Searching for the perfect place to pitch your tent near University Park? Finding a place to camp in Pennsylvania with your tent has never been easier. Would you prefer a quiet dispersed site or an established camgpround with amenities? Either way, The Dyrt makes it easy to find the perfect place to pitch your tent.
This 41-acre park is in an isolated area of the Seven Mountains region known as the Stone Creek Kettle. While this Centre County park is small in size, it is surrounded by an 80,000-acre block of Rothrock State Forest.
Penn-Roosevelt is a good base for those seeking low-density recreation on this vast expanse of public land. Popular activities include: hiking on the Mid-State or other State Forest trails, gravel-riding on over 100 miles of Forestry roads, and mountain biking the nearby Cooper’s Gap area, a destination Pennsylvania mountain biking trail system.
Rustic sites, tents only
The 18 rustic campsites are for tents only and are open year-round. Some sites are walk-in for more privacy. All campsites are first-come, first-serve.
Drinking water and non-flush toilets are available.
Due to the isolated location, Penn-Roosevelt provides an excellent opportunity to get away from noise and electric lights.
Park rangers routinely patrol the park and camping fees are paid through a self-registration/payment system.
Please keep food and coolers in vehicles to protect them from wild animals.
$25 / night
$20 - $22 / night
Enjoy camping creek side at the edge of an open field with access to fishing, hiking on adjacent state game land trails, kayaking in nearby Juniata River, biking the Lower Trail just minutes away, or booking a guided hike, onsite horseback riding lessons, or book a trail ride on our beautiful and smooth gaited Tennessee Walking horses or bring and board your own.
Read reviews here: https://www.hipcamp.com/en-US/pennsylvania/ride-long-acres-on-clover-creek/long-acres-at-clover-creek
$25 - $65 / night
The Nancy's Boat to Shore Campground, in the central region of Raystown Lake, is the perfect secluded getaway camping spot accessible only by boat. Located near both James Creek and Aitch Boat Launch areas, the campground is situated on the shoreline of Raystown Lake away from public roadways. Nancy's camp map
Fishing is excellent with small and large mouth bass, muskies, striped bass, and brown trout, abundant in the lake. Trough Creek State Park is nearby across the lake; Seven Points and Lake Raystown Resort are both within 8 lake miles. Nearby trails, including Lower Trail (Rails to Trails), Terrace Mountain Trail, Old Loggers Trail and Mid State Trail, attract plenty of traffic.
Raystown Lake is in the ridge and valley province of Pennsylvania. The lakeshore is lined with an old oak-hickory forest giving way to mountain ridges and cliffs. The man-made lake is fed by the Raystown Branch tributary of the Juniata River and is the largest lake completely in the state of Pennsylvania.
Aitch Boat Launch, James Creek Boat Launch, Seven Points Recreation area, Raystown Lake Visitor Center, Lake Raystown Resort & Conference Center and Trough Creek State Park are all nearby.
$15 / night
Our location is in the heart of the Stone Valley Forest. Tucked away in a beautiful little hollow behind a farm field. This is a boondock location; we do not offer any hookups at this time. We do have a porta potty on site for restroom access. Click the link to be directly connected to our page.
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$35 - $50 / night
This recreation area is part of Raystown Lake
Nestled along Sherman’s Creek, our campsite sits on six wooded acres with 600 feet of creek frontage. Everything in the pictures is included in your stay! All you need to bring is food and your love of the outdoors. Firewood, charcoal, bedding, toiletries, kitchenware (as pictured), a private shower, sink and composting toilet are all included. The shower and sink have an on demand hot water heater, so no cold showers! Bring your fishing gear and you can reel in Smallmouth Bass, Sunnies, Fall Fish, and Trout all from our property. This campsite is far enough away from the city to enjoy the sounds of nature while still being less than 30 minutes from the shopping and dining and Carlisle and Mechanicsburg. Historic Gettysburg and Lancaster are just over an hour away. Hersheypark is less than an hour away!
This campsite is fully private. As your hosts, we live on the property, so if there are any issues or help needed, we are nearby!
Guide
I’ve camped here twice, two years ago in a Kodiak tent and this year in my Airstream GT24. Such a lovely spot! It’s spotless, and Raystown Lake is gorgeous.
Traveler
Better off just pulling off the side of the road. Nothing here worth the $25 out of state fee.
Guide
In the middle of the woods vibe. The sites had good privacy and it was just a pretty area. Neighbors were respectful and relatively quiet.. There was zero cell service at this campground. Bathrooms were clean.
Guide
Very clean, could be a bit more level. Great amenities, boat, fish, games, hike.
