## Overview

 The Shenango Recreation Area is situated within the broad, flat, meandering valleys of the Shenango River and Pymatuning Creek. Sharon, Pennsylvania is approximately 7 miles southwest and Youngstown, Ohio is about 21 miles west. Visitors to the area enjoy camping, boating and fishing.
## Recreation

 The lake provides an attractive setting for picnicking, camping, boating or simply enjoying nature\'s beauty. Anglers fish for bass, walleye, muskellunge and a variety of panfish. The lake is shallow and water levels generally drop throughout the summer, especially after the Fourth of July, depending upon rainfall. The Coonie Trail is one-half mile in length. This self-guided interpretive nature trail invites visitors not only to experience the beauty of Shenango River Lake but also to learn about its varied habitats and relationships between plants, animals and humans. Shenango Lake is an unlimited horsepower lake and has six free boat launches for access. The Lakeside Picnic Shelter is located on site and can be reserved for reunions or other large gatherings.
## Facilities

 This large campground contains over 300 campsites, many of which have electric hookups. Flush toilets, drinking water, showers and a dump station are provided. Playgrounds, a horseshoe pit and boat ramp are on-site.The campground is reservation only. Reservations can be be made on the day of arrival.\_\_ 
## Natural Features

 Shenango River Lake stretches 11 miles up its namesake river, covering over 11,000 acres. The shore is lined with a northern hardwood forest of shady and colorful trees such as Black Cherry, Beech, Maple and Hemlock. Deer, turkey and other small game animals are plentiful, with excellent opportunities to observe osprey and eagles in the area. 
## Nearby Attractions

 The Shenango Water Trail provides 7.5 miles of scenic river corridor for paddlers, with three access points between Kidds Mill Park and Big Bend. Personal Floatation Devices must be worn on all canoes and kayaks. The historic Kidds Mill Covered Bridge features the unique \"Smith-Truss\" design from the 1800s. Remnants of the Erie Extension Canal can be found nearby in Sharpsville below the Shenango Dam. The Shenango and Mahaney Recreation Areas feature restoration chestnut tree orchards that are managed through a partnership with the American Chestnut Foundation for research and education, with the goal of developing blight resistant American chestnut trees. The nearby Bayview Off-Road Vehicle Area provides over 200 acres of riding trails for ATV\'s and dirt bikes (3.5 miles from the campground) The Chestnut Run Swim Beach is only 3 miles from the campground and offers a great area for swimming and sunbathing (NOTE: no lifeguard on duty) \"The Pines\" Disc Golf Course in the nearby Mahaney Recreation Area (6 miles from the campground) offers a challenging course that hosts PDGA sanctioned events The nearby Trout Island Trail in Sharpsville is a 5 mile paved trail that accomodates walking, running and cycling The Shenango Hiking Trail, on the east end of the lake, is 7.5 miles through wooded areas adjacent to the Shenango River Boat Rentals are available at the nearby RC\'s Marina in Clark, Pa. (1.4 miles) An ADA Fishing Pier is available in Clark, Pa. 1.4 miles from the campground. 
## Charges &amp; Cancellations

 A $10.00 service fee will be charged if you change or cancel a reservation. If a customer does not arrive at the campground by check-out time the day after arrival or does not cancel the reservation by the day before or day of arrival, the customer will be considered a \"no-show\" and may be assessed a $20.00 service fee and also forfeit use fees. If a customer cancels a reservation the day before or day of arrival they will be charged a $10.00 service fee and forfeit the first night\'s use fee (not to exceed the total paid for the original reservation). Cancellation for a single night\'s reservation will forfeit the entire use fee but not be charged the $10.00 service fee. For more information on cancellations or refunds, please visit the recreation.gov site or call 877-644-8777.

Shenango Campground

Big and busy place. I came on a rainy week so it’s a little mixed review. I am a tent camper so I like a decent lot and I’m currently at lot 82 and it’s big but there is a large mud pit in the middle so we have limited space to put our tent. We ended up putting it on a hill a bit because we knew it would rain so it would wash pass our tent instead of inside it. But that hill backs up to the restrooms which have spot lights on them throughout the night not very good for napping. But get through that the first night and wake up to the cleaning crew lead blowing the sidewalk around the restroom at 7:00 a.m. seriously! But most sites I’ve seen around here are not tent friendly this is definitely to big of a campground for me lots of traffic on crampground roads. Might come back but not at that site.

Lots of sites and heavy traffic

My family and I visit Shenango Recreation Area Campground yearly. It is a great family campground.

Although reservations are not required I recommend you reserve if possible, especially if you want a site on the water or with electric.

Don't forget your bike! Bycicles are the best way to get around the park. The roads are nicely paved.

You will enjoy your stay. It is a nice balance between getting away from it all and having a grocery store nearby.

