Are you an equestrian lover who prefers a more rustic experience when you visit New Kensington? Camping with horses is a beautiful way to experience nature. Search horse campsites and discover top-rated spots, as reviewed by other campers.
From the website:
Primitive tenting not allowed, only group camping as described below. Backpacking site (shelter) with permit.
Update 9/14/2020: All state park day-use and overnight lodging facilities are open according to standard seasons and hours. Group cabin camps remain closed for 2020.
Modern Cabins
Eleven modern cabins are available for rent year round. These cabins sleep six people and have:
Two bedrooms
Bathroom with shower
Kitchen
Dining/living area
Electric heat
Dock on Lake Arthur during the summer seasonRenters must provide:
Linens
Towels
Cookware
TablewarePlay equipment for children is in a central area.
This activity or structure is ADA accessible.
Dogs are permitted in Cabins #7 and #11 for a fee.
Moraine State Park Cabin Map (PDF)
GPS DD: Lat. 40.96586 Long. -80.11389 No Camping
Camping is prohibited in the park. Private campgrounds nearby offer camping. Information is available at the park office. Backpacking
The Link Road Overnight Shelter on the North Country National Scenic Trail is available to backpackers by reservation only. Organized Group Tenting
There are two tent camping areas available for organized groups:
Muskrat Cove
Five PointsThese rustic camps have:
Restrooms
Picnic tables
Cooking grills
Water, but no showersAdvance reservations are required. To reserve a group tent campsite, call 888-PA-PARKS (888-727-2757), Monday to Saturday, 7:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. except on the Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day holidays.
Campground Closed for Renovation: The campground on Leslie Road will be completely unavailable during renovations beginning October 20, 2019. NOTE: A one-lane bridge on Echo Dell Road CANNOT accommodate vehicles with trailers or RVs. You must approach the Park Office, Wildlife Education Center, Gaston's Mill, and Pioneer Village from the south if you are traveling in a large vehicle.
$18 - $50 / night
Primitive Camping Area; Permit required for more than one night stay.
Guide
When you pull into Beaver Creek Family Campground you pretty much have two choices: either you go left into multiple Pine tree sites or right into two cabins and more RV friendly open sites. A few of the RV sites have electric, but no water for their tanks. I suggest the pine sites for any tent or hammock campers. I stayed in one of the first set of 3 pine sites numbered 43, 44, and 45. There is some brush and cover between these sites, but each has a pull in parking pad. If 45 was occupied with a RV, 44 would not be as nice as it was. Backing into 44 and 45 would be tricky as well. To be fair any larger RV that came in better know how to get through tight quarters.
The back area of each of those 3 sites looked best to get even ground for a tent. My buddy hung his hammock between the tree to the left of the picnic bench and to a tree back and left in the picture of site 44. Site was fairly clean, but be sure to move the pine tree duff away from the fire pits to be safe.
Probably the nicest pit toilets I have experienced and while we didn't use, it the sun shower building would give anyone privacy if they had packed a portable shower. Lots of trails to choose from and the pioneer village in the state park gives you many options to spend the day. Had some luck fishing at the Canoe/Kayak area in the South East area of the park close to the Group Camp Sites.
TravelerSmall quiet state park. Nice trails and very big sites on the one side.
Guide
Moraine State Park doesn't allow camping within the park and there is no campground affiated with park. The one exception is along the North Country Trail, there are 2 rustic shelters that must be reserved through the park office. There are several private campgrounds in the area
ScoutThe sites that were around us had a perfect view of the Beaver Creek Valley. Our site was more in the corner with trees and brush blocking the view but we still enjoyed our site. Check in was easy since you can go right to your site and they have your trip details already pin to you campsite post. We stayed during the week so we didn’t share the campground with that many people. The campground was mixture of large sites and some small sites. The smaller sites were near the playground. We were thoroughly impressed by this campground, even if it was a smaller state park. We only stayed a night but we had a really nice and relaxing time at the state park. We were able to check out two of there trails but they have a quite a few trails. They had the pioneer village which was cute and interesting to walk through. Overall, a perfect low stress one night trip.
RangerIf you like peace and quiet this is not the place. No privacy. Dogs barking constantly, cars driving up and down the road constantly...kids screaming and running up and down the road especially young ones that definitely need adult supervision. Most of the sites are small and too close together. Not much room to maneuver a trailer into the narrow uneven pads. The rest of the site was full of rocks, cigarette butts and bottle caps. Came for a relaxing weekend and so far just been annoyed by rude people. Drinking water available but rvs are not allowed to fill tanks. Vault toilets. Full at&t reception. Quiet time 10pm-7am
GuideI’ve always loved this quite, small campground. It’s been closed over the last 2 seasons due to the Ash bore, but the future is bright for this area.
