Best Tent Camping near McConnelsville, OH

Review from the perspective of a motorcycle traveler tent camping. Tent sites are along a stream on one side and campsite access road on the other. Clean and well maintained with super nice staff. Had a $6 bundle of firewood delivered to my campsite. Tent area was vacant except for me.

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.

Beautiful trails, waters and scenery. We love tent camping here and it’s cheap! We hit this park every year for camping and lake days on the beach with friends!

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.

Enjoyed the campground, but the sites were very sloped and the rv sites were pretty close together. We stayed at one of the more spread out sites. I’d go again, but they should maybe make some tent pads for the tent sites.

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.

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.

We live close to this park and frequent there, sometimes just day trips. Tent camping is great and just like most places there are a few sites that are the best. Park offers hiking trails from the camp sites to the beach area or packing up the swim gear and using the parking lot. The beach area is back water from the ohio river. It is a sandy rocky mixture. There are boat rentals during peak months. There is a frisbee golf course that is top notch. The only down side to this ohio state park, are the bathrooms; they are port a pot facilities that can be pretty raunchy.

If you’re looking for a nice, secluded, private weekend getaway… this isn’t it. If you and some friends/family reserve tent sites 20, 21, and 22 you can have the entire little alcove to yourselves! If you’re just reserving one of them, you will be close enough to hear that your neighbors did in fact have beans for dinner. Campground was well maintained. Bathrooms were fine. You do have to walk to those tent sites. The view of the river was gorgeous, we watched several barges go by! Kind of noisy at night since it seems like this is primarily an RV park and very tight knit, community like. There was some bigger logs for fires over by the dumpster. Stopped at galaxy grocery for firewood, about a 10 minute drive from the campground. All in all, had a good time!

Just driving in saw turkeys and "turkets":) and two 6 point bucks. You can hike, swim, boat, bike and horseback ride. Primitive tent camping all the way to upscale lodge stays. Electric camper hookups and shower house. In August there is "Deerassic Expo" event, right outside the front drive! Plus!! A lot of other smaller park "gems" nearby.

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!

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!

Lots of available places to tent camp or park an RV! There’s a nice little beach area along the lake. Several large pavilions. Playground for the kids. During the summer they set up large inflatable slides and create a makeshift lake waterpark! I camp here EVERY year during the Annual Pawpaw Festival in mid September. They have local art, music, beer, and all kinds of pawpaw products! Such a blast! Highly recommend!!!

The lake is clean and has beautiful scenery. The beach is very kid friendly. There is a playground there. The trails are great. They have options for length and scenic differences. Roads are well maintained. Campsites aren’t great for tent camping, but we still had fun. Campsites are close together. They are under trees though, which is a definite plus for me. Overall I thought there was a great vibe and it was a clean area.

Went there in October. No attendance around and not many campers. Sites are very bad for tent camping and not the bet for RV’s. Back ins are sort and most sites have no level ground even for the picnic table or fire ring. Showers were clean but cold. Vault toilets only and stuck to high Heaven. Not serviced well at all. Hiked the lake view trail, poorly maintained. The upper loop from the beach end is very hard to find and not marked at all. Even more disappointing than Hope Lake which has its own site problems for tents.

My husband camped here in 2018 and plan on it again this year! Lake Hope has plenty of recreational opportunities for everyone and the campground is close by! The campground is quiet and well kept. We tent camp so we usually have a non-electric site so the area we stay is away from most of the RVs. Bathrooms and showers are maintained well. Not far from Hocking Hills State Park as well as other park areas. Plenty of opportunities for hiking, boating, and other activities.

North Bend State Park is about 10 miles south on Rt 16 off of Rt 50...east of Parkersburg, WV.

When you slowly wind your way along twisty backcountry roads, through a small town, you'll ultimately find yourself entering North Bend State Park.

Immediately to the right is Cokely Campground. Initially, you don't see it...you must drive up and over a roller. At the top of the hill, you observe a handful of picnic tables and fire rings, a porta-potty and a small woodshed with a water spigot alongside. Very little delineation from site to site and more of a mown field. Only the top two locations are the only quasi-level sites along a narrow tree line. No electric. These sites are $16 nightly.

