Best Glamping near Andover, OH

Stayed here on Saturday night of July 4th weekend. Arrived after hours without a reservation. No information on how to self register or which campsites were available even though some sites are first come first served. Found an open site, set up and went to bed. There were fireworks (prohibited) and the campsite next to us played loud music but it was before quiet hours so we didn’t mind. The loud music turned into a party with alcohol (prohibited) and the loud music continued way past quiet hours. No campground host or personnel did anything about the noise/party. At 12:30am we moved campsites because we couldn’t sleep. We saw sheriff patrolling the campground - don’t know why they didn’t quiet the offenders.

The campground is large with many sites so the probability of inconsiderate people is higher. I won’t be returning.

Stayed a night here near the end of June after a rainstorm. A few quick highlights:

1. Because there are a ton of sites, you can expect one thing: variety. There are plenty of aluminum Airstream, Winnebago, fifth wheels, pull behind, and tents. You can expect to find a little bit of everything here.

2. If you’re looking for peace and quiet, Mill Creek might not be for you. Most of the sites seem to be typically pretty packed. Generally, people respect quiet hours, but with sites so close to each other, noise is a factor.

3. The surrounding area seems to be pretty spartan. There’s a grocery store about 10 minutes up the road, a bait shop about three minutes away, and a drive-through (with some light groceries and drinks) about two away. Nice enough folks in all three :) Super helpful and accommodating.

4. Berlin lake seems to be the big draw. Plenty of boats, jet ski‘s, kayaks, and swimming opportunities. If that’s your thing, plan accordingly and you won’t be disappointed.

Overall, Mill Creek is a pretty solid site within driving distance of Akron / Canton. I’ll be back, with adjusted expectations.

Quick tip: My particular site was pretty muddy upon arrival. Granted, that was after a bit of rain. But it wouldn’t hurt to bring an extra pair of shoes ;-)

Pros: closest camping to Cuyahoga National Park, safe, professional (labeled envelopes with information at check-in and wood delivery) Cons: bathrooms weren’t cleaned or restocked as frequently as necessary (overflowing trash cans, TP empty by 5 pm), shower curtains/showers had mildew, truly dirty bathroom floors, had to drive 1/4 mile to the one trash dumpster, unlevel sites

One more thing: there’s a significant raccoon and skunk problem along the section with water/electric back-in spots. We got to know our neighbors very well over two nights as we helped each other fend off multiple raids by entire families of raccoons and one very large, very bold skunk. We lost two camping chairs to the skunks because there was no way to fight them off once they moved into our shelter and, even without spraying, skunks tend to leave a scent behind on anything that’s fabric.

The price is okay in that it is the closest to the national park and the next closest campgrounds are the state park campgrounds (West Branch and Mosquito Lake), but the state park grounds are MUCH nicer and about $15 less per night. If you have the time to drive and can plan your trip months in advance to get reservations, West Branch is a better alternative.

We just got back from our first trip to Mosquito Lake State Park Campground. All in all, it was a great experience. 

We stayed in site 67, which is a waterfront site, with electric. The water is about 25 yards from the pad, but is visible from the entire site. The site was spacious, but not as private as some of the others. There is some woods between this site and the sites on either side, but other sites are visible. The fire pits and picnic tables were staggered, so it created some distance to make it feel more private. 

The campground as a whole, was very quiet. We stayed from Wednesday to Friday. The group next to us seemed a little rowdy when we first pulled in, but by 10:00 there was no noise anywhere near us. 

Most sites seemed pretty level from side to side, but where we were, several had a slope from front to back. Away from the waterfront, most sites looked pretty level. The amount of space between sites varied from site to site. Some sites had woods on both sides, while others were pretty open. Some had nice large grassy areas, others were much smaller. Sites from 214-224 are in a cul de sac and are water front, but they were pretty close together with very little privacy between sites, if any. They are very close to the water though. 

There are bathrooms and water scatter about, but from what I saw there was only 1 shower house. 

Wal-mart and other shopping and restaurants were about 3 miles away. Park was easy to get to, only one turn for us off the highway. Lake was great for kayaking and paddleboarding. Very nice dog park in a different part of the park. There is a boat launch accessible from inside the campground. 

Dump station has 2 lanes which was nice when checking out. Fresh water fill up was also located near the dump station.

Campground Review

I can honestly say that Oil Creek Family Campground is the best private campground that we have ever camped at. Especially if you’re camping with kids, it offers everything that you would want for a ‘great American summer’ style camping experience, without being a cookie-cutter big-name private campground chain. They have a large pool; a few llamas that the kids can feed and pet; a 27-hole disc golf course (recently expanded from 18 hole) primarily in the woods near and around the campground property; a small pond for sunfish / bass fishing; a dog ‘playground’ (enclosed area with some obstacles); a well-maintained hedge maze; a pavilion with ping pong, a pool table, and foosball; a DVD rental program at the main office with about 300 movies; and a small camp store with a small selection of books that you can borrow. They also provide weekly entertainment for the kids, e.g. rock painting or special guests. This weekend, for instance was ‘Jungle Terry and his amazing exotic animal family.’ We don’t typically spend a ton of time actually AT the campgrounds when we’re camping, but we did this weekend - and we had a blast on the disc golf course, fishing in the pond, and playing ping pong. The kids had an awesome time in the pool for hours and running around with the other kids in the maze. And everyone agreed that it was a perfect way to wrap up the summer before the school year starts.

We have a pop-up and my parents (whom we were camping with for the weekend) use a tent, so we had two water+electric sites in the tent camping area away from the RVs: sites A7 and A8. The sites in this area are well-maintained and LARGE, with plenty of room for a pop-up or multiple tents plus one or two vehicles, plus lots of room around the fire ring. There are smaller bathrooms placed around the campground as well as a center bathhouse located adjacent to the pavilion with 2 shower stalls and an additional toilet per gender.

We chose this campground due to its proximity to Oil Creek State Park. The state park itself does not have a campground, and OCFC is right next door - in fact, the campground hiking trail loop has a very short connecting piece to the 36-mile Gerard hiking trail that runs through the park. The park is beautiful with a lot of history (it is the site of the world’s first commercial oil well, and where the oil industry began in the United States around 1860) and Oil Creek - which is really a river - runs right down the middle of the park. It is a stocked creek and it’s great for both trout and bass fishing. Some parts of the creek also have a lot of northern water snakes (we saw 4 near the Blood Farm day use area) which was cool to see.

Overall: fantastic campground in a beautiful part of Pennsylvania - and we will absolutely be back.

Product Review

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get occasionally receive products to test or gift cards for new companies to check out.  Over the past weekend, we tried out one of the Mountain House favorites, freeze-dried Lasagna with Meat Sauce in the #10 can. Lasagna is not exactly a typical camping food, so the fact that we could easily make enough lasagna to feed a group of six people (4 adults and 2 kids) just by heating up some water was wonderful! We made the entire can (boil 8 cups of water, pour it into the can itself, stir a lot to mix up all of the freeze-dried ingredients, and let it sit for ten minutes - EASY) along with some crescent-roll wrapped hot dogs over the fire and it was like a gourmet camping meal. Everyone loved the lasagna - even the two picky kids!