Best Tent Camping near Parkhill, PA

Kooser State Park is a small campground nestled in the Laurel Highlands, close to Hidden Valley and Seven Springs ski resorts. The park has great amenities just a short walk from all sites. All sites have fire rings, with grills, however note they are double walled so do not expel a lot of heat outward. Great for cooking however. 

Most sites are not level, but very grassy. Firewood is available at the entrance for$5 bundle supporting a local club. A beautiful walk through the park leads you to the Kooser Lake, great for fishing. It is also close to the Laurel Hill State Park which is great for hiking and water activities. The park is close to the road so you will experience some road noise. 

The park is 15min from Somerset. No phone reception at this one! They welcome all furry friends!

PROS 

Able to reserve 129 days prior to arriving 

Melissa at check-in was very friendly and helpful 

Good overnight stop to visit Flight 93 Memorial 22 miles from campground 

Site #391 level 

Gravel site surrounded by grass 

Moveable wooden picnic table 

Large concrete fire ring 

Clean toilet-shower building that are heavily used 

Mostly quiet except for road noise 

Firewood for sale in Park

CONS 

No discount 

Site #391 no shade 

Park cable connection failed 

Sewer connection“up hill” 

Never found trash dumpster and wasn’t marked on campground map 

Very loud radio station blaring in the toilet/shower building that could be heard outside the building 

2 bars Verizon 

No WIFI

Duman lake review notes.

• Well-maintained small park, stocked lake, popular with local fisherman. Kayaking/small boat fishing. I’ve seen bald eagle and osprey.
• Six campsites, w/mature trees, level, w/paved drive & gravel area, large enough for mid-sized RVs. They state 40 ft., but all are back in. All have (lighted)30 amp & water. We did not see the tent sites. Not sure if they are developed, ask.
• Number one is closest to the bathhouse, number five was less shaded. Number six is closest to the road.
• Newer restroom, w/two stalls each. Push-button, hot showers. Men’s worked best.
• Campsite number one is closest to restroom, but also behind picnic shelter number 12, so if the shelter is booked for a party could be noisy? Day use people bugged out quickly at dusk.
• We were in #1 in May & had the entire campground & upper park to ourselves.
• They have a kids’ train in summer.
• Nice playground.
• The only real downside of this campground is that the local road is close by and you do get some traffic noise before dark. It is not a high traffic road however. Dumpsters were overflowing with weekend trash & bathrooms needed a bug sweep-out. Sportsmen were target shooting nearby before dark FYI.

Round Bottom Camping Area at Slush Run is a free camping area directly on the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) Trail around Mile 99 (East of West Newton roughly 15 miles).  For those not familiar with the GAP Trail, it is a Rails-to-Trails initiative that travels from Pittsburgh, PA to Cumberland, MD…meandering through numerous Trail Towns that were former thriving railroad towns at the end of the 1800's.

Round Bottom Camping Area at Slush Run can only be accessed by the GAP Trail, which means on foot or bicycle…or paddlers on the Youghioheny River. Being positioned directly off the GAP Trail grants easy access to those traveling the trail. 

Amenities:

• Raised Tent pads (4)
• Vault Toilet
• Adirondack Shelters (2)
• Firepits
• Picnic tables

No potable water…there is hand pump but the water was discolored.  It is a short walk down a trail to the river's edge, where I filtered water for drinking.

There is plenty of grassy area for scores of tents in this area.   So if you are not fortunate enough to secure one of the two Shelters or tent pads, you can still set up a tent in the nicely mowed areas, which are still level.

We were bikepacking the GAP Trail east from Pittsburgh and arrived on a Sunday evening mid-June. We secured the only open Adirondack Shelter and were able to set up our tent inside, along with keeping our bicycles inside and out of the elements. Which made it wonderfully convenient when it started to rain. Sites and shelters are first come, first served.

Usually the vault toilets along this trail are clean, maintained and stocked…but on this visit, piles of trash were inside likely from an overly busy weekend.

The only negative was the train traffic on the opposite side of the River…it is loud when they rumble through. If you don't sleep with ear-plugs, you will wish you had.

