Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Glouster, OH

Only stayed for a night but it was very quiet and only a handful of other campers. All the sites seemed relatively level. Some of the electric hookups had damage but being able to choose your spot upon arrival helped. We arrived in pouring rain and had no issues with our campsite when we could see it in the morning lol.

Bathrooms and showers were relatively clean and accommodating.

Seemed a lot like a hidden gem and I definitely recommend. Especially if you have a dog. Across the street, the park portion of this campground has a dog park, playground, historical site and pond for fishing

FYI . Most of the sites seemed small so it might be best for smaller setups. Also I did not see any pull through sites.

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.

Hocking Hills is a wonderful destination to go for camping and a weekend of hiking. There are trails all over the park. Can be a bit busy during the warmer months. The park is pet friendly and has a nice nature center before you hike down to Old Man’s Cave.

First come first served camping with water and pit toilets, large sites, area mostly wooded. Archery range and lots of fishing spots. Great for families with pets too! Had a great time and looking forward to our next visit this weekend! I’d give it more stars if it had a shower house or swim area! Bring your solar shower!

Dee and Pat are owners living on the grounds. Very attetive to camper needs. Just upgraded wifi. Much improved. Quietest safest campground I have encountered. Stayed all summer awaiting shipments held up by covid issues, May 1 to Sept 1 of 2021. On weekends a bar across the river floats live music in offering entertainment for free yet quiet enough to sleep thru. Up front drive thru spots abound. They love pets and keep the grounds immaculate. Small salt water pool, game roomband playground keep kids busy. A little piece of paradise.

This is part of the Wayne National Forest and a section of the Buckeye Trail. It is a great area for backpacking as camping is free and allowed anywhere along the trail, see the web site for limitations. "Small, open fires are permitted except during extremely high fire danger. Fire rings should be used when available. Make sure all campfires are extinguished before vacating the campsite."~Wayne National web site. Water can be difficult, there are streams but you should pack in any that you need. I took my daughters on a backpacking trip here in August 2016. It is a great area, but there were lots of dead trees/widowmakers, so be careful where you pitch your tent. Pets are allowed but must be on a 6 foot leash. Many other hiking, camping and other outdoor activities are close by.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/wayne/recarea/?recid=6228

As with any trip, do your research, read your reviews, peruse Google Satellite maps and talk to locals when you can.

Mountwood County Park http://www.mountwoodpark.org/about.html is located about 15 minutes east of Parkersburg on Rt 50. Heading east on Rt 50 from Parkersburg, WV you will arrive at Mountwood County Park on the right...but the campground portion is a mile further east on the left side of the road. Both are marked by road signage...but most would assume they are all in one location.

If you bring your quads, dirt bikes or mountain bikes with you when you camp, then Mountwood County Park is for you. Right off the back of Mountwood are plenty of ATV trails to keep you busy during your stay. If bombing mountain bike trails is your thing, then across the highway from the campground is your dream. If relaxing in a serene mountain or river valley campground atmosphere is what you desire...keep driving east on Rt 50 another 20 minutes to North Bend State Park.

The primitive tent sites ($20 nightly) are less than desirable and more of an afterthought...and I'm being gracious. There is patchy tall grass, dirt and rocks with no leveled areas. And you have to wander a distance to the restroom/showerhouse when needed. You can rent the tiny cabins ($40 nightly) up on the top of the hill if you desire. They were rented and filled during my visit, surrounded with trailers filled with quads (not a bad thing, just not what I was expecting). One of the main ATV offroad trail entrances is a hundred yards or so past the primitive tent sites so anticipate traffic and some noise. There were a few electric/water sites available for RV/Campers but the majority of them were filled.

It does appear that that there are several "long term campers" at numerous sites, as wooden steps and decks are built and attached to the campers. I would not describe the campground as neat and tidy, but fills a need.

The other portion of the county park lies across Rt 50 about 1/2 mile east. This is where you will find a nice 50 acre lake...shaped like a "T" on its side... for short paddles or fishing (no swimming permitted), a solid collection of varied ability MTB trails and a cool, little local WV Oil history museum. Being a bit of a history buff, I was fascinated by the museum...how the local town was created during the oil boon and then destroyed by fire...of an enormous wilderness mansion that sat where the campground now sits. Interesting stuff.

There is a nice dog park if you brought your pooch. Several picnic areas with picnic shelters, playgrounds, and decent shared hiking trails.

As stated, if your main purpose is to MTB or ATV, then you might be contented with Mountwood County Park Campground. As county parks go, Mountwood County Park, itself, is nice and has a lot to offer. If quiet camping is your objective, I would recommend NorthBend State Park just down the road a piece.

If you are confused by this campsite that makes sense. This was an AEP ReCreation campsite. It has recently been purchased by the State of Ohio. The ReCreation AEP campsites has an outstanding FB (Facebook) page. I would recommend you keep close tabs on that site to figure out what you need to know about this site or others. The new sign does make it easy to find. It is also one of the closest campsites to the Miner's Memorial Park with the Big Muskie bucket. If you don't know what that is do go and check the site out. 

