Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Pittsburgh, PA

We met with friends from Pittsburgh here, they visit often and consider this a hidden gem. We enjoyed the waterfront camping and snowshoeing. We got a site by the water and with good tree cover. They also have cabins but we were just in a tent (I don’t know if the cabins are open all year). Great place to camp for simple beauty.

This campground is an easy drive from Pittsburgh. Nice hiking trails. Other activities available like boat rental and swimming at the beach. Closeby is Janoski's farm market - huge with everything from chocolates to a floor with gifts. Also worth visiting for the short hiking trails is the Wildflower Reserve. Downside is bathhouse compared to other state parks not as clean. But overall very nice time.

Getting used to our new travel trailer so visiting alot of local state parks. This one is clean with a majority of spots shaded. Much to do to occupy a few days. We hiked but there is also rental boats and kayaks, a very nice pool, a mini golf, and many short hiking trails. Just over an hour from Pittsburgh. Restrooms and park very clean.

Raccoon Creek is half an hour from Pittsburgh, and it's a big park with lots to discover. In addition to 7,000+ acres of woods, Raccoon has pretty much anything a camper could want: good scenery; a nice little lake with a beach and concession stand (in summer); more than 20 miles of trails; a backpacking loop with primitive camping and Adirondack shelters; picnic areas; cabins; fishing; hunting in the late fall; a canoe rental shop… The campground is enormous and has all different kinds of campsites--sunny, wooded, solitary, tightly packed, dog-friendly, dog-free. It's even got a few dismal little sites that are open year-round, except that the road to them may be snowed over in winter. Make sure you check out the online map and reserve a good campsite in advance, because a lot of them are crowded too close together. Raccoon is great, a fun, woodsy place. It gets really crowded and doesn't exactly have the wilderness feel that I like. Hiking here is more like "taking a walk in the woods," which is better than no walk in the woods. Raccoon is the # 1 "go-to" for Pittsburghers who don't pre-book at Ohiopyle or some wilder place in time for Memorial Day or Labor Day weekend.

Simple wooded beauty in southern PA, an hour or so from Pittsburgh not far off 76. Pros: nice swimming, short trail, great XC skiing (here and nearby), nice green area with rolling hills, cabin options, hot showers, a few tent-only sites, creek by campground, wildlife (turkeys and deer right by the tent), lots of other parks nearby (plus skiing, golf). Cons: one-way road was a little frustrating, mostly open style campground (not a lot of privacy for many sites), road close to park.

Excellent clean park and easy to get to from Pittsburgh. The campsite and bathrooms were clean when we arrived and when we left. The site numbering is a bit wonky on the door loop so make sure you look at your map before you start driving the loops.

The electrical hookups are not played out well like an expensive RV park with the shared power post on the entrance side of the camper. You may want to have an extension for your power cable.

The park ranger drove through multiple times a day. Overall the dog loop was quite and at night we could hear the coyotes in the distance.

The lake provides a great place to fish and the walking trail has some less used fishing spots if you are willing to walk. We enjoyed the easy walking lake trail with the kids because it was wide and flat.

Kayak rental of $15 for an hour was the cheapest we have seen and allowed us to explore more of the lake.

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.

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.

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!

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.

I started camping at Raccoon back in the 60's as a little person with my family. Hadn't been for several decades, but finally got back with my husband and cats the past couple of years. Great park ony a 1/2 hour outside of Pittsburgh. The campground has something for everyone - RV sites with electric (although I wouldn't recommend bringing your 40' rig...sites can be a tad on the smaller side) or secluded sites just for tenting. Restrooms are clean and well maintained. Two loops allow pets F and B, but only some sites in F have electric, so be sure to check if that is what you need. There are many hiking trails that are not too strenuous or you can take a 10 mile trip around the lake. Lots of birds for viewing, particularly near the beach. You can put in your kayak or fish on the shore at the fairly large lake. Boats do require a launch pass which you can obtain from the park office. And don't miss the Wildflower Preserve if you are there in May or late summer! Great place to take the family and relax in nature!

There are two main loops in this campground. One that is pet friendly and more of a pitch-your-tent-in-the-yard thing and another that is pet-free and wooded. We didn't realize and stayed in the first one. Dogs were barking at all hours and there's no privacy. We drove through the other one and it looks so much nicer. Campsites more spread out with trees in between and way quieter. Will definitely stay there if we return.

This state park review is of the state park itself, not the related Kentuck campground. We have stayed at Kentuck, and I have written a separate review of the campground itself. I also wanted to post a review of the park, however, because we have visited many times and it’s one of our favs!

