Best Campgrounds near Chester Gap, VA

I visited this site the first week of April but I did not spend the night. When I arrived, I was the only one there and with rain expected, I did not want to get stuck there alone.

I initially missed the right turn onto the dirt road coming down the hill. The road in is a single lane dirt road with parts of it partially washed away. I would not want to drive on this in the rain. There are minimal turning points so if someone is coming in while you're coming out or vice versa, someone would have to reverse.

The campground itself was clean and well maintained. The bathroom was also clean and there was toilet paper.

Seems like a nice place to stay when its dry.

We set up camp at Harpers Ferry/Civil War Battlefields KOA Holiday as our launchpad to visit the historic sites in and around Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and Frederick, Maryland. 

We paid$114/night(average per night, including fees and taxes) for Site# 94. A bit pricey considering a lack of elbow room, but it’s a great location and everything is well-kept. 

THINGS I LIKED: 

• Location, Location, Location! Close proximity to plenty of historic and tourist places to visit. The Harpers Ferry National Historical Park Visitor Center is literally next door. Harpers Ferry Lower Town and Bolivar Heights are a few minutes by car(or shuttle from the Visitor Center). Frederick and Antietam are each barely 30-minutes by car. Gettysburg, Baltimore, and DC are about an hour’s drive. 

• Clean and level gravel site with well-maintained utility hook-ups. 

• Great campground store filled with food, drinks, camp supplies, souvenirs, and essentials you may need while away from home. 

• Friendly staff in the office& store. 

• The whole park is quiet and well-maintained. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE SO MUCH: 

• Heads up, big rig owners! Our Pull-thru FHU Patio site(#199) had a serious slope. It was impossible to level my 45’ motorhome without elevating the front wheels dangerously in the air. The nice staff kindly moved us to a FHU site without the patio and furniture. And refunded the difference in price for the lesser site. Thanks for providing the move but ‘premium’ sites should be somewhat level, am I right? 

• Get cozy, the sites are quite small and tightly packed together. 

• A $3 per night“Pet Fee” for our small, mostly-indoor dog felt a bit like nickel-and-diming. I realize it only amounted to an extra$12, but he didn’t need any extra gravel. 

WOULD WE COME BACK? 

• Absolutely, this is a nice campground with lots of great places nearby including Harpers Ferry, Antietam, Frederick, Washington DC, Baltimore, and more.

You drive deep into the woods to get here, which gives it that true, off-the-grid campground feel. There are several different camping areas, and depending on where you end up, you might have a short walk to reach the best fishing spots. It’s worth noting that cell service is minimal to nonexistent — not a big deal for most campers, but something to keep in mind.

One unique (and awesome) touch: there are goats casually roaming around the campground. It adds a fun, unexpected charm to the place.

The campground is clean, the staff is friendly, and the fishing is solid. Whether you’re there to relax, explore, or cast a line, it delivers the rustic experience you’re probably looking for.

We have found municipal campgrounds in Northern Virginia are a bit spendy for being government sponsored.  Not as bad as South Carolina, but way more than Florida.  Fine.  Comes with the territory.  But Bull Run manages to goose you even more.  There are occupancy AND transaction fees that really add up if you're only there a few nights.  But the real kicker is a 2-night minimum stay.  Even mid-week.  In APRIL for gosh sakes!

While we were here, there was a fairly heavy day of rain.  Couple inches, I suppose, but nothing Biblical.  The mouths of the metal culverts in our loop were bent downward from campers driving over them, which obstructed the flow.  Result was lots of standing water at our campsite.

We're done with NOVA Parks campgrounds.  Better cost options exist with Fairfax County Parks.