Bicycle traffic was fairly light during the week, so not only did you have the GAP Trail mostly to oneself, the camping areas were either sparsely filled or empty. Although, things just did start opening up from the Covid-19 shutdown.

Apart from the train noise during sleeping hours, Round Bottom Camping Area is very peaceful and though you can still visually see the GAP Trail, you are not disturbed by passing cyclists.

We stayed in a Ranger Smith Cabin in the upper campground. I give this 3 stars because I'm a state park camper at heart: I prefer more room between sites,  more relaxation and nature when camping. But your kids will love it here: two pools, splashgrounds, fire truck rides, arcades, meeting Yogi and friends, nightly movies...the list goes on. Be prepared for an endless parade of golf carts during your stay. We were underwhelmed by the expensive cabin as it had dorm room furniture and uncomfortable beds. The walk-in tent sites were in a hilly area without pavilions, but reservable tent sites in the lower campground had pavilions and more level ground. This is a great base camp for exploring area attractions in the Laurel Highlands such as Idlewild,  Fort Necessity and the beautiful Ohiopyle State Park. If you go to Idlewild, then stop by Gino's pizza in Ligonier; order the sampler pizza (includes pierogi,  taco, white and margherita)--you won't be disappointed.

Pros: Reasonably priced, fairly quiet campground with full shower and bath houses. The tent site I was in was also nicely designed, with a tent 'pad', as well as full campfire ring, picnic table, and lantern hanging hook. There are tent, RV, and group sites at this campground.

Cons: The bath/shower houses could've used a much better cleaning (but were not the worst I've encountered). Also, I'm not from the area, and the drive to get to this out-of-the-way campground was awful. It's really far from a main highway (which isn't so bad), but the roads to get to the campground are hilly, winding country roads with 55 mph speed limits that I found way too fast if you're not a local. And the locals are really aggressive drivers.

August 2020 Stay

We camped for 1 night.  We chose site 102 because it looked decent in the picture and seemed a little apart and more private than other areas.  Unfortunately, it was not great for tent camping as there wasn't really a spot to set up our 4-person tent.  We squeezed it in by the fire pit, but if we had wanted to use the fire pit it would have been a fire hazard.  Elsewhere in the site it was rocky or uneven ground.

Looking around the rest of the campground, the loop up near the cabins was a typical RV area with sites lined up with little privacy in between.  I would look at the other loops for our next tent-camping visit.

We were hoping to do some hiking in the morning but got rained out.  However the trails looked nice and we hope to be back soon.

This campground is a nice, quiet campground about 30 minutes from Pittsburgh. It is a membership-based campground, we stayed there using coast to coast. The campground is decent, but not sure it really qualifies as a “resort”. It is an older park that could use some updates, namely electric service, fresh gravel for the sites, and sewer, but overall the park was clean and reasonably well kept.

The park is gated, you have to stop at the security booth to check in, enter, or leave the park, so you might have to wait a few minutes, but that is a nice level of added security. It is pretty easy to navigate the park even with a larger rig, and there is an nice sized overflow parking area to unhook your toad when you first get there. I would recommend getting there before dark. They did have signs directing you to the different site number groups which was helpful.

The road my GPS brought me in was a little tight, but manageable. There was a better route but it did have a very short bridge with a 10 ton weight limit, so be sure to really check your route. Another bonus is that it is only a few minutes from the PA turnpike.

The sites are average, but there are no sewer hookups and no 50 amp service, the whole park is 30 amp. The sites are reasonable level, but the one we had was a little tricky to get into because of it being on a hill, but it was manageable. The picnic table benches were completely rotted out.

There are two dump stations, one located on the way out, and the other located in one of the upper loops.

The campground did have nice amenities, the pool was large and clean, it had a nice playground, a camp store, sports courts, horseshoes, volleyball, and a mini golf course. The staff were all very nice, and they patrolled the park throughout the day and night for security, which is always nice.

The closest town is about 20 minutes away, and there are a bunch of restaurants, a Lowes, and auto parts stores should you need supplies or make a repair.

The campground is about 40 minutes from the Flight 93 National Memorial, about 20 minutes from Fallingwater, and there were a couple of wineries in the area as well.

All in all, our visit was good. I gave three stars because of the lack of 50 amp hookups and the size and quality of the sites.