Best Glamping near South Charleston, WV

Nice campground. The park is spectacular. The most photographed place in west Virginia is the grist mill. Awesome trails all around.

We enjoyed our stay at Huntington/Fox Fire KOA! This is a holiday KOA that offers more amenities for vacationers. It has very close proximity to I-64 in West Virginia, and you can hear the traffic pretty clearly.

The staff is wonderful, they obviously care very much about their jobs and we enjoyed talking to them. They keep the property very clean which is saying a lot because it’s a very busy park. Each day we watched the park nearly empty and by sundown it was mostly full again. On the weekends it was full to capacity, and it’s occupants were out enjoying their time!

There is: great cellular for TMobile and AT&T, laundry, dog walk area, storage, cabins, a store, a swimming pond, small beach area, and some sites have fire pits. The picnic tables were pretty dated.

The hookups are a little strange. You share pedestals in many of the sites. And the arrangement is a little strange but it works.

Babcock State Park, located in the thriving megapolis of Clifton, West Virginia is postcard perfect! https://wvstateparks.com/park/babcock-state-park/

The road in off the highway isn't too long, but it seemed long, winding, and up and down...especially as night fell. Driving backcountry roads in West Virginia, at night, is not my idea of fun, as I had several near misses with Bambi and her roving gang of miscreants...having no regard for traffic laws...and one knock down, drag out with minimal vehicle damage.

One of the beauties of West Virginia...it is a sparsely populated state with open, unchoked roads that lead to some of the most amazing sights. You must be willing to explore, but you will be richly rewarded.

In the dark, I did pass the campground signs without seeing them and turned into the State Park entrance...wound around past rental cabins to the park office, so I had to backtrack to the campground, which is located in a different area altogether. Driven during daylight hours, the signs are very apparent...so I'm blaming it on the deer.

We arrived midweek, the first of May, so we did not reserve a site. The campground has 52 sites, so I thought we would have a good shot as a walk-in. No worries...we shared the campground with two other campers. Our campsite (site 32) was on the inner loop of the main campground loop at sits around 2450 ft elevation. The temperature got down to 30 degrees and frost covered everything. Twenty eight sites have electric hook-ups ($28) and twenty four do not ($25). The inner loop has some mature trees but is wide open and close cut grass...every camper has a view of the other. Even the outside sites on the main loop are visible. The smaller loop to the right as you enter and a few sites to the left sit in slightly more wooded sites...but there is no foliage separating sites. There is also sites on the opposite side of the roadway when you enter the campground, but seem more like overflow sites...and a fair distance to trek for the showerhouse/restroom/laundry which is situated on the bottom of the main loop.

There is plenty of gravel parking pad for large RV/Campers at all the sites and are angled for trailer back-in. Tent pads are not define and grassy (or a muddy mix depending on weather and usage). Each site has a picnic table and fire ring.

The showerhouse/restroom is located at the front of the loop and was spotless and maintained at the time of our stay...but not climate controlled...as in, not heated. The ladies that keep the park facilities clean worked tirelessly. A very nice activity area for kids sat along the inner portion o the main loop.

The main entrance to the park offers several cabin rental, from economy to 4 bedroom, the park office/visitor's center/gift shop sit along the river. The park office staff were very helpful, friendly and wear many hats...like most state parks.

This building and surrounding stone structures, retaining walls, and staircases were built by the CCC and are magnificent and in great shape. The beautiful gift shop was once a former park restaurant of a bygone era.

Ranger Cochrane was a wealth of information about the park, it's history and neighboring parks. He graciously spent time answering my barrage of questions. Ranger Cochrane was yet another tribute to the fine personnel that WV parks have in place.

The park office is also the best location for postcard perfect pictures of the raging whitewater and gristmill. While not the original gristmill from this location, three remaining gristmills from around the state were dismantled and rebuilt into one at the present location over 30 years ago. The gristmill was very photogenic in the early Spring, but I can only imagine the splendor when the fall leaves change color.

Whitewater kayakers were readying to put in on the rain swollen and boulder strewn river that feeds into the New River below.

Boley Lake, a short drive up the mountain is picturesque and well-stoked with fish. You can paddle the 19 acre lake with personal paddle craft or rent paddleboats, canoes or rowboats from the Boley Lake Marina. Fishing is permitted, but you must have proper licensing...which can be purchased online.

Trails are everywhere and of every terrain and level of difficulty...over 20 miles of trails total. Babcock State Park is 4,127 acres, so there is plenty to see and do. Bicycling can be done on all park paved and gravel roads (no off-road trails), as well as along the Narrow Gauge Trail. And of course, being not too far from The New River and Gauley River...whitewater rafting is close.

Is a cheap place, the shower house is very old, $40 per night The sewer was flooded because of the rain, don’t park in the middle line Is bad.

Ok for overnight stop.

Pros: 50 amp hook-up Water Sewer

Cons: Gravel pad Sites close together

We have stayed here full time for work and the people who run the place and work here are so kind and friendly. The area is safe and right near the nicest little towns (barboursville and hurricane) which have all the restaurants and shopping you’d need. A few city parks have some decent hiking trails and the state park and ‘big city’ of charleston or Huntington are a short drive. Great park all year with lots of green space, ponds for catch and release, and fun swimming blow up things in the water during summer, cabins for visitors. Very family friendly and well maintained. Another RV park that is right down the road is literally a parking lot, definitely the nicest campground we’ve found in this area for sure! We stayed in 114 and 115 which are RIGHT under the expressway, so can be VERY noisy. The closer you get to the front desk the better for the noise, but the expressway can be very very loud with all the truck and engine brakes.

