Best Cabin Camping near Vanderbilt, PA

From white water kayaking and guided rafting trips, natural waterslides, to hiking and biking trails - this park has it all! This beautiful park has something to offer for everyone. The campground is nice with several camping options such as tent, camper, yurt and cabin rentals. They also have hot showers, electric options, and pet friendly areas. They have several seasonal events and festivals that are fun for the whole family. Must respect quiet hours here, rangers patrol frequently. For those who want to have a good time and be noisy and share some adult beverages Scarlett Knob campground May be a better option.

Quemahoning Family Recreation Area offers great fishing, some nice trails and generally wonderful weather during the summer season.  The campground offers some sites with electrical and others with varying primitive services.  The campground has a bathroom with showers (2 for men, 2 for women).  The result is there are sometimes lines waiting for a shower to be available.  There is a camp store where wood, ice and fishing supplies are available.  There is no trash service;  campers are expected to carry out their trash.  Campsites do have fire rings, a picnic table and parking available.  The campgrounds are pet friendly.  Boats are available to rent.  If you bring your own power needs to be electric only.

New Germany State Park is situated in Garrett County Maryland. The park has a small lake, a few trails, and two camping loops. The Hemlock loop- the only loop that allows pets, is smaller and is mostly made for tent camping, though one site has electricity, but only big enough for a teardrop camper. There is a bathroom with a hot shower. The problems with the Hemlock loop is the proximity to the other campers. Our neighbors were loud, their kids were louder and their dog was ear- splitting loud. The tent pads are varied in size with sites 52, 53 and 57 being just big enough for a large tent and not much else. Every site has a large picnic table ( that is impressively hard to move) and a fire ring. Some sites are not very level, not not as much that your rolling out of bed in your sleep. There is water, but just at the bathroom area. This makes sense since the loop itself is very small. Deer are dense in these parts, and bears frequent the area. Summer temps usually do not get as nice 85max most of the summer. There is also cross country skiing in the winter. Despite the smaller sites, the Hemlock loop is frequently full, as is the non pet loop, which can accommodate larger tents and RV’s., but no pets.

There are many tent sites at this location, as well as RV lodging.  There is a pond you can swim and or fish at.  There are both, modern and rustic cabins to rent.  The rustic cabin has a double bunk, stove and fireplace but no running water or shower or sink.  There is a shower house a short walk away.  the modern cabin is 3 bedrooms with microwave, shower, sink, relax room....there is also the Klaer Lodge built by park enthusiasts in the late 60's made of stone and can accomadate over 50 people.  All made of stone, as 20+ bunk beds upstairs -- huge facility.

There are XC trails, an old school house and even a stage for the weekend music series performances.  Dog friendly as long as on a leash and a little shop where you check in and get necessary supplies, wood bundles...etc..very fun place.

The GAP trail rolls right through the middle of this traditional KOA campground. The seasonal RVers and weekend warriors have long claimed their sites, but for through riders on the trail there is a special place to camp, close to the west-bound entrance. The picnic tables and fire rings are surrounded by hammock poles and there’s lots of space for scattered tents. The bathroom and shower facilities are modern and well maintained. And, of course, they have ice cream and laundry available! They also have cabins if you need to get out of the weather. We didn’t check those out, but saw them on the property. 

If you are an RVer and seeking a place to park and ride along this trail, this is a perfect place to have the best of both worlds. This is a very busy campground, nothing like the serenity of the less easy to access sites along the GAP trail, but offers some nice services for those in need of them.

The closest town is Connellsville where you can get everything you might need.  Great restaurants as well!  Check out the Kickstand Kitchen for an ahhhmazing meal!!  Best restaurant along the trail, by far.

Swallow Falls has a great loop trail where you see four waterfalls. You can walk to the loop from the campground. It ma be adds a third of a mile to the hike. 

We stayed in cabin 58, which has a short, easy path to the bathhouse and even shorter to the mud sink. This was very handy when traveling with two young kids. Prior to going, I wished I could have seen the inside of the cabins, particularly to know how big the mini fridge was. I couldn't find any pictures, so here they are.

It is a one-room cabin, was impressively clean, and the beds were very cozy. There are blackout curtains on the windows, so we slept late and it was glorious. There is one small window in the door that does not have a curtain. I taped aluminum foil up over it.

Each bed had a mattress pad on it when we arrived, as pictured. One minor note is that the bunk bed mattresses seem to be a bit too big for the bunk beds. This caused them to not lay perfectly flat and also made me feel uncomfortable having my roly-poly kids sleep on the top bunk, where there were only a couple inches between the mattress and the top of the railing.

I have Verizon and could make calls, but could not reliably send or receive text messages and there was no data access.

Great park. Great cabin. Great stay.

The Kentucky campground at Ohiopyle State Park in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania is the most convenient campground to stay at if you are a private boater who is rafting or kayaking the Lower Youghigeny River. It is located ½ way between put in and take out right on the road that goes between the two. I have camped here MANY times. I always travel with my dog, so I can only provide information about the facilities on Ginko, Cherry and Juniper Roads and the sites that fall within the 'Pet-Friendly' side of the campground - which is Ivy Road and Hickory Road.

