River Rock Recreation

My family of 4, kids ages 21 and 17, loved our 3 night stay at River Rock Adventures.  We stayed Sun-Wed and rented 2 kayaks from River Rock for 1 of the days. 

This is a single campsite that you rent, no other campers on site unless you are bringing them with you! You can camp with up to 10 people and there is certainly plenty of room for everyone to spread out. They have 3 wood tent platforms. 2 small ones are right near the river and one very large one is set back in the trees.  We used the large platform for our REI Kingdom 8 tent. This gave us more than enough space to set up the tent garage and we even set up cornhole in front of the tent. They have a few other "organic" tent spots as well.  The smaller tent platforms were perfect to set up our camp chairs and relax by the water. There is also a patch of trees that had 2 hammocks set up. These were a perfect feature for our relaxing stay.  The hammocks and kayaks were all cleaned by River Rock prior to our arrival as was the port a potty. There is no on site running water or electric but they did leave us with a 5 gallon water jug and a 5 gallon shower bag to use in the outside shower. We brought about 20 gallons of water ourselves and had more than enough for the 3 nights. The port a potty was spotless and had plenty of hand sanitizer inside. The outdoor shower was spacious with shelves to stash your stuff and a hook for the shower bag. 

One of my favorite features other than staying right on the river was the kitchen area. There is a stone floor, covered roof, and wrap around wood countertop space complete with an outdoor sink. You can refill the water supply for the sink very easily. The lower shelf was perfect for our food bin and cooler. You really can tell the owners are campers. They added so many nice touches that we really appreciated. 

All around the site they left painted rocks which were fun, they leave you with a scavenger hunt and a map of the nearby trail system which was very helpful. Depending on when you go the whole place may smell like honeysuckle! Oh and if you wander around you will find a tire swing!  If you sit by the river long enough you may see a barn owl fly by in the evening and back again in the morning. My boys spotted the nest while kayaking. 

Staying right on the river was both fun and relaxing for us. We even booked a second trip for this July. 

The only negative I have is there is a railroad nearby. During the day you kind of don't notice it but you may hear it at night if you are a light sleeper. Just bring earplugs, all the other positives surely outweigh this one negative. 

Shout out to River Rock Adventures for an amazing weekend!! https://www.riverrockadv.com/#/ I was fortunate enough to find this local gem while browsing“camping near me”. Not only that, my unlucky butt won a 2 night stay there! They describe it as primitive camping which it is but, it’s so much more. When my girlfriend and her son arrived they were met by the entire crew(sorry I missed you guys). She said they gave them a complete walk around of the site and were super friendly and helpful. They provided us with tons of information to include maps of the local trails. There was 2 scavenger hunts that you could do. One where they list things to do and objects to find and take pictures of. The other was for local land marks. Both games I feel would maximize your visit to the area if you chose to do them. The site is almost 2 acres in size and you do not share the site with anyone. We saw no one while there and you’re literally about 100-150 yards off a side road. It was definitely convenient and private. There’s plenty of parking which is why I believe you can reserve up to 10 people. 3 large wooden decks keep you level and off of the ground. A 1:00 AM thunder storm reminded me to never forget to use ALL the tie downs😂 Also provided was a solar shower bag(pre-filled), nice and private wooden shower stall. There’s a covered kitchen with a wrap around countertop and benches. The floor was a nice laid brick. Included in the kitchen was a cool metal water jug for doing dishes that ran into a primitive sink. The charcoal grill was awesome. They also had a 5 gallon water jug that was pre filled in the kitchen area. They provide a nice wooden picnic table underneath a shade tree. There’s also a little“living room“ area near the kitchen and benches. They are also in a nice shaded area. It was about 90 degrees with high humidity both days. The shade and the breeze from the river was a bonus. Let’s talk bathrooms!! Super clean porta pot. Is it really a pandemic? Not there! Plenty of TP and hand sanitizer!! The fire pit was pretty cool. It even had a rotating grill you can raise and lower for cooking or you can remove it for a nice size fire. I went with my daughter, girlfriend, her son and 2 dogs.(Kids only stayed 1 night). We all had a blast and were never bored. The great thing about this place was there was no trash or broken glass. I’ve been really disappointed in the amount of litter and crowds since the world turned a little crazy. So many nice spots are full of broken glass. Not here. There’s a string of lights the runs a good length of the camp area along the river if you have a generator. Another cool aspect is they provide hammocks(# depends on reservation and people). My daughter opted to sleep in one for her night🙂 We can’t wait to return. 00 Kings Road Bainbridge, Pa 17502(717)449-9033— at River Rock Adventures.

