Best Cabin Camping near Bowden, WV

These cabins are perfect for group get always. Come stay here with your friends and family and enjoy hot tubs at every cabin. This is great for fly fishing or just a relaxing get away. Climb to the top to get a great view of the area and all the cabins.

Beautiful campground, with full hookups and bath house. There are several beautiful hikes to take in the park. A restaurant with a view and gift shop with local  products. The Seasons Cafe has great food for breakfast & lunch. The outside pool is large and heated. There is an inside pool and hot tub, small fee for camping guest. There is a scenic chair lift you can ride to the top of the ski mountain and hike back down to the bottom. There are several activities at the resort, something for everyone. 

From Canaan Valley Resort State Park there are soooo many places to visit. Bear Rock and Dolly Sods for beautiful views and delicious berry picking (take empty clean milk jugs for easy picking buckets).  Also great hiking here. Take a backpack of snacks, water and a cooler for lunch. 

Spruce Knob is the highest peak in the state of WV. You can drive and take a short hike around the top or hike all the way.

There are waterfalls in many areas around Canaan. Blackwater falls, Douglas falls, Elakala falls is the 4 falls of Shays Run, Falls of Seneca, Red falls, the list goes on. Our favorite was Elakala, a great hike down blackwater canyon and view of some beautiful falls.

Seneca Rock is a long but worth it hike. We took a lunch and lots of water. There is an adventure company we highly recommend, NROCK. We did a canopy zip-line tour with them. Very fun, not super high and very professional. 

Go into the town of Davis and there is a local brewery and some great food. Sirianni's has the best pizza, pasta and salads you will ever find. Highland market has local raised foods. Take a cooler so you have something to keep your food cool while stopping to eat at one of the restaurants. There is an ice cream shop that is not to be missed!

I can't even tell you all you can do, just plan your trip and google activities for the area.

Camp Holly is a beautiful campground in the mountains of West Virginia.. Off grid but they do offer Wifi.

You can choose between hammock, tent, cabin or RV camping, I would recommend tenting it down by the beautiful rivers. The owners are super sweet and more than accommodating.

This campground has a shop where you can buy necessities you may have forgotten, ice, snacks and fishing gear are also available. The bathrooms are the cleanest and well kept camp bath houses I have ever seen.

The location is near quite a few waterfalls and about an hour away from the National Forest.. some small towns are nearby as well and worth the visit. Definitely give it a shot! We can't wait to go back!

We did have some GPS issues on Google Maps, so I would recommend a Garmin or calling for directions before getting lost like we did. It wasn't actually hard to find, but GPS messed with us..

Booked a cabin for thanksgiving and it was almost entirely empty but for the other couple cabins. Snow on the ground and the Canton Falls hike was super busy. The outdoor sink has been removed (freeze prep I imagine) which was the only trouble we had. Our first cabin experience was otherwise excellent. So many stars were visible on clear nights. Weekend hunting could be heard every morning. If we needed a supply the camp store was open 8-4 with minor provisions but small towns were about 25 minutes away. Not super far from Deep Creek so we may try again in warmer weather.

If you’re looking for a place to camp in West Virginia, don’t even bother with this campground, head over to Audra State park instead.

We generally love most camping experiences and make it work, but this one was so bad we left 3 days early. When I kindly called to cancel, the nice Park ranger said he completely understood and would actually refund us for our entire trip (which we didn’t even mention or ask for).

The only good things about this campground were the friendly staff and the updated bathrooms.

Almost all sites are walk-ups, which is NOT noted on their site. Also, almost all sites are on a hill. The pictures do not accurately show this. We had site 33 (probably the worst site). The entire site was on a slant and covered in rocks, I tried to capture it in a picture, but it just doesn’t look as slanted as it feels when you are standing there. There was no flat spot for our 10 x 20 tent, so we had to sleep on an angle. (I felt like I was falling out of bed the whole night!) 33 should NOT be a site.

There is a HUGE raccoon problem here, even during the day. I wish we were warned ahead of time. Many people bring an extra tent to keep their food in. Our dog barked the entire night as the racoons kept coming up to our site and even our tent. At one point they even put holes in the outside of our $300 tent!! The next day we tried to make the best of our trip and decided to check out the lake. We had left our cooler and a couple small Rubbermaid bins of food on the table while we headed down for an hour. The car was far and incredibly hot during the day, and we didn’t want to give them any incentive to go after our tent again, so we had no other option. While we were gone the raccoons tore open our cooler, ate some of our food, and scattered the rest of our food and water in the woods. (This is probably why there is so much food that can been seen scattered near the campsites).

