Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Sweet Valley, PA

We stayed here for 3 nights and thought well of the park.  The place was meticulously clean and the permanent campers keep their sites so well.  The pool was warm, clean and enjoyable.  There’s a nice playground and a GaGa pit.  There’s lots of space to walk your dog on leash but no dog park.   We had an issue with our surge protector and the manager had an electrician out to us quickly who helped us solve a problem.  Pleasant staff in the camp store.   The laundry area and shower rooms are beautiful and clean.  

There is nothing to do in the immediate area, but we were there to use the bike trails and bop around Jim Thorpe…about 25 minutes away via pretty country roads.

We went on a last-minute trip from Philly in what I think was opening weekend (April). We wanted to hike with toddlers, so that took up most of our Saturday. Main Ranger Station was really nice. We hope to come back and see more of the campground itself and try additional hikes. We took the short drive to Hawk Falls Trail and also completed the Orchard Trail Loop. Bathrooms with showers were just what we needed and easy to walk to, shared between our pet-friendly loop and another loop. Good sinks for cleaning dishes.

Stayed at 199 on the pet-friendly 165-228 loop. Lots of people walking dogs. Very varied length of campsites and privacy. Many around the inside of loops, especially right at the bathrooms would have been pretty tight, or possibly good if you were reserving a couple in a row. Would have been nice to have a big tree between ours and site 195, but there was some distance.

Check out was 3pm, which is awesome!

Good for day trip (but not returning). Bad for camping. Racist visitors. Rude and ignorant staff. Brace yourself, this is a long review.

In short, staff are rude. Park ranger don't know how to critically think. Racist visitors are allowed to stay (details below). Illicit drug use allowed by staff/ park rangers.

The park: it's a nice park with a good lake and activities. Short hikes are easy and fishing is good for kid activities. There's also a small beach area with sand that's great for kids and adults. Kayaking was decent and we caught some good size fish in the deeper parts. It's a shame our experience will lead us others to never return.

The campsites: they're the average small campsites that could fit two 4 person tents and one car, some sites are larger. We got a good shaded site with tall trees. Our picnic table was in pretty solid shape and not deteriorating. Most sites are too close to each other where neighboring ignorant campers will be ignorant. That's where one problem lies.

The bathrooms: better off digging a hole. Empty or near empty toilet paper. Some toilets were overflowing. It's just bad maintenance.

The staff: this is the real problem. I can deal with racist people; that's easy. What I can't is rude, ignorant, and or inexperienced staff. As mentioned, I camp all over the country and highly respect park rangers. This team was very different.

We arrive at the gate and was greated by Jane. She asked if we had any pets or alcohol. We didnt but a family member told her they had a dog but weren't staying the night. Jane said it was okay and told us we had 10 minutes to unload and park our cars at the big parking lot. We said okay and we all continue.

Less 10 minutes goes by (I know this because we just got to the site and opened the car doors to unload) and Jane drove by and said, “I said that you have 10min to unload, policy is 1 vehicle per site. You guys have too many vehicles, you have to remove them now!” A family member said to her we got here 5min ago and are in the process of unloading. Jane proceeds to say, “I also said no pets anywhere in this site. I see you have a dog. You need to take your dog off the site. They can’t stay.” She said this as a couple walked their 2 full grown labs right by us. The family member asked her “what about them? Aren’t those dogs?” She looked at us and said,”there’s a dog park further down for those sites down there. Your site isn’t allowed to have dogs.” If you remember when we entered we already established that a member had a dog and they were not staying the night and Jane was okay with it. So we tell her that we'll unpack and move the cars as she instructed at the gate.

Jane drove off and stopped to talk to the couple camping behind our tent. As they were talking, I noticed the man Jane was talking to kept turning back to look at us. We continued to enjoyed our day and the dog that Jane was complaining about left the campground. It was maybe 5am the next morning, someone’s child was crying. And from the tent behind us where Jane was talking to the man the day before, we hear a male’s voice yelled,”SHUT THE F*CK UP!" Around 6am we called to report the man and the lady we talked to said someone will come out asap.

Throughout the day the same man that was accompanied by a female, hurrled slurries of racial remarks to us and the other surrounding neighbors (they were not caucasian) throughout the day. We and two other families that we know of reported him. Again, the front office said someone will be out asap, yet throughout the day the man continued his racial remarks. At this point we had a feeling nothing was done about the racial-remarks-yelling man. We gave up on the staff that was responsible to keep the establishment a family friendly environment.

Someone reported us for having a dog and too many cars on our campsite. Who could that be? And so, a park ranger came and told us in a not-so-friendly way to remove the dog and limit our vehicles. This park ranger was clearly ignorant. If he took seconds to assess our campsite, he would have counted 1 car per campsite. As far as the dog goes, there was none because it left with the owners the day before as stated to Jane (from the gate). The ranger obviously did not assess the situation before engaging in a demand that proved his ignorance to the many people before him. Though we knew his ignorance was apparent, we hoped God would enlighten him to do the right thing. So we proceeded to inform him of the racial-remarks-yelling man behind our campsite continuing to do what he was raised or learned to express; hate. And also that multiple people at our campsite smelled a stench of what can only be marijuana coming from behind our campsite. Sure, we don't know 100% exactly where it came from but it was strongest around the campsite where the racial-remarks-yelling man resided. The park ranger confirmed that they had received other complaints about that racial-remarks-yelling man and that "we" will loop back around and speak with him. I checked and marijuana was not legal for recreational use in Pennsylvania.

Their policies possessed a strict 10 minute limit to unload your camping gear along with your supplies and children but must not possess anything about foul language, rudeness, hate speech, or illicit drug use because the racial-remarks-yelling man was still there with his female companion and the stench of marijuana after we left the campground. That or the staff believed the racial-remarks-yelling man's action were fair. Whatever the case, it is a mystery for there was no update from the rangers or staff and the man continued to hurl hate towards us and the surrounding non-caucasian families after multiple reports from multiple families as confirmed by the park ranger.

In conclusion, racist people are easy to deal with. But when the staff and park rangers fail to enforce a family friendly environment at a family friendly campground, victims to people like the racial-remarks-yelling man wonder what kind of people are operating this establishment?

Benefit of the doubt, maybe staff was busy... And you can't leave a review on their website without it being "approved" for publication. Best way to have 5 star rating

This campground is big. Many people live here, but there are spots to rent. Primitive site or not, they have a spot for you. Very nice people here I’d say. We are currently the only Hispanics here and not 1 person has been nasty to us. The lady at check in was on point and it was super quick. The store has a lot to choose from all organized. Bathhouses are clean, water pressure is good, and the hot water is actually hot. The size of the spaces would depend on where you are. We saw primitive sites that are ginormous. Also saw RV sites that were very close to each other. Our tent site is perfect. An area of the lake is to swim and the other to fish in. Catch and release only. Lots of tress for great shade. Very peaceful and calm atmosphere. Mental vacation definitely. Deer may or may not stop by for a visit. Hiking trails available. They also have a dog park for your beloved pooch.

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!)