Best Equestrian Camping near Hanging Rock, OH

Shawnee State Park was totally without any phone signal. Right on the border of Kentucky, in Ohio, you are in the small town almost South.

Beautiful countryside, fortunately I was on Rt 125 when I lost all clue where the park entrance was. Then I saw the Shawnee Range and kept on driving. Definitely get a map because the whole park offers a lot of out door opportunities.

Backpack trail, 23 and 40 miles loops with 7 camping areas, register and enjoy. Equestrians get 70 miles and primitive camping.

The camping area is small ( a good thing ) the restrooms are clean and basic. Showerhouse and laundry. The attendant was super helpful and knowledgeable.

This is a beautiful state park with breathtaking views of creeks along the roadway, wonderful landscape designed by nature, good hiking trails, peaceful campground, and a nice lodge. The campground is a bit tight, especially when lots of cars are in visiting the campers, very peaceful though as the night goes on. The road to the lake could use a little TLC. Trails are marked nicely, as well as how to get to the equestrian site, Day use area, pool, lodge, and restaurant. Restaurant was very good buffet and menu items available. Lodge was clean and well kept. Very relaxing state park.

My daughter and I stayed here last year in late September. We rented a cabin (#4) for a weekend. While not luxurious, the cabin was clean, beds comfortable, AC worked great, functional kitchen and bigger bathroom than I expected. The lake is smaller, but nice beach area and pedal boats are fun. We hiked the Greenbriar and CCC Trails. They are not too challenging but beautiful. Parts of the CCC trail were overgrown with briars and narrow. The campground looks nice, we plan on bringing our camper next time. Not much nearby, but Waverly has some good eats. Seems popular with horse riders.

Park was nice, clean and has friendly staff. We liked that we could walk to the bathrooms and not have to drive there. We stayed at site 100 and really enjoyed the shade trees. Showers are small but they work and there are only 3 stalls of toilets and 3 showers ( I believe) in the women’s side- unsure of men’s. Plenty to do, including a playground, pool, miniature golf, bike riding, horse back riding, hiking, etc. All sites have a picnic table and a grate over the fire pit. Water wells are easily accessible and they have washers and dryers as well. Check-in location was a bit confusing but eventually figured it out.

my family have been coming here for 5 generations. it’s definitely a family favorite. Yes it can get crowded, yes there are kids and lots of noise. they’re coming here to have fun too! I grew up in the primitive campground with a huge canvas tent. We’ve graduated to an RV and are on the other side of the campgrounds now but still loving it. I’ve never stayed on the side with the horse camping but we usually run down there for the showers. Canoe the Tygart, take a trail ride, spelunk a Cave, eat a S’more, hike the red trail, see the natural bridge, come for pioneer week, Halloween is a hoot, watch out for skunks, hope you see a wildcat or two, tell a ghost story, play some corn hole, watch out for bears. Anyway go to the caves, you’ll love it.

The night we arrived it was pouring rain. After sleeping in the car to stay dry we explored the park. The park really came alive with the rain, which really made the trip. Water was running over the edges of cliffs and boulders throughout the park into the river that flows through the park. The cave tours were cheap and interesting, although the self guided tour was closed due to flooding. We did the Three Bridge Trail which was moderately challenging but worth the unique geology and natural bridge formations.

The tent campground was quiet but the RV campground was pretty full and lively. At site 110 we struggled to find a flattish spot—the sites closest to the road to the horse campground were much better. The bathrooms were randomly closed one night on a Saturday which was a little annoying. There wasn’t any clear communication of restroom hours.

It was hard to find firewood nearby, we ended up seeing a sign of a guy selling firewood and we called him. It was $23 for 35 logs delivered to the site. This ended up being way more than we needed and we left some behind after giving some out for free to other campers, which was a cool experience.

We left for the day on our second to last day and packed up most of the site in the car as we’d be gone a while. When we came back what we left was gone along with our reservation slip at the site entrance. It seems the rangers took it that we left and now I’m out a water jug.

There was some scavenger hunt race going on too and people would come out of the forest and run through our campsite with no regard to us being right there which was a little odd.

Overall I didn’t know what to expect as an out of stater but had a great time through the weather and all.