Traveler
Beautiful state park. The campground is clean and well kept. The beach area is clean, there's a big playground on it as well as a concession stand and store (open during the summer). Spots 57 and 18 offer the most privacy. There are spots that have little creek side access but they are closer together. There are showers in the campground too. DCNR patrols it like a hawk though...so beware any visiting cars to your spot must be moved or pay $5. Borderline harassment from the DCNR guy for my friend visiting for an hour. It is a state park so no alcohol if that's your thing. Beautiful hiking trails and bike trails. 10/10 recommend
Traveler
This is a nice clean quiet campground. It's a great stop if you're doing rails to trails or swimming at the beach up the road. (Note to get to both places you'll need to drive). We went on a weekday and it wasn't crowded but I've heard on the weekends it gets packed. There are two sets of swings and one slide. The bathrooms have showers and were clean. Some of the spots are smaller and right next to each other (down by the creek and up around top). But spots 68,69,70 are prime. We were in spot 75 right next to the bridge and not ideal
GuideA dingy place. The ground was swampy the only dry places are the gravel pads in the sites. I wouldn't tent camp here.
On the plus side, strong AT&T and T-Mobile cell signals. (I don't have a verizon device)
Traveler
We stayed during Bigfoot weekend. It was super fun as our family likes bigfoot fun. We started out Friday night getting the offered $12 bbq plate that included pork burnt ends, beans and potato salad that were "oh it's so good". On Saturday was rock painting and then bingo and ended the night with a DJ dance party. The pavilion where all those activities happened were right next to our site (22 with the doggie den). Then Sunday we had pancakes and later a visit from RayCEP which is an education program that PA DNCR provides talking about various outdoorsy type things. This is primarily for kids, but we sat and listened too and our 17 year old helped out with the craft.
After the weekend though, all the activity slows down. There are seasonal campers that stay around, and they're constantly working on improving and fixing up sites during the week. Expect lots of quiet time just relaxing during the week. There's the pool, dog park, bounce pillow, playground, but not tons to do which if you're looking for is great. Raystown Lake has multiple access areas that are probably 15-20 minutes away - we fished at Tautman Run and Aitch - both were accessible and had lots of bluegill to steal our worms.
Now to the site description: Site 22 is a deluxe patio back in site with a patio, 4 nice Adirondack chairs, a double glider, a weber propane grill and built in fire pit AND a dog fence just for that site that was maybe 6 ft x 6ft. it was big enough for our 2 labs to fit into when we fed them. The site wasn't hard to level our RV but overall the sites are hilly and in fact the whole park is on a hill.
The owners and workers were friendly and great hosts! We love what they're doing there.
One last tip: if traveling from the Altoona area, go out through Martinsburg over Cove Mountain Rd - it saves you 30 minutes to an hour.
Traveler
This lake was beautiful! A short walk from the campsite. We had the lake to ourself both evening and morning. $61. No WiFi. Leveling was fine. Verizon service was fine.
ScoutThe campground is beautifully kept. Bathrooms and sites were nice. Some sites are alittle closer personally esp in the dog area. It was extremely buggy when we went. Our dogs wouldn't come out of the camper because there was no relief. It was the height of rattle snake season. A site near ours and very close to the playground had a rattler under their camper. Alittle too close for comfort. Otherwise, campers, rangers and hosts were nice to deal!
Traveler
Would go back here again! Very primitive, only 2 sites with electric and no playground (but 4 swings), however the creek is beautiful and the kids were so happy to play in it. We had site 108 and had a site path right to the creek. I wouldn't recommend big campers as most of the spots would be a pain to back into. But if you're looking for a quiet campground in the woods, this is it!
RangerI cancelled a reservation at Tuckahoe SP due to traffic over the Bay Bridge. I wanted to find something close enough to home, but far away from the hustle and bustle of our suburban lives. This fit the bill. There are 10 sites….some are occupied by seasonal guests. It was very quiet and peaceful! The site was large and there wasn’t a lot of people. You can swim in the lake if you wish or rent boats/canoes for the day. Our water pressure wasn’t great, however not sure if it’s the campground or us as hubby found a possible issue with our hookup. Bring quarters if you are going to use the showers….25 cent a minute. Great way to get away and close enough to our home. We will for SURE be back!
Scout
We had a great time visiting the park! We stayed in site 28 which was a walk-in site, this was perfect for us since we wanted to be further away from people and the light from the bathroom/shower facility. The site was not far from our parking spot, maybe a hundred yards but there was a slight hill. There are even more isolated campsites further up the hill.
The park itself is definitely on the smaller side but packs in a lot. Lots of great trails and the beach would be great( close due to bacteria overgrowth) the michaux forest is 30 minutes away and has a lot more outdoor activities.
Will stay here again in the future.
Guide
As a rule we always try to stay in parks if possible. Really like the layout here, and the k9s love it. We couldn’t see the lake from the camper, but in the woods we could see the lake and the camper from the same spot.