We love this campground! 🌞

I used to really enjoy this beautiful Campground area.  I would normally give it a 5 star but this last trip I had to lower my rating.
1st off felt like I was being watched by 1 of 14 camp host's in fact the one I had to deal with in the 1st loop was just not nice and rude.  Then there's the neighbors we had. OMG they were aweful.  They even called the rangers on us for an extension cord plugged into their box.  I was just trying not to have it out in the open for my kids, wife, and grandkids to trip over cause it's plugged into my box. LOL, it's not like they are getting charged for it and we both have electric.  
So, it's kinda tight most of the sites. But there are a few that are really nice too with lots of space

This place is packed

This place worked out great for us on our drive across the country. We could still get a reservation same day even though it was 4th of July weekend. Most campsites were really close to one another but we found site 224 on the end which had some privacy. This site was non electric but was perfect for us since we were in a tent and just needed a place to crash for the night. We reserved the site on recreation.gov for $19. 

Over 300 campsites!

This was a nice place to camp, however, we booked on a site on the water where they shutdown and canceled our reservation with short notification.  A entire section was shutdown for a lenghty peice of time which should have prevented us from booking.  We got other sites without power because of this and had to move 3 times in 5 days. 

Pros nice area
Cons; need to align with reservation system.  Power campsites to close together.  Need to fix bathrooms that were closed durong our visit.

Construction impact

After getting off I80, our RV GPS wanted to take us on a wonky route, so we followed Waze and the campground’s(CG) web instructions that took us across the causeway on N. Hermitage Rd, then a right turn off on Birchwood Rd, which led us to take a left turn back across N. Hermitage Rd to get back to the Shenango Rec Area turn. Once we got to the CG, check in was quick and very easy. Just happened, our next door neighbor/camp host checked us in and told us we could get water off their site so we proceeded straight to site 199 that’s a back in with electric(50/30 AMP) only plus one of the better spaced sites in the CG. We had to maneuver a couple of times to get into the 90 degree site but the road was wide with no obstacles to prevent swinging into the site. We quickly found out that our 50 AMP connection had issues and after reporting it, a maintenance crew came within 20 minutes and fixed a bad breaker. We got 3 bars on Verizon and a handful of OTA channels. Due to the amount of mature trees, satellite would be iffy depending on your site. There are no FHU sites(camp host sites have electric&amp; water). Electric sites are centrally grouped within the loops and spaced closer together than most COEs. The majority of the sites within this CG are dry camping and they too are fairly close together. The sites right on the lake were all dry camping. With all the dry camping sites in this CG, its nice that they allow generator use during non quiet hours. Quiet hours here are 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM. There are water spigots periodically located within the loops and the CG map identifies where they are. There’s also a two-lane dump station located near the entrance but there is no potable water. There are signs stating no alcohol in the park, but people were openly drinking. We also noted that the contractors who clean the restroom/shower facilities start early in the morning and close the facility while cleaning, which was inconvenient for the dry campers just waking up. If we were to stay at this CG again, we’d come during the week and get a dry camping site on the water.

Huge COE

This is a beautiful campground. Most spaces are shaded and if not on the water, close to the water.  We took kayaks - endless places to put into the water including from many sites. Easy 1.5 hour drive from Pittsburgh. Places close by to buy cheap firewood - bought tub for $3. Also spend morning on kayak trip to float down Shenango River after shuttle from Carried Away Outfitters which is 8 miles away.  Great time. 

Nice Shaded Sites. Easy Water Access

The Shenango Recreation Area is a large campground with some 300 plus sites located on a lake in western Pennsylvania. Access to the campground is fairly easy and about 12 miles north of I-80. Most campers come here to enjoy the boating, fishing, and relaxing in the lake. Some of the sites are right on the water and provide nice scenery and easy access but, if you are not at a water site, your only access is at the boat launch or public beach area. 

  

All sites can accommodate tents or RV’s and some are dry camping without utilities while others have 30 amp electric (99 sites) and 50-amp (15 sites). There are no water spigots at individual campsites so you either have to come in with water on board or fill up at a spigot in the campground. You can make reservations on recreation.gov and seniors get half price. The online reservation system has pictures of each site. There are bathhouses scattered around but the one I went in was not very clean and they are pretty old. The bathrooms are heavily used since sites don’t have sewer and water. 

  

We only stayed two nights as we were just traveling thru the area and had a nice stay. The only complaint we had was a pesky neighbor who came over the minute we started backing into our site and didn’t leave until we were all set up and went inside just to get away from him. Our site was long and level and the electric worked fine. Our site was at the beginning of a loop with a one-way road so there was a bit of traffic. The campground was very quiet at night. 

  

FYI, alcohol is not allowed in this campground and we did see rangers and camp hosts driving around the campground so we kept ours hidden when outside. Not sure if they were looking for violators or just driving around for other reasons. Check out is not until 4 pm so be careful arriving too early. We noticed in the that a lot of people are fairly local and spend the day on the water before packing up and checking out.