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Best Tent Camping near Huntington, WV

366 Reviews

Wayne National Forest provides several tent camping options within an hour's drive of Huntington, West Virginia. Pine Knob Loop Campground in Pedro, Ohio offers walk-in and hike-in tent sites with basic amenities like toilets and fire rings. Timbre Ridge Lake near Gallipolis provides dispersed tent camping opportunities with vault toilets and picnic tables. Two Point Group Campground in Pedro supports tent-only camping with toilet facilities and pet-friendly policies. These primitive tent campgrounds are generally accessible from April through October, with some sites available year-round for experienced backcountry campers.

Sites throughout the region typically feature natural, ungraded surfaces with minimal development. Most tent campsites lack drinking water, requiring campers to bring their own supply or filter from nearby streams. Fire rings are available at Pine Knob and Timbre Ridge Lake, where fires are permitted, though seasonal restrictions may apply during dry periods. Vault toilets are present at most established campgrounds but are sometimes poorly maintained. Campers should prepare for self-sufficient backcountry tent camping by bringing all necessary supplies, as amenities are limited and stores are distant from most camping areas.

According to reviews, Pine Knob Loop Campground offers secluded spots accessible by hiking trails. One visitor reported finding "a secluded spot up the trail" and noted the hike was manageable even for an 8-year-old. At Timbre Ridge Lake, campers described "a beautiful area with a vault toilet" though mentioned that "fishermen coming and going several times through the night" affected the solitude. Walk-in tent sites throughout Wayne National Forest provide access to extensive trail systems for hiking and exploration. The tent-only camping areas typically offer more seclusion than developed campgrounds, with natural forest settings and opportunities for wildlife viewing. Summer weekends see higher visitation, while weekdays and shoulder seasons provide quieter primitive tent camping experiences with fewer fellow campers.

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Best Tent Sites Near Huntington, West Virginia (13)

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Tent Camping Reviews near Huntington, WV

366 Reviews of 13 Huntington Campgrounds

  • Alex M.
    Jul. 20, 2022

    Krodel Park Campground

    Nice park, awful bathrooms

    This is a strange campground, but not a bad one. It is minutes away from downtown Point Pleasant. I had spent the afternoon exploring the town and didn't feel like driving further. There aren't many campgrounds nearby, so this place came to the rescue.

    The park's main feature is a lake that looks to be artificial. Maybe an old gravel quarry? The terrain around the lake is nicely landscaped. There is a paved path along the shore, along with picnic tables and shelters. Kayak rentals are available and the lake is stocked with fish.

    Most of the campground is RV focused, but I stayed at a primitive tent site. These are located closer to the entrance. There are no site numbers. Just pull your car up onto the grass and set up wherever. A few picnic tables and electrical outlets are spaced out along the road. There were a few other campers here when I visited, but there was enough room for us to maintain good separation. No shade trees or shrubs for privacy, though.

    This is not a particularly quiet or restful campground. The day use area around the lake was hopping, with people coming and going well into the night. No closing time, or just not enforced? Not sure. Having so much traffic was a little uncomfortable from a safety standpoint, but nothing untoward happened while I was there. There was also quite a bit of noise from the nearby road and railroad.

    The biggest problem with this campground was the bathroom. It was one of the worst I've seen. It may very well have been cleaned recently, but it was so dark and dingy that I couldn't tell. No windows and just a single bare incandescent bulb for illumination. Reminded me of a gas station toilet. The sink barely drained, the toilet barely flushed, and the urinal looked like it was about to fall off the wall. I have used vault toilets that were much, much nicer than this. I found myself wishing for one of those. Gross.

    There is only one other bathroom located closer to the RV area, and this looked to be just as bad. To be clear, there are only two single occupancy men's rooms for the ENTIRE campground. Yes, there are a few porta potties scattered around as well, but this is ridiculous. This place needs to invest in better facilities.

  • Chris M.
    Jul. 17, 2020

    Yatesville Lake State Park Campground

    Great camping on the lake

    Camping: As far as camping goes there’s a little variety. On top of the hill there is camper sites with full hook ups which is actually quite spacious and spaced out from other sites compared to other campgrounds, but some sites are better than others of course. There is also primitive tent camping on top of the hill, but appeared slightly cramped. In my opinion the best sites are the boat in tent camping sites down the hill by the lake. The sites also run along a gravel rode that can be used to hike in. All sites throughout have fine gravel pad, picnic table, a fire ring and access to numerous bathrooms of which have a compost toilet and running water for the sink. Camp staff will deliver ice or firewood to any site if requested. Extras: The main attraction is the lake of course which is quite clean for swimming, boating or fishing, but can be a little busy at times. There are a few hiking trails near by, but I wouldn’t come here for that. There is a golf course and I did notice, but didn’t get to check out, there is a place called The Cove at Yatesville lake that has a beach for swimming with climbable inflatables in the water, kayak rentals and among other things. Conclusion: A great local place to have fun on a lake, but not somewhere I’d travel an extended distance to see.

