Best Cabin Camping near Waterford, PA

I told my wife that this was the rotten place that we stayed at before. She insisted that was somewhere else but there we were, all the people complaining about the nasty manager lady as we are swimming by AND the creepy, chubby manager dude with the grey goatee, ogling the little girls a little too long. Why are those people still there?? All she does is sit outside the office and smoke cigarettes and he creeps around. Everyone hates them and will smile to their faces but they're horrible!

Pros: paved roads, mostly clean bathrooms and two swimming pools. Cons: Teeny, tiny sites. Bingo hall bathrooms are gross. Awful, rotten egg smelling water. The beds in the cabin rentals are rock hard. Horrible WiFi. Good luck if you’re there and the electric cuts out. Very few activities (which you will also hear about"there used to be so many activities" "Lisa never has any activities any more") Good grief, the people are unhappy but I guess, too cheap to move on to a better place? The entire staff complains about them constantly, especially Rhonda in the office. I just came in to buy ice, lady, I don't need to hear about much you hate your boss!

I would suggest you keep looking rather than tolerate this toxic place and all the unhappy seasonal people and employees. Save your money and vacation time for a nice place with decent management.

This was my second time staying here, I felt the need to write an updated review. I stayed in cabin 4 and was very impressed very clean and spacious probably could sleep 8 people. If you are looking for a place to stay while fishing for trout and steelhead this is your spot. They are directly on elk creek for the finest fishing imaginable. Campsite offers tent camping but it’s mostly in a open field. If your going to stay there don’t mess around just stick with the cabins. Uncle Johns is run by husband and wife, doesn’t seem to be any other staff so you need to have some patience.

Fantastic camp ground for anyone looking to rough it a bit, they have cabins and rv/tent sites located on Elk Creek great area for fishing and great people.

Love it cause it close to the beach! It close to many activities in Geneva on the lake, the strip! Nice landscaping and a great camp store at the entrance. Lots of amenities. Hall, restaurant, pool,fitness center, activities center. Nicely done cabins.

Great site with electric and water pumps close for filling before setting up camp. Sites are very close. You are on top of each other. The beach is not really a beach but a rocky mess. Lovely sunsets. Small commode and shower stalls. Use the larger bathhouse near the cabins. The bathhouse at the beach is under construction. Lovely sunsets were the best part.

This is not really a family campground. They have quite a few cabins some looked nice some not so nice. I stayed in what they called the train car. I only recommend that for a group of guys only there for the world class fishing. All in all if you are looking for a roughing it experience while you are slaying monster steel head look no further. The owner and staff were very nice and helpful with the surrounding area. Can't wait to go back

The Linesville Campground is a mid-sized state park campground with level, wooded sites, right on the Pymantuning Lake. A short walk to the marina which hires boats and sells snacks& fuel. There is a campground fish cleaning station with complimentary fridges/freezers. 

The amenities are well kept with plenty of space, located in the center of the park. There is also a laundry. They accommodate tents, RV’s and have cabins also. RV dump station and water fill up conveniently located in the center of the grounds. 

The township of Linesville is just 5min drive from the park entrance. Great weekend escape from Pittsburgh. They welcome furry friends!

This park is right on the lake near the PA border. Flat short trails through the forests or walk along the beach. If you’ve been to a lot of other Lake Ontario or Erie sites this one might not stand out, but it is very pretty and those from out of town are always blown away by this (and other) lakeshore park. Check out the music & arts schedule at the Chautauqua Institute nearby. Not too far from Niagara Falls. Close to Rt. 90 so there are often lots of RVs. I haven’t heard any road noise here. Amazing sunsets right from your tent and lots of places to hang a hammock for a few hours. Pretty standard basic state park campground facilities, but clean. Get here as early in the afternoon as you can so you can get a site close to the lake! They also have cabins but they seemed a little outdated from the outside.

The view is amazing, and rentals for everything! Just a wonderful time!

I knock off a start for the neighbor who apparently stays there annually, who stumbled into our campsite in route to annoy other campers. She was visually drunk and kinda ruined our last night. But on the lighter note the man who is the caretaker and owner is a nice man he was kind enough to get us firewood on a night we came back later and had forgot to stop along the way. The lady who works the front desk is very blunt and a business only kind of gal which I like but others may find rude. The grounds were beautiful and for the most part quite. The restrooms near the entrance are their main with showers and in the ladies room one stall. They are dated but function well regardless, there are port-a-John’s around the tent sites that are closer but they are what they are. The owner told us best time to come back is fall/winter and the cabins are heated. We would come back if the lady is evicted or if we can find a spot further away from permeant tenants.

