Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Guys Mills, PA

OverLl great campground. The sites are a little close together but we still enjoyed our time there. Staff is super friendly and there was plenty for the kids to do, pool, arcade, fishing, and playground. Decent size dog park to let your dogs run and decent trails nearby.

Nice park with very friendly staff. My only complaint is the sites are way too crowded. Also a little uneven. I love that this park is close to Lake Wilhelm & Goddard State Park for fishing and bike riding. 2 pools and a dog park.

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.

Good location for outdoor and city experiences, along with a relaxing getaway. Workers and permanent campers are very friendly with all the amenities necessary on site, including nice dog park. A small campground that didn’t have many kids for ours to play with during our visit. In addition, hill keeps permanent campers separate from temporary campers.

Sites are super big and is a great family owned campground! Super close to a local ice cream shop and has a great dog park and is fully paved. Large fishing area and Camp store! I love that you can use Campers App at this campground and I love getting the Notifications when I camping there!

Nice shower and bathrooms for a state park.

I didn't like that pets are not allowed in the non-pet area as that was where the playground and swimming beach was. Made it difficult to swim and play as a family since you can't leave dogs alone at the campsite. I wouldn't bring my dog next time to this campground. There are other more dog friendly places.

Very nice areas for walking, kayaking, swimming, and playground.

Great 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!

Cooks forest is absolutely gorgeous. I look forward to returning as there are a lot of hiking opportunities we missed. We stayed in the pet friendly area, which was nice. There is a pet trail through the woods that was really great to take our dog rather than walking around the campground. Our site was right next to a drinking water spigot and a path to the bath house. The sites near ours were in a wooded area, which felt more private than many of the other sites we saw. There was a fore pit and a picnic table. Our fire pit was behind where the camper was parked, which also felt more private. There is no alcohol permitted in PA state parks, so alcohol is prohibited in the campground as well. It was a great spot, and we look forward to returning.

We 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.

We stayed in the pet friendly area for 4 days. Very nice campers, bathrooms very clean. Even with half the spaces open, still felt a little crowded.

This campground has spacious sites and there is primitive and full hook up sites available. Pets are allowed in certain sites. Sites are also available along the lake. Access to lake is a plus for boaters and fishing.

Grew up in the area so I’m bias but I love the atmosphere. Swimming, mini golf, kayaking, horse riding, etc. and so much more to do in the area. Visit the Farmers Inn restaurant and petting zoo while you’re in the area.

especially on the pet loop - nicest sites, location-wise, for a tent are 49-53 or 43 in the woods, and 40 on the Clarion River. Canoe-in group sites are nice, too, and secluded. 1 bar Verizon service - no wifi - firewood for sale - water spigots throughout park

Always gorgeous. We went on a holiday weekend and so the campground was PACKED and a little too close for my liking, but for a holiday understandable. We stayed on the pet end and got a spot near the lake. But also this meant people were walking through our site to go walk to the water.

We 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.

Campground 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!

This park has a separate loop for people camping with dogs. This means dog-less people can have a dog-free camp experience...and we can walk through the dog area and see lots of cute dogs. This was my son’s favorite part of the whole weekend, LOL. We stayed in the cabins which were rustic looking though very clean and nice inside (pack like you’re going camping with a fridge). We did some hikes and enjoyed the classic beauty of this part of PA...and wished we had a canoe!

Our stay was over the weekend and into the beginning of the week. We stayed in the dog loop because we took our dog. The campsite was clean, very close to the bathrooms and drinking water. The people were all so friendly, dogs were very well behaved. The facilities were very clean. The activities around the site were abundant and super fun. We camped in a tent, so had no need for any rv hookups. Great experience!

We went to Sara's Campground and walked around the campsite (bayside aka away from the beach and behind the restaurant) from end to end (3 times).  I didn't see a camp host sign or office.  We never did find the main office until the 3rd time when we were driving out of the neighborhood.  They do have a big sign at the entrance but my brain didn't process that they were also across the busy road. 

This campsite is actually on BOTH sides of the road. My passenger spotted them as we were leaving the area after we had passed the area multiple times. It almost looks like they are an extension of the water park for those of us that are out of town. The area is very busy visually so be prepared to accidently drive past it. 

The main campground (bayside) is located behind the restaurants.  The location is awesome as it is right across the road from the beach.  You will want to note that Presque Isle State Park does not have any camping within their park boundaries.  

Sara's charges $30.00 a night and only two adults per tent. The beach camping is first come/first serve (no reservations). No pets on the beach side which may explain why there were some tents over on the bayside (RVs) side of the campground. If you wanted to escape the wind this might be a good spot to tent camp. Also, if you wanted to be close but not too close to the water due to having young children. 

Sara's Diner was closed but seemed to be used for storage for the main business.  We were able to get milk shakes at the eatery. You order at the outside window and then move inside to pick up your milk shake or other food items.  At the other building (Eatery), I asked two employees if they knew where to connect with the campground office but they didn't know what I was talking about.  

We used their cross walk to walk across the main street and we immediately came to the beach.  On the left it was labeled private beach and a wall blocked the view. I didn't realize this might be part of Sara's but also looked like some private property/condos to me. Once on the beach to the right was a long beautiful shore line. It would be an easy walk and carry of beach items. I was hoping we could camp at the site and get a post card to reserve a spot for the upcoming year.  

We did see folks camping in tents behind the restaurants with the RVs. The ground was slightly sandy and they looked comfortable. We looked on with campsite envy. Some folks may prefer this as it is back a bit from the shore so it isn't windy the whole time and less sandy. Either side had easy access to the bike trail and I would have felt safe riding my bike on their bike trail.  It was a smooth paved lane that was mostly away from traffic. 

Presque Isle Lighthouse Open 7 days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.$7— House Tour and Tower Climb$3— House Tour FREE— Walk the grounds Taken from https://www.presqueislelighthouse.org/

We also did the boat tour https://piboattours.com/lady-kate/  This was $16.00 and well worth it.  We were able to learn a lot about the history of the island.  It is naturally windy and out on the open water so make sure you take some layers as it can get chilly even in July. 

We then hit the road to continue to find another campsite.  If you don't mind crowds and noise from the road, RVs, or other campers then this is the site for you.  It has a great location that cannot be beat for ease of access to the beaches.