Traveling over the hill and turning to the right you see the main Cokely Campground with newer showerhouse/restroom building and playground. Campsites are blacktop with water and electric, apparently for large RV/Campers. These sites are $28 nightly.

If you were to bypass the RV/Camper location, you would continue down the side road to the boat ramp and lake.

The grounds and restrooms were clean, maincured and well maintained. Midweek the RV sites were already filled.

We decided against Cokely Campground and returned to the main park road deeper into the State Park to River Run Campground.

You pass the Lodge/Restaurant and the huge "L" shaped outdoor pool on your right as you descend (Note: the pool is seasonal and with college aga lifeguards that exit for school early, it was closed mid-August).

Winding down to River Run, deer in abundance were lining the the roadway, so use care. River Run Campground runs along a river...imagine that!

Tent sites are situated between the roadway and the river on the left...then additional tent sites are around a small half acre pond on the right. Most the roadside tent sites are level, but sit at a lower level, so when it rains (and it does in WV)...it gets soggy. No visible distinction or foliage between tent sites. One porta-potty sits at the crossroads across from the office.

Saturday it was quiet with only one other tent camper, but rain was forecasted...although a pumphouse, located at the entrance to River Run, kicks on periodically with a low, annoying droning. Being at site 45, it was quite noticeable, as I imagine with all sites in the 40's. The tent specific sites are non-electric with central water spigots ($22 nightly). As you pass the tent sites and the office, you enter a loop of paved RV/Camper sites with blacktop drives, water and electric ($28 nightly). The Showerhouse/restrooms are located in the center of this area...and are very clean and maintained. The coveted RV/Camper sites are along the bank of the river and offer more distance between neighbors. On the inner ring, a split rail fence separates neighbors.

While the sun didn't shine during our visit, it appears the thick forest canopy keeps all river sites shaded. The grounds and facilities are neat at clean.

All the trails bisect this campground, some foot only, others multipurpose. River Run also has a nice playground for the kids. Trails have difficulty drying out, so rocks and roots were muddy and slick, but still enjoyable.

Note: Mountainbike races are often held here, so campgrounds can get crazy and packed. Additionally, because of the pool, this is a very busy campground. Be forewarned that the pool is 58 steps up from the parking lot to the pool area.

There were a lot of trails I did not get to travel, and I'll bring my bike next time for the Rails-to-Trail. Nice but popular campground,

We booked our non-electric tent camp site online, the pictures of the set-up of sites online do not match at all the set-up in real life.  It took us an hour and a half to find our site because we arrived later (around 8pm) and no staff was available and no maps anywhere to be found explaining the set up of the campsites.  The original site we had booked could barely fit our single little tent (it's not a fancy double or anything like that), it was on an angle and the view we had thought we were going to get of the lake was nowhere to be found.  We switched sites the next morning only to find that every other site that had a smidge of privacy was on such an incline it literally made us dizzy to hang out there for very long.  We spent one night at the new site then left and stayed at a hotel for our third and final night of vacation because it was raining and torrents of water were flowing into our tent. The beach area had multiple notices about high bacteria content and warnings for swimming at your own risk (which we can understand this happens sometimes).  The bathrooms on the campsite we stayed in were atrocious!  I've never smelled anything so bad in my life and dirty, dirty, dirty! No showers were available in the grounds we stayed at but over by the beach area there was showers available - but you had to shower super quickly, the hot water was gone before you could even get your hair washed.  We rented a Kayak to go exploring (super fun as we had not done that before! and decently priced) but the area you have to Kayak in is so small!!  The lake is not really a lake but more of a pond.  Some of the staff (especially the lady manning the main office) were super friendly and nice, some of the staff (particularly the 'maintenance' staff) were rude and ignored you when you tried to speak with them.  The trails around the campsite were absolutely breathtaking - beautiful, serene and smelled like wildflowers surprisingly because they are used as horse-riding trails so lots and lots of horse manure along the paths.  We won't be going back to this campground for many of the reasons stated above but I do recommend that you check out the trails if you choose to stay here.