Best Glamping near Mathias, WV

tl;dr- We stayed in a cabin February. The park and the cabins are very clean and well maintained. We enjoyed the many trails and walking our dog along the river. We would highly recommend and will come back.

Shenandoah River State Park has a variety of camping/RV/cabin options for everyone.  They have: climate controlled cabins, rustic cabins, RV sites, and tent camping sites.  Great for groups, especially those that have different ideas of the enjoying the great outdoors/nature

And if you, like me, are less enthusiastic about winter camping, the cabins are a great way to enjoy the park with climate controlled amenities.  

Two bedroom climate controlled cabin: Very clean, simple/minimalistic furniture, with kitchen necessities included.  It's reminiscent of a dorm-style apartment. Cooking utensils and cutlery, dish soap, a couple of dishwasher pods, toilet paper, and paper towels are included.  Mattresses and pillows had actual protectors on them and you are expected to bring sheets, pillow cases, and towels (not sure if it's always expected you bring sheets/linens but was true but at least with COVID/our latest stay).  There is a nice big kitchen table to play games.  We did have phone service and watched some shows on our tablet.

Restroom/shower: Very clean, spacious restroom although with a small shower (we stayed in cabin 6, showers may be bigger in others/handicapped accessible cabins).  Included mounted container with hand soap and shampoo/body wash.

Bedrooms:  Queen bed w/ box spring mattress.  I prefer memory foam so it was not my favorite, but it was still decent/firm.  The other bedroom had 4 bunkbeds.

Outside space:  There is a nice space with a picnic table and fire pit.  There are also rocking chairs on the porch of each cabin.  Very cute and a great way to appreciate the views.  

Area: Many trails throughout the park.  We enjoyed walking our dog along the river.

Looking forward to coming back either staying in a cabin again or staying in our camper van.

Normally we’re tent campers, but this time we opted for the climate controlled cabins of this state park. Cabins were wonderful. Essentially a little house off in its own little “cabin neighborhood.” Kitchen was fully stocked with just about anything you’d need. Only thing you need to bring are linens (because of COVID) and food). Outside there is a large wrap around porch, picnic table, grill, and fire pit. All tucked right against the trees. Rangers at the visitor center were wonderful, and gave our kids a tour of the small animals they kept inside the visitor center. Lots of hiking trails, and we didn’t see a ton of people on them. Good fishing in the river too. Drove through RV campground and spots looked nice with lots of pull through sites and pretty level too. Tent area is in another part of the park. For that you have to park in a lot and take a short walk to each site (though I did see a wagon there for campers to use). We will totally come back.

Nice facilities (shower, bathrooms, garbage, etc.), but the campsites themselves leave a bit to be desired.

Pros: deer wander the grounds, making for some beautiful morning animal encounters. Seems to be family-friendly. Very fair quiet hours. Easy access to a number of great hiking trails! We had a blast hiking the Rose River trail and part of the AT for one whole day.

Cons: Uneven ground all over the reserved site made it so our tent had to be pitched at an angle. The fire pit was strange due to the grilles covering half of it (would prefer to have just had a simple pit instead). Also the firewood we were sold was abysmal; it sputtered and smoked instead of burning cleanly. This made cooking extremely frustrating, so I will be bringing my own (certified and labeled) firewood next time.

Me and my son stayed for 2 nights and the park is very clean but we did have the unexpected torrential down-pour each night.  Bathroom and shower facility are very clean. Must keep your trash organized and they do have the Bear prevention lockers available on each campsite. Less than 75 miles one-way from Northern VA to arrive.  Bugs and ticks are not bad at all. Each campsite comes with dedicated grill stand and wood fire pit with option of grilling as well. We had an excellent time and did some tubing down the Shenandoah River but it was a bit shallow.  Did see some deer and the occasional wild bunny and turtles in the water.  Generally a very nice stay except for the heavy rain.  NO cell phone signal or WIFI available unless you are near/at the Visitors Center.  So BE PREPARED.

This campground is the highest in West Virginia, it has a total of 65 campsites 30 of which are electric and 35 are non-electric. Each site has a picnic table and fire pit, most of the campsites are open and have little privacy from neighbors. No tent pads, but no more than two tents permitted (but may be charged for the second tent). It has a bath house with hot showers, flush toilets, and coin laundry. There is a dumping station. Reservations can be made by phone or at campground registration but is otherwise first come-first serve. Pets are permitted. The sites are $25 a night.

The park has tons of hiking trails to choose from and two viewable waterfalls. There is a lake that is open to swimming, volleyball, basketball, and tennis courts are in the vicinity as well. Fishing is a large draw as well to this area, both catch and release and catch and keep permitted on the Blackwater River.

Stayed in Camp Cabin 41 in middle August 2022. The cabins are basic, but just enough that you need. Electricity, water on site (not in cabin, fan, lots of windows for sticky nights, 2 bunk beds (sleeping 4 total), and a table with 4 chairs. On the front porch are 2 wonderful rocking chairs. There's also a picnic table, fire pit, and grill on site. Parking for 2 cars. It's a relatively short walk to the bathhouse which had showers, toilets, a large clean up sink, and even washer/dryer available for a small price. The hiking here is nice and quiet, the river is beautiful. The cabin was in the electric/water (RV) campground and other than the randomly loud neighbor was peaceful and quiet. Lots of tent campers in this area of the campground too. The rangers are always helpful in the visitor center. Lots of small wildlife here too. I highly recommend this park.

