Ridgway is an ideal place for camping adventures of all kinds. Camping, hiking, biking: however you want to spend your days near Ridgway, you'll find great campgrounds with The Dyrt. Find the best campgrounds near Ridgway, plus reviews and photos from other campers like you.
$22 - $57 / night
"A must do when camping in Pennsylvania. The Clarian river is great for kayaking . Multiple trails off of park."
"A Pennsylvania favorite, Clear Creek State Park is a beautifully maintained, scenic park, right on the Clarion River in the Clear Creek State Park."
$20 - $130 / night
"For the most part, there isn’t a bad site (although we didn’t see any of the walk up sites, and I recommend not booking a site immediately next to the bathrooms since the ones without showers are more"
"Several sites have electric but most are for boondocking. The sites closest to the GORGEOUS reservoir are all primitive. All sites are back-in."
$40 - $245 / night
"On one trip I alerted them to a light that was out by the bath house, and it was fixed before nightfall."
"Great staff"
$12 / night
"No running water or electricity, but that’s what we were looking for. We had a big tent (10x14) and 2 vehicles, with plenty of room to spare."
"Cute little campground with a handful of drive up sites and many hike-in sites scattered along the beautiful Minister Creek in the Allegheny National Forest."
$51 - $65 / night
"Another shout out to both Jack & Debbie for warmly welcoming our South African Mastiff despite her intimidating size and appearance. We appreciated that we, the owners, would be judged."
"Located right on a main road but road noise really isn’t a problem. There no pool but they do have a game room that offers free games for the kids along with a playground and basketball court."
"The pool is nice and big with a mushroom fountain and built in seating in the shallow end. A short path through the woods leads you to their mini-golf/pizza/ice cream shop."
"Also I cannot day enough about how well they maintain their bathrooms and have them set up!"
$20 - $53 / night
"Fishing boating, hiking family fun all around. Weather appropriate heated/ cooled indoor real bathrooms and shower rooms."
"HIGHLIGHTS:
Paved loops great for bikes
Lake with small clean beach
Canoe/kayak rentals (closed 2022 season)
Several nice playgrounds
Clean, modern bathrooms
Several kayak/canoe launch areas"
$20 - $100 / night
"Pitching a tent was easy on the driveway and fairly level. Some sites had large high sided fire rings which take away from the fireside relaxation of a shorter camp chair. "
"The site was spacious and was not close to other campers giving a feeling of secludedness and alone time in nature! Could easily walk to a nearby trail and down to the lake front!"
"There's also two beaches, over a dozen hiking trails, a restaurant, camp stores, a dump station, and more."
"We had electric and we close to a water pump so we could fill up our camper. The campground provides great metal locking bear prevention boxes at each site for your trash and cooler. So awesome!"
$20 - $87 / night
"The section we were in was “no pets allowed”. My kids loved the beach, swimming was not deep. Beach was big with adjacent playground. Lots of pavilions all over."
"General: 73-site campground; most have electric hookups, and some are FHU. Pets are only permitted at selected sites. There are also 20 (13 rustic and 6 modern) cabins."
GuideNice clean and quiet campground. The address online took us to the ranger station. Turn left BEFORE bridge. Couldn’t see sign from the road. The section we were in was “no pets allowed”. My kids loved the beach, swimming was not deep. Beach was big with adjacent playground. Lots of pavilions all over. The area was a little crowded for my liking.
TravelerThis is my favorite campground so far in PA.
For the most part, there isn’t a bad site (although we didn’t see any of the walk up sites, and I recommend not booking a site immediately next to the bathrooms since the ones without showers are more like “outhouse” toilets and can stink). The sites are private, flat, surrounded by trees, and have plenty of space. The ground is quite rocky though, so bring plenty of heavy duty tent steaks.
Highlights include: the reservoir (beautiful and clean! You can swim with your dog from the access points at the campground), quiet, friendly staff (a kind older gentleman helped us jump my car and refused to take any money as a thank you), updated/very clean showers, not buggy, reception is great (we have Verizon), plenty of room to social distance, and 2 trading posts about 1 mile away with milk, eggs, basic supplies, etc.
Cons: the bathrooms without showers aren’t flush toilets, and there is no campground office so you must see the hosts for any issues.
Things to do nearby (last 5 pictures): the Kinzua Skywalk Bridge free- an old train bridge that was partially destroyed by a tornado in the early 2000’s. The bridge is handicap/stroller accessible, pets are allowed. There is a small indoor museum & gift shop, and a hiking trail along the wreckage. If you hike, wear good sneakers, the path is rocky and VERY steep. The hiking path is not recommended for small children). Bathrooms on site.
The Kinzua Dam free - beautiful. Handicap/stroller accessible, pets permitted. Bathrooms were closed due to social distancing.
Rimmrock overlook free- just a small distance from the parking lot. NOT stroller/handicap accessible, and there are rock steps, however we saw numerous families with small children go through the path with no issues. Pets permitted. Bathrooms on site.
Nearby towns of Kane and Ridgway looked cute, but we didn’t spend time there due to our efforts to social distance.
GuideWe 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.
GuideFound this location while going to Elk State Forest for the elk bugling. Was very happy to find this location. Had clean bathrooms with running water and showers. Campground was tucked away between two mountains and sat next to a creek. Staff was friendly. Plenty of camp sites. Have yearly campsites which is apparent since some of the campers have more permanent structures around or attached to them. Pets allowed. Not the best place for hammock camping but have a few sites with good trees. Out of the main path but nice place to stay.
