Best Tent Camping near Peebles, OH

I stayed in the non-electric, tent-only campground NOT the RV campground. Out of curiosity, I drove through the RV campground and it was so loud and cramped! But the tent-only area is separate. Walk-in sites with pit toilets and potable water. The map of how the sites are laid out online is extremely inaccurate, I would not have picked my site if it had been accurate. But there was only one other camper and we all had plenty of space - I could barely see them through the trees. All sites appeared to have a picnic table and fire ring. Many miles of trails / dirt roads for hiking and biking. Clear skies at night. Very relaxing.

This was the last campground before returning home from a month long camping road trip across the country and back. Picturesque camp directly on the Ohio River. Very level. Small campground with about 40 sites. Basically all sites are for RVs and equipped with electrical and water and most with sewer. We were tent camping and set up and a very soft & thick grassy space on one of the empty sites. The owners plan to install dedicated tent sites along the edge of the woods. There is a camp store with most needed items. Ice and firewood sold. Very spacious and individual toilet and shower & sink rooms. Good showers with plenty of hot water. Playground for children. Volleyball for anyone. Dumpster for trash. Great people. Easy to make reservations.

We have stayed in four sites her during the past couple of month. There are two walk-in sites (10 & 51). Both were pleasant, nearly level, close to amenities, but were under no shade. [Site 10 is presently inhabited by a large family with a sign that says “Camp Host out front. I have not seen them do anything for campers here, and the site is kept in disgraceful cluttered condition.] we next stayed on Lot 13, which backs up to the primitive campground. Quite nice, but beware: this site as well as about half of the other sites at this campground require the use of electrical and water extensions because the connections are on the “wrong” side of the RV, and quite a distance away. For Lot 13, I needed over 50’ of extensions. We then stayed on walk-in lot 51. I was able to “self permit” at the gate…it’s first come first served, no online reservations. Nice, but no shade. Finally, we’re on Lot 47. Eureka! This is my favorite so far. It’s one of the “premium sites” with wooden deck and nicer picnic table for only $2 additional per night. View is phenomenal, and it’s close enough to dumpsters and gatehouse. Notice that I didn’t mention anything about sewer hookups. That’s because there are none. There is a single, very popular dump station near the entrance/exit.
There are several miles of decent trails here, a swimming pool, putt putt golf, a pioneer museum, and a lodge with a good restaurant. The campground is easily accessible and is very kid and pet friendly. Nice sites for tent camping. Facilities are a bit dated, but clean and well maintained. All RV sites are back-in, and some are limited length. (Though some campers have rather cleverly managed to pull through a couple of the sites.) Some are quite unlevel.
Overall good family campground on rich historical site.

Stayed two nights at Tar Hollow's North Ridge Campground, which is the tent only campground. Be sure to visit the "Camp General Store" to pick up your permit before heading to your campsite. If your GPS takes you to the North Ride campground, just drive past and continue on until you see the general store/putt putt area. Believe the camp store is open until 8pm during the week. 

We were on site 106, which is at the far end of the campground. The campground is about 2-3 acres large, situated on a hill with a path dug out around the perimeter. 

Some positives about the campground and site 106: 

-the path around the hill allows for great drainage; a huge help if you're camping in rainy weather. 

-the north ridge campground is in an entirely separate area of the park than the RVs and there aren't many campsites, so in that way it feels a little more remote and secluded. 

-In addition to the path around the perimeter of the campsite there is a path leading up through the middle of the campground with the campsites situated on either side of the path. Since site 106 is at the far end, you don't have anyone walking by your campsite to and from the parking lot. 

-Pine lake is a beautiful little spot to fish, rent a paddle boat, or just relax. There is also a pretty spacious beach area.

-There is a water spigot, restrooms, and a dumpster.

-There is no cell service. Enjoy the outdoors! You are off the grid! 

Some negatives about the campground and site 106: 

-You cannot park your car directly at your campsite. There is a parking lot at the bottom of the campground hill. You have to carry your items to your campsite. Depending on what site you reserved you could have to walk uphill for about 100-150 yards. This could be an issue for differently abled people. Also, it means you need to be crafty about securing your food at night if you don't want to walk it back down to your car. 

-Many of the campsites are situated on pretty intense slopes. 106 wasn't too bad. I would guess 105 is probably the most level site in the campground. 

-Site 106 is the farthest from the parking lot. Great for privacy, bad for lugging your stuff to and from the car. 

