Whether you're a tent camper, an RVer, or just passing through, Franklin, PA has a lot to offer. Franklin is an adventure-filled destination for those who love the outdoorsy camper lifestyle. But it's also great for those who prefer to spend time near the city, exploring and sightseeing. Find the best campgrounds near Franklin, PA. Read reviews from campers like you and find your perfect campsite.
"Couple beautiful walk in tent sites right on the water. Plenty of nice hiking trails. Great beach for kids."
"The lake is nice for canoeing"
"We had a wonderful experience, the ground is setup nicely. The staff is so warm and welcoming. Really enjoyed all the activities."
"What a great experience, from the moment we arrived until the minute we checked out. Everyone was nice and friendly. And not just the workers. The Seasonals we very friendly and helpful as well."
"We found parking nearby so it was just a short hike to get to.
I believe it's once a year that they have oil machinery demonstrations. Very interesting."
"They have a large pool; a few llamas that the kids can feed and pet; a 27-hole disc golf course (recently expanded from 18 hole) primarily in the woods near and around the campground property; a small"
$30 - $46 / night
"This campground, given its location along Tionesta creek, spillway, and close to the Allegheny River has a lot to offer."
"From I-80, take the exit for PA-36 then follow the signs to Tionesta and once you get near you'll see the Tionesta Recreation Area Signs."
"It’s close to the outlets and Keystone Safari. They have a fishing pond but I haven’t walked over and seen it. It’s across the street of the KOA so you could miss it if you don’t ask about it."
"It is a little noisy from the roadway noises. The hosts have been extremely nice. We have met a lot of wonderful people."
"The pool is nice and big with a mushroom fountain and built in seating in the shallow end. A short path through the woods leads you to their mini-golf/pizza/ice cream shop."
"Also I cannot day enough about how well they maintain their bathrooms and have them set up!"
$20 - $92 / night
"Only issue we ran into was that the fire pit was not cleaned out after the last folks. It wasn’t a huge deal but there we had quite a bit of debris and wet ash to deal with."
"We really enjoyed camping at Lake Pymatuning. We had site J522, which is tucked back in a quiet loop. We camped for the first time in our (new to us) pop-up camper."
$10 - $20 / night
"We wanted a secluded site and close to Pittsburgh.
We arrived around 7pm and there was no check in, we drove around for a while trying to find a spot with a fire ring per some helpful campers."
"I chose the deck and it was beautiful. You can use the deck as a gathering place or put a smaller tent on. I was solo this trip but fell safe and no present danger."
$22 - $57 / night
"A must do when camping in Pennsylvania. The Clarian river is great for kayaking . Multiple trails off of park."
"A Pennsylvania favorite, Clear Creek State Park is a beautifully maintained, scenic park, right on the Clarion River in the Clear Creek State Park."
$57 - $67 / night
"Plenty of shaded, private lots, and great lots by playground to let kids roam and still watch from a distance. All sites full hookup."
"We stayed here as it was close to my work. We love being weekend warriors and this place is great for us. The season tenants were incredibly kind and you can tell they take care of this campground."
GuideWe have tented and RV'd at Clear Creek. A must do when camping in Pennsylvania. The Clarian river is great for kayaking . Multiple trails off of park. Biking and breweries close by. if you have RV/travel trailer do NOT recommend the non-power sites, they are not level enough, you may really have to bring up the trailer. There were wonderful campsites hosts when we there
Pros; excellent location, great friendly people, clean and stocked bathrooms which include showers. Some sites are separated.. great camp hosts
Cons…a few sites are really close, however not a bad thing here as we got to meet a lot of great people, so for us it was kind of a Pro.
TravelerGreat park! Sites are spacious and level. Very clean park. There are several full hook-up sites. Electric sites near the lake. We stayed at site #96. New Bathrooms are under construction. Campground is flat and great for bike riding. Nice playground for kids. Dog park nearby. Camp is near beach & marina. Also many shops and restaurants within a 10 minute drive. We will definitely be coming back to Mosquito Lake!
