Best Glamping near Newport, OH

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.

This is an extremely primitive place that is not run by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. It is run by the same woman who runs the boat rentals at several other state parks in SE Ohio- this is her business. There are very few amenities here. There are pit toilets, potable water towards the front, and that's it. There is a road that runs alongside the entire length of the campground, right at the edge, so you can hear cars and coming and going, especially at night. I was here in late October, so I can't attest to whether this place has a loud party atmosphere like many other state parks, but it seemed pretty chill, probably due to the fact that you can't reserve a site in advance- you pay when you arrive, and pick your spot then. The boat house's hours said they were still open for the season, but I arrived long after they were supposed to open according to their hours listed on the door, and I never saw a person all day. So I went to go rent a boat at a different place. All in all, the campground is fine, just the traffic along the road was a bit annoying, and the sites are not very wide- you are close to your neighbors and there is nothing separating the sites.

When I was younger I use to go here a lot on day trips to swim at the man made sandy beach on the lake. From where I used to live in WV it was only a 40 minute drive across the state line into Ohio. The camping there is nice. The fishing is good as well. What makes the lake unique at Forked Run is that it contains dime sized fresh water jelly fish. These type aren't able to sting you. There are shower houses and a camp general store with the camping essentials. There is plenty to do with fishing and hiking. A lot of people in the area mainly go for swimming or to play frisbee golf.

I discovered this park in 2019 while on a history road trip to Marietta, Ohio and Blanerhasset Island.  I’ve since returned to Forked Run just to spend a peaceful weekend The park has over 150 campsites and the times I’ve been there, only a few were occupied. I felt like I had the whole park to myself. Some people complain about the pit toilets. They smell bad, but they’re bearable. There’s a nice lake for kayaking. There’s a boat launch near the dam at the south end of the lake and a second boat launch at midway portion of the lake. You have to drive a few miles to the second launch but I prefer to enter the lake here and paddle north into the headwaters of the lake

Hook Lake AEP is I think the second largest of the campground areas, outside McConnellsville, Oh.

Hook Lake campsites are spread throughout the woodland loop above the lake recreation area. This would be an ideal area for large groups or a family reunion. Realize this is bare basic camping with pit toilets and no electricity. Print out a permit and stake your claim for a free , quiet, entertaining stay in the AEP wilderness.

Its a toss up for me between this site and Sand Hollow as my favorite. The areas are large enough for several, and spaced out along the loop to give some privacy/sound buffer if it is a large group staying there. They are right on the water too for convienience of fishing or boating.

Plus there are plenty other things to do in close proximity. The Ohio farm country is awesome and McConnellsville, Oh offers some cool old buildings if you like architecture.

Blue Rock State Park is outside Zanesville, Oh off I70. Rt 60 takes you South and then you have a choice of routes in. Good Ohio farmland scenery.

Out of the way, small camping area with basic sites. A cool feature is a few of the sites have pavilion type covered patios that you can pitch your tent in to help stay dry during inclimate weather.

Otherwise the sites are close together. Though there are a few sites that are more off to themselves, they are still wide open with sparse tree cover.

The restroom is basic, the showerhouse is located at the reservoir beach as well as the camp store and boat rental.The staff was very knowledgeable about the area and conversational.

Several trails are in the area, the Horse Camp is up the road. In addition to this area there is the Blue Rock State Forest that offers several out door activities, check out their map and site online.

I've lost my review a few times so this is going to be even more brief as it's my third time typing it out.

This is a free campsite that was part of the AEP reclamation lands. If you are unfamiliar with these lands then go to https://www.aep.com/recreation/areas/recreationland make sure you do  your homework before coming down to the area. They have a really helpful FB group page that is updated all the time. I got the best and most current information on Facebook. 

The campsites do not have any camp stores, no fire wood to buy, no water (so make sure you pack what you will need), and they do have a campground host. We did buy wood from a private home in a near by town. Great deal. $10 for a whole wheel barrow full of wood. Quality wood (dry and well cut). 

The state of Ohio recently bought it so it is becoming the Jesse Owens State Park. We did talk to a ranger while we were at the campground. He gave me an Ohio State Park envelope to fill in. Notice, the payment area is X out. It is still free at the moment. 

We explored nearby McConnelsville. You will see pictures of a brewery that we visited. We also check out the wharf, the opera house, and it did have a Kroger in case you forget something. On the way to McConnelsville there is a Miner's Memorial Park. This would be something you would want to check out to see the massive bucket. 

At the campground children up to the age of 15 are allowed to fish. Adults need to go elsewhere to fish. There's also an archery range but I did not go and check that out as I do not have a bow and arrow. 

The bathrooms are Vault toilets. They do have hand sanitizer outside of the bathrooms. It would not be handicapped or Mobility accessible for those that have limited Mobility. The bathrooms were single toilet stalls and did have a light on at night (on the inside). 

They provide a dumpster so you can get rid of your trash at the campground. Also, two cars per site. However, we were able to put three tents on our site as we are not sharing tents at this point in time. 

Make sure you fill in the new registration envelopes as you can see here cell phone coverage is limited to Verizon. T-Mobile and AT&T had no coverage. Even with Verizon there were several spots where I did not get coverage. This means you will want to print or grab an AEP map.

The campsites were well spaced apart and a good size.  You had a variety of campsites at this campground. Make sure you drive through the whole campground to find what you would like such as grassy area, overlooking lake, near the playground, etc.

We had read about the quietness of Forked Run and it was we had a loop all to ourselves and only about 15 campers in the whole campground,

It was very clean and the areas coming into the campground beautifully maintained, but once we got to our campsite it was covered in trash, cigarette butts, beer cans and tons of candy and straw wrappers, the woods behind each campsite was loaded in trash, toilet paper and feces.

