Looking for the best Blain tent camping? You can find tent campsites by type, including drive-in, walk-in, and even hike-in for a backpacking adventure. Each spot offers quick access to one or more of Blain, Pennsylvania's most popular destinations.
This 41-acre park is in an isolated area of the Seven Mountains region known as the Stone Creek Kettle. While this Centre County park is small in size, it is surrounded by an 80,000-acre block of Rothrock State Forest.
Penn-Roosevelt is a good base for those seeking low-density recreation on this vast expanse of public land. Popular activities include: hiking on the Mid-State or other State Forest trails, gravel-riding on over 100 miles of Forestry roads, and mountain biking the nearby Cooper’s Gap area, a destination Pennsylvania mountain biking trail system.
Rustic sites, tents only
The 18 rustic campsites are for tents only and are open year-round. Some sites are walk-in for more privacy. All campsites are first-come, first-serve.
Drinking water and non-flush toilets are available.
Due to the isolated location, Penn-Roosevelt provides an excellent opportunity to get away from noise and electric lights.
Park rangers routinely patrol the park and camping fees are paid through a self-registration/payment system.
Please keep food and coolers in vehicles to protect them from wild animals.
$25 / night
The Nancy's Boat to Shore Campground, in the central region of Raystown Lake, is the perfect secluded getaway camping spot accessible only by boat. Located near both James Creek and Aitch Boat Launch areas, the campground is situated on the shoreline of Raystown Lake away from public roadways. Nancy's camp map
Fishing is excellent with small and large mouth bass, muskies, striped bass, and brown trout, abundant in the lake. Trough Creek State Park is nearby across the lake; Seven Points and Lake Raystown Resort are both within 8 lake miles. Nearby trails, including Lower Trail (Rails to Trails), Terrace Mountain Trail, Old Loggers Trail and Mid State Trail, attract plenty of traffic.
Raystown Lake is in the ridge and valley province of Pennsylvania. The lakeshore is lined with an old oak-hickory forest giving way to mountain ridges and cliffs. The man-made lake is fed by the Raystown Branch tributary of the Juniata River and is the largest lake completely in the state of Pennsylvania.
Aitch Boat Launch, James Creek Boat Launch, Seven Points Recreation area, Raystown Lake Visitor Center, Lake Raystown Resort & Conference Center and Trough Creek State Park are all nearby.
$15 / night
Nestled on 110 acres of rolling land, Lower Allen Community Park (LACP) is in the southern part of the Township at 4075 Lisburn Road. It is an ideal location for retreats or meetings, weddings, parties, picnics, family reunions, athletic games and tournaments, special events, or just to simply enjoy family or some quiet time alone. In 2008, Capital Blue Cross and Central Penn Parent Magazine readers awarded LACP as the Second Best Park/Playground. The park offers pavilions, play areas, camp sites and numerous athletic fields for rent. The Camping area is located on the banks of the Yellow Breeches Creek and is perfect for anyone who likes to get back to nature. These “primitive” camp sites are available for tent camping. A nature trail, which winds its way through park pointing out native flowers and foliage, sets the backdrop for your camping getaway.
$10 - $25 / night
Enjoy camping creek side at the edge of an open field with access to fishing, hiking on adjacent state game land trails, kayaking in nearby Juniata River, biking the Lower Trail just minutes away, or booking a guided hike, onsite horseback riding lessons, or book a trail ride on our beautiful and smooth gaited Tennessee Walking horses or bring and board your own.
Read reviews here: https://www.hipcamp.com/en-US/pennsylvania/ride-long-acres-on-clover-creek/long-acres-at-clover-creek
$25 - $65 / night
Nestled along Sherman’s Creek, our campsite sits on six wooded acres with 600 feet of creek frontage. Everything in the pictures is included in your stay! All you need to bring is food and your love of the outdoors. Firewood, charcoal, bedding, toiletries, kitchenware (as pictured), a private shower, sink and composting toilet are all included. The shower and sink have an on demand hot water heater, so no cold showers! Bring your fishing gear and you can reel in Smallmouth Bass, Sunnies, Fall Fish, and Trout all from our property. This campsite is far enough away from the city to enjoy the sounds of nature while still being less than 30 minutes from the shopping and dining and Carlisle and Mechanicsburg. Historic Gettysburg and Lancaster are just over an hour away. Hersheypark is less than an hour away!