TravelerWe found the shelters accidentally during a hike in the park and returned for an overnight. We found parking nearby so it was just a short hike to get to.
I believe it's once a year that they have oil machinery demonstrations. Very interesting. You can also take a train ride through the park.
LegendCampground Review
I can honestly say that Oil Creek Family Campground is the best private campground that we have ever camped at. Especially if you’re camping with kids, it offers everything that you would want for a ‘great American summer’ style camping experience, without being a cookie-cutter big-name private campground chain. They have a large pool; a few llamas that the kids can feed and pet; a 27-hole disc golf course (recently expanded from 18 hole) primarily in the woods near and around the campground property; a small pond for sunfish / bass fishing; a dog ‘playground’ (enclosed area with some obstacles); a well-maintained hedge maze; a pavilion with ping pong, a pool table, and foosball; a DVD rental program at the main office with about 300 movies; and a small camp store with a small selection of books that you can borrow. They also provide weekly entertainment for the kids, e.g. rock painting or special guests. This weekend, for instance was ‘Jungle Terry and his amazing exotic animal family.’ We don’t typically spend a ton of time actually AT the campgrounds when we’re camping, but we did this weekend - and we had a blast on the disc golf course, fishing in the pond, and playing ping pong. The kids had an awesome time in the pool for hours and running around with the other kids in the maze. And everyone agreed that it was a perfect way to wrap up the summer before the school year starts.
We have a pop-up and my parents (whom we were camping with for the weekend) use a tent, so we had two water+electric sites in the tent camping area away from the RVs: sites A7 and A8. The sites in this area are well-maintained and LARGE, with plenty of room for a pop-up or multiple tents plus one or two vehicles, plus lots of room around the fire ring. There are smaller bathrooms placed around the campground as well as a center bathhouse located adjacent to the pavilion with 2 shower stalls and an additional toilet per gender.
We chose this campground due to its proximity to Oil Creek State Park. The state park itself does not have a campground, and OCFC is right next door - in fact, the campground hiking trail loop has a very short connecting piece to the 36-mile Gerard hiking trail that runs through the park. The park is beautiful with a lot of history (it is the site of the world’s first commercial oil well, and where the oil industry began in the United States around 1860) and Oil Creek - which is really a river - runs right down the middle of the park. It is a stocked creek and it’s great for both trout and bass fishing. Some parts of the creek also have a lot of northern water snakes (we saw 4 near the Blood Farm day use area) which was cool to see.
Overall: fantastic campground in a beautiful part of Pennsylvania - and we will absolutely be back.
Product Review
As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get occasionally receive products to test or gift cards for new companies to check out. Over the past weekend, we tried out one of the Mountain House favorites, freeze-dried Lasagna with Meat Sauce in the #10 can. Lasagna is not exactly a typical camping food, so the fact that we could easily make enough lasagna to feed a group of six people (4 adults and 2 kids) just by heating up some water was wonderful! We made the entire can (boil 8 cups of water, pour it into the can itself, stir a lot to mix up all of the freeze-dried ingredients, and let it sit for ten minutes - EASY) along with some crescent-roll wrapped hot dogs over the fire and it was like a gourmet camping meal. Everyone loved the lasagna - even the two picky kids!
TravelerMy boyfriend and I camped here last weekend; unfortunately it did not go well. While I very much enjoyed the facilities, we had an awful experience. Friday night was peaceful, although we had trouble locating the owners and figured we'd find them and pay up the next day. When we got back from a full day of climbing Saturday, a group of at least a dozen had set up camp across the road from us. They were drinking heavily all night (I understand that drinking IS allowed here being a private campground) however posted quiet hours begin at 10 pm. I got about 2 hours of sleep Saturday night total, and the last time I was woken up my watch said 3:48 am. Clearly there is absolutely no enforcement of the quiet hours whatsoever. In addition, the group had lights on all night as well, shining directly over into our campsite and tent. Sunday morning, we still had no luck locating the owners. We ended up putting our cash in an envelop in the mailbox. I emailed them letting them know we had put the money in the mailbox, and also asked about the quiet hour enforcement. I requested a response and heard nothing. I'm disappointed, and as a manager myself would want to know if a customer had a bad experience. I would have to recommend that if you are looking for a peaceful, quiet place to camp and sleep under the stars that you look elsewhere. I'm sad to say this, because I had greatly looked forward to staying here after hearing my boyfriend describe his previous experience and reading other reviews. There is a sign posted when entering "drive like your kids live here" but the campground I experienced was not family-friendly at all.