River Rock Adventures- Bainbridge, Pa- Lancaster County- Campground Review As a Ranger on The Dyrt, I sometimes receive compensation for reviews like this one. We just got back today from our weekend camping trip and we had so much fun that I couldn’t wait to come home and write about our adventure. We booked our trip on The Dyrt website. We immediately got confirmation our reservation request was received. We received a followup email a week before our trip. We were able to ask questions and ensure we were prepared for our trip. Our questions were answered and we were ready to go! The whole process was easy and we didn’t have any issues with making our reservation. This was a unique experience as you rent the entire campground. You pull back a stone road past the Northwest Lancaster Trail and just before the river there is a green cattle gate on your right. The gate is nice to keep closed since the trail is very close and we were told sometimes hikers get off course thinking that is the trail. As you pull back towards the river you see a large family size port o potty on your left and you pull back further into camp where there is a picnic table and covered kitchen area equipped with a charcoal grill/smoker combo and hand washing station. There was a nice area for us to keep our dry storage and food totes and to set up our camp stove for our cooking and prep area. There are two large tent pads directly a side of the river and three more tent areas in the wooded areas of the campground. In the rear of the property there was an awesome outdoor shower equipped with a filled solar shower ready for us to use. Near the two tent pads there was even a boat launch. We saw maybe about a dozen boats over the weekend so it wasn’t heavily traveled. When we arrived there was a very nice gentleman named Colby who met us and showed us around the grounds. He explained everything and gave us a welcome packet that had stickers, maps of the local attractions and hiking areas and general information about the area which was very helpful. As I mentioned they provided the solar shower filled with water, a 5 gallon container of fresh water and filled the hand washing station with fresh water which was fantastic to have as we had three children ranging in age from 10 to 2. Colby informed us that we were among the first 5 groups that had camped there. He said they would eventually like to be able to provide more items like tents, kayaks, bicycles, fishing gear and anything you would need for camping. We have our own camping equipment as we started out with very rustic, deep woods camping so that would not be a feature that would attract me to camping here. However, for someone who has never camped before and just wants to try it to see if they like it, I believe that would be a great idea so they don’t have to make a large investment into equipment they may only use once if they end up not enjoying camping. One of the major downfalls to camping here is that there is an electric plant directly across the river. It was loud on Friday night to the point where we were having to speak very loudly in order to hear each other. It was like a white noise so at least it put me to sleep when that time came. THANKFULLY, the plant shut down sometime early Saturday morning and it was quiet the rest of the weekend. I don’t know how it would be camping here during the week so BE AWARE! Despite the power plant there is really a lot to do so you shouldn’t be bored. As I mentioned there is the Northwest Lancaster Trail to walk along, ride your bike, geocache or check out the Edible Forest. We found some raccoon tracks in the mud down by the river and checked out the scenery of the York Haven Catwalk. You can fish, go out on the boat, hang by the river, relax in the hammocks provided. There is also a Ghost Town nearby and a historic mansion. There are three options for pricing. Option 1 is$90/night for three people and that includes 2 hammocks and 1 bundle of wood. Option 2 is$150/night for up to 6 people and that includes 3 hammocks and 2 bundles of wood. Option 3 is$200/night for up to 10 people and that includes 4 hammocks, 3 bundles of wood and fishing gear. You can also purchase additional fire wood, hammocks or rent fishing gear. We had a great time and made some great memories with our friends and families. Product Review: Grub Stick As a Ranger for The Dyrt I sometimes am provided products to use and review. This trip we used and reviewed a product called Grub Stick. It is a telescoping stick with