This campsite is fully private. As your hosts, we live on the property, so if there are any issues or help needed, we are nearby!
Our location is in the heart of the Stone Valley Forest. Tucked away in a beautiful little hollow behind a farm field. This is a boondock location; we do not offer any hookups at this time. We do have a porta potty on site for restroom access. Click the link to be directly connected to our page.
Follow us on Instagram for updates, photos and videos @wilsons_boondock
$35 - $50 / night
This recreation area is part of Raystown Lake
Scout
Overall great trip. Friendly super helpful staff. Sites are a bit small but to be expected for a theme park event resort. I dropped one star for freight rail 24/7 next to camp
Guide
I’ve camped here twice, two years ago in a Kodiak tent and this year in my Airstream GT24. Such a lovely spot! It’s spotless, and Raystown Lake is gorgeous.
Scout
The resort had great amenities for all ages. We stayed in October so there was plenty of activities for kids from crafts, games, dancing, to trick or treating. The resort ensured safety for the kids during trick or treating and closed all vehicle traffic for 2 hours. The location also had golf cars to rent to explore the sites. All employees were easy to talk to, always had a smile and personable.
Traveler
This was a great park! Very clean and quiet. The facilities were clean and felt safe. Some of the sites were a little close together but very large and well maintained
Scout
Decently spaced out campsites for the most part, good service connection (Verizon), and pretty solid bathrooms make it a great spot for families or newer campers. Wish there were some more hikes/things to do at the state park itself, especially with the lake having toxic algae in it right now.
Guide
Arrived, quickly showed how to get to our site. We setup without issue and spent 3 nights without anyone bothering us on our tent site. The place was quiet by about 11:10, not sure if it was enforced or happened naturally. The out houses could have been cleaned a bit more regularly as it was a busy long weekend. Overall it was a great experience.
ScoutThe campground had a good feel to it. We had a nice view of the lake. We booked a non electric site for our tent camping. The bath houses need updated though. The only negative I can say is that our site did not have a great spot for the tent except by the parking spot and not down by the fire ring.
Traveler
Reservations are made through the National parks service "recreation.gov" website. Arrived for tent camping for 2 nights and found a pleasantly prepared raised bed area to pitch my tent on. My stay was quiet and the bathrooms were clean and well stocked. This is a great base camp for getting out to the Gettysburg National park and battlefield. town is less than 10 miles away that has a grocery store and restaurants. FREE split firewood. So quiet i swear i heard a squirrel burp.
Guide
In the middle of the woods vibe. The sites had good privacy and it was just a pretty area. Neighbors were respectful and relatively quiet.. There was zero cell service at this campground. Bathrooms were clean.
Scout
Nice family campground that offers alot. Its very big, only 1 central bathhouse for very large area. Female restrooms has 6 toilets and 6 showers (push button, luke warm water). COME PREPARED WITH LEVELING BLOCKS!!!! Our site was very slanting!!
Scout
We've stayed here at least a half-dozen times with a popup. The smaller B loop is nicer, but no electricity. Pets allowed only on a certain portion of the A loop. The bathrooms are clean, the lake is small but pretty, and the hikes around the lake, and up the mountain on the ridge, are as easy or as challenging as you want. Cell service is pretty much nonexistent so you definitely get unplugged.
GuideWe stay here once a year. Always a good experience. Our site was very spacious. Close to area attractions. Shuttle bus yo the park and arena.
RangerWe stayed in the smaller camping area B, which we enjoyed. Even on Labor Day weekend, it didn’t feel busy because of how few sites are in this section. Our site was level and sizable. The bathroom was clean and there was access to the very pleasant hiking trail going around the lake. We had no cell service with Cricket or Verizon.
