Best Glamping near Shippenville, PA

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.

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!

My boyfriend and I camped here last weekend; unfortunately it did not go well. While I very much enjoyed the facilities, we had an awful experience. Friday night was peaceful, although we had trouble locating the owners and figured we'd find them and pay up the next day. When we got back from a full day of climbing Saturday, a group of at least a dozen had set up camp across the road from us. They were drinking heavily all night (I understand that drinking IS allowed here being a private campground) however posted quiet hours begin at 10 pm. I got about 2 hours of sleep Saturday night total, and the last time I was woken up my watch said 3:48 am. Clearly there is absolutely no enforcement of the quiet hours whatsoever. In addition, the group had lights on all night as well, shining directly over into our campsite and tent. Sunday morning, we still had no luck locating the owners. We ended up putting our cash in an envelop in the mailbox. I emailed them letting them know we had put the money in the mailbox, and also asked about the quiet hour enforcement. I requested a response and heard nothing. I'm disappointed, and as a manager myself would want to know if a customer had a bad experience. I would have to recommend that if you are looking for a peaceful, quiet place to camp and sleep under the stars that you look elsewhere. I'm sad to say this, because I had greatly looked forward to staying here after hearing my boyfriend describe his previous experience and reading other reviews. There is a sign posted when entering "drive like your kids live here" but the campground I experienced was not family-friendly at all.

Our first visit to this campground and we actually found from using this website! We wanted a secluded site and close to Pittsburgh. 

We arrived around 7pm and there was no check in, we drove around for a while trying to find a spot with a fire ring per some helpful campers. There are two really nice spots by the water which were taken, and we only saw one other in the woods (the other 2 were hidden by a large group of people).

We ended up finding a flat spot with some tree cover what was far enough from our neighbors but about as close as a bigger campground. Would be good for larger groups. Ton of flat land for tents but saw some people with smaller campers. Firewood is $5 a bucket and clean and dry. Bring a table cloth for the tables. 

Portapot close by but full bath rooms and showers by main lodge. Lots of tent platforms that overlooked into the woods which would be fun, for a smaller 4 person tent though. 

As another reviewer stated, there was a super loud group Friday night but Saturday was very peaceful and quiet and we met the owner who checked us in and apologized for the loud group and said he was still getting the campground ready for the season. The price is the same for either spots. 

Short walk down cheeseman road to trail entrances to McConnells Mills State Park. Short drive to hells hallow or the covered bridge. 

Overall we had a great time and will be back!

This campground is operated by the state and they take excellent care of it. The sites are spacious with all different types of typography - large boulders, slopes, flats all with grass and dirt, handicap accessible picnic tables and fire rings. Few sites have full hook-up and those are closest to the paved roads. Several sites have electric but most are for boondocking. The sites closest to the GORGEOUS reservoir are all primitive. All sites are back-in. There are paths leading down to the reservoir throughout the campground. The pit toilets and shower houses are well-located and very clean. There is firewood available for purchase on-site.  There is an easily accessible dump site right on the property. It was a quiet place with respectful campers. Kayaking down the river from Westline back to the campground was a blast! The water was higher because of all the rains this month so we got lucky and encountered some class III rapids. Usually a trip of this distance might have you doing some portage in that same river when the water is at normal levels. We ventured away from camp this time into the town of Westline and Kane and found some great little local restaurants and even a distillery that rolled out the welcome mat for us! No other frills are available at Redbridge campground, but if you just want to be in the woods and enjoy nature, this is the place to do just that. Bring your boats, bikes and hiking boots and have a ball surrounded by the natural beauty that is the Allegheny Reservoir area.

After backpacking the rimrock/Morrison trails in one day, my friends and I all drove by Red bridge campground and thought it was perfect! We had a great spot right by the water. There are walk up spots and way more drive up to car camping spots. It was pretty busy, and the owners were constantly making their rounds before it started to get dark. The wild life was great, with barred owls, many ducks, and different fish species constantly popping up by the spot. Very peaceful at night and the showers and facilities are nice as well! Definitely recommend.