Campground Review: Canaan Valley State Park and Resort, Davis, West Virginia

The Canaan Valley State Park and Resort is situated in a very popular outdoor activity area...for every season. Winter brings copious snowfall and the skiing here draws thousands...downhill and XC. The summer sees backpackers, hikers, mountain bikers, gravel grinders, car-campers and RVers. Not only do you have hiking trails here on the State Park location...you can drive up to the nearby Dolly Sods Wilderness Area for camping, day-hikes or multi-day backcountry trips; Blackwater Falls (10 miles north) offers memorable falls, great hikes with long gorge views (Lindy Point a favorite). Even Seneca Rocks and Spruce Knob are only 30 minutes or so away. Possibilities are endless in this neck of the woods. This very weekend was to be the Mountainbike Festival, but due to Covid-19, well you know the rest of that story. The Abe Run Trail was a pleasant trail leaving from the campground.

The campground portion is not expansive but 34 sites are situated in three small loops (see photo of campground map). Primitive tent sites don't have water or electric and parking is roadside but you are within 100 yards of the "Comfort Station." The three "tent only" sites have only been around for a couple years...but sites 1 and 2 are in a nice grassy area away from the RV loop 2. Always verify current rates, but June 18, 2020...mid $30's nightly for nonresidents (WV residents get 30% off). Primitive tent sites were $17 a night.

The Resort Lodge, Golf course, swimming pool and a covered ice skating rink (obviously the last three mentioned being seasonal) were further up the windy park roadway. (See rates on park website).

The campground "Comfort Station," is a restroom/shower/laundry and soda machine building. The gender specific restroom/shower rooms each have two wooden stalled modern facility stools, two shower stalls (men's are separated by a shower curtain, women's by a wall); a separate unisex ADA restroom/shower sits adjacent to the men's and appears newer.

The grounds are well-maintained and manicured as are all WV State Parks. Trails are scattered throughout the park. some are foot traffic only, others permit bicycles. The Back Hollow Trail was predominantly a mown grass trail but occasional wooded sections were rocky two-track. This is Wet Virginia, so expect to experience rain and bring foul weather gear in the summer months. I have mastered the fine art of campsite tarping due to West Virginia camping. It also still gets chilly in these mountains during the early summer months.

Deer meander through the primitive tent sites with their fawns each morning and evening. A kid's playground is situated beside (separated by a field) primitive tent sites 1 & 2.

We spent three days in June and experienced afternoon rain showers daily, but arranged our hikes and bikes around them.

We stayed here on the night of December 11, 2020. No problem finding a spot, campground was about half full when we got there around 4pm. The Primitive Camping spots were all taken however, so arrive early if you want one of those. Water and electrical available at all the spots even though it was winter. Bathrooms and showers were nearby and clean. No cell service but the Visitor’s Center has WiFi available. Lots of hiking and mtb trails, although we only did a bit of walking. Campground is maybe 100 yds from the Shenandoah River and it’s beautiful down there.

This was a great campground location to many, many National Park Trails. Our stay was during the last week of September. We met up with family who live in the area and got 3 sites hugging the AT. We pitched two large tents on our E178 site and a hammock in the trees just beyond our fire pit. My brother had a large tent on site E177 and it was just as nice. Our third site E176 was across the road from us flanked by travel trailer campers. That site had less privacy, but gave us a shorcut path to the running water bathroom. There was a sign in the bathroom that said it was ok to pour filter dishwater down the toilets, so we did that quite a bit to keep our campsites clean and safe from bears. My favorite sites were E177 and E178. They were a good size and distance from the other sites. We were close to the water pump and running water bathrooms. The pay showers were a bit of a walk from us, but they were clean. We liked having a nearby store, visitor's center, and gas station at this campground. In the evenings we went to the big meadow to watch the wildlife a few nights.Site E178 had great sunrise vistas through the trees. We positioned our chairs to face the valley and pretended there wasn't a packed campground full of families. It was actually pretty peaceful until the weekend which got rowdy at full capacity.The parking pad is level, on E178 but the grassy area was slightly sloped for our tents. I thought it was not too bad of a tradeoff for the view, but if you've ever slid down on your pad or cot a bit, you might not like it. My brother was at the adjoining site E177 and while his parking pad had a slight slope, he had a fairly level spot for his big tent.

There were bear lockers at each site (about 50 in x 34 in) and we never had any bears visit while we were there. The bear lockers were great for us since we were tent camping and our vehicle was a pickup truck, so we did not have to juggle messing with coolers/food in the truck cab. Deer came through the campground every morning right up to our tents, which was delightful, except it made me paranoid checking for ticks every night. I really enjoyed being right off the Appalachian Trail and enjoyed seeing a few through-hikers each day while we made campfire feasts.

We brought USDA wood and another camper gave us a few cords of USDA wood he brought from GA when he left. We did purchase one bundle from the campground and it was pretty green, so it burned smokey. The cost was about the same as it is at Lowes or anywhere else like that. We enjoyed multiple hikes and had a group with different hiking abilities, but there were many great Shendoah sites to see that we all could enjoy, including the group's dogs. Shenandoah is one of the few National Parks that allows dogs on most of the trails (leashed of course.) We had two dogs in our group and enjoyed seeing the other dogs in the campground. There was only one instance when we noticed someone bagged their dog poop on a trail, but left the poop in the bag. People!

Because of Covid-19, the ranger programs at this campground were cancelled. I would return again, but maybe choose dispersed camping for a better view and less people.