Barkcamp State Park Campground
Reviewed Oct. 23, 2019

Small, cute, a-ok

This is a smaller state park. There is a lake (one of the smallest I've seen in a state park), some trails and a small campground. The spaces are pretty spread out, which is very nice. There is a big equestrian camping area, which is cool. If you kayak, you could spend about two hours exploring the different bends in the lake. 

We stayed in the camper cabins, which are right at the edge of the campground- we could hear the freeway (I-70) the entire time. It even woke us up at night. The cabins have a view of the dumpsters and the dump station- not the prettiest view.

There are pit toilets, which are never great, but the ones nearest us had newish buildings, the first I've seen in Ohio state parks. The buildings themselves were clean, but the toilets were icky and needed to be hosed down. I never went in the shower house so I don't know if it was clean or not.

The worst part about our experience was that there was a group of cows somewhere nearby that were moaning in distress all of Saturday, Saturday night and Sunday morning. I enjoy agricultural sounds- the sound of a cow mooing every once in a while would make me happy. But these cows were bleating and moaning as if they were in danger. When it continued after sundown, I started worrying about them, so I googled it. It turns out that in the mid fall (when we were there), calves get taken away from their mothers, and the mothers will cry out in distress for days at a time. I wish I hadn't googled it. The sound was SO LOUD and so distressing. It drowned out any sound of owls or coyotes or anything else all night long- these cows were deafening.

So, I won't be back. Not much to do there once you've seen it, unless you camp with your horses- then I think it would be good.

SiteSherman Cabin 2
Month of VisitOctober