise facilities.
The picnic shelter offers 10 accessible picnic tables. The facility also offers several barbeque grills and a large fenced-in playground. Other facilities include a gazebo and fitness trail surrounded by park benches, picnic tables and beautiful landscaping.
The picnic shelter/playground area is located above Dillon Lake, next to a large parking area. Visitors get a beautiful view of the lake, grass covered hills and wooded areas.
Other facilities around the area are provided by the Ohio State Parks and Division of Wildlife. These include several boat launches, plenty of hiking, biking, and horse trails, hunting areas, and a swim beach.
$45 - $50 / night
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 experience this Park. Less crowded than summer. 5 million visitors last year. More than Yellowstone. Guided hike was the best.
Traveler
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.
Scout
Bathrooms very clean. Loved the free games. Cabin was very clean and had comfortable beds. Doesn’t make sense to have quiet time at dark when bar nearby plays loud music outside till late.
Guide
We came here during the 2024 River of Fire Event. The campground was packed but you couldn’t tell because the sites were all so spacious! Half the sites are right on the river which gives a good view and great place to fish and kayak(too cold on this trip). The event was very well organized and very fun to participate in. Staff was all very friendly and helpful! After the event many campers cleared out(end of season and kids in school) so my husband and I basically had the whole campground to ourselves for 2 of the days. It was extremely peaceful there and we look forward to returning.
Scout
Drove past Sandy Hollow which is another great Dispersed Campground with around 82 sites to cover all types of vehicles within a mile of Hook Lake.
Hook Lake has less sites but also sites to handle all types of vehicles.
I am here in October and there are very few other campers, two at the moment.
I chose a site on a hill that I was able to get my 40+ rig into, I was all by myself with a great view.
I have Verizon which is almost constant, and TMobile which is spotty. Other sites might not have as good of cell service.
They have trash, but no water.
Both of the Camp Grounds mentioned there is no danger of getting a big rig into and not out of so don’t be afraid.
Traveler
More trails to add to the collection.
Guide
Small campground with sunny and shady spots. Host on site. Pit toilets clean but a few insects flying. Dumpster available by bathroom. Register at kiosk by bathroom. FF sites only. Besides host only 1 camper. FREE!!!
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
Scout
Excellent campground with fantastic staff and owners. Nice swimming pond with inflatable attractions. Well stocked camp store. Lots of activities for the whole family.
TravelerDated, but pretty clean bath\shower building with clothes washer and dryer ($2). Sites in C-loop are far enough apart to not feel too crammed together. Power pedestal has 20, 30 and 50 amp service. 30 amp worked fine. Lots of trails, allowing dogs on leash. True, other amenities are a drive of at least a couple miles to get to. ATT service was fine for streaming using ROKU and my phone as a hotspot. Paved, level pads, but not long enough for largest trailers. Check size if you have one. Sites at South end of loop get the most shade
Scout
Stayed with the family for 5 days/ 4 nights and had a wonderful time. The KOA had a lot of amenities to offer. The staff was friendly, courteous and great to deal with. The sites were nice and wide but not all level but it's an area that has lots of hills. The pool was wonderful, the bathroom was clean and spacious. The camp store has everything you may need with a Walmart 10 minutes down the road. Close to the park to go explore but the KOA had a lot to offer for your stay.
Scout
This campground has been a staple of Hocking Hills for decades. Finally some new owners took over in May ‘24 and have really done an amazing job renovating things. The staff is super friendly, large primitive campsites right on the river with tons of shade trees! They are even building treehouses to stay in. We love it here!
Traveler
I highly recommend pop's place. I stayed there Aug 2024 and as of that date the rustic tent camping was $20. This is an ideal base camp for riding your motorcycle on the scenic roads in that area of Ohio such as the triple nickel. The owners are very nice people and helpful. The porta john and shower were very clean. The shower uses an on demand water heater. The narrow cabin you see in some photos is now a gravel pad for RV type camping with electric. The wider cabin in the photos is still there, but was currently rented so he couldn't take me on a tour of it. He took me on a tour of the new cabin he is building and it will be a nice play to stay when he is done. They sell firewood for $5. The common grass area has wood lounge chairs, common fire ring, playground, and cornhole boards. If you are tent camping and need to charge your phone he has no problem with you using the electric outlet at the RV site if no one is there. I forgot to suggest to him that maybe add an external electric outlet at the shower house since electric is there for the water heater. There is a spigot on the outside of the shower house to get drinking water. There is a basketball backboard near the current cabin if you happen to bring a basketball for your kids to use. There is good verizon cell service there, I did not expect it because of the location and hills in the area. I don't hammock camp, but it looked like there were trees far enough apart in the line of pines for hanging 2 hammocks. One of the photos showed 3 picnic tables for tent campers. There was only one when I stayed, but I assume it's a temporary or cyclical thing and I was the only tent camper and would have shared it anyway.
Of note for motorcyclists is that the road the campground is on is paved (good riding to the north of it) and the campground drive is decent gravel for street bikes.
TravelerAlways love going to salt fork. Bathrooms are always clean and I appreciate having wash racks for the horses. If i had a complaint it would be that the campground is always pretty busy
Traveler
Very quiet campground with little to no other riders around. Only complaint would be the non equestrians staying in the equestrian area
Guide
I didn’t see much of this park because I only stayed overnight, but I got a good nights rest and felt safe. A few of the spots are not level and it appeared that not all of them had tables or fire pits. It didn’t appear that anyone did drive throughs to monitor noise or who was there, but I didn’t mind. There were quite a bit of teens camping out and while they were pretty loud late into the night, it made me happy to see them camping and floating the river. The pit toilet shelters were large and clean too.