The lake was pretty but there was a ton trash all around it, such a shame. I had to pick up a bunch of pieces of glass on the shore of the campground so my dog wouldn’t get hurt. You technically aren’t allowed to swim in the non-beach/swimming area unless you are jumping off a boat, but people were doing it anyway. You cannot bring dogs in the designated swimming area.

While the bathrooms were nice they are a very far walk from any of the shaded/non-electric sites, and you are not permitted to drive up to them. There are only 2 showers. Both were kept clean but had 100’s of little green bugs and a ton of months and mosquitos on the. To get to the bathrooms you must park at the top of the hill and walk down (not a big deal for us, but may be for some).

The electric sites have no shade or privacy, and they are all on top of each other.

Ashley here with The Dyrt. We're so happy to have your host, Vince, on our platform. The camp includes 14 camping sites(firepits, slabwood benches, parking, and future picnic tables), 5 primitive shelter cabin sites(10x`12 lofted barn cabins with hasp for your padlock), and a 5 short term RV sites near the river(RV's 30 foot or less recommended). Check them out and leave them some love.

Tented a cabin for two nights to hide from bad weather. Cabin had electric service, a microwave, electric heater, refrigerator and lights. The campground had no other guests during our stay.

The campground is long and narrow bordering on Abrams Creek. We took daily walks to the end of the campground and enjoyed the scenic views.

The campsite has port-a-potties for each cabin and for groups of campsites. Water was clean and had no oder.

The only concern noted was the bath house. It was poorly lighted and made of what looked like left over materials.

The gentleman that checked us in was a wealth of knowledge. He told us all about the campground and told us they offer an outdoor shower. Their were two outdoor shower stalls which were shower curtains next to the shower house.

We have NOT stayed in or photographed the cabins at Herrington Manor state park, but I wanted to provide some photos of the lake and a brief review of the park and facilities as we’ve been there several times.

This lake (the main attraction of the state park) is one of my husband’s favorite fishing spots, especially on the kayaks. Even if you’re not kayaking, it’s just a beautiful place to spend an afternoon. The few times that we’ve visited, we’ve caught a bunch of chain pickerel, panfish, and a few bass. A few summers ago, there was a bald eagle nest on the far side of the lake and you could see them circling and hunting every once in a while. There is a really great beach area for the kids (or adults!) to play at, and a general over-abundance of creatures in and around the lake. There are TONS of salamanders along the shore, literally clouds of tadpoles near the launch docks (if you time it during the right part of the year of course), and the ranger showed us where a couple of snakes were currently making their homes near the main building.

The main park building on the lake itself is great, with clean restrooms, a food concession and small store with HM souvenir items, boat rentals with safety vests, and a cozy little viewing room with seating, a view of the lake, and a huge fireplace in the middle. We’ve never visited HM in the winter, but I’m sure it’s awfully cozy when that thing is roaring.

We love this area, and if we ever end up staying in the cabins (which sound like a great deal), I’ll post another review - we love it so much we come back down every other year or so. It’s beautiful!

Swallow Falls has a great loop trail where you see four waterfalls. You can walk to the loop from the campground. It ma be adds a third of a mile to the hike. 

We stayed in cabin 58, which has a short, easy path to the bathhouse and even shorter to the mud sink. This was very handy when traveling with two young kids. Prior to going, I wished I could have seen the inside of the cabins, particularly to know how big the mini fridge was. I couldn't find any pictures, so here they are.

It is a one-room cabin, was impressively clean, and the beds were very cozy. There are blackout curtains on the windows, so we slept late and it was glorious. There is one small window in the door that does not have a curtain. I taped aluminum foil up over it.

Each bed had a mattress pad on it when we arrived, as pictured. One minor note is that the bunk bed mattresses seem to be a bit too big for the bunk beds. This caused them to not lay perfectly flat and also made me feel uncomfortable having my roly-poly kids sleep on the top bunk, where there were only a couple inches between the mattress and the top of the railing.

I have Verizon and could make calls, but could not reliably send or receive text messages and there was no data access.

Great park. Great cabin. Great stay.

The cabins were exactly what we needed. Cheap, easy to reserve, and ability to have a nice fire outside. Great park with beautiful falls!

Thisis s very nice park with primitive, powered and cabin sites available. The falls are available via a short trail from the camping area. Camping here also gets you accessto the Herington Manor area also.

The Holly River runs clear through the Park, right beside a good many of the of the sites and hanging a hammock and listening to the water, can’t be beat! The staff/Rangers are so wonderful! A small restaurant, gift shop, pool, waterfalls, cabins, trails, it is so calming and relaxing! Love it!

