Best Tent Camping near Buffalo Mills, PA

Kooser State Park is a small campground nestled in the Laurel Highlands, close to Hidden Valley and Seven Springs ski resorts. The park has great amenities just a short walk from all sites. All sites have fire rings, with grills, however note they are double walled so do not expel a lot of heat outward. Great for cooking however. 

Most sites are not level, but very grassy. Firewood is available at the entrance for$5 bundle supporting a local club. A beautiful walk through the park leads you to the Kooser Lake, great for fishing. It is also close to the Laurel Hill State Park which is great for hiking and water activities. The park is close to the road so you will experience some road noise. 

The park is 15min from Somerset. No phone reception at this one! They welcome all furry friends!

PROS 

Able to reserve 129 days prior to arriving 

Melissa at check-in was very friendly and helpful 

Good overnight stop to visit Flight 93 Memorial 22 miles from campground 

Site #391 level 

Gravel site surrounded by grass 

Moveable wooden picnic table 

Large concrete fire ring 

Clean toilet-shower building that are heavily used 

Mostly quiet except for road noise 

Firewood for sale in Park

CONS 

No discount 

Site #391 no shade 

Park cable connection failed 

Sewer connection“up hill” 

Never found trash dumpster and wasn’t marked on campground map 

Very loud radio station blaring in the toilet/shower building that could be heard outside the building 

2 bars Verizon 

No WIFI

Duman lake review notes.

• Well-maintained small park, stocked lake, popular with local fisherman. Kayaking/small boat fishing. I’ve seen bald eagle and osprey.
• Six campsites, w/mature trees, level, w/paved drive & gravel area, large enough for mid-sized RVs. They state 40 ft., but all are back in. All have (lighted)30 amp & water. We did not see the tent sites. Not sure if they are developed, ask.
• Number one is closest to the bathhouse, number five was less shaded. Number six is closest to the road.
• Newer restroom, w/two stalls each. Push-button, hot showers. Men’s worked best.
• Campsite number one is closest to restroom, but also behind picnic shelter number 12, so if the shelter is booked for a party could be noisy? Day use people bugged out quickly at dusk.
• We were in #1 in May & had the entire campground & upper park to ourselves.
• They have a kids’ train in summer.
• Nice playground.
• The only real downside of this campground is that the local road is close by and you do get some traffic noise before dark. It is not a high traffic road however. Dumpsters were overflowing with weekend trash & bathrooms needed a bug sweep-out. Sportsmen were target shooting nearby before dark FYI.

We stayed in a Ranger Smith Cabin in the upper campground. I give this 3 stars because I'm a state park camper at heart: I prefer more room between sites,  more relaxation and nature when camping. But your kids will love it here: two pools, splashgrounds, fire truck rides, arcades, meeting Yogi and friends, nightly movies...the list goes on. Be prepared for an endless parade of golf carts during your stay. We were underwhelmed by the expensive cabin as it had dorm room furniture and uncomfortable beds. The walk-in tent sites were in a hilly area without pavilions, but reservable tent sites in the lower campground had pavilions and more level ground. This is a great base camp for exploring area attractions in the Laurel Highlands such as Idlewild,  Fort Necessity and the beautiful Ohiopyle State Park. If you go to Idlewild, then stop by Gino's pizza in Ligonier; order the sampler pizza (includes pierogi,  taco, white and margherita)--you won't be disappointed.

The entry is strange as we had to block the gated entrance to get to the office to check in.  Once past that,  the staff was nice and the buildings and properties are well maintained.  They have a new bath house which is personal bathroom style and very nice.  The sites are very close together with little privacy.  We stayed in site 435.  The site was sloped pretty bad side to side and there is a drop off on the one side of the fire ring so we could not sit completely around the fire.  We did not take part in the planned events they had set up but did use the pool which was nice.  The star gazing platform leaves a lot to be desired and is in need of repair.  Roads are all gravel so no bikes or scooters for kids.

Pros: Reasonably priced, fairly quiet campground with full shower and bath houses. The tent site I was in was also nicely designed, with a tent 'pad', as well as full campfire ring, picnic table, and lantern hanging hook. There are tent, RV, and group sites at this campground.

Cons: The bath/shower houses could've used a much better cleaning (but were not the worst I've encountered). Also, I'm not from the area, and the drive to get to this out-of-the-way campground was awful. It's really far from a main highway (which isn't so bad), but the roads to get to the campground are hilly, winding country roads with 55 mph speed limits that I found way too fast if you're not a local. And the locals are really aggressive drivers.

August 2020 Stay

We camped for 1 night.  We chose site 102 because it looked decent in the picture and seemed a little apart and more private than other areas.  Unfortunately, it was not great for tent camping as there wasn't really a spot to set up our 4-person tent.  We squeezed it in by the fire pit, but if we had wanted to use the fire pit it would have been a fire hazard.  Elsewhere in the site it was rocky or uneven ground.

Looking around the rest of the campground, the loop up near the cabins was a typical RV area with sites lined up with little privacy in between.  I would look at the other loops for our next tent-camping visit.

We were hoping to do some hiking in the morning but got rained out.  However the trails looked nice and we hope to be back soon.

Ranger Review: Stream2Sea Shampoo & Bodywash and Leave-In Conditioner

Campground Review:

Don’t let the name fool you, the campground is across the street from the lake and there are no lake view sites. We arrived after 6 pm on a Tuesday after Labor Day and found there were only six out of 112 sites occupied. We had the entire Delphia Loop to ourselves. Some loops allow pets and others do not. One loop (the Meshach Browning Loop) has electric hookups; the other loops do not. With so few campers, we were surprised to find the office staffed until 10 pm but this made checking in easier than self-registration. The campground is gated and you need a code to get in; this gave me pause wondering about how safe it was but there were regular ranger patrols and all was quiet. Restrooms in the Delphia loop were modern and very clean. The showers were very nice and rivaled any hotel shower I’ve had. We were told there were regular bear sightings and there were bear boxes at each site; we saw many deer but not a single bear, keeping our zero bear sightings record intact. Each site also had a fire ring, lantern hook (but you would need to be much taller than me to reach it!), and very generous sized picnic table. Alcohol, weapons, and fireworks are prohibited. No/very limited cell service. Sites in the Delphia and George Beckman loops are very quiet but some sites in the other two loops are closer to the road so you will hear road noise. The lake is open Memorial Day through Labor Day so I imagine this campground would yield a very different experience in the height of summer!

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Product Review:

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I have the awesome opportunity to review products. I'm reviewing two products from Stream2Sea because they are meant to be used together. I am hesitant to use multi-use products as generally, one or the other function is compromised. However, the Shampoo and Body Wash from Stream2Sea  was a nice surprise. Fresh scent and rinsed easily out of my hair, leaving it soft with no residue. Stream2Sea does not have a rinse-out conditioner but it is recommended that you use the leave-in conditioner. When I first used this, my hair felt a little stiff but if I used it very sparingly, this was no longer an issue. By using these two products, I was able to use one product instead of three (soap, shampoo, and rinse out conditioner). But the best thing I liked about these products was how much fuller my hair looked after blow-drying it. I don’t have much hair so anything that makes it look like I have more is a bonus in my book!