Best Tent Camping near Ellwood City, PA

Breakneck is a private campground on the edge of the McConnell’s Mill State Park. They offer RV sites, tent camping and cabins. The tent camping is either grassy, flat sites or on an elevated timber platform overlooking a gorge. They also offer walk-in tent sites down by the creek which are beautiful. 

We were lucky enough to be able to to camp down by the stream. There are designated fireplaces. It is quite a walk up the hill to the campground amenities, but worth it to feel secluded down by the creek. From our campsite we walked along the creek into McConnells Mill State Park and joined the covered bridge trail. Approx. 30min walk along the creek down into McConnells Mill State Park. 

The campground sells firewood and has great amenities. Note: there is no phone reception at the tent sites by the creek. They welcome fury friends!

Our family really enjoyed staying here, and our kids especially loved swimming and fishing in the lake. In the evening, we bought some firewood from the campground owners for our bonfire. They were so nice, they even brought it over to our camp site! We were camping in a tent and were really happy that the bathrooms were close to the tenting area. We will definitely come back again, hopefully before the end of the summer!

Nice quiet and affordable tent sites. Ours was pretty private and spacious. Bath houses were fine, nothing exciting but they were clean. Tent sites were spacious. We had a great time!

Went tent camping with my fiancée. Had a great time other than the loud neighbors. Bathrooms were also a bit dirty.

The tent sites were nicely separated from the RV sites. Free showers. Set on a lake with a nice beach. Great for boaters.

I enjoyed my stay at this park. We had a tent site for the weekend. It was a beautiful area and I really enjoyed exploring. Looking forward to going back soon!

Quiet park. Some road noise from campsite J100 but US route 322 is lightly traveled. Typical tent site with fire ring and picnic table. Across street from bath house with shower and toilet which was clean.

I had the most wonderful time on my first tent camping at Racoon Creek. We made a fire, hiked by the moonlight and swam at the warm lake at night. There were other campers around but we rarely noticed them and only when walking to restrooms at the daylight. I will be back soon

We stayed here overnight on a trip to Pittsburgh. Tent sites were nicely spaced apart, but were often on inclines, like ours. We saw deer and turkeys, so be on the lookout for lots of animals! Bathrooms were fairly clean! Fun hiking to mineral springs!

The sites are huge. The dog park is amazing. Theres so much to do here. Swimming, boating, fishing. We love it. Only bad are no real bathrooms except at the front of the park. No place to wash dishes. Rough if you're tent camping. But we love the sites so much that we keep coming back.

We tent camped here in early June.  GPS had a hard time as there are so many locations referred to as "Pymatuning State Park."  Campsite was fine other than trying to find room to put our big tent.  The showers were great--roomy and well maintained.  Wish there were more hiking trails; unless you fish or boat, there isn't a lot to do.  The Ohio State Parks website is a bit clunky!  Very little, if any cell service.

It is a very well maintenance campsite most have fire pits a lot of level ground for tent camping pull in parking spots for RVs and campers a bathroom on site and two different trails to hike fishing minutes away the gun rage is also near (the gunshots don’t bother me) must register when you arrive at the box attached to the bathroom building can’t beat it for FREE

We’ve tent camped here several yrs. Haven’t Back our camper in yet but we re waiting for an opening . It’s booked up for a reason . Shower houses are nice and flow hot water when needed. Grounds are clean and well maintained. Beach is small yet clean and nice . Sites are shaded and nice size . Some larger than others. We fished w little luck around boat ramp and shoreline around there . Overall great family get away .

Had an amazing 1 night tent camping. When we arrived it was just after a big rain storm and at check in she warned some spots can be flooded. We went to look at our reserved spot and it was super wet muddy and almost under water. They let us pick a new spot that was dry. It was really peaceful. The bathrooms were insanely clean. Didn't check out the showers but I imagine they were just as clean

Older type bathhouses but very clean, stainless steel fixtures. The campground is in two areas but split into about 5 loops. A lot are paved with electric sites, a couple loops are I paved roads and mostly tent sites but very nice! Pretty peaceful place, well patrolled by park rangers!water access in all loops. Outside of camping area are picnic areas and a lovely swimming beach, nice electric only fishing lake!