Guide
Our first time in the Moshannan National Forrest area. Simply stunning. Beautiful area.
The campground was adequate. Bath houses were relatively clean.
My biggest criticism is how close the sites are to each other. This may only be true of the full hookup sites. Felt like we were camping with our neighbors.
Guide
Driving in I got a little worried I was getting lost, but I drove on. I arrived on a Wednesday evening. I had my pick of campsites, because I was the only person there!
The water was off, but I was prepared to wilderness camp later in my trip so, that was no big deal.
It was so secluded, I heard nothing but nature for over an hour before a plane flew over.
If you have a trailer, I do not recommend this spot. there is a very tight hairpin turn on the way in. My six foot long trailer barely made the turn!
Traveler
Great tent site with lots of room. Have your own little driveway to park your car right next to the site. Comes with a picnic table and fire pit. Need lots of rope for setting up tarps as trees are far apart. Cute little stream in the back with a log crossing. No cell service, near town with free wifi. No toilets or garbage. Good amount of traffic coming down the road but isn't an issue at night time.
Traveler
We camped in on of the cabins overnight on a recent road trip. Cabins are nice and spacious, bath facilities are some of the best I've seen. We didn't;t get to explore since we were traveling, but there's plenty to do in the area.
Scout
We showed up after dark and it was a bit hard to find our way to our site—advise arriving during the day! Great little campground. Very quiet. Nestled between a hillside and a stream with a great sound of running water. Several walking/hiking trails directly from the campground. Clean and convenient restrooms. Large sites.
Guide
The campsites are beautiful, even though there were a lot of people when we went we felt like we had a lot of privacy from our neighbors. We stayed in the ridge loop, so not waterfront but within the campground there were so many things to do (huge mountain biking scene). The whole grounds were very well maintained, and the bathrooms and showers were some of the nicest I’ve seen at a campground. Highly recommend!
Guide
The bike trails/course at the KOA were absolutely awesome! Even though we don't have kids to bring along, I couldn't help but wish I could hit those trails myself– what a cool feature they have.
Now, onto the bathrooms– they were impressively spacious and private, and the best part? Always clean. No complaints there. We appreciated the added security with the entrance gate, it gave us a sense of safety during our stay.
And speaking of people, everyone there was super polite and friendly. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to visit again!"
TravelerWe stayed on a primitive site in our van, it was only for one night but we wished we'd booked more, the facilities are great and everyone is friendly. It feels homey, would definitely come back if I have the chance 🥰
GuideGetting to the park had some sharp turns and windy roads. Small campground but nicely equipped. 2 bath houses were dated but clean. Nice playground at the campground and also one at the beach. Small camp concessions with a few camping items as well as ice cream cones. Great hiking and a beautiful lake for kayaking. Site 22 is a full hookup. Utilities worked nicely. However, our picnic table had seen better days. The site sat down off the road but once you were backed in the spot it was pretty level. This site also had a separate tent pad located down a few stone steps. Verizon and AT&T cell service were basically non existent. Every once in a while a text would come in or send but very spotty. Sorry I failed to get a pic of the site in the daylight. It was spacious and we had plenty of room for our 30' trailer, truck, and easy up over the table. 6+ chairs around the fire pit, cooking ring could have been better. Grassy area for cornhole or playing.
Scout
We needed a place to spend the night with our 30 ft RV. Dale met us there and was very hospitable and directed us to the perfect site. He even brought us firewood. Even though there were quite a few other campers there it was very quiet and peaceful. If you’re in the area be sure to stop in. If you’re lucky you might even hear nuts falling on your roof dropped by the squirrels!
RangerWe arrived when it was dark out and had site #2. The camp hosts were fantastic and helped us back into a spot. The spot was hard to maneuver for a 41 ft 5th wheel because of the turning radius. There was also a drop off on the other side of the road which limited the turning radius as well. We only slept here but it looked like a nice place. The grounds are hilly.the well was dry so there wasn’t any water.
GuideFor a state park it is very nice. Lots of campsites and cabins. Pool was down so kids were a little upset but there was other stuff for them to do.
Guide
This is a big park. We just reserved one night as as an overnight stop after a 10 hr day of driving. We travel with a dog so our only choice for an electric site was on the Sycamore loop. The Oak loop does not allow pets. Sites we nicely laid out with level gravel and a fire ring. Looks like there lots to do around the park, especially for families.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular tent campsite near University Park, PA?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular tent campground near University Park, PA is Penn Roosevelt State Park Campground with a 4.4-star rating from 5 reviews.
What is the best site to find tent camping near University Park, PA?
TheDyrt.com has all 11 tent camping locations near University Park, PA, with real photos and reviews from campers.