After a few hours we had our site pretty much cleaned up, but on our walks we noticed more sites looking the same.

Shower house was clean, but after visiting a pit toilet and fighting of hundreds of bugs I noticed the pit toilet was almost overflowing, yes overflowing. As many as I have used I have never seen one so full which explains why everyone was crapping in the woods.

If you want internet bring a WiFi and a booster and you will be good.

No available park ranger, in facts serious accident happened at the front gate and victims waited for EMS to arrive, if a ranger was on duty help could have been faster.

Kayaking was great with some hidden coves.

Other than that it can be a beautiful park, Ohio ODNR you should be ashamed of yourself for the way this park is kept.

It’s place was a last minute booking for us as we needed to kill 2 days before our next planned stop in North Carolina. I’d say most reviews are pretty accurate I read on here. Bathrooms dated camp spots are small except for a few in the first loop that were pull through. Out of the whole campground on Tuesday there was only 5 camp sites occupied. It was very quiet and peaceful. Even better no cell phone service. When we left people were starting to arrive for the 4th of July weekend. I was surprised at how many sites were tagged for arrival. Now one of the reasons we picked this was because of the lake and reviews on the swimming area for our kids. We were very disappointed in the swimming area. The swim area was filled with locals who were leaving trash on the beach and lake. It was disappointing the amount of fast food rappers and cigarettes butts all over the place. This park does have the potential to be one of those hidden gems with a little TLC. We enjoyed the stay here. We ended up going to Marietta, Ohio both days. This town was not to far away and has a ton of history. I would return to this campground to enjoy the piece and quiet. But would not return to bank on the swimming area and lake to enjoy with the kids.

Large open campground minutes from downtown Marrietta OH owner and Staff are very friendly and easy going! Clean, nice newer bath house. With laundry large shelter house I believe there is dockage but not sure if it is for seasonal rental only? Hook ups for each site!

Our family loves to camp at this local campground, super clean bathrooms and pool with kids area is so much fun. We had the best time when we camped at there for the fair, it was right next to the campground.  Only downfall is if it rains the end lots get really muddy.

27 vehicles and 49 people from an overlanding trip stayed in the camp ground that AEP personnel reserves exclusively for our group! Pit toilets were well maintained, fire rings provided and nicely kept grounds with observed quiet times made for a fantastic stay!!

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.

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!

We drove thru Sand Hollow, Bicentennial and Maple Grove before choosing Hook Lake. All of these Jesse Owens State Park/AEP campgrounds are free for up to 14 days. While most of the sites at Hook Lake do not have cell coverage we were lucky enough to find that at the "top of the hill" we were able to get both att and verizon at around 2 bars (3 to 5gb download but under 1 upload).

This campground was very quiet, lots of shade (not ideal if you are running on solar only). The DNR make rounds on a regular basis. There is a dumpster by the entrance to the campground but no longer cans at each site (October 2020).

Stayed in site 27 with a 33ft travel trailer and we're able to get level without and blocks.

Lots of hiking, mountain biking and The Wilds are near by. McConnelsville is about 20 min away for all your gas, food (Kroger) and propane (Greueys Fuel and Freed.

Decided to go to Forked Run because its close to home and we had never camped there. Been fishing, hiking & swimming there over the years, but never camping. Some of the back in sites are REALLY short so we changed our originally reserved spot once we got there. We wound up being the only ones in our loop, but the shower house (that we were parked near) was BUSY BUSY BUSY because one of the shower houses was closed for repairs (hopefully renovations) The park itself is clean, but the facilities are dated. Shower house was OK, toilets are primitive.

We could not use the restrooms and our rv doesn't have one, so we used the portapotty beside the boat ramp. We called the office and they sprayed but the flies just moved down into the pit farther. Shower houses very clean. Staff very nice. One site has great wifi access but I'm not telling which one. 😄

Why was it a very good place for us?

For us, this was a hidden gem on a Friday in September, but be aware it may not be the same experience for you. Most of the sites were open on reserveamerica.com so we knew we could just show up and choose a site. We went out to the end of area 3 (out of 5 areas) with sites 77-122 (non-electric) because it ends with a loop. There was a tent across the loop on #100. We chose #94 which had plenty of room, a sunny area for our solar panels and lots of shade. It was a great site for us.

Will your experience be different?

You need to be aware this is an old park. I would hesitate to reserve a site just by looking at sites on the online map. I've included a photo of the map the attendant had to show a view of the areas...electric and non-electric with a total of 151 sites. Many of the parking pads are extremely short although some are wide enough for a vehicle and trailer...or 2 vehicles.

Some of the areas where you can pitch a tent are pretty rough, especially at the beginning of area 3. See photos. #119 was a site in use and it looks like a great site for two tents (as long as it doesn't rain because you can see in the photo that you're in a valley).

Be aware there could be some things you might not like...short parking pads, difficult tent areas, pit toilets. There are showerhouses that include sinks but the toilets are pit toilets in separate buildings.

I did not find potable water. There were water fountains that were not running, but there were several gray water dump wells and and a dump station.

Yes, it's a bit rough around the edges. We liked that it wasn't crowded. The attendant said the park was full over Memorial Day weekend. Other campers told me there's a chili cookoff around Halloween, and it's a great place to camp around then.

If you love the amenities of a modern campground, you could be disappointed. If you like roughing it, you'll enjoy the setting. And you can show up without a reservation and choose a site.

Activities

• The attendant told me the disc golf course attracts people because it's very good.

• A few short hiking trails

• Archery range

• Forked Run Lake has a boat ramp and 400-foot sand beach.

What about cell phone service?

Verizon's network was available but not in all areas. There is decent wifi by the entrance station.