-The bathrooms are pit latrines. Normally, I wouldn't be too concerned about this (you're camping! it's cool to rough it a bit!) However…these are some of the dirtiest I've experienced. The bathrooms are also very narrow and perhaps most importantly, they are not lit, so you have to make sure you bring your headlamp with you at night. I also couldn't get the latch to lock on the doors, but maybe that was user error. There is toilet paper and hand sanitizer (but I always double sanitized with my own sanitizer back at our tent--such was the state of these bathrooms.) 

-The campsites are all pretty close together. We got lucky and there was no one next to us, but even so we could still clearly hear conversations at other campsites and folks snoring at night. 

-There is no cell service. Be sure to give anyone who may need to contact you a heads up.

All in all, we had a positive experience and were glad we went. That said, there are better spots to tent camp in and around OH.

We paid extra to have a "Premium" site, which meant we got a deck. That deck held our picnic table,  but there was no room to put our camping chairs. And though we were close to the lake, you could not see it through the trees. We could barely get out of our trailer and into the driveway without falling into a ravine. The fire pit had to be put on the back side of our trailer next to the road as that was the only spot it could fit. We were told to check out other sites in case we want to come back. Ha. The staff knew no one who had ever been here would ever take this site! But... we won't need to check out other sites as we'll never come back.

Great camping experience! Waited too late to book in hocking hills state park but found a site here instead. We are tent campers and stayed in site 106 on"Northridge". Loved that the non-electric tent sites were so isolated from the RV campers. Site 107 gets muddy with a lot of rain. Sites 108-112 have a pretty significant slope. Each site in the loop has a picnic table and fire ring. There's a dumpster, pit toilets, and water. It was a short drive to the rest of the campers, a great hot shower, fantastic general store, miniature golf, and the beach to swim or lake to kayak. Took us at least 30 minutes to drive to the common hocking hills hikes but well worth it. We would return.

Stayed at the primitive campsites at the top of the ridge above the lake and all the RV and electric sites. The campground is great in that there is no tree cover so you have clear skies to view the stars. If it rains then it probably would not be the best location. The parking is separate from the campgrounds but its a short walk uphill, maybe no more than a 1/3 of a mile to the farthest site. Now there's like 12 sites or so and they're all great other than the fact that you are extremely close to your neighbors and you can hear EVERYTHING. there is little privacy to do "anything" since the other campsite is directly beside you. so if you plan on having amorous outings, wait for daylight where people are making noise or go somewhere where the campsites are a little more spaced apart.

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.

We took a group of Boy Scouts on a five day backpacking trek of the entire Shawnee Loop. It was a very challenging five days with a lot of up and down hills.

The entire loop is around 36 miles. There are seven campsites along the trail, and all but one has water access, which was really nice on our trek.

The first day we hiked from the trail head parking lot to Camp 1. The camp was a small, secluded grove down in a valley. This made for a nice cool off from the day's heat. The camp has a large grassy area and several smaller campsite offshoots.

The second day we hiked to camp 2 and stopped for water. Unfortunately the water supply seems to have been compromised since we found leaves in the water coming from the faucet. Luckily we have our water filtration system so we quickly filtered the water and were on our way. We then hiked to camp 3 which is very close to Camp Oyo. This was a nice, large camp right next to the creek. We had tons of space. The only bad thing about this campsite was it's proximity to the main road. We heard cars going by all night.

The next day we found a beautiful view on top of the one hill just off a logging road where we stopped for lunch. There was even a picnic table. We then went on to camp 4 which, unfortunately, had been trashed. There was garbage everywhere, likely due to this campsite being close to a road. So, as good boy scouts we cleaned up the trash so that the next group could enjoy the camp. This camp was much like camp 1. Grassy area, small creek, lots of shade in the valley.

We then went on to camp five and we quite disappointed. This is barely a camp at all. It's just a long trail to a small grassy patch. Barely enough room to set up a decent camp. I think this camp has not seen much use.

When we hiked to camp 6 the next day we found the crown jewel of the trail. Camp 6 is absolutely beautiful. The camp is in a pine grove and has a substantial creek running through the middle complete with fairly large fish! Although there was no water access in camp six we were able to refill water thanks to the stream and our filters. We were very bummed to not be camping at camp six.

We then went on to camp 7 for our final night. Camp seven is just like camp 1. It's down in a cool valley with an open patch for tents and lots of good trees for hammocks.

Overall it's a good hiking trail, and very challenging. The only thing I would like to have seen more of would be a more interesting trail. Which cant be helped, really. There aren't any interesting rock formations or caves along the trail. And the views are OK. Nothing too spectacular. My thought is that you do the Shawnee trail for the challenge of the distance, terrain, etc. It's a good training trail for longer treks. I enjoyed it greatly, but don't see myself coming back for some time.