## Overview

 Rec.gov campsite availability grid is not reflective of availability. For more information on reservations, please visit http://fotlanf.org/ Twin Lakes Campground is located near a small, spring-fed, trout-stocked lake, popular with families. Visitors enjoy fishing, swimming and exploring local trails, including the Twin Lakes Trail.\_\_\_\_The campground was once the site of a chemical factory, and the lake was built as a \"splash dam\" to raise water levels in a plant downstream.\_\_ 
## Recreation

 Campers love Twin Lakes for its swimming beaches and lakeside fishing piers. Mill Creek offers native trout fishing, and can be accessed along the Mill Creek Trail. Hiking and backpacking are available along area trails. The Black Cherry National Recreation Interpretative Trail features nearly 40 interpretive displays along its path, and forms the eastern end of the Twin Lakes Trail, the second longest in the forest.
## Facilities

 Twin Lakes Campground offers a variety of sites, from group picnic and overnight sites to family sites with and without electric hookups. Amenities include vault toilets and a dump station. Ice and firewood are available for purchase. 
## Natural Features

 The Twin Lakes area is forested with a mixture of hardwoods. Many natural streams and creeks meander through the landscape within the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania. The Allegheny is the state\'s only national forest. It covers nearly half a million acres and is populated primarily with black cherry, maple and other hardwoods. 
## contact\_info

 For facility specific information, please call (814) 389-3019.

Twin Lakes Recreation Area - Allegheny National Forest

Twin Lakes is a beautiful spot, tucked away in a stream valley in the Allegheny National Forest. It's mainly locals who come here, since few outsiders know about it. If you come in the spring or fall, you're likely to have the whole recreation area to yourself, though the swimming beach can get crowded in summer. Originally, there were supposed to be two small lakes--more like ponds--on this site. But money for the second pond was redirected elsewhere--to construct the swimming area at the Lolita Campground instead. And so, the little body of water called "Twin Lake" sits solitary and with a misleading name. The campground is quiet and pleasant, with large, sunny sites for trailers in the lower loop and shaded tent sites in the upper loop. Unfortunately, nearby gas drilling has made the drinking water unsafe, and so the National Forest Service first closed the upper loop, and now for the 2018 "camping year" it has closed the entire campground. The ANF website promises that this is temporary, and the campground will reopen. In every way, Twin Lakes is a lovely location, with dark, towering hemlock trees, rustic old CCC architecture, and a serene little lake completely encircled by a walking trail. Black bears have long been habituated to humans at Twin Lakes! Keep your food and toiletries in the car. To my knowledge, no one has ever been attacked by a bear here. The wild and overrun Twin Lakes Trail is a linear backpacking route that starts here and heads westward toward the North Country National Scenic Trail. But unfortunately, the Twin Lakes Trail ends up getting lost in those dismal parts of the forest that have been completely trashed by gas drillers. I hope this campground reopens. I have fond memories of bringing my kids here when they were little, flying kites, picking berries, swimming in the frigid spring water! PS: If you've got a tall trailer, be sure to check the Twin Lakes page on the ANF website; there's a way in, but it's not all that easy to find.