  • Kelley K.
    Aug. 20, 2020

    Paintsville Lake State Park Campground

    Beautiful place, easy kayak launch, clean restrooms and showers

    We tent camped at one of the hike-in (it's a well maintained gravel path) sites at PLSP, #33. This is the first site on your way in. I was by myself with my son and dog so I felt more comfortable being here near the bathhouse. There are raccoons who like to eat so be sure to put your food up at night. The lake is really calm. There are boats coming in and out but not "traffic" per se, no issues at all kayaking and we went out several times. Fishing was good with rooster tails and panther martin spinners (silver), 1/8 and 1/16 oz. The water was down so there were a lot of places to paddle onto the shore and wade fish. There is some access right at the campground for littles to get in the water. I really recommend water shoes as there are some hooks/lures in the water. We never left the campground during the weekend, so I can't comment on the proximity to restaurants but it was only 5-8 min or so back to town. I had terrible phone service with Sprint here. We did have one new camper come in at 3am on Saturday morning to set up their tent and being so close to the entrance of the hike-in spots, I woke up. That was tough. When we go back, I'll pick a site further back up the hiking path and bring a wagon to tote our stuff. The staff at the gate are amazing and so friendly. The restrooms are clean. Three showers. NO ONE other than the tent campers seemed to use the bath house so I never waited for a shower or anything and there were several families tent camping and the rv sites were completely full. It's a really nice and safe place. I really recommend it and look forward to going back. One thing, the actual tent pad was 11x13 and seemed a bit small but worked fine for us.

  • Frank H.The Dyrt PRO User
    Aug. 7, 2021

    Sandy Springs Campground

    Nice campground

    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.

  • Melissa W.
    Sep. 17, 2021

    Grayson Lake State Park Campground

    Good location, ok campground

    Negatives: This campground is pretty hilly. Many of the spots don't have a great space for a tent. The flattest spots are in the middle of the circle with an open field behind them (but then you won't have any privacy or tree coverage). Even the RV camping on the inside of the loop across from us had its front tires suspended about a foot in the air to make it level though. Considering the flat spots are very limited, I don't think its a great tent campground and geared more towards RVs. One side of the campground runs against a golf course. If you're tent camping over a weekend, be prepared to have golfers tee-ing off next to you beginning at 7am. On Monday morning, be prepared for them to start mowing at 7am. The opposite side of the campground sits against a tree-line and therefore has much better spots. Many of the picnic tables are in pretty rough shape. The ones that have been replaced were done with the metal style that is dipped in plastic and are much sturdier. Likewise, some of the firepits are in pretty bad shape. I'd recommend having a grill grate with you just in case if you cook over the fire like we do. The firewood that is sold at the campground is kept in a shed but it was very wet, there also aren't any options around for buying wood outside the park. The office is supposed to be open until 6pm but one night it was closed earlier and the camp host wasn't on premises all weekend so we were stuck resorting to finding and burning downfall to get dinner cooked. 

    The positives: Its a good location and there are plenty of kayaking spots on Grayson Lake. Going to "The Grotto" aka Clifty Falls is a must (4.5 mile round trip). The same boat ramp has a decent place to get in and swim. Lick Falls Loop hike can be done from the campground and was nice (4.5 miles). We also kayaked the Southern portion of Grayson Lake in Laurel Gorge and that was much quieter than the Clifty Falls area. The campground bathrooms were clean. Most of the campsites were a decent size.

  • Sara S.
    Jul. 31, 2016

    Paintsville Lake State Park Campground

    walk in

    This park is so beautiful in autumn! Even if a person comes for a picnic only a couple of hours they will enjoy the scenery. The hike-in tent sites are nice. I did expect a bit more privacy from a walk-in site but it was not busy when we were there, so it wasn’t a great issue. If it was busy, that may have impacted our experience greatly! There is a nice dock area if you have a boat otherwise there isn’t a whole lot to do (no hiking or anything like that). But an okay place to escape for a bit :) (the photo posted by another reviewer is a great view of the tent sites!)

  • Mark S.The Dyrt PRO User
    Apr. 11, 2024

    Huntington / Fox Fire KOA

    This KOA is a Keeper

    This is a very cozy park tucked in between US60 and I64. We are in site 14 and its not quite level, but they were generous with gravel so the drainage is good! No parking in puddles!The staff is great, friendly, upbeat. The gentleman who led us to the site helped us get positioned, and squared up.The site has a patio, bench, picnic table, fire pit, and a huge gas grill. There is more privacy than usual at KOA, pine trees between sites.Well be back! You do have to watch for the entrance, there is a big KOA sign but its not aligned with the actual turn, so be careful.