Traveler
Beautiful state park. The campground is clean and well kept. The beach area is clean, there's a big playground on it as well as a concession stand and store (open during the summer). Spots 57 and 18 offer the most privacy. There are spots that have little creek side access but they are closer together. There are showers in the campground too. DCNR patrols it like a hawk though...so beware any visiting cars to your spot must be moved or pay $5. Borderline harassment from the DCNR guy for my friend visiting for an hour. It is a state park so no alcohol if that's your thing. Beautiful hiking trails and bike trails. 10/10 recommend
Traveler
We stayed during Bigfoot weekend. It was super fun as our family likes bigfoot fun. We started out Friday night getting the offered $12 bbq plate that included pork burnt ends, beans and potato salad that were "oh it's so good". On Saturday was rock painting and then bingo and ended the night with a DJ dance party. The pavilion where all those activities happened were right next to our site (22 with the doggie den). Then Sunday we had pancakes and later a visit from RayCEP which is an education program that PA DNCR provides talking about various outdoorsy type things. This is primarily for kids, but we sat and listened too and our 17 year old helped out with the craft.
After the weekend though, all the activity slows down. There are seasonal campers that stay around, and they're constantly working on improving and fixing up sites during the week. Expect lots of quiet time just relaxing during the week. There's the pool, dog park, bounce pillow, playground, but not tons to do which if you're looking for is great. Raystown Lake has multiple access areas that are probably 15-20 minutes away - we fished at Tautman Run and Aitch - both were accessible and had lots of bluegill to steal our worms.
Now to the site description: Site 22 is a deluxe patio back in site with a patio, 4 nice Adirondack chairs, a double glider, a weber propane grill and built in fire pit AND a dog fence just for that site that was maybe 6 ft x 6ft. it was big enough for our 2 labs to fit into when we fed them. The site wasn't hard to level our RV but overall the sites are hilly and in fact the whole park is on a hill.
The owners and workers were friendly and great hosts! We love what they're doing there.
One last tip: if traveling from the Altoona area, go out through Martinsburg over Cove Mountain Rd - it saves you 30 minutes to an hour.
Traveler
This lake was beautiful! A short walk from the campsite. We had the lake to ourself both evening and morning. $61. No WiFi. Leveling was fine. Verizon service was fine.
Traveler
Uunder new ownership & management many upgrades , including updated bathhouse and new friendly staff
GuideWhen we first checked in at the resort, we enjoyed the easy check-in and the location was an easy to get to location. After checking in, we drove all around the campground just to get to our site which is a little out-of-the-way, but it was manageable. Our site was very unlevel, but we made it work. We did like being at the end of the road therefore there was less traffic coming through. we didn’t have a neighbor who had a lot more tents than they were supposed to have on their site and they were slowly encroaching on our site. We loved how our kids were able to walk to the playground and play every day before our outings. The campground had two pools and a child’s pool the pools seemed to be slightly under maintained the last day. It had a weird smell, which I believe the chlorine levels were not correct. However, we still enjoyed our time here and went to the pool almost every day at the end of the day off. It was one of the hottest days of the year. I feel like we still had a great time and enjoyed the camp. The trolley was a great addition to getting to and from the Hershey attractions
TravelerNice creek running through. Pool. Appalachian trail runs right by it. About 20 minute drive to Gettysburg
ScoutThis RV camping spot has been my least liked place we have ever stayed.we stayed in a RV site so I can only speak to that and not cabins. The ONLY good thing this RV park has going is the Hersey park bus that runs all day back and forth. Even though the bus is very loud and drives very close to the sites, so it is a constant disturbance too if your looking for some calm and quietness. This is not the right RV park if you want quite!
These RV sites are the tightest I have ever seen. So tight that the people next to you using a picnic table or fire ring are 3-4 feet from your camper. We didn’t even use our fire pit and table because it felt so incredibly close to our neighbor. Inside our camper I could hear every word of the people next to us who were using their fire ring, it was directly outside my bedroom slide. I saw several people including us being asked to move trucks just so you can get into position to hook up and pull out of your spot!
