Best Tent Camping near West Columbia, WV

We enjoyed walk-in site #3 during a holiday weekend. The walk-in sites afford more privacy and tree cover than the drive-up sites, where you can see your neighbors on all sides. No showers or sinks, just several vault toilets. Potable water available throughout the camp. Camp sites are $10 a night.

Neighbors were fairly quiet, and there is one trail that leads down to Burr Oak lake. The trail is 1 mile, but it seems to link up with some longer yellow and green-blazed trails that go around the lake. The campground is also a short drive from the Wildcat Hollow trail head in the Athens Unit of Wayne National Forest

This is a strange campground, but not a bad one. It is minutes away from downtown Point Pleasant. I had spent the afternoon exploring the town and didn't feel like driving further. There aren't many campgrounds nearby, so this place came to the rescue.

The park's main feature is a lake that looks to be artificial. Maybe an old gravel quarry? The terrain around the lake is nicely landscaped. There is a paved path along the shore, along with picnic tables and shelters. Kayak rentals are available and the lake is stocked with fish.

Most of the campground is RV focused, but I stayed at a primitive tent site. These are located closer to the entrance. There are no site numbers. Just pull your car up onto the grass and set up wherever. A few picnic tables and electrical outlets are spaced out along the road. There were a few other campers here when I visited, but there was enough room for us to maintain good separation. No shade trees or shrubs for privacy, though.

This is not a particularly quiet or restful campground. The day use area around the lake was hopping, with people coming and going well into the night. No closing time, or just not enforced? Not sure. Having so much traffic was a little uncomfortable from a safety standpoint, but nothing untoward happened while I was there. There was also quite a bit of noise from the nearby road and railroad.

The biggest problem with this campground was the bathroom. It was one of the worst I've seen. It may very well have been cleaned recently, but it was so dark and dingy that I couldn't tell. No windows and just a single bare incandescent bulb for illumination. Reminded me of a gas station toilet. The sink barely drained, the toilet barely flushed, and the urinal looked like it was about to fall off the wall. I have used vault toilets that were much, much nicer than this. I found myself wishing for one of those. Gross.

There is only one other bathroom located closer to the RV area, and this looked to be just as bad. To be clear, there are only two single occupancy men's rooms for the ENTIRE campground. Yes, there are a few porta potties scattered around as well, but this is ridiculous. This place needs to invest in better facilities.

A cute little place, just 4 campsites and a vault toilet that is relatively clean and well-stocked. This roadside campground is near homes and a small town, so not much traffic during the day, but quite a bit during the morning and evening commuting time. Within the national forest, you will find some historic covered bridges and quite a few hiking and horse trails. The town of Marietta is just 5 miles away, and has all the things you need.

Each site has a picnic table, fire ring, and lantern pole. It’s designed for tent camping, but Hamlet (our small camper) fit fine with some strategic parking. No drinking water is available and the creeks are quite muddy, so come prepared with water! No privacy between sites and not much shade, which worked fine in May but probably wouldn’t be much fun in the heat of the summer. It is completely FREE, though, and you can stay for up to 14 days. There are quite a few small campgrounds in the area just like this one. There is no phone service within 4-5 miles of the campground.

Note: We have noticed that people stop by or drive through in the evening. Sometimes they stay for a couple of minutes and other times for just a couple of hours. Due to its location, this campground could be a meeting spot of sorts, but didn’t witness any shenanigans.

Hocking Hills State Park, Oh-Site 89. https://thehockinghills.org/

Hocking Hills State Park offers close proximity to most of the popular natural attractions...Old Man’s Cave, Ash Cave, Cantwell Cliffs, etc....but for a tent camper that prefers solitude and space, I found it unappealing.

I did arrive late on a Monday evening, mid-October and got one of the last available sites. Packed on a Monday night!

I found the camping sites a bit cramped both in depth and width. Site 89 and 90 shared the same parking pad. Limited flat locations existed for a tent and my tent footprint is fairly small. You do have a firepit and picnic table with all three in fairly close proximity, so you must be extremely cautious with wind direction when deciding for a fire, else you’ll have embers dotting your tent and picnic table. Even though the neighbors were trying to be respectfully quiet...you heard every conversation and saw their every move.

No electric, which is fine in my book...the water spigot is centrally located on the loop and happened to be next to my site.

The restroom/shower facilities were not well cared for upon my visit. The floors were very muddy and trash was piled up in the corner of one stall and out of necessities.

Construction and dump truck noise started early with a project behind the restrooms.

The visitor’s center was well-stocked and the employee was pleasant. Cell service is unavailable and even sketchy at the visitor’s center. Wood can be purchased at the visitor’s center.

Close proximity to local attractions and a swimming pool are likely the big draw.

Knowing that I prefer solitude and distance when camping, I’ll likely not return but choose nearby Lake Hope State Park for my local visits.

Most of the sites at this state park campground are very small and don’t have much level ground. Even the sites meant for RVs and trailers are right on top of each other. It’s almost like they took what should have been one site and made it two. There’s a handful of sites that offer a little space and level ground