Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Chatham, VA

Site 16 Left (non-electric) September 18-21, 2020 Average Daily Temp: 76 Average Night Temp: 51 Arrived on a beautiful early Fall Friday afternoon. Host was extremely friendly and welcoming. He offered great advice and information for this first time visit. Firewood is not available on site. You have to travel back to a self service trailer about 4 miles near the local CVS on Route 58. In my humble opinion, Site 16 was the best view of the Lake and has easy accessibility (see photos). Because of the low evening temps, most of the non-electric sites were empty. We basically had run of the area. Pet friendly and very well kept areas. Rock pad for parking and tent set up. Bring a pad if you plan on sleeping on the ground. Two tables, fire pit, and lantern post on sites. Boat parking available close to this site. Swimming was fantastic. Fishing was even better. Will be back.

I stayed one night at Horseshoe Point. The drive there through the mountains and backroads was pretty but make no mistake, this place is remote. There is no WiFi and my T-Mobile was useless there. There is a nice lake with trails nearby. There is a clean bath house with hot showers. The sites have a picnic table, fire ring, and gravel parking spaces. The sites are among the trees and well kept. They do not allow dogs near the beach. As a dog owner, this saddens me as I like to swim and I can’t if my dog is with me. The campground hosts were very friendly and welcoming.

The camp ground is in need of upkeep. Campsites fine. All have a fire ring. Beware with pull thru’s your water and electric will be on the “wrong side”- you’re door will be facing the road and picnic table, fire ring will be behind you. The trails are poorly if at all maintained and trail signage is not good. Dump station (just one) muddy and could use a larger concrete “curb” and some gravel. The host is a bit militant. Immediately came over after we arrived and told us to keep our dogs on a leash (they were already tied up. Beach area is nice. Has a fishing pier. It’s about a 2 mile walk on a trail to it or you can drive to it. We live in VA and camp at all the state parks. This state park in no way measures up to those.

Nice well kept park and campgrounds. Most of the sites looked pretty level. Sites in B are small and mostly have deep drop offs beyond the railroad ties. Sites are a little more spread out in C but still pretty small. But plenty of oversite parking. Both campgrounds very wooded. Beware there are LOTS of squirrels and not too afraid of humans. If you have dogs like we do that hate squirrels they drove them nuts- squirrels running around in our campsite and up trees in our campsite. And while walking around. They also climbed on a small table right next to the rv door and shredded my paper towels! Lots of areas to walk. Campground C had only two clean bath houses with only two toilets and two showers. Which I imagine with the many no hookup sites could get pretty busy.