Best Tent Camping near Cowanesque Lake

I chose this campground because the photos of the pool/splash pad looked fun. It turns out the tent site we had was the most wooded and cozy site we have camped in all year. So much room for tents/hammocks. Trees galore. The tent sites were right behind the athletic field where they did activities the weekend we were there (bounce house). The restrooms were fantastic too, the buildings held two complete rooms with a toilet sink and shower in each. It’s the only shower camping this year my 4yr old wasn’t afraid of because we had the whole room to ourselves.

Friendly staff, good patrols at night to keep people from being too noisy, tent sites are nice and shaded. Some of the shower houses are better than others. Wonderful hiking at the gorge and it was beautiful.

Picturesque Finger Lakes state park with a day’s worth of hiking trails on site. The campground is wooded and lovely but the tent sites don’t have views of the falls or anything, couldn’t hear water at night. Deer outside the tent, wildflowers through summer, great leaves in fall.

I stay here usually once or twice a year and spend my weekends hiking the various gorge trails nearby. Tent camping is nice here. The sites are good sized, they offer cabins as well. The bathhouses are clean and well lit at night. This is definitely a large family area. Expect to hear your neighbors once and a while.

We go here every year. Electric hook up, and very nice tent sites along creek. Does get crowded on nice weekends but mostly families. A short drive down to pine creek rails to trails. Beautiful ride through creek canyon. Nice little store at entrance, and several hikes from park.

Ashley here with The Dyrt. Let's give a warm welcome to your hosts Sheryl & Matt! This is the perfect place to car or tent camp. Enjoy a private fire-pit and dive into Lake Seneca! Only a 4 min drive from Watkins Glenn. This place has it all. Lots of sites to choose from, some even have hammocks! Dog friendly. Check them out and leave them some love!

Beautiful waterfalls, intermediate hiking.

Tent sites are fairly large so you have plenty of room. Bathrooms are centrally located in each loop, nice playground for kids. Dog friendly too.

only downfall, no one took the State bid to open the camp store so you need to leave the park for wood/ice.

Seneca Lake and Taughannock Gorge Trail with waterfall is beautiful. However, swimming in lake is mediocre, and lots of steps on the hike. Only 2 showers in each bathhouse and low-end. Toilets are old and a bit dirty. Tent sites are

spacious and somewhat private. Electric sites are small and close to neighbor.

Been here in all the seasons, each is beautiful. Campgrounds are wooded. Pretty basic facilities, nice though. None of the tent sites have exceptional views but you’re a short walk from the creek/gorges. Reserve ahead of time in summer. Lots of woods, wildlife here and in the many other state parks close by to keep all ages occupied.

We booked a tent site, and there was only one small patch of grass where we could set up our tent. But the people next to us were in a big group and already had their tents set up very close to our grass, and we didn't feel comfortable camping that close to people. My brother had an RV site, so we went down to his and set up our tent there and it was much nicer. The fire pits are very nice, and the hiking trails in the park are great.

I absolutely love this place! The camp site is nothing to write home about but it's just what we wanted/needed - good price, clean facilities, electric (even when tent camping) and, most important - LOCATION!
We spent a couple of days making our way around the lakes, wining and dining, then came back to our cozy campsite to enjoy a drink by the fire. We had plenty of space and no one bothered us.
We also spend a full day hiking in the park - beautiful! Waterfall after waterfall - amazing stuff! If you have not been here make it a priority!

Great place to stay, lots to do in the area including other state parks and forests. Hiking, swimming, taking in the views. Small streams mean tons of bugs, but not much worse than the rest of PA. We stayed in the cabin in winter but we've also done a day visit in the summer. Really pretty tall pine trees in a lot of the campgrounds. Didn't stay in tent sites but they seemed rather spread out for a state park campground. Everything clean and well cared for.

This is a gated campground that we stayed at 6/30/19-7/04/19. We are NOT an RV. We own a Napier tent that hooks to our truck so that we can sleep up in the bed. However, due to it being a holiday week, the tent sites were completely booked and they only have 4(which also have water& electric). The tent sites are located in the back of the campground behind the sports field within the trees. I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to see them but they have them pictured on their website. They let us book an RV site and it was rough setting up on a gravel RV site but we understood that we were not within a normal tent element and placed an extra tarp under the tent. The campground is located at the top of some beautiful and scenic driving through farmland in Pennsylvania and you will be 30 minutes from anything like shopping or small town amenities(we drove to Walmart after setting up to get our perishables since we drive up from Virginia). Our site had water and electric, was a drive through spot for a typical RV with a section to the side of the drive through for the fire pit and picnic table. We were located right next to the shower/bathrooms/playground and had some tree coverage and shade. A lot of the RVs in the campground are permanent sites and our neighbors never showed so we had a quiet buffer but it was not a noisy campground. It appeared that they cleaned the bathrooms twice daily and we were impressed with the cleanliness of the bathroom/showers. There were 4 in the building so we never had to wait. The staff were friendly and helpful. They had a store right next to the pool area that offered common items and RV'er might need with a small grocery area as well which included bundles of wood($6 honor system after hours) and Ice($1.78 per bag). We were allowed to run an account which we paid at the end of our stay. Our campsite was required to be paid at check in. The campground is 18 acres with gravel roads, a sports field, fishing, horse shoes, bocce ball, multiple playgrounds, a rec center with some games, claw machines etc. a splash pad and salt water pool. You will be doing a lot of walking or bring your bicycles like we did. They offer scheduled activities for holidays etc and various weekend activities. You can rent non electric boats and they offer catch& release fishing without a PA license in the lake. My son caught 2 sunfish :) They have guidelines for visitors and quiet hours(my cousin came to visit us in the evenings as she lived close by). We enjoyed camping here even if we were on an RV site. We booked site 211 which had the little bit of tree coverage and was located right next to the showers/bathrooms/playground with a quick walk to the lake for fishing. Most of the other available sites in the road ahead of us had no tree coverage but closer to the lake had more trees and shade. OR, just get an actual tent site :) but they are all the way at the back of the campground, furthest from the lake so I actually preferred our site.