Perfectly fine KOA. Nicely decorated for Halloween and seemed like it had lots of nice amenities for kids. We did a quick overnight here so we could have some electricity and a shower. Lots of highway noise. We had one of the back in sites which was nice because there was nothing but woods behind us.

It was our first stay ever in our RV. Our site was muddy but it did rain 2 out of 3 days. Site 32. The staff was very pleasant and helpful.

This is a very nice KOA camp. I arrived after dark so I didn’t get a good look at the place but the entrance is well marked. The family restrooms are very nice and comfortable. The sites have great electric and water, I’ll try the sewer before I leave. It’s damp and muddy but it’s December so that’s expected. I took off a star for the street noise. The campground is right next to a major highway. There is car and truck noise all day long and all night too. Maybe it would be better in the summer when there are leaves on the trees. At least that would block the view.

We came to this campground because it was close to the Kenova Pumpkin House. We rented a cabin on a cute little pond. It was a nice setting and it was a little out of the way from the main part of the campground which was nice. It had a deck that overlooked the pond and the campground. The only thing I didn't like was that it was close to the interstate and you could hear the traffic all night. If you want convenience, though, this is good since it is close to the interstate.

Fantastic cabins!

This is a very cozy park tucked in between US60 and I64. We are in site 14 and its not quite level, but they were generous with gravel so the drainage is good! No parking in puddles!The staff is great, friendly, upbeat. The gentleman who led us to the site helped us get positioned, and squared up.The site has a patio, bench, picnic table, fire pit, and a huge gas grill. There is more privacy than usual at KOA, pine trees between sites.Well be back! You do have to watch for the entrance, there is a big KOA sign but its not aligned with the actual turn, so be careful.

Maybe I am not used to KOA prices but $52 a night for a FHU seems high! The owners were nice and accommodating! The site while somewhat level was gravel and wet from day’s storm (poor drainage) ! I booked from afar and was not able to find other campgrounds near Charleston, WV.

Great RV/Camper spots for your family! Although I’m more of a tent camper myself, my family members have some medical issues that require them to sleep inside and have access to electricity, so Fox Fire turned out to be a really good spot for that. Camper spots are a decent size, but they can feel a little cramped on the bigger weekends. Their camp store is stocked with everything you may need and not to mention their swimming lake is pretty fun and provided hours of entertainment for the youngins in our group. Super cool programs too! Can’t complain about a movie out by the lake. Ooh and make sure you rent a banana bike! Super fun.

We loved our stay here! The owners are so friendly and welcoming. They had so much for kids to do: a swimming pond with inflatables, gem mining, banana bikes, and more. They showed a movie at 9pm on a big inflatable movie screen outside. Lots of other families there to hang out with.

The only downside was that the tent sites are close to the interstate, so there was A LOT of road noise all night. Otherwise, it was a great camping experience!

This is a very nice KOA camp. I arrived after dark so I didn’t get a good look at the place but the entrance is well marked. The family restrooms are very nice and comfortable. The sites have great electric and water, I’ll try the sewer before I leave. It’s damp and muddy but it’s December so that’s expected. I took off a star for the street noise. The campground is right next to a major highway. There is car and truck noise all day long and all night too. Maybe it would be better in the summer when there are leaves on the trees. At least that would block the view.

Pros: entrance/check-in area is very cute and welcoming, staff is extremely nice and accommodating. Cons: dirty, dumpsters were overflowing and the whole place smelled like a dump station, cats wandering around, our pull-thru site was unlevel and a mud pit, horrible road noise. Would never stay here again.

This campground has excellent customer service. The crew are stoked to be there and it showed. Tent camping had its downfall. I had a tent pad, which was a great choice because the ground was soggy from rainfall earlier in the day. The proximity to the road and the loud night critters kept me up for a few hours after dark. Other than this, it was a great quick one night stay!

We stayed 2 nights at the KAO. Even though we had a back site that was close to the interstate, it was surprisingly quiet. The grass had just been mowed which made for a little bit of a mess inside, everything was nice and clean.

Staff was exceptionally friendly and helpful. Only stayed here one night on our transit to Kentucky. Facilities and sites were exceptionally clean. Yes, it’s close to the interstate so you can hear traffic but for a short stay this campground can’t be beat. Be careful of the turn onto the property….it’s a sharp right hand turn with a dip….take it slow!!!

We were stopping here on our way to another KOA. At the check in area I noticed that the park looked nice. When we arrived at our site (we were escorted), the escort left and my wife noticed trash in the fire pit. I called the office, told them there was a lot of garbage at our site including a lot of cigarette butts. A young man came and cleaned up the trash in and around the fire pit and he said he was sorry about it not being clean. There were also piles of wet dog food. There is a terrible sewer smell that continues to float over to our site. There were many complaints of this on the KOA site. The highway is close and very noisy. (See video) Not worth the money to stay here. It might be worth $10 for an overnight stop, we didn’t even hook up electric or water. Ran fans, lights and water pump off of solar. Not at all what I expect from a KOA.

Beautiful sites and park. Easy in and out.

We stopped here for one night as a stop for our trip home to NY from SC. We checked in around 7 pm and they walked us to our site AND helped us back in! This was our first trip with this camper and it was such a help after a day of driving in the rain. The site (19) was roomy and level. The owners were friendly. The playground was great for our daughters to burn off some energy. We would stay here again, especially for a weekend to see the area. We also had full hookups which was great.