Ohiopyle is a well-known location to any outdoor enthusiast in the Pittsburgh area, in fact it’s probably the most popular destination within a few hours of the city. There are great hiking trails including the Laurel Highlands hiking trail (70+ miles) which is popular with backpackers, fantastic white-water rafting opportunities on ‘the Yough’, and the Great Allegheny Passage or ‘GAP’ biking trail (150+ miles from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, MD) runs right through town. In the winter, you’re near the best ski mountains in the Pittsburgh area, and many of the hiking trails become snowshoeing and cross-country skiing trails. No matter the season, there really is something for everyone if you like being outdoors. The town of Ohioyle itself is also a cute (though very small) area to spend some time, with a couple of nice outfitters, mostly focused on white water rafting and kayaking. Paddler’s Pizza and the nearby bakery + chocolate / candy shop make for great stops after a hike, bike or paddle, or if you just want to pick up some picnic stuff and head down to the waterfront in town for a relaxing lunch.

Something I didn’t know until the spring of this year (after heading down to this area for years) is how close it is to another gem: the Youghiogeny River Lake and dam area (about 15 minutes outside of town, up the road towards Baughman’s Rocks). This is a beautiful lake for boating or kayaking with great fishing. It’s a little weird to find, as you have to take a side road (there are signs pointing the way to the lake) and you actually end up driving on top of the dam itself (which is crazy! great view though) into the parking area on the other side where the boat launch and beach area is. The dam outflow area (which is in a separate location closer to the main road) is cold water release and offers some of the best trout fishing in the greater Pittsburgh area, along with the resulting start of the Youghiogeny River.

In general, this area is one of the most relaxing, outdoor-focused locations in the greater Pittsburgh area, with a ton of stuff to see and do!

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!).

While most of the campgrounds in the park are no pets- there are 2 loops that allow your furry companions! Loop F includes electric spots! Loved seeing the 'neighbors' dogs get excited and curious when I walked my 4-legged best friend around the site. Clean area , close to a modern bathroom (a few stalls & even 2 showers!) Looking forward to going back at the end of the month.

Stayed 3 nights because I wanted to be centrally located to the he Flight 93 Memorial and Falling Water (about 30 miles to each). The non pet section is heavily wooded and very shady. The pet section is more of a loop set up with some trees. The no pet section had no, zero, zilch cell service so my stay was super quiet. Site 173 was easy to back into and had a large picnic area with a fire ring next to the brook. There is a lake with a small beach and a boat launch and numerous hiking trails. The park will s very nice pretty and during the week fairly empty. I would recommend

A solid place to camp. Nice temperatures for June. A nice little beach for the kids to swim at. Self service ice and wood. Bring exact cash as the the contact station is only open Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Bathrooms are old but cleaned daily, water was hot so no complaints. Later check out was a nice bonus

Some of the sites are quite small and right on top of others. Some like ours were significantly larger. The pet loop was essentially a field with trees around it. The none pet loop was in the trees and so you sometimes had more space and sometimes were right beside you.

The no pet loop essentially cleared out after the weekend and we had tons of space to run around.

I wish more hikes started from the campground. But there was a gravel trail that connected to most of them.

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.

Long holiday weekend trip. Love this park. Designated pet areas, flush toilets and shower house available. Plenty of trails.

This was my first time actually “camping” and using a tent in the wilderness. This camp was laid out very well and had plenty of maps and trails, as well as daily activities. They have a small amphitheater with easy access, a dump and recycling area. RVs had access to water and sewage drainage. The main trail we took (was also pet friendly!!) took us down to the main stretch between DC and Pittsburgh. The views are great and there is plenty of things to do within hiking distance. The only thing I would like to see is a picture of each spot. Some spots seem to be laid out better than others or slightly bigger. The spot next to us had room for a second car while ours was rather awkward. We ended up camping in the gravel but made it work. Ops.

It has a pretty decent campground with nice spots. A great area for hiking and taking walks. Pet friendly. Only downfall is that the lake swimming area is closed

Very nice campsite lots of people but everyone was very friendly. Heads up when booking only a few areas allow pets. Also on this app it says drinking allowed not the case. Had a great time with lots to see and do in ohiopyle

Very quiet park this time of year. Only one loop that allows pets. The spots are very sloped so bring your Lego blocks. Bathrooms were ok but nice hot showers. We we the only campers in our loop so private. I grew up near here and visited the park often. First time camping here.