And the sites are dirty! Littered with cigarette butts, trash, old rusty batteries! This place looks and feels like a dirty trailer park! There were several sites that looked like the campers had been living there a long time, clothes lines strung up from trees, cluttered mess of personal belongings. We will never stay here again after experiencing it. The website does not show the true picture!!
Traveler
Would go back here again! Very primitive, only 2 sites with electric and no playground (but 4 swings), however the creek is beautiful and the kids were so happy to play in it. We had site 108 and had a site path right to the creek. I wouldn't recommend big campers as most of the spots would be a pain to back into. But if you're looking for a quiet campground in the woods, this is it!
Scout
non - refundable deposit Beware do not stay here read the reviews
Guide
Spent a weekend at Gettysburg. We camped at Artillery Ridge Campground, which served as an artillery storage/staging area for the Union during the battle. Behind the campsite we stayed at, we learned connected to Stangler Farm, which served as a hospital for the wounded. Literally right outside the entrance of the campgrounds is where the battlefield starts. So close to history. We have been to Gettysburg before, but going with the kids again being older, we all had a greater appreciation of the sacrifice of this 3-day battle. We did Park Ranger tours to learn about the 1st shot and how the war started to stand in the footsteps of General Buford at Senitary Ridge in the cupola overseeing the battlefield. Later in the day we took a horse carriage ride through the battlefields, Picketts Charge and the peach orchard with a private guide to learn every ounce of the battlefield and the major players to learn about the 3 days of fighting that took place to how the civilians of Gettysburg were impacted. The three day battle claimed over 50,000 lives and we toured the town of Gettysburg to learn how the community had to deal with the aftermath of the masses who perished, the smell which went on for over 30 miles and limited resources such as clean water. It's amazing to see how history was so preserved but right across the street from battlefields where so many died stands fast food restaurants, and hotels. A little surreal. Would definitely recommend a ride out to Gettysburg and this campground, which is right next to the battlefields. Clean facilities. If you are into horses, this is the place for you! Though sites are not very private, everyone is very respectful, and you are not on top of each other. Quiet hours are observed, which is nice too. Store has a great variety of souviners, treats, and emergency camping items. You can't get any closer to history than here. Would definitely recommend if you are looking to visit Gettysburg.
RangerI cancelled a reservation at Tuckahoe SP due to traffic over the Bay Bridge. I wanted to find something close enough to home, but far away from the hustle and bustle of our suburban lives. This fit the bill. There are 10 sites….some are occupied by seasonal guests. It was very quiet and peaceful! The site was large and there wasn’t a lot of people. You can swim in the lake if you wish or rent boats/canoes for the day. Our water pressure wasn’t great, however not sure if it’s the campground or us as hubby found a possible issue with our hookup. Bring quarters if you are going to use the showers….25 cent a minute. Great way to get away and close enough to our home. We will for SURE be back!
TravelerOur first time at Cowans Gap and we loved it. 5 nights, 6 days with no cell or wifi to stress us out. Biking, Hiking, sitting around a campfire, very nice. Site 14 was ok, small. Weekend kids were noisy. Bathrooms and showers very clean. Firewood always available. Easy access to dump station. Coming back in July to a site we scout out. Looking forward to our next visit.
TravelerA great place to boondock. Quiet and clean. Up to a 22' RV plus tow vehicle. I'm coming back again this summer though I will choose another site. I believe my pad was 39 and not very compatible for a camper, too steep.
Scout
We had a great time visiting the park! We stayed in site 28 which was a walk-in site, this was perfect for us since we wanted to be further away from people and the light from the bathroom/shower facility. The site was not far from our parking spot, maybe a hundred yards but there was a slight hill. There are even more isolated campsites further up the hill.
The park itself is definitely on the smaller side but packs in a lot. Lots of great trails and the beach would be great( close due to bacteria overgrowth) the michaux forest is 30 minutes away and has a lot more outdoor activities.
Will stay here again in the future.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular tent campsite near Blain, PA?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular tent campground near Blain, PA is Reeds Gap State Park Campground with a 4.6-star rating from 5 reviews.
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TheDyrt.com has all 12 tent camping locations near Blain, PA, with real photos and reviews from campers.