LegendCampground Review: Red Oak is located in the Alleghany River area of Wahyrren County PA, near the Kinzua Dam. It's a private campground with all kinds of amenities: a pool, gameroom, store, brick oven pizza shop, cermanics hut, activity center and large playground. They host activities like "yard sale weekend" and "mini-carnivals". A large portion of the campground serves as a seasonal campground for campers and other recreational vehicles, and has an adorable little side trail of newer "tiny home" style cabins available for rent. These areas are beautiful, quiet and treed, with large sites including ample space for campfire parties and hammocks. The owners live on site and are very gracious hosts and shop keepers!
The "tent" and daily camper camping area centers primarily around a very large open space, which houses a field, a little kids play area (many huge sized Legos for fort building mini-golf, horseshoes and an inflatable jump pad). This was amazing for my kids and they enjoyed every minute of their camp experience, however, for the adults, we found it a bit busy. Quiet hours are not really enforced, and bands of wild and (let's face it) thrilled, kids played until all hours of the dark night, illuminated at the playground by a bright street light. They are very dog friendly. Campers themselves were fairly quiet and non disruptive, but make no mistake, this is an activity campground focusing on kids and activities. The pool is sunny and well kept, with an added bonus of a lifeguard on duty. Bathrooms were very clean and newer, and the lack of showers didn't seem to be a problem, as most of the campers here use their own RV stalls, and so we never found a wait, which was nice.
Area: this area is unique. It's near a small industrial town on the banks of the Alleghany River, where you can find basic dining and stores for convenience, and is only about 25 mins from the Kinzua Dam Recreational Area which is lush and green and beautiful. Aside from the dam, which is one of the largest in the country, the accompanying reservoir is beautiful. Boating, fishing and relaxing are abundant on this beautiful quiet lake in the mountains. There's a small public beach, park area, and boat docks. The recreational area and surrounding forest include several trailheads for exploring, and mountain hikes at the top of which you can overlook the dam and reservoir. One hidden gem is a small parking area and trailhead just past the dam on the reservoir side, called Bent Run Waterfalls. A short hike in reveals a set of fairy-garden like waterfalls stepping down the side of a mountain that overlooks the reservoir. It's beautiful, and we even let the dog and kids play in their little pools of fresh water. This area is often uncrowded and a gem of the area.
Product Review:
As a Dyrt Ranger, I get the opportunity to review items from time to time. This trip we tried out the Belmont Blanket! First off, let me say that it was unseasonably cold and windy in the evenings for August, so this blanket ended up being a welcome addition to our trip. Deceptively thin and easily packable, this LARGE blanket unrolls to a really usable size of 5'x6' - and has a unique construction. It's outside layer is a soft brushed waterPROOF shell, which seriously works. It blocked out the wind and sprinkling rain of one of our campfire nights. I'll never use a poncho again. The interior of it is a VERY soft brushed fleece, which is shiny and actuallly feels more like a ultra-soft pelt. Its construction is wildly durable, and hand made (by someone who actually signed a little note inside the box!). Being so big, it was able to completely wrap around me, including a hood, and was shareable between myself and 2 kids seated next to me in chairs. Then I brought it home and popped it in the washer! Like new! This blanket is well worth the cost, but I likely wouldn't have known that had I not gotten the opportunity to try it out throughout Dyrt. I even used it over my bed while camping to keep the damp out and the warmth in, and it worked perfectly without unnecessary weight. This is an item that we have since gotten far more use out of than just camping. It's been to the beach, park, and even back yard and we just roll it up and keep it out at this point. I'd highly recommend the investment in this top of the line "adventure blanket". It's also kind of beautiful, with its bold colors and leather hook-loop and strap. Overall - we're huge fans of this über-functional blanket!
TravelerWe found the shelters accidentally during a hike in the park and returned for an overnight. We found parking nearby so it was just a short hike to get to.
I believe it's once a year that they have oil machinery demonstrations. Very interesting. You can also take a train ride through the park.
LegendCampground 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!
GuideWe enjoyed the hiking trails and the beach with a new modern beach house. There were lots of nature programs put on by the park. The campsites were a little too closely spaced, and no one enforced quiet hours. We could hear people laughing and carrying on all night long.
LegendGeneral: 73-site campground; most have electric hookups, and some are FHU. Pets are only permitted at selected sites. There are also 20 (13 rustic and 6 modern) cabins. Cell service is extremely limited to non-existent (Verizon).
Site Quality: Pads are gravel and most appeared to be level. Site 70 was at the end of the loop which is why we picked it. A picnic table, fire ring, and lantern hook complete each site.
Bathhouse: As has been our experience in all PA state parks, the bathhouse was pristine, and the shower (for no additional cost) was clean with plentiful hot water and was very much appreciated.
Activities/Amenities: Coin-operated laundry. A playground is in the campground and there is an additional one at the swimming beach. The swimming beach is open from mid-May to mid-September, from 8 am– sunset. Electric motorboats are permitted on Moshannon Lake. Boat rentals are available in season. Permits are required. 24 miles of hiking trails, including two trails directly from the campground to the lake. In the summer, there is a camper store/concession stand. Hunting is allowed in season. There are 4.3 miles of mountain biking trails.
I used to think Oregon State Parks were the best, but Pennsylvania State Parks have them beat by a mile. We have yet to be disappointed by the amenities(especially the clean bathrooms) offered at the half-dozen state parks we have visited so far.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular glamping campsite near Ridgway, PA?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Ridgway, PA is Clear Creek State Park Campground with a 4.7-star rating from 20 reviews.
What is the best site to find glamping camping near Ridgway, PA?
TheDyrt.com has all 22 glamping camping locations near Ridgway, PA, with real photos and reviews from campers.
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