My wife, 2 dogs, and I came with no reservation. They gave us a temporary tag to drive around and see what site we wanted. We ended up going to site 190 which had a decent amount of space to tent camp. The amenities were great. Clean shower and toilets in a well lit building.  There is also a dog park with a pond 2 minutes up the road which was great to wear the dogs out at. The only complaint I have is the site was a little close to our neighbor for our liking but we would go back!

The campground was nice, clean and had friendly faces. There is plenty to do-disc golf, sand volleyball, basketball, playground, dog park, not to mention the lake and beaches. There were a lot of dogs the weekend I went but nothing to complain about. Fire pit was nice and functional and the bathrooms were clean. The showers are private in your own “room”separate from the toilets. My favorite feature of the campground is the wash basins outside of the bathrooms to wash your dishes. Very nice amenity when tent camping. Our site was private enough, good sized with close bathroom access.

My family has camped here the last two years and I’ve already made reservations for another trip this summer. The amenities are great with nice, clean showers and large sites. We’ve tent camped on the south side of the campground which seems to have more large and secluded sites. Having walked around it seems that the north side has more open condensed sites, but from what I can tell, generally all areas are pretty good (down side to the south side is being on the open lake and hearing loud boats all day).

For some it might be a pretty standard state park campground but for us it’s quickly becoming an annual family escape.

My girlfriend and I stayed at tent site 40 Friday August 9th and Saturday August 10th. Most of the sites were pretty private and ours was probably the most private and had a lot of space since we were on the very end of the road / cul-de-sac. I would definitely recommend this site if you like privacy but it is a longer walk to the bath house but we didn't mind that at all. The only thing I didn't like about the campground is that there is no wash tub / sink to wash your dishes which made clean up a little more of a chore. Other than that the staff were very friendly and it is overall a great campground.

In the past 5 years, I've made 13 trips to Raccoon Creek State Park and spent 16 nights in a tent there. It is my local state park and I can tell you lots about it.

The D loop is really great tent camping at Raccoon Creek State Park. It's tents only, no RVs. So it gets a really fun, party vibe on Saturday nights during the summer. There's a trail right to the beach near the D loop, so it's a great place for families to go with pets. The sites are big, wooded, and all close to the bathroom.

The C loop, however, doesn't take pets (which stinks). When we have our dogs with us, we gravitate towards the C loop. It's fine, but it's not as fun as the D loop.

When we don't make a reservation and we have our dog, we end up in the F loop. It's not our preference (but--let's be clear--even the worst site in the F loop is better than NO trip!).

Went to Raccoon Creek State Park to camp for Labor Day weekend. We booked campsite F1 since we had 2 dogs and the F loop allowed dogs. This site was great! We could fit two tents and it was nice and secluded from the other sites. I recommend booking a site that is on the outside of the “loops” if you want some seclusion. The inner loop sites are right on top of each other, good for Rvs, not so much for tent camping. The bathrooms were a little bit of a hike, the next loop over, but they where clean and had flush toilets and running water along with a shower and sinks to wash dishes. There was a place to get water across from this site which was very convenient . The dog walking trails weren’t bad, but they where very up and down hill, at points steep and rocky. The spring was a really cool hike (right off the park office parking lot.) Down by the beach they had a place to buy wood, only $5 a bundle and the beach place also sells bags of ice. Overall a really good family campground!

My family has visited Pymatuning park many times now and try have used a variety of spots at Jamestown campground. It is large, offering multiple options for campsite types. It’s a standard PA state park campground offering bathrooms (bathrooms are older, but are being renovated July-August 2021) showers, fire ring, picnic table, etc. Campsites J-106 thru J-116 are well shaded, but are alongside route 322 which maintains consistent traffic at all hours. If the noise is not an issue, this run of tent sites are well spaced, and offer easy access to the facilities. To be away from the road (and nearer to the lake) sites J-120 thru J-128 are closer together but can be quieter (depending on your neighbors…)

The beach area is clean, and raked often. It has a playground and volleyball court. On Friday’s they have a family movie night at the amphitheater. Most Saturdays in the summer they offer crafts and activities for kids at the beach.

The surrounding area also has plenty of activities to offer: Local restaurants, ice cream, hiking, kayaking/boating, fishing, etc.