interchangeable attachments. There are three different packages you can order. Basically, there is a small, medium and large package. The small is the basic with the stick, hotdog fork, smore cage and the tool to open the cage while hot. The medium includes two sticks, two hotdog forks, smore cage, hamburger cage, silicone hotpad, tool to open cages, bacon clip and the small and large grub tubes. The master kit comes with two of everything except the tool and bacon clip. I read some reviews on this product and some of them were not too good so I really didn’t know what to expect. However, I was pleasantly surprised. We started with using the burger attachment however we roasted pineapple slices and peach halves. Oh boy, were they delicious! I thought it worked perfectly for what we were trying to accomplish. The tool is very simple to operate to open the cages. The silicone handle really gives you a good grip so you don’t slip and burn your hand on the hot cage. Next, we made the pizza tube recipe on the grub sticks website. We took pizza dough and wrapped it around the large grub tube. We cooked it over the fire until it was golden brown and it easily slipped off of the tube. Our string cheese was already softened so we did not use the hotdog attachment to soften as directed on the website. Next, we added pizza sauce and dug in. They were delicious! I can’t wait to try cinnamon rolls or crescent rolls next time! After we ate dinner we made smores. We got out the smore cage and I will tell you folks, this was the one attachment I was not sure I was going to like. We built our smores and closed the cage and over the fire it went. You definitely have to rotate it and make sure you get your marshmallow toasted. Otherwise, if you don’t you will just have a burnt graham cracker and non-toasted marshmallow and hard chocolate. Nobody wants that. I also wasn’t sure if I would like my graham cracker toasted. Well folks, I was completely wrong. They. Were. Awesome! We also toasted some marshmallows using the fork and didn’t have any problem with them sliding off. We let the centers of the marshmallows cool and collapse and then added some Irish Cream. I wasn’t a big fan as you will see in my pictures but everyone else enjoyed them. I absolutely cannot wait to use this again and try different recipes. Pros: Silicone handled tools made them extremely easy to handle and use. All kits come with a handy carrying bag so you don’t lose all of the pieces. The attachments were very easy to change out and use. The telescoping feature is great. It is a thicker pole also, not thin like some of the others I have bought in the past. Cages can be used for multiple purposes. The grub tubes were a great way to be able to“bake” without using a dutch oven. Cleaned up nicely after using. This is the perfect set for cooking if you are a single person or a couple who are backpacking. Cons: Unless you have multiple grub sticks it would take forever to cook for a lot of people. This worked great to make some appetizers and desserts however I couldn’t imagine cooking a full meal for a group of people. The bacon clip should be able to handle a little thicker bacon. I did not have any problem with this but according to other reviews some people had issues with the attachment screw breaking. I don’t have too many bad things to say about this product. I really was skeptical at first but I am now a believer. I had so much fun using this and I can’t wait to do it again. Thanks for reading and happy camping!

Stayed here with a bunch of buddies, it seemed pricey at first but ended up being about $20 per person, which wasn’t bad at all! The campsite is huge. We spent our time fishing the river banks right outside our tents and kayaking on the Susquehanna to fish the warm waters. We caught a ton of catfish and carp using live bait. It was a great time at the river!

Our favorite place to put in our kayaks, throw a line in and hang up our hammocks. We usually plan to go camping with 1-2 other families to split the rates for longer stays at the campsite. We bring two 5 gallon collapsible water containers and separate drinking water. When we stay longer we bring a solar shower bag full of water as well for showering.

Think of the campsite like a permanent dispersed camping site and you will be prepared. There are some amenities that make staying here easy, like a camp kitchen area with food prep area separate from the picnic table and solar bag compatible camp shower area but it is a rustic experience overall.