Rolling hills, lots of room between sites, curved roads and loops (versus straight roads and everyone parked like a mobile home park) make for a very pleasant site. Lots of different settings to choose from.
Well established campground with many campsites, both with and without hookups. Bathrooms, showers, boat launch, beach, playground, and a camp store. Lots of great trails nearby as well. Worth the visit!
The Pine loop is a pleasant escape for tent campers hoping for a good view of the lake. Note that the access gravel access road to this loop is about a mile to the "comfort station" with flush toilets and showers. This loop only has pit latrines. Site #136 was slightly sloped towards the lake, the ground was soft enough to get stakes in easily. Would return again but probably stay on the lakeside of the Pine loop next time.
Ives Run has been a favorite site for us for the last 5 years. Lake Hammond is beautiful with great access. You can easily walk, bike, skate on miles of paved roads and you can also take the 1.5 mile roundtrip down the stone road to Pine Camp, a non-full hook up area that's on the lake edge. Plenty of wildlife to see from eagles to squirrels, chipmunks and more. This year we had a very hard time with gypsy moth caterpillars, first time we ever saw them. Camp hosts and rangers keep the campground at its best. Plenty of large full hook up sites available and AT&T and Verizon work well there. Trees are sparing enough to allow great Starlink access as well.
We arrived at this very nice COE with no issues, easy to find. The check in office was not manned but had a sign stating to go directly to your site. As we arrived at back-in site 67(Beech Loop) with FHUs, one of the camp hosts put a tag and campground(CG) info on our site post. The cement pads are pretty much 90 degrees so we had to maneuver a few times to get onto the pad the way we wanted. The road was fairly wide with no obstacles in the way when we swung our 39’ fifth wheel and F450 truck around. There were no issues with utilities as they were pretty much at the middle of the pad. As with most COEs, the water pressure was good(used a reducer) and we had no problems with the 50 AMP service. There is no WiFi in this CG but we got 4 bars on Verizon. We also received 4 OTA channels with one being a major network. There are a lot of mature trees in the park so satellite could be iffy depending on your site. Site 67 has plenty of yard in the front but that’s shared with the bath house so there’s lots of foot traffic back and forth. Also this site has no shade from the afternoon sun. We noted that sites sit so you're facing the next loop's sites and you’re basically staring at each other. A lot of folks tended to sit around outside their site all day“watching.” Not sure if its a tendency in this area or just how the sites are laid out. The Hawthorn Loop bathhouse had 2 washers and dryers but only 1 washer was in service during our 6 day stay. Camp hosts and regulars go into Wellsboro to do their laundry. The park’s huge boat ramp is at the end of Beech loop, which is convenient for launching large or small boats plus kayaks. The main CG is a mix of FHU and electric with water only sites. A mile farther down the lake is the Pine Camp loop, which is dry camping. There is no bathhouse in Pine Camp, just vaulted toilets and a water spigot. We noticed that Pine Camp does have sites that will take large rigs but the larger sites right on the lake have some slope to them. There’s a camp store near the main CG loops that has a pretty good menu including burgers and ice cream though we did not try anything. The store also sold ice, wood, sodas and chips plus a few sundries such as duck tape, bug spray, and fishing worms but no milk, bread, etc. Suggest you tour Wellsboro, PA about 20 minutes away. Cool little historic town with a nice park, shops, and restaurants. If you want major amenities such as Walmart or Lowes, go to Mansfield, PA or Corning, NY both about 30 minutes away. Pag-Omar Farmers Market at the Wellsboro junction is a great place to get fresh fruits/vegetables and they have great sandwiches for lunch. Just don't order with double meat because they put plenty on for a regular order. We really liked this CG and would definitely come back again, but we would not stay in site 67 due to its location near the bathhouse and afternoon sun.
We make sure we visit Ives Run several times during the season. The sites are mostly treed and you don’t infringe on your neighbors. Their showers and bathroom areas are kept spotless. There is a sandy beach area with a bathhouse and swimming. Ives is very popular with boaters and fishing. There is an area for dry docking. Beautiful area in the mountains.
I booked site 144 at the primitive sites in Oct 2021. It was a great spot and happily, I was totally alone as no one had booked any of the sites near me( the closest people were about 400m away). The sites I was located on all had a small piece of water access which allowed you to sit by the water and the sites were relatively flat (although not perfect). I did not have to deal with any crowds since I was basically completely alone, but I imagine that during the peak season, you will be close by your neighbors as there is no separation between the campsites, just designated spots next to each other on a lawn. Located only about an hour away from Watkins glen, and made for a great home base during my visit to the finger lakes- away from the hustle and bustle of the tourist towns. Would def. Visit again.
We enjoyed our stay. Boat launch appeared well maintained. All hook ups in good condition, site was level. Plenty of privacy between campers.
We camp here every Labor Day weekend in Pine loop. It is always a great experience. The bath houses are clean and the primitive sites are very roomy.
Well organized camp with sites in in full sun to full shade and everything in between. Grounds had swimming area and multiple boat launch locations on large man made lake.
We stayed on two different sites over 5 days. A very busy park, lots of reservations.
The gate house was closed so we managed reservations by phone. Nice bathrooms and showers. All options available FHU, WE, primitive. Beautiful mountains and Lake. We visited the Grand Canyon of PA during our stay.
Taking everything into consideration, it’s hard to find a nicer campground to stay for a night or two weeks.
clean, well maintained and monitored.
large sites on macadam pads. Large fields behind most sites for activities.
full hook ups available
numerous hiking trails, large lake for boating, fishing and swimming.
centrally located between Mansfield, Wellsboro and Corning
*pet friendly. Alcohol allowed
the only draw back is that it fills up quickly and you need to reserve many months ahead of time especially for holidays. Not group camping friendly because of the reservation system. No pavilions for group activities within the Campground
this campground is very clean and very up kept. I try to can here ones a year. all the sites are nice all the years I been camping here I have only found 1 site that we don’t like. some site you will need 2 hoses for your water because the hook ups are far from the sites and some of them will have the hook up facing the front of your camper.
Sites are very spacious and clean. Love it here peaceful and quiet.
Beautiful, scenic and clean! Wonderful campgrounds for the whole family! Beautiful lakes, boating, fishing, swimming, trails, paved sites, full hookups and primitives as well! We love this place and are repeat campers!
