Best Tent Camping near Ralston, PA

I throughly enjoyed my time at Bald Eagle State Park. We stayed at a tent site, I believe 58 in the rustic camping section. The rustic section was located around a large loop with each site ranging in a few feet from the car-friendly loop to about the 50 foot walk where our site was located. While this is a primitive site, planning ahead you can place yourself near the vault toilets. If there was running water in the bathrooms– we didn’t find it! There are several water pumps located around the loop and we used that for washing dishes. Our site had space for two tents with a nice fire ring and picnic table. The fire ring was actually one of the best I have experienced– featuring a grill grate with adjustable levels for exposure to heat. The site also had a hook for keeping food or garage elevated from critters. Hammock lovers: we had plenty of trees to easily string our hammock near the picnic table/fire ring. Now the trains. An active railroad sits about 75 feet away from several of the rustic sites. We noticed the 7 p.m. train on Saturday evening. What we didn’t expect was being awoken at 5 a.m. to a freight train blowing through full steam– really gets your heart pumping– did not need coffee that morning. The rustic area also has access to a trail that loops about two miles near the lake and rustic campground. It was a fun place!

Knoebels campground is situated next to Knoebels amusement park and offers sites for tent campers and RVs, as well as cabins.

There is electricity at every site but not water. There are fill stations throughout the campgrounds. Most sites are level and shaded. There are nice sturdy wooden platforms for tent campers.

The bath houses are clean and well maintained. There are outside sinks with mirrors, laundry facilities, shower stalls, and toilet stalls. Or if you prefer there are also traditional bathrooms with showers.

Quiet hours are enforced between 10p and 8a.

Each site has a fire ring and picnic table. Wood is available by the bucket near the check in building. Sites are inexpensive and are all a short walk, or free shuttle ride, to the park!.

This is a gated campground that we stayed at 6/30/19-7/04/19. We are NOT an RV. We own a Napier tent that hooks to our truck so that we can sleep up in the bed. However, due to it being a holiday week, the tent sites were completely booked and they only have 4(which also have water& electric). The tent sites are located in the back of the campground behind the sports field within the trees. I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to see them but they have them pictured on their website. They let us book an RV site and it was rough setting up on a gravel RV site but we understood that we were not within a normal tent element and placed an extra tarp under the tent. The campground is located at the top of some beautiful and scenic driving through farmland in Pennsylvania and you will be 30 minutes from anything like shopping or small town amenities(we drove to Walmart after setting up to get our perishables since we drive up from Virginia). Our site had water and electric, was a drive through spot for a typical RV with a section to the side of the drive through for the fire pit and picnic table. We were located right next to the shower/bathrooms/playground and had some tree coverage and shade. A lot of the RVs in the campground are permanent sites and our neighbors never showed so we had a quiet buffer but it was not a noisy campground. It appeared that they cleaned the bathrooms twice daily and we were impressed with the cleanliness of the bathroom/showers. There were 4 in the building so we never had to wait. The staff were friendly and helpful. They had a store right next to the pool area that offered common items and RV'er might need with a small grocery area as well which included bundles of wood($6 honor system after hours) and Ice($1.78 per bag). We were allowed to run an account which we paid at the end of our stay. Our campsite was required to be paid at check in. The campground is 18 acres with gravel roads, a sports field, fishing, horse shoes, bocce ball, multiple playgrounds, a rec center with some games, claw machines etc. a splash pad and salt water pool. You will be doing a lot of walking or bring your bicycles like we did. They offer scheduled activities for holidays etc and various weekend activities. You can rent non electric boats and they offer catch& release fishing without a PA license in the lake. My son caught 2 sunfish :) They have guidelines for visitors and quiet hours(my cousin came to visit us in the evenings as she lived close by). We enjoyed camping here even if we were on an RV site. We booked site 211 which had the little bit of tree coverage and was located right next to the showers/bathrooms/playground with a quick walk to the lake for fishing. Most of the other available sites in the road ahead of us had no tree coverage but closer to the lake had more trees and shade. OR, just get an actual tent site :) but they are all the way at the back of the campground, furthest from the lake so I actually preferred our site.

This trip was a bit impromptu so we assume most of the good sites were picked over. The site we stayed at was the perfect size for two people, not the biggest site in the campground but we had a bit of a buffer between our neighbors so we weren’t on top of other people. We were located at a bit heavily trafficked area because we were near the entrance of the campground and the restrooms. The state park was beautiful and had a lot of things to do. I recommend doing the Falls trail and to get onto Lake Jean. They have a concessions by Lake Jean that doesn’t only sell food and drinks but some ice and bundle of wood. Definitely bring a hammer because it’s near impossible to stake down your tent by hand because the turf is hard. Would definitely come again and do the primitive group camp option if I can. No cell service (Verizon) but if you drive 10 miles north up towards Lopez we were able to get a signal. This was a nice way to end summer!

