Best Campgrounds in West Virginia

  This is a great state park! We really enjoyed the falls & were able to take a couple of hikes. Wonderful views from the lodge & one of Pendleton Falls from the road. The Falls of Elakala is a short walk from the lodge. Lindy Point overlook was a.3M one way for a fabulous view. 

There's a nature center by a small lake. You can fish there & they have kayaks to rent. Skiing must be very popular in the winter. 

  Besides the lodge There's 39 cabins, which looked nice. You have a huge yard area with the ones I saw.

  Now for the campground...hmmm. There's 64 campsites, I believe they are all electric. There's water at the bathhouse which is inconvenient. You can't drive close to the bathhouse, There's pedestrian paths.

 The handicapped sites are in the first loop by the bathroom.

 There's a dump that's in the middle of the first loop. You have to go the wrong way on a one way road to dump. Campsite 40 I would avoid since it's close to the dump.

The bath houses are MUCH cleaner than Pipestem & checked often. There's more of a staff presence here also. More driving through the campground at regular intervals. 

The office has some basics.

  This is a very oddly laid out campground. I'm including a Pic of the campground map. I made some notations. We were in the 2nd loop on site 27. Since it's been raining for a week it was very muddy. We fit in the site, barely. We have a 16' BTW.

 Site 25 next to it first look better, but I noticed something odd. You back in & your door is facing the correct way, but your picnic table & fireplace are on the wrong side! A lot of sites on this loops are like that. 25 would make a lovely tent site.

The pull throughs are too close to backin sites, so if you come in to pull through, you may have to ask your neighbor to move his vehicle. Some places have pull through sites with connecting driveways.

 There's a trail that literally goes through someone's site.

 Choose your site wisely!

Camp Creek State Park West Virginia.

 This was a drive through, we didn't camp here. This State Park is only 2 miles from I- 77! Exit 20. 

This is a hiking park & also has horse trails.

 We stopped at the office for a map & the lady at the desk was very nice & friendly.

There are a lot of nice picnic areas too.

Two very nice waterfalls. The first waterfall is on a road right by the modern campground so of course we had to visit. 

9 electric sites.

9 full hookup. 

8 water& electric.

A nice looking bath house.

 I liked the sites that were by a creek- 8/9/10/13/14/15/16/18. 12 is a pull thru. These sites have a paved pad & the whole campground looked nicely kept. All the sites looked flat. There's a dump station on the road out of the park.

 Blue Jay Campground is primitive camping along a creek. 12 sites. They looked very nice. There's pit toilets. This campground is on the road to the 2nd waterfall. There's parking by the gate. 

Further down from Blue Jay is a locked gate. Beyond the gate is the Double C horsemans camp. You have to register at the office & they'll give you a key. 

I really liked the modern campground. If we ever travel this way again I would stop here. There's no interstate noise in the campground.

Pipestem Resort State Park Southern West Virginia. 

We spent 4 nights here. Used this park as a base camp for New River Gorge NP. There's many other State Parks we visited too.

 This park has a LOT of razzle dazzle. A zip line, a golf course, no pool but a splash pad. They also have a tram that's closed right now for refurbishing.

 A lake with fishing & boating. You can rent a boat.

 The Nature Center is nice. The typical stuffed animals. You're not allowed to pet the bear!! 

 Lots of trails. A horse barn. A large "lodge" & cabins for rent. 

There's 82 sites in the campground. 

1- 31 have full hookup.

 32- 49 electric only.

 50- 82 water& electric 

Sites 1-4 are handicapped sites. 

We were in site 1 by the bathrooms/ showers.

 There are pretty good sites, but watch the site descriptions for the incline. 

The water/electric sites surround a large field. These sites tend to be sunny.

 1- 49 are in the woods. The sites seem small, but the perimeter sites face the woods. 

44 is a large site, but the incline is severe, so appropriate for Class B or tents.

I didn't like site 5 at all. It sits right as the road curves down a hill. 

The showers/bathrooms were very much on the lower spectrum of state park clean. It looked like they had been remodeled fairly recently, but not cleaned often. The campground doesn't seem to generate the same attention as the rest of the park. There's no DNR presence, no one driving through the campground. We rarely saw any employees checking the bathrooms.

 I would probably not stay here again since we won't be coming this way for a long time.

I love Gandy Creek! I have camped at 4 different sites and have explored and reconned almost all of them! Some you walk-in a short distance but are rewarded with amazing sites on the creek, secluded and wooded. Other places you can camp in your vehicle or park at the site. My favorite areas are on the creek. Lots of privacy, every site is unique and special in it's own way. There's minimal cell reception and by that I mean you'll be walking along and all the sudden your phone will start dinging because you hit a pocket where you get one bar of reception and the text messages pour in lol! Used to be a gravel packed road but they started some paving last year. I haven't been there in 10 months or so but plan to later this summer.

There are lots of trails, LOTS, all around that area. There's a really cool rock formation where the creek goes under the Whitmer Road Bridge (I forget the name of it). There is a pit toilet on either end of the camping area but you're not really close to one. I totally recommend being self-contained. Dispose of your waste properly, please. It's one of my favorite areas and even when it's hot it's a great place to camp because the elevation and the creek.