We really enjoyed camping at Lake Pymatuning. We had site J522, which is tucked back in a quiet loop. We camped for the first time in our (new to us) pop-up camper. The site was not level, but we were able to get the tent trailer level without too much effort. Bringing our bikes was a blast as we were able to bike down to the beach for swimming and we took our bikes to Meadville to do the Ernst bike trail (recommended - a paved, flat, easy 6.3 mile cycling trail through the woods and along the river). 

Flush toilets and hot showers are available in the bath houses. The showers do not have a changing area within the shower unit or an area to store your towel/clothes within the shower unit. There is a central dressing room with towel hooks and 4-5 showers connected to the central dressing room. This was not a problem when I took a shower, as I was the only one using the area, but could be problematic if it was full and there was no place to set items you want to keep dry. 

Fantastic campground for biking, swimming, boating, and having a peaceful getaway.

We came here the weekend of August 14, 2021 and it will be our last! Friday night was ok, but when Saturday afternoon came all hell broke loose when the electricity went out in over half the campground! We all heard that the electric would be back up within and hour and a half. After about two hours I went to the office to find out if there was any new word on what was going on with the electric because I had started dinner in a crockpot and was told that, my refrigerator will keep my food cold for up to two days and multiple excuses why the power outage was not their fault and not their problem. At which time one of the owners stepped out of her office and stated that they have two pools to cool off which had nothing to do with the electric and dinner issues at hand! Then check out on Sunday came which was very “pleasant”; the kid at the desk was very kind asked how our stay was, when we told him that it wasn’t the greatest because of the power outage he handed us a slip for one free weekend on our next trip to be used by October. We explained to him that when we get home that we would be cleaning up our camper to sell and asked if it was possible for a partial refund on this trip; at which time the same owner came out with an attitude just about screaming that they don’t even have to offer anyone anything and ripped up the free night stay that was off to us. I calmly explained to her what I told the kid and also explained that not only would we be able to camp there again this year, but will never come back due to how they treat the people that just want to enjoy a weekend get away. I wouldn’t recommend this campground to anyone. Ignorant owners, hearing power outages are common there by other campers and not so clean bath houses!

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!

Linesville camp ground is on the Pennsylvania and Ohio border. There's no shopping malls it's located outside of linesville, the camp ground is not big and it's not small has non electric and electric it also has rv hook up alot of people go here to go fishing since it's located beside a very large lake. There is plenty to see it's also known as pymatuning where the ducks walk on the water if you've never visited this camp ground it's worth the trip unless it rains.

Ashley here with The Dyrt. I'd like to welcome your host, Milton. It was great getting this property on our site. This is a magical place. You will be surrounds by friendly animals, and lots of them! Swim in the pond, hike the close by National Forest, take a farm tour, or just hangout! We've heard Benjamin the horse is the best horse in Pennsylvania! Check them out and leave them some love. You'll be planning your next visit before you leave!

We stayed at Sparrow Pond Family Campground for a special long-weekend to view the Total Solar Eclipse. Their normal season doesn’t open until later in April, but they opened for 5-days for people like us who wanted a good spot for the eclipse. Since the normal season hadn’t yet opened, not all amenities/facilities were open but they put on a lot of activities to make the stay fun. 

THINGS I LIKED: 

• Easy access to Lake Erie and Presque Isle State Park 

• Clean and well-maintained property with lots of activities 

• All of the RVs appeared well-maintained without trashy-looking seasonal sites 

• Nice campground with friendly camping neighbors 

• Friendly and responsive staff interactions 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE SO MUCH: 

• The site was nice and in a great location with a view of the pond, but wasn’t level 

WOULD WE COME BACK? 

Absolutely, this is a nice place with plenty of things to see and do in the area 

HOW I CAME UP WITH MY STAR RATING:

★★★★★ everything was perfect with no room for improvement

★★★★ this is a great place with one or more minor flaws

★★★ average in all ways— not great, not horrible

★★ major issues or poorly maintained, we wouldn’t likely come back

★ a terrible place in my opinion and I’d never return