GuideWe just got back from our first trip to Mosquito Lake State Park Campground. All in all, it was a great experience.
We stayed in site 67, which is a waterfront site, with electric. The water is about 25 yards from the pad, but is visible from the entire site. The site was spacious, but not as private as some of the others. There is some woods between this site and the sites on either side, but other sites are visible. The fire pits and picnic tables were staggered, so it created some distance to make it feel more private.
The campground as a whole, was very quiet. We stayed from Wednesday to Friday. The group next to us seemed a little rowdy when we first pulled in, but by 10:00 there was no noise anywhere near us.
Most sites seemed pretty level from side to side, but where we were, several had a slope from front to back. Away from the waterfront, most sites looked pretty level. The amount of space between sites varied from site to site. Some sites had woods on both sides, while others were pretty open. Some had nice large grassy areas, others were much smaller. Sites from 214-224 are in a cul de sac and are water front, but they were pretty close together with very little privacy between sites, if any. They are very close to the water though.
There are bathrooms and water scatter about, but from what I saw there was only 1 shower house.
Wal-mart and other shopping and restaurants were about 3 miles away. Park was easy to get to, only one turn for us off the highway. Lake was great for kayaking and paddleboarding. Very nice dog park in a different part of the park. There is a boat launch accessible from inside the campground.
Dump station has 2 lanes which was nice when checking out. Fresh water fill up was also located near the dump station.
TravelerOur first visit to this campground and we actually found from using this website! We wanted a secluded site and close to Pittsburgh.
We arrived around 7pm and there was no check in, we drove around for a while trying to find a spot with a fire ring per some helpful campers. There are two really nice spots by the water which were taken, and we only saw one other in the woods (the other 2 were hidden by a large group of people).
We ended up finding a flat spot with some tree cover what was far enough from our neighbors but about as close as a bigger campground. Would be good for larger groups. Ton of flat land for tents but saw some people with smaller campers. Firewood is $5 a bucket and clean and dry. Bring a table cloth for the tables.
Portapot close by but full bath rooms and showers by main lodge. Lots of tent platforms that overlooked into the woods which would be fun, for a smaller 4 person tent though.
As another reviewer stated, there was a super loud group Friday night but Saturday was very peaceful and quiet and we met the owner who checked us in and apologized for the loud group and said he was still getting the campground ready for the season. The price is the same for either spots.
Short walk down cheeseman road to trail entrances to McConnells Mills State Park. Short drive to hells hallow or the covered bridge.
Overall we had a great time and will be back!
ScoutCampground was clean and well maintained. Only issue we ran into was that the fire pit was not cleaned out after the last folks. It wasn’t a huge deal but there we had quite a bit of debris and wet ash to deal with. The wash houses scattered throughout are new and very clean. The one across from our site had 4 private bathrooms with a toilet and shower. Very well patrolled and tons of stuff to do within biking/running/driving distance.
ScoutWe have a camper, but wanted to take the kids tent camping for a change, and this was the perfect place. It’s first come first serve, but we lucked out with a huge spot, shady, right beside the gorgeous creek, and also the closest to the toilet (which did occasionally send a slight scent our way, but not really a big deal). No running water or electricity, but that’s what we were looking for. We had a big tent (10x14) and 2 vehicles, with plenty of room to spare.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular glamping campsite near Franklin, PA?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Franklin, PA is Two Mile Run County Park with a 4.8-star rating from 5 reviews.
What is the best site to find glamping camping near Franklin, PA?
TheDyrt.com has all 18 glamping camping locations near Franklin, PA, with real photos and reviews from campers.
Keep Exploring