Scout
This is our first time staying at a non state park. I was a little nervous, but I already booked our next visit here ! To start, the staff are absolutely amazing and so kind. We stayed at site 61 and the lake view is perfect. Bring your hammock because there are plenty of trees !!
There is a great playground for kids and a swimming hole. The bathrooms are so clean. You can kayak on the lake and they do have rentals .
Traveler
Decent sites with a waterpark, historic Roscoe Village, canal boat, and plenty of hiking/ walking/ biking trails and paved paths. One of our favorites
Ranger
Camped at the west side of the vaulted toilet lot. Arrived about 5 PM and all 3 camping spots were empty. Lots of trucks and toy haulers heading up the various roads into the late evening. We slept soundly, made breakfast and were on our way. Great stop over location. Vaulted toilet and garbage cans were a welcome bonus.
Traveler
The campsites are not as private as the pictures make it look. There are a LOT of campers and tents; it feels busy and crowded. We did like the paved pull-through site and were close to the river. Electric was good and people were friendly. Bathrooms close to all campsites. Showers not clean and broken; hot water questionable. We liked being close to the hiking trails this morning and it was dog friendly.
RangerThis is a very nice campground near all of the attractions of Hocking Hills, Ohio. We had full hookups that were excellent, but if we didn't there were several new restrooms throughout the grounds. The camp store has the usual stuff you'll find and is always seems to have a friendly attendant behind the counter. There are several fun things for the kids to do, including a very large bounce pad and a pretty nice looking playground. There's a somewhat small swimming area, but it seems to be pretty clean for a pond. The campground is right on Lake Logan and there's access to the water at the bottom of the grounds. There's also boat rentals right around the corner.
ScoutMy kinda place
Guide
First time at this park booked last minute so options were limited wasn't sure what leftovers we would get but ended up with 2 great sites. We lucked out and had 2 trees just right for hammock relaxing but it seems like lots of sites have no trees just depends on the section of park not alot of privacy between. Sites but there huge so you don't feel stuffed in next to everyone. Shower houses are limited 1 in each section but plenty of flush bathrooms located all over and kept very clean. Internet works very well verizon and att.
RangerAfter a few years of trying, I finally got into Mohican State Park. Our first visit to the park was early in the camping season, and on a warm and beautiful spring weekend. The atmosphere was amazing in the park. Everyone in the campground seemed to be relaxed and having a great time. The campground itself is very well laid out. It's long and just a few rows deep with trees throughout, so you don't feel over crowded. You're never far from a restroom no matter where you are. They have a very nice campground store and a pool that wasn't open for the season yet when we were there. It's the kind of campground that you never need to leave if you don't want to. They have regular electric and full hookup sites.
LegendSomeone cancelled and this amazing site fell into our lap. I always put a ridiculous amount of time into finding sites that match our wants/needs list. This campground has very few sites that make the cut, but F08 was perfect. Backed up to the woods, has a view of the lake, shade, privacy, hammock trees, medium size, electric, bathroom directly across the street, water and grey water dump directly across the street.
Everywhere we camp, we color code a campground map with sites we like/dislike. This campground had about 7 sites we liked out of over 200. There are almost no sites with shade or privacy, many are small and oddly angled towards the road. They do all have 15A, 30A and 50A hookups and newer, level pads. The bathrooms however are very outdated. They still have the spring loaded faucets that you have to hold open and the men's shower houses is still a shared room for your things and changing. Worst of all, the water pressure was terrible and constantly changing.
This campground is in one of Ohio's largest state parks and is very popular. Which is why a lot of these negatives are pretty shocking to us. Like the never developed D loop. You would think for such a large and busy park, they would want as many sites as possible and to update the facilities.
One of my complaints about all of Ohio's state parks is the lack of tree preservation. Almost all of the state parks just clear the land to install power/water. You'd think a Ohio State Division of Wildlife State Park would take a bit extra care and attention to preserve some of them which also makes for a much better camping experience.
Overall, the positive rating isn't for the campground but rather the almost 20,000 acre state park. It is insanely huge and has many, many places to see and explore. There are beaches (even a private one for the campground), boat launches, hunting roads, historical house/cottage that is a museum, a cave and more.
Lastly, The Dyrt never seems to map the campground correctly so I couldn't do their cell network tests. However, Mint/T-Mobile and Verizon had pretty strong 5G. It slowed down a few times but was there the entire time.
Traveler
The site that we are currently staying in is nothing like the pictures online(I am more than happy to share photos.) I contacted the owner, he talked down to me, continually interrupted me and even raised his voice trying to intimidate me. The site has serious concerns. Such as the Nextdoor cabin fire pit is located less than 6ft from where I am suppose to park my brand new truck. There is only gravel, no grass for 12ft outside of our camper. Our site appears to be a driveway or turnaround and numerous ppl have tried to drive through, Esp with gulf carts. I raised my concerns and unhappiness to the owners and they argued and talked down to me. The husband raised his voice and essentially yelled at me basically telling me we could pack up and leave. This has not been a great experience so far and I am not sure I will ever stay at a jellystone or recommend one to anyone in the future.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular tent campsite near Dillon Lake?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular tent campground near Dillon Lake is Pops Place Camping with a 5-star rating from 3 reviews.
What is the best site to find tent camping near Dillon Lake?
TheDyrt.com has all 21 tent camping locations near Dillon Lake, with real photos and reviews from campers.
