Best Tent Camping near West Portsmouth, OH

Tent Camping Reviews near West Portsmouth, OH

391 Reviews of 16 West Portsmouth Campgrounds

• 

  Alex M.

  Legend

  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.

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• 

  Anna S.

  Ranger

  Sep. 9, 2024

  Scioto Trail State Park Campground

  Tent only sites - quiet, wooded

  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.

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• 

  Frank H.

  Guide

  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.

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• 

  Melissa W.

  Legend

  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.

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• S

  Sydney

  Traveler

  Sep. 28, 2020

  Tar Hollow State Park Campground

  Tar Hollow North Ridge Campground

  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.

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• 

  Melissa W.

  Legend

  Sep. 4, 2019

  Tar Hollow State Park Campground

  Loved it for tent camping

  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.

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• D

  Dona

  Scout

  Jun. 11, 2022

  Paint Creek State Park Campground

  Premium sites are

  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.

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• 

  Alan G.

  Scout

  Aug. 3, 2020

  Tar Hollow State Park Campground

  Get comfortable with your neighbors

  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.

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• K

  Keegan R.

  Traveler

  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.

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