We loved sugar creek glen! The owners were super friendly and helpful! There is a beautiful waterfall and creek in the middle of the campground. We were able to hike and climb up to more falls and swimming holes when the creek level came down one day. Other days we couldn’t due to high creek levels. There was outer edges of a tropical storm when we went so lots of rain!

The bathrooms are clean - quarter showers were nice and hot!

If you are on a tent site you have to drive through the creek which can close at times due to high water levels- one day we were there it was closed.

The store has a lot of items for sale

There is a beautiful playground and Gaga ball pit

We (family of 5) stayed at Watkins Glen State Park 8/12/20 to 8/16/20. We were tent camping in Seneca Village and had an absolutely BEAUTIFUL site. There was a good mix of tent and RV campers. The bathrooms were clean, the showers were nice and warm. Quiet hours are enforced from 10pm to like 7 or 8am. Firewood and ice are available at the ranger station. Each “village” has a playground for the kids in addition to the large playground near the pool at the entrance to the campground. We didn’t use the pool (though it was open) but got plenty of use out of the playgrounds. The nicest playground was in Tuscarora Village. Tuscarora and Seneca had very nice sites. Onondaga felt like the sites were a little closer to each other or closer to the road. I did not explore any of the other villages but most sites are wooded and offer privacy and seclusion. We had an amazing time hiking and exploring the area and can’t wait to go back.

I don’t understand how anyone can say the owners are rude! I just don’t get it…they have been outstanding since they took over and have made some great improvements! That aside, I love this campground! It is my escape away from technology and my time to be one with nature. We tent camp and love the sites as they are right on the creek, a few have direct access to the creek if you have kayaks which is awesome! The views to be had are amazing and lots of hiking in the area, well known for trout fishing, and kayaking! 

The campground is clean, organized, has rules, and is quiet! The rules are enforced, which makes it better for everyone! 

We try to make a trip up there annually, weather permitting, sometimes twice a year. Never had a bad experience and am grateful for the time we get to spend up there!

The owners do a fantastic job keeping the campground shipshape. Restrooms/showers are immaculate any time of day. Heated swimming pool and the splash pad for kiddies is spotless as well. Nice, pull-through on gravel pad withfull-hookups that can take large rigs. Lake is lovely for fishing/kayaks/canoes. Seasonal campers are tidy. Only a few tent sites with water & electricity tucked into woods. Larger pull-through sites don't get a lot of shade, but there are back-in sites for shorter campers in wooded sites and shaded lake front, as well. Campground store sells ice-cream & nachos and supplies. Campground is pretty quiet during the week, but fills up on weekends with guests using own (or renting) golf carts. Activities on weekends. The campground sits atop one of NEPA's "rolling hills" in quiet, rural farming area. Cell service is spotty. Local winery/cafe just down the road for tastings and lunch. Row boat, paddle boat rentals.

Close to wine country you will find this gem of a family campground. Dog and kid friendly with activities such as wagon rides, arts and crafts, movie night and various themed weekend events. The hosts were super friendly and welcoming during our entire stay. An easy back in site with full hookups (B10) backed against a row of trees and a field that provided much entertainment of squirrels and birds. There is a camp store with very reasonable prices and accepts credit cards. Wood ($4) and ice ($2) are also for sale. There are two small cabins to rent along with a couple of family tent sites. The bathrooms/showers were clean near the camp store. Amenities include a pool, mini golf ($1/person), two playgrounds, horseshoes, a recreation center with games and movies, basketball and shuffle board. There are many seasonal campers at this campground, but all seemed friendly and welcoming as well. It truly seemed like one big happy family there.

This campground was so great to stay at! The hosts were lovely and very sweet, and created a wonderful place to stay off-grid. Our tent site was spacious and secluded nestled in a ton of trees. I was able to hang my hammock up and set up my 6 person tent no problem! We rarely heard anyone, and felt like we had the place to ourselves. Their outhouse has a camper toilet- it was super nice, not at all what I was expecting! They installed a gorgeous shower facility, which was so well appointed. They even had hotel shampoo/conditioner/soap sets in baggies for you! I went out and bought a towel just to shower (I usually never shower when camping). They have chickens which were so cute to look at, and a couple of sweet dogs. The place is very dark at night- a treat when there's a lot of light pollution. The only thing is, know that you will be woken up by a rooster! We have a 5 year old that wakes up at the same time, so it was no big deal for us! I can't say enough good things about these hosts and their spot- it was relaxing, low key, and we felt incredibly safe, and welcome.