PROS

Senior discount $18 

Able to reserve 334 days prior to arriving

Campground quiet but can hear PA 150 road noise 

Great night sky viewing 

Nice privacy from side neighbor's campsite 

Asphalt parking pad 

Large gravel around pad to include firepit and utility hook up 

Grass around gravel, but was mid-calf high 

Metal fire pit which was cleaned out upon arrival 

Lantern pole 

8 miles off of Interstate 80 

Firewood for sale at the campground; $6 bundle 

Park is good proximity to Penn State University and Central Pennsylvania 

Country Pride Restaurant Milesburg (TA truck stop off of Interstate 80) has some terrific food! 

4 bars Verizon 

CONS

$6.50 reservation fee for self made online reservation 

One day while away from our campsite, park personnel mowed  mid-cafe high grass at and around our site and the mowers threw grass all over our table with a table cloth, chairs, trailer, driveway...you name it...it was covered with grass. Why the mowers didn’t direct the mowed grass AWAY from our items is beyond me. What a mess!!! 

Check-in clerk at park office was disturbed we checked in with her. Told us just to go to site. Could not tell us if site was vacated. We had to ask for a park map and directions to campground/campsite since this was first time visiting 

Site MO45 unlevel from side to side 

Site MO45 NO shade as was the case with most of the FHU campsites

Metal frame wood top table in bad condition 

Need pathway from upper campsite to toilet/shower building…have to wade thru mid-calf high grass if you don’t walk on the roadway 

Toilet/shower facility lit up like a Christmas tree 

Toilet/shower facility cleaned on Wednesdays only, according to sign on door 

No WiFi

The biggest draw to this state park (which no one in Pennsylvania I spoke with seemed to know about) is the 22 waterfalls! We saw 18 of them on a four-mile moderate hike, but if you want to see the additional four, you could make it a seven-mile hike. The trails are very well marked. 

We stayed in the large loop, which is a peninsula on Lake Jean. Many of the sites have lake views. The bathhouse was clean but not adequate for 73 sites. The campground was about ¾ full and there was often a wait in the bathroom. Showers looked reasonable but I did not use them.

There were many tent campers in this loop, which does not allow pets (the other, smaller loop does allow pets). There are no hookups at all in the park. The water had been tested earlier in the season and unsafe levels of manganese were detected. All water spigots were shut off and covered but we were told it was safe to wash our dishes and brush our teeth. However, the water for the dishwashing sink was turned off as well as the water in the restroom at the trailhead. Since we had a reservation, we received a phone call in advance of our stay letting us know about this.

There are trails to the beach, but we woke to rain the next morning, so we did not explore this. 

One trash/recycle area a distance away from the campsites which seems typical for PA state parks. Alcohol is strictly forbidden– we were warned that if a ranger saw any alcohol outside of our vehicle, we would be cited. Quiet hours are 9 pm– 8 am, which is more restrictive than other state parks, however, some did not observe these quiet hours (a guitar-playing singing camper thought he was talented, but I disagree!)

I've been coming here every year for a while now. Overall, it has everything you'd want in a campground. They have one of the cleanest bathrooms I've seen yet while camping. The campsites are a good size. Certain sites have more privacy than others, I'd recommend the higher loop if you can. However, some of the sites on the lower loop are close to the road but the road noise isn't too bad. They have designated sites for pets. There are also primitive free sites that are first come first serve. In the colder months, they even have cabins you can rent out. Plenty of hiking and swimming nearby. We always hit up the Forksville General Store for breakfast before we leave. The food is sooo good. I recommend getting the sausage links. Also, the stars are incredible here! I usually come in the fall in October/early November. It's my favorite time to come because it's not extremely packed with campers and the leaves are beautiful. If you come in the fall, make sure you bring a cold weather sleeping bag or heater because the temp does drop. Seriously, a great campground you wont be disappointed!

Ricketts Glen State Park has amazing waterfall lined hikes and recreational lake activities. 

The campground is comparable to many PA State Parks with a variety of different sized sites, some very close& small and some more private. There are no hook-ups in the campground. While Ricketts Glen has a lot to offer, the repeated conditions of the restrooms/bathhouses throughout the campground will be a deterrent in the future. The bathhouses were not maintained throughout the weekend and were very filthy by Saturday evening. Since there are no hookups, the number of bathhouses to camping sites is significantly lacking. Be aware that PA State park campgrounds are alcohol free and quiet hours start at 9:00PM.

This place was pretty decent. My only complaint was that the trees around our site were dead or at least had a lot of deadfall in them. I was laying in my hammock and the wind picked up so I sat up to observe if anything took off from our site and as soon as I sat up a big dead branch fell out of the tree and struck where my head had been. Needless to say I was very lucky! Other then that it was a great spot you could hike from the campground out to the Turkey trail or go check out the fire tower (It’s $5 per person and credit card only). The whole area is beautiful.