  • Laura H.The Dyrt PRO User
    Jul. 14, 2020

    Huntington / Fox Fire KOA

    Party Central

    We enjoyed our stay at Huntington/Fox Fire KOA! This is a holiday KOA that offers more amenities for vacationers. It has very close proximity to I-64 in West Virginia, and you can hear the traffic pretty clearly.

    The staff is wonderful, they obviously care very much about their jobs and we enjoyed talking to them. They keep the property very clean which is saying a lot because it’s a very busy park. Each day we watched the park nearly empty and by sundown it was mostly full again. On the weekends it was full to capacity, and it’s occupants were out enjoying their time!

    There is: great cellular for TMobile and AT&T, laundry, dog walk area, storage, cabins, a store, a swimming pond, small beach area, and some sites have fire pits. The picnic tables were pretty dated.

    The hookups are a little strange. You share pedestals in many of the sites. And the arrangement is a little strange but it works.

  • K
    Mar. 27, 2023

    Carter Caves State Resort Park Campground

    Exceeded Expectations

    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.

Guide to Huntington

Tent campsites near Huntington, West Virginia cluster primarily in Wayne National Forest's Ohio section, offering rustic camping experiences across 250,000 acres of forested terrain. The region experiences typical Appalachian climate patterns with hot, humid summers reaching 90°F and moderate spring and fall temperatures in the 60-70°F range. Winter camping requires cold-weather gear as temperatures regularly drop below freezing between December and February.

What to do

Hiking opportunities: The Bluegrass Trailhead provides access to several interconnected trail systems for day hiking or overnight treks through mixed hardwood forests. Most trails feature moderate difficulty ratings with elevation changes between 300-500 feet.

Fishing access: Timbre Ridge Lake attracts anglers throughout the camping season with regular traffic even during nighttime hours. The 100-acre lake contains bass, catfish, and panfish species with no motors allowed on the water.

Wildlife observation: Lake Vesuvius Horseback Riding System trails provide opportunities to spot white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and various songbird species. The less-traveled sections offer better wildlife viewing, particularly during early morning hours.

What campers like

Natural isolation: Campers appreciate the quiet atmosphere at most tent sites, particularly during weekdays. Pine Knob Loop Campground receives positive feedback for its secluded setting. As one camper noted, "We hiked in at this point near Lake Vesuvius in the Wayne National Forest. Found a secluded spot up the trail. Lots of fun and a good hike- easy enough for an 8 year old!"

Accessibility from urban areas: Most tent campsites near Huntington, West Virginia are accessible within a 45-60 minute drive, making them suitable for weekend getaways without extensive travel time.

Cost efficiency: The dispersed camping areas throughout Wayne National Forest offer free or low-cost camping options compared to developed campgrounds in surrounding states. No reservation fees apply at most locations, allowing for spontaneous camping trips.

What you should know

Limited facilities: Toilet maintenance varies considerably across campgrounds. Some visitors report issues with cleanliness and maintenance. One camper at Timbre Ridge Lake noted "The vault toilet had not been cleaned recently, nor had trash been emptied."

Water availability: No potable water exists at most tent campsites in the region. Campers must bring at least 1 gallon per person per day or use filtration systems for stream water.

Cell coverage: Mobile phone service ranges from nonexistent to spotty throughout most camping areas. Reliable emergency communications require satellite phones or radios in many locations.

Tips for camping with families

Age-appropriate sites: John's Creek Trailhead offers camping areas with minimal hiking required, making it suitable for families with young children who cannot manage longer treks with gear.

Safety considerations: The terrain contains occasional steep drop-offs and slippery surfaces after rain. Families should establish clear boundaries for children, particularly near water features.

Wildlife awareness: Proper food storage in sealed containers prevents wildlife encounters. Black bears occasionally appear in the region, requiring appropriate precautions with food and scented items.

Tips from RVers

Alternative options: Most tent campsites in Wayne National Forest cannot accommodate RVs due to narrow access roads and small parking areas. RV campers should consider Two Point Group Campground which offers more accessible space though still primitive in nature.

Road conditions: Access roads to many campgrounds feature unpaved surfaces with occasional potholes and ruts. High-clearance vehicles perform better, particularly after rainfall when roads may become muddy.

Seasonal limitations: Spring access often presents challenges due to mud and occasional flooding. Fall offers more stable road conditions combined with reduced insect activity and cooler temperatures.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is the most popular tent campsite near Huntington, WV?

According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular tent campground near Huntington, WV is Pine Knob Loop Campground with a 5-star rating from 1 review.

What is the best site to find tent camping near Huntington, WV?

TheDyrt.com has all 13 tent camping locations near Huntington, WV, with real photos and reviews from campers.

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