Best Equestrian Camping near Wayne National Forest

Lake Hope gave me a new way to experience an area I grew very close to and appreciate but cannot stand the swarms of people. It was a great quiet and spacious campground with solid amenities and it’s own nearby sites. We were in Wayne National Forest and right next to the infamous Moonville tunnel. It was no problem to drive over to the caves in hocking hills but it was also nice to stay close by a couple days too. This is likely the only way we’ll do the area moving forward

Lake Hope State Park southeast on Rt 33 from Columbus, Oh and adjacent to one part of Wayne National Forest, it is a very nice, quiet, small basic campground.

The crowd was sparse when we were there and the reason for the 3 star is whoever laid out the campground forgot his level that day Oooorr was trying to squeeze every available area for "sites"! Whole lotta uneven hilly terrain to park your camper or tent on. There were a few level spots but for the most part make sure you put your head on the uphill side;) Tentsile Tree Tents would work well in this camping area, plenty of trees to choose from.

Basic restrooms and showerhouse is at the office. Lots of nice, interesting, moderate trails and gobs of history. Fill your gas tank up before you head in and right your information down, signal coverage can be spotty. Take your water gear for whatever "thing" you enjoy doing and if your real adventurous Zaleski National Forest is nearby with some awesome backpacking, primitive camping and VIEWS.

Very quiet campground with little to no other riders around. Only complaint would be the non equestrians staying in the equestrian area

Great great campground plenty to Joe we took the horses had a blast

We stayed in one of the small cabins and loved it! Very clean, with thoughtful amenities. Hot tub on the back porch. This cabin also comes with two horse stalls. Bridle trail access right from campground.

I was here before they sold out and seeing it now makes me sad. The bathrooms were gross, the arenas had weeds shooting up. This was a very nice place to take the horses, now it's an overpriced average campground with absolutely nothing to write home about.

Stayed one week with horses, corral falling down, outhouses and shower facilities beyond gross. 3/4 mile from trails, had to ride along very narrow road. Only saw owner once. There are better places to stay and enjoy riding at Hocking Hills. Place could be nice with some work

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.

At lake hope you can enjoy camping in many ways rather if it’s by tent (the way I prefer) or by camper. It’s a very nice place to have some family fun. Very nice beach and swimming area. Hiking and horse back riding trails. Canoe/kayak rental. Very nice dinning area at the lodge. I would recommend this place to anyone and everyone.

Lovely park near Zanesville. The park is beautiful, lots of wildlife, and the trails were great. There is a creek running through the main primitive campsites below the dam, with minnows and crawfish for the kids to catch, plenty of shade, and the remodel a few years ago added nice bathrooms over in the group camp area up against the base of the dam. The fishing was good, and the activities with the naturalist (Cayden) were fun and engaging. The hiking was wonderful, the equestrian trails looked very nice, and the fire tower was a fun climb. The beach was a little dirty from the geese, but that didn't slow anyone down on swimming. Also, while the showers were up by the beach, there was always plenty of hot water.

Stacked Stones has a very nice location and the camp hosts/owners are wonderful. They truly make you feel like family. The only complaints that we had was the shower house seems like a scene from a horror movie. Cinderblock stalls with a wooden pallet on the floor to keep you off of the drain. The toilets are non flushing pit latrines. They have some very secluded tent sites which is great when you have dogs. They also allow horses which is nice for any trail riders. Overall a great camp ground with great people. If the bathroom was updated I would give it 5 stars for sure!

I get asked "where should we go camping or hiking in the Midwest?" Hocking Hills State Park is always my go-to answer. 

It has a ton of different terrains, it's easily accessible from Columbus, OH, and has great hiking opportunities. 

This particular campground is amazing because it's located nicely to many hiking trails but far away that you aren't overly crowded so you still get the feeling that you're in nature.

I've been here a ton growing up in the horse campground area, but most recently was there for tent camping. We were surrounded mostly by RVs, but we fit in quite nicely into our site. 

The sites were nicely spaced out and the hiking trails were all nearby.

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.

Lake Hope State Park is a cute area nestled in the foothills of Ohio. With Zaleski right next door, there are a ton of cool things to do around the area. There’s a swimming, boating, camping, hiking, backpacking, and a ton of cool historical sites to see. I would recommend getting an Ohio Lizard Map to find some cool secret sites that most don’t get to find in the area.

Coming here before April 1 (half the campground is still winterized) is great! Low crowds and a great location! Lots of available hikes. Even this time of year, the shower house is open and working. Potable water is available to bring back to your site. And if you are an Ohio resident 60 yrs old or older, get your Golden Buckeye card for a 50% savings on Ohio campgrounds.

This is my favorite place in Ohio. The state park has amazing views and a ton of stuff to do. The campground was well maintained and was really quiet considering the amount of people camping. This is one of the most popular places in Ohio. The restrooms and the showers were clean as well maintained. Each site has shade and decent privacy. Most sites had electric but ours didn’t have water. There is so much to do in the area. Tons of hiking and beautiful waterfalls and caves. Highly recommend staying here.

Best state park in Ohio for sure! 2 1/2 hour drive from Cincinnati, 1 1/2 hour drive from Columbus, and 3 hour drive from Cleveland. This park has plenty of trails for all types of people, my favorite is conkles hollows, so I highly recommend that!

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.