We spent several days in Seneca State Forest. I want to highlight the Thorny Mountain Fire Tower for this review.

Renting and staying in the Thorny Mountain Fire Tower is a special opportunity...and I believe everyone should enjoy its uniqueness and solitude...for several reasons. One selfish reason is so that perhaps other State and National Forests would do the same thing...refurbish, but leave rustic remaining fire towers and rent them out like a campsite or cabin. There is much history and lore that is behind every fire tower.

The Thorny Mountain Fire Tower was built by the CCC sometime around 1935...and is erected at an elevation of 3458 ft. Nearly 70 steps up the structure brings you to 3507 ft (by my gps). From that height, you get to enjoy long mountain views in both West Virginia and Virginia. The tower cabin structure has 360 views...11 windows and a windowed door...so you don't miss any of the show! It is not insulated, but then again it is not available during the winter months. There are no, I repeat, no amenities in the tower...but that's half the allure..only two spring cots/mattresses...four folding wooden chairs...and two tiny nightstands. Four can stay...but only two have the beds. My back preferred the floor. At the base of the tower there is a lockable structure that houses a pit latrine on one end and plenty of dry firewood on the other end. You do have a picnic table and fire ring on a gravel pad north of the tower base. No running water...period. So all water must be acquired 15-20 minutes down the mountain at the Park Headquarters (which also has the only showers/bathrooms(2)...and laundry room...super clean!). The State Park employees that operate the headquarters there are the most kind, gracious and hospitable folks you will find. You will need to reserve a spot far in advance...so don't leave it to the last minute.

Our stay was memorable and pleasurable. While some might balk at the expense per night...it is the rare opportunity you are paying for. And...I will do it again in the future!

Watching storms roll in across the mountain tops...fog settling into the valleys like white foaming rivers...being perched beside rainbows...moonlight piercing the night through your curtainless windows...and reveling in the surreal sunrises and sunsets did it for me! Your closest neighbor is waaay down the mountain.

Note: Do not make my mistake and not listen closely to directions up to the tower. I took the first gravel road right...well...dirt road. It happens to be an unmaintained alternate service road to the tower...not good. Ordinary vehicles will be damaged...and two-wheel drive probably won't make it. My SUV survived, but I was questioning my sanity at times. The roads are gravel most the way up Thorny Mountain...and the last bit up to the tower had experienced recent washout from storms, so the going was rough but very doable.

I think eight of the windows still open, and they provide slide screens to insert so the cross breeze is amazing day and night. But they must be removed and the windows shut when the rain rolls in or you will get wet. The roof does not have enough overhang to keep the rain out...nor does it amply cover the walk-around deck...so it'll drip on your noggin'. But hey, your camping...you're gonna get wet.

Can't recommend the experience enough...who knows how long this type of opportunity will exist. Just Do It!

This park is extremely popular for its waterfalls, and access to the mighty Youghiogheny river with its world class white water. This park has a nice campground but no hookups. Cabins are also very nice and well kept. There is lots of trail access and the “Rock Maze” in the state forest a few miles from here is a fun afternoon.

     This campground is located in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, so the scenery is  spectacular.  The campground has 36 sites, 10 with electric and 26 standard sites for RV or tent camping.  You also have the  option to rent one of eleven cabins, or a room at the lodge which as great views of the lake.  The campground closes in the late fall, but some cabins, and the lodge, are open year-round.

     The main attraction is Tygart Lake which is ten-miles long, so it's good for boating, swimming, fishing, kayaking, etc.  The launch ramps and parking lot at Tygart Lake have been expanded recently, so there's easy access for boaters.  

     One sad thing about Tygart Lake:  There was lots of trash on the banks when I visited.  When I spoke to the park superintendent, he says it washes in during the rainy winter months and becomes visible when the water recedes during the summer months.  The U-S Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for the clean-up since the lake and Tygart Lake Dam are part of the local flood control efforts.  They need to do a better job of trash removal!

This park is just down the road from the much more popular Swallow Falls. But other than the falls, this park has everything the other does, and even a lake. Most come here for the cabins. They are very nice, and easier to get a reservation here than the more popular parks. There is access to endless trails in the State Forest, and good fishing in the lake.

We love this park! We have camped and stayed in a camper cabin. We love camping in the trees that provide some privacy. At night time, the owls hoot away. The bathhouses are pretty good, not the best but are always clean. I like that the campground is dog friendly, but didn’t realize the park is not. The waterfall trails are beautiful and a sight to explore. Definitely recommend this park!