Most convenient, being the operative words here and the whole reason to stay here, really. That being said - it is a very nice campground - it just has some draw backs. I have broken down the 'Good' and the 'Bad' (in my opinion). For some, the things I have listed as 'bad' would be on their 'good' list - so take it for what it is worth - advice from someone who likes to paddle and relax with an adult beverage around a campfire at the end of the day. I don't want to throw a loud obnoxious camping party, I just want to be able to sit around the campfire and enjoy a few beverages with my friends and talk in a normal voice to share our stories from the day.

The Good: Large tall shade trees throughout the entire campground. I cannot think of a single campsite that is actually in full sun. Nice fire pits and picnic tables. Clean bathrooms and showers - and lot's of them (although that being said, they could use another shower facility down at the end of Hickory Road - if you are in Hickory sites 160 - 175 it's a far walk to a shower). Hot water for showers seems pretty plentiful - it's been few and far between that it has run out or not been available when I needed it. There are large sinks outside all bathrooms for washing dishes. There are additional potable water taps throughout the campground as well. There is an RV dump station. There are dumpsters for trash and recycling. Dogs ARE now allowed at this campground (in designated areas - and there are a lot of them) - in years gone by dogs were not allowed. There are a lot of flat/level campsites.

The Mediocre: There are also quite a few campsites that are not so flat or level. You cannot tell very well when making your reservations which are flat/level and which are not.

The Bad: 'Quiet hours' start at 9pm. The Rangers are ridiculously vigilant about 'Quiet'. You literally need to almost whisper around the campfire in order to not arouse the interest of the Rangers which frequently patrol the campground on both foot and by vehicle. As soon as you arouse their suspicion by 'talking too loud', they make it perfectly clear that they can exercise their right to search your campsite and destroy/remove anything that is not allowed and/or kick you out.

This campground is in a PA state park. Alcohol is not allowed in any PA State Parks. Certainly there are ways around that - using cups and mugs, etc. - but you have to know before you go to do that. It is obvious by the content of the trash in the dumpsters and recycling bins that NO ONE follows this rule. So what you then need to know is that the Rangers are vigilant about patrolling the campground for people violating the alcohol rule. (refer to the info about Quiet hours above.)

Bottom line is: If you are traveling alone or in a very small group/just your family and are looking for somewhere clean, quiet and convenient to camp near the Lower Youghigeny River - this is a great place for you.

If you've got a decent sized group, that will need multiple campsites and you want to be able to hang out, talk, drink without worrying about hiding it from the Rangers and enjoy yourselves later than 9pm, you might want to look for somewhere else to stay.

If you've got a large and potentially loud group of people who want to party - don't even consider staying here. (My suggestions for that would be Tall Oaks in nearby Farmington or Scarlett Knob on the other side of Ohiopyle.)

Site was very large and private, surrounded by beautiful forest. Plenty of room for our pup, TV, pop-up gazebo, and gear. Each site had a fire ring with grill grate, and a nice, large, composite picnic table. We were right in front of the bath house, which was convenient, but the light was pretty bright at night. We were also the closest site to the loop entrance, so we could hear some traffic along the main park road. Didn’t bother us too much, but I imagine it would have been pretty noisy if we’d been there during peak summer season. Camping loop overall was nice and quiet, though; we had two neighbors while we were there, and barely saw nor heard anything from either of them.

Simply put, this park is absolutely gorgeous. Easily the most beautiful MD State Park we’ve visited. Everything, from the forest, to trails, to lake, to Meadow Mountain, is a camper/outdoor enthusiast’s dream. The fall foliage made everything even more beautiful. Apparently, the park is very popular amongst cross-country skiers in the winter, especially since they have full-service cabins and a warming hut by the lake. I’m not into cold weather at all, but I imagine I would love to spend a day by the lake in the summer time. Said lake area also has a concession stand, boat rentals, swimming beach, rec hall, and nature center, but these were all closed since we were there out of season.

Bath house in our loop was old and small, but kept very clean. I never used the shower, as it was too cold, but it looked adequate. LOTS of spiders, which don’t really bother me, but definitely a nightmare for arachnophobes.

We drove through the two other, non-pet-friendly loops, which were also beautiful. Sites were spacious and private, just like in our loop, but with the addition of tall pines. Saw mostly tent campers, and a few small TTs. The roads were very narrow, with a decent incline, so not big-rig friendly.

Note that there is very little to no cell phone reception in the park, so combined with the lack of hookups, this is definitely an unplugged, “connect with nature” type of camping experience.

Overall, I absolutely loved this park, and can definitely see why it’s referred to as Maryland’s “hidden gem.” The only negative was the lack of hookups, as it got pretty cold at night, and our battery was unable to sustain the needs of our heater. It would have been fine if it had been just me and my husband, but I think it was just too cold for our small kids, especially with the wind and rain we encountered. I would love to return in the summer though, especially since the area doesn’t experience the same type of extreme humidity as the more central and eastern parts of Maryland. Highly recommended!

Stayed 3 nights because I wanted to be centrally located to the he Flight 93 Memorial and Falling Water (about 30 miles to each). The non pet section is heavily wooded and very shady. The pet section is more of a loop set up with some trees. The no pet section had no, zero, zilch cell service so my stay was super quiet. Site 173 was easy to back into and had a large picnic area with a fire ring next to the brook. There is a lake with a small beach and a boat launch and numerous hiking trails. The park will s very nice pretty and during the week fairly empty. I would recommend