I would also say print maps and also take photos of maps. This one wasn't too bad to find as it is on the current paper map that AEP printed dated January 13, 2020. If you have kids that like horses I would go over to see if anyone is at the Equine area that is close by as well.  So a fun filled day of looking at a giant mining bucket and horses. 

Cell phone coverage is extremely limited out here. Verizon got service in most of the areas.  It wasn't 100%.  If you do need coverage the Mining Memorial is the main spot to go. Other carriers never seemed to have a signal. 

These campsites allow 2 cars per site. Pets are allowed if leashed. As Ohio is taking over the campsites think Ohio State Park rules. You can still camp here for free at the moment.  

https://www.aep.com/recreation/areas/recreationland

https://www.cleveland.com/open/2018/07/first\_phase\_of\_ohios\_new\_jesse.html

https://birding-in-ohio.com/morgan-county/jesse-owens-state-park-and-wildlife-area-maple-grove-campground/

This out of the way, hard to find and get to park was once great. It is still a good place to camp, but there is little in the way of maintenance or upkeep going on other than what the volunteer groups are doing. The trails are generally good, some are great, hiking and mountain biking groups are keeping them in good shape. The geese are out of control, the beach is often filthy with goose crap. Fishing is hit and miss. I doubt you will see a Ranger or State Park employee, that can be a good thing or a bad thing, you decide. LOTS of Geocaching opportunities. Athens has a great deal of places to eat, nightlife, shows and any supplies you may need. The trails link into the city trails so it is possible to hike from town to the camp, but it is complex and quite a haul. Pets are allowed, but not on the swimming beach. The Group campsite it larger and has it's own pit latrine, parking and picnic tables. We have used it for Scout groups. A swingset is across the road in the main campground. There is one electrical outlet, near the entrance of the campground at the bulletin board. There is also a large wooden screen near the entrance where you can use your own projector to watch movies at night. Be advised, the cabins are tiny wood shacks.

This was our second weekend in a row coming to this campground, but this time we are in non-electric. We scoped out the site ahead of time and although not our first or second pick, the site turned out to be very nice. It's has a site right behind it, but has a nice size green space for an ez-up. The pad was a nice length and held our small camper and truck with room to spare. The closest bathroom was the handicap porta-potty, but a little further up you use the flush toilets. (no showers) The campground had at least 2 camp hosts and a small camp store. We walked down to the lake. If you like to fish, it's a short walk. This site is further away from the playground, but close to a trail head. We did have a small furry visitor - a very friendly orange cat.

I can see how this state park appeals to families- there is putt putt, a cute general store, an outdoor movie screen, a small beach and paddle boats. But if you don't have kids, I'd find a better place to camp. 

The campground sites are tiny and all squished together. I had a literal 9-foot rectangle of grass, right up against RVs on both sides. It didn't help that the families, who were mere feet away from me the whole time, spent the weekend screaming at their kids and dogs (four dogs with one family. Four. Why aren't there rules about that?) and later beating their dogs. Yep. I got to see dog beating all weekend long. That's the kind of clientele this park seems to attract. 

The trails didn't seem that great- barely marked, going through a dense forest, with not much to see besides the trees themselves. The "lake" is really a pond, or an extremely small lake. The swimming was decent but the bottom is quite slimy- bring water shoes if you want to swim. 

Also, my campsite was literally 10 yards away from a disgusting pit toilet that reeked the entire time. Why do they put campsites right up against sewer pits? I had to breathe in feces fumes all weekend long, and I doubt that is healthy. 

The shower was hot, I'll give them that. I will not return to this park. I called the reservation agency to tell them about my experience but they did not get back to me.

A new site for us at this campground, site 59 which is an inside site. We also had friends who booked 2 inside sites very nearby so we were able to all set up in the middle and share a large space for 10 people and 7 dogs. We were able to be socially distant, have space for cornhole and lots of room for the dogs. Our site pad was pretty level. My husband went over the pad just a little onto the grass, as the other side sloped. So when we stepped out of the camp, we wouldn't be stepping down on a slope. This is one of the quietest campgrounds we go to even though there is plenty for kids to do (playground). Had the weather been better, we would have brought our kayaks for the lake. You have three different types of restrooms. The ones closest to use are the drop toilets, a little further is a porta potty and the furthest was the flush toilets (no showers). It's our little slice of heaven so we like to try a new site each time if we are able. We take our dogs with us so we have to be a little more picky so we don't bother anyone.

There is a nice sized sand ground play set with swings and 2 slides, an air pillow (blob) putt putt, a trail to the lake, a dog run, poop pickup stations, an A/C’d game room and very pleasant staff. 10/10 recommend and pretty reasonably priced