Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Sheffield, PA

Cooks forest is absolutely gorgeous. I look forward to returning as there are a lot of hiking opportunities we missed. We stayed in the pet friendly area, which was nice. There is a pet trail through the woods that was really great to take our dog rather than walking around the campground. Our site was right next to a drinking water spigot and a path to the bath house. The sites near ours were in a wooded area, which felt more private than many of the other sites we saw. There was a fore pit and a picnic table. Our fire pit was behind where the camper was parked, which also felt more private. There is no alcohol permitted in PA state parks, so alcohol is prohibited in the campground as well. It was a great spot, and we look forward to returning.

We 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.

This 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.

We stayed in the pet friendly area for 4 days. Very nice campers, bathrooms very clean. Even with half the spaces open, still felt a little crowded.

This is one of our favorite campgrounds. Very neat & clean. Full hookup sites & pet friendly. Close to dam where the fish are plentiful. Nice level sites.

Grew up in the area so I’m bias but I love the atmosphere. Swimming, mini golf, kayaking, horse riding, etc. and so much more to do in the area. Visit the Farmers Inn restaurant and petting zoo while you’re in the area.

especially on the pet loop - nicest sites, location-wise, for a tent are 49-53 or 43 in the woods, and 40 on the Clarion River. Canoe-in group sites are nice, too, and secluded. 1 bar Verizon service - no wifi - firewood for sale - water spigots throughout park

We are a small family campground located in the Allegheny Forest, 6 miles from the Kinzua Sky Walk. Fishing & boating is located off route 59. Call ahead for reservations we have 8 open sites for visitors and they full fast. See our website for the list of planned actives. We are pet friendly.

Real nice park that can get pretty busy on weekends. We arrived on a Thursday and, in advance, reserved one of the few remaining sites. Never used their facilities, but they looked nice. Electric only at our site. Both ATT & Verizon signals weren't bad. Wouldn't try to watch a movie or stream anything though. For the most part the sites were pretty level. Most pretty shaded, and there is also a pet section as well as a full hookup area. The full hookup, as normal are full sun for big rigs.

We had a great four-night stay in Loop C at Cain Hollow in late July/early August. Our site was wide and long. 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! While we have visited this park in the past, we found the new bath house at Quaker Lake and new boat rental feature at that lake nice. However, $18 for an hour boat rental seemed high.

Campground Review:

This is our second trip to Parker Dam State Park.   It is a beautiful PA state park.   It is quiet and peaceful.   The leaves were beginning to change.  This trip was chilly at night, but gorgeous weather during the day.  Bathroom/shower houses are a bit outdated, but clean.  We had a full hook up site.  They have pet loops as well.  If you want to stay in September, book early.  Limited cell service.   Spent time driving to Benezette - about 30 minute trip - to see the Elk.   Great experience seeing approximately 100 elk.  Several very large bulls.   Would recommend the campground and the trip to Benezette to everyone. 

Product Review: 

As a Ranger for the Dyrt, we get products to test from time to time- today we tested the Banner & Oak Women's Hoodie. https://bannerandoak.com/collections/hoodies/products/freedom-heathered-black I so apologize because we were so busy watching the elk in Benezette, that we completely forgot to take photos of the product.  This hoodie is very soft! The sizing is accurate.  While it is not a thick sweatshirt material, it keeps you very comfortably warm.   I prefer the thinner material versus a thick and heavy sweatshirt.   It has become my "go to" hoodie.   Pros:  Lightweight, but very warm.   Con:  The pouch in front is actually 2 small pockets even though it looks like a pouch.   I'm not sure this is really a "con" because it depends on what style you prefer.  At first, I wasn't sure about it, but I am beginning to like it.  Wish the pockets would be a little bigger though.   Overall, I think this is a great lightweight hoodie and worth a purchase!

Campground 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!

We camp in a lot of primitive dispersed camping, but finding a spot like this in the east is challenging! So for that…YAY, we love it. But, it’s not perfect. The road is behind the town of Ludlow (or Sheffield depending on which direction you are coming from). From Ludlow take the “Scenic Dr” and it turns into the forestry road. Lots of pull offs off this main road and you could prob find some more private ones if you explored the smaller dirt roads off the main forestry road. No services here obvi since it’s primitive camping. Road is in good condition and most any car would have no problem driving down it.

This park has a separate loop for people camping with dogs. This means dog-less people can have a dog-free camp experience...and we can walk through the dog area and see lots of cute dogs. This was my son’s favorite part of the whole weekend, LOL. We stayed in the cabins which were rustic looking though very clean and nice inside (pack like you’re going camping with a fridge). We did some hikes and enjoyed the classic beauty of this part of PA...and wished we had a canoe!

Our stay was over the weekend and into the beginning of the week. We stayed in the dog loop because we took our dog. The campsite was clean, very close to the bathrooms and drinking water. The people were all so friendly, dogs were very well behaved. The facilities were very clean. The activities around the site were abundant and super fun. We camped in a tent, so had no need for any rv hookups. Great experience!

$20/night basic site has a picnic table and fire ring. Each loop has. Pit potty on it. Shower facility in the park, very very hot water. Quiet, friendly people. Dog friendly. Bear area..,take note. Some sites have water access.