Be sure to take in the Pioneer Village
Ranger
I have not yet camped here but passed it on my hike the other day and knew I hadn’t seen it in the Dyrt yet, so I wanted to add it for others. This is a hike in or paddle in only campground. The shortest distance is about 2 miles from the trailhead at the Kennerdell bridge, but there are other trailheads throughout the tract also. This is meant more to be a stop along a paddling or hiking trip than a destination camping trip - you must get a permit to stay more than one night. They are first come first serve. There are 8 sites spread out along the edge of the river, some being closer together than others. They are level and clear, each with a new picnic table and nice fire rings with adjustable grates. A few of the sites had stairs to the water for paddler access. The first 2 sites had wheelchair friendly picnic tables, so I'm not sure if you can arrange to be able to drive back for that situation or what other reason they would put them there. That's nice if the case, I'm just not sure as there is a gate locked at the trailhead that's only opened during hunting season. Plus there's no pavement or gravel down at the sites so I imagine it could be difficult to access. But something to investigate. There are vault toilets that were clean and well maintained, with hand sanitizer. There is a spring for water which says to boil before drinking. There is also a big display board with state forest info and maps. Another thing to note, while the travel in makes it feel very remote, there are cabins all along the opposite site of the river, including directly across from the campsites. This could be a positive or negative depending on your thoughts, I personally would like it because it would make me feel a little safer. All in all, it’s a nice little campground, in better shape than some of the regular bigger campgrounds I’ve seen.
GuideI live near by to this state park and have spent much time exploring the entirety of it.
The trails are all nice, nothing too strenuous, and each have something unique compared to the others in the park. During the spring the Salamander trail is filled with thousands of Trilliums, a truly majestic experience. Lots of flowing water to enjoy throughout the park, some are off the trails but never hard to reach. A good park to enjoy with family and friends because you can fish, kayak, bike, skate, hike, horseback, and picnic. In addition, there are numerous historical cabins, locks, shelters, and a water run mill to sight-see. Then for those in search of a bit of spookiness, Gretchen’s Lock is notoriously a haunted location with certainly eerie vibes.
The family campground is small, but the park as a whole is not far from civilization so if any supplies are needed it is not a far endeavor.
I do not horseback, so I cannot comment on that campground, but many of the trails are friendly for horses to travel.
OH! And if you are there on the weekends the Wildlife Center is a must! The staff are so nice, it is by donation to visit so is in everyone’s price range. An astounding display of animals and nature information! You can even hold the snakes and see a bee hive in action.
GuideVery nice park . Scenic on way in . Lots were decent size , not real private but our tent set up gave us privacy. We creek walked and hiked. Nice little campground , don’t have any info for rv’ers but for primitive it’s nice. The nature building was open on Saturday and Sunday and was great for our little ones
Traveler"Camping is prohibited in the park." (That is directly off the DCNR website.)
I am not reviewing Moraine State Park (which is awesome). I am reviewing the CAMPING options at Moraine State Park. Which brings me back to the DNCR website. It says "No Camping" and "Camping is prohibited in the park. Private campgrounds nearby offer camping."
It DOES list cabins, group tenting, and a backpacking shelter, which is available by reservation only.
But this park is not where somebody looking for CAMPING would want to be.
RangerThis is a great place just of interstate 79. Been going there since I was a kid. In fact my family used to own property near by. This park has an awesome trail system for walking or biking
LegendWe chose this park because it was the closest one we could find that was still open with electric this time of year to downtown Pittsburgh. Also, because it had great cell/internet service on our hotspots and had a lot of trails. Unfortunately, it had been raining a lot so we weren’t able to explore the trails. The campground is nice– the toilets are just pit toilets and they do have a sun shower. They are on a well so there is limited water and they don’t allow you to fill up your on board tank. Make sure you fill up before you go! Also, there is a road in the park (Echo Dell Road) that RV’s/Trailers can’t go on so make sure you approach this campground from Leslie Road!
ScoutI have been camping at Moraine State Park since I was 5 years old (so about 14 years). While I was in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts we used the 5 Points Group Camping Area a lot. It is right next to the bike trail and has access to the lake. I have enjoyed my time at Moraine and will enjoy it every time I visit.
TravelerThis place wasn't bad but nothing really stellar about it either. I visited on a Tuesday in early July and stayed the night with my 9 year old son. Literally the park was abandoned - no visitors, hardly any employees to be seen (saw one guy mowing grass, that was it), and the park office itself closed except for on the weekends. We drove down to the main area of the park to check out the old mill, canal lock, ect. Really cool looking and quaint, but again, everything locked up so you couldn't go inside or find out much more additional info. The creek itself is very beautiful and the campground manager I talked to said a lot of people canoe or kayak down its length to the Ohio.
Campground has limited well water and a one seater vault toilet with no sinks, showers, ect. I stayed in spot 55 on the northern part of the campground which was pretty wooded, but not private. All spots can see into other camps. Small creek ran behind the end of the loop but it was mostly stagnant water which made it very buggy at night. Overall like I said, not a bad place, but I wouldn't rush to come back unless I was on some type of canoeing trip.
TravelerMoraine is a really large state park with a huge lake, nice beaches, and tons of trails. The north country trail runs for over a dozen miles from end to end. This review is of the shelter sites, of which there is one, for backpacking along the trail. There are three shelters which are all very mouse infested. I believe this is because the site does not have a bear pole or bear box, so I think most people probably don't hang their food like they should and thus the mice move in to forage. Of the 3, the Hilltop shelter 2, which we stayed in is the nicest and private. There is a rustic vault toilet but no water at the site. I asked the lady at the park office if there was water nearby and she said yes, just hike down to the access road and over to the group tenting site to fillup. I'll tell you, this is not close - easily a 2-3 mile round trip.
ScoutScoutMoraine State Park is beautiful. It offers many camping styles including Group Tenting, Adirondack shelters for backpacking, and Cabins.
GuideSmall park, only a few sites with hookups, but very nice. Rustic, with trails to the main park that take you through beautiful woods.
Travelerdirect access to the North Country National Scenic Trail and trails through main park
TravelerFamily Campground on Leslie Road [map]
Equestrian Camp on Sprucevale Road
Group Camp on Sprucevale Road
ScoutI loved this place! We stayed at a group tent camping site. It was very quiet and secluded feeling, yet not far from the restrooms, bike trail, water/fishing area. Looking forward to going back and getting to explore more!
GuideMoraine is a great park, but camping here is limited. As I understand it, this park was created so that Pittsburghers would have a place to go sailing--so camping has never been its primary draw. But it's a scenic park that has a beautiful, meandering lake with lots of coves and estuaries. There are bike trails and hiking trails all throughout, plus a bike rental shop, and two swimming beaches. The North Country National Scenic Trail (NCT) has an Adirondack shelter and small tenting area within the park that's reserved for backpackers. But what's to say you're not just a one-day backpacker, doing a small portion of the trail, who needs a place to spend the night? You could hike into the backpacking campground known as the Link Road Overnight Shelter and set up your tent. It would have to be primitive camping; there are no facilities of any kind. The only other way to camp at Moraine is to reserve one of the two rustic group tenting areas--which are actually very pleasant despite the absence of showers. In order to see if your group qualifies to use the group tenting area, go to this website.
TravelerWe camped this past weekend in site 50. It is an unbelievably spacious site under towering pine trees. The site sits back off the road and really makes you feel like you have the place to yourself.
TravelerWe got a site near the playground, which my 3 year old enjoyed. The campground wasn't busy and we had a lot of privacy. The sky was dark enough to see far more stars than you'd see near any larger towns or cities. To cap it off, we laid in our tent dozing off to the sounds of owls and coyotes!
RangerWe go here for the Civil War Reenactment every couple years. It’s a beautiful green forest with some historical buildings so it’s a perfect site for that. There are nice hikes around the creek too. We camp in the primitive site, which is very basic and well taken care of.
GuideThis is a nice clean state park. There is canoeing but no swimming. Bass fishing is really fun because we caught a few nice ones!!
ScoutThe camp ground was nice except there is no running water. We took advantage of some of the hiking trails around and they were good in some areas, but definitely needed to be kept up on more often. Very over grown and difficult to follow the trails, but overall we were able to hike for about 3 hours without running into anyone else. The creek that runs through the area is beautiful and there were many people fishing along the way. Kayaking is also very popular among the creek, but the water was too low this time. If I were to go back I would definitely kayaking if the water is at the right level. The best part about the area was the history that surrounds it. There is a pioneer village near the park office that offers some picnicking areas around it. It also has original buildings from the pioneer days (church, school, etc). Really historical area to check out and hike around.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular equestrian campsite near New Kensington, PA?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular equestrian campground near New Kensington, PA is Group Camping and Cabins — Moraine State Park with a 4.2-star rating from 9 reviews.
What is the best site to find equestrian camping near New Kensington, PA?
TheDyrt.com has all 3 equestrian camping locations near New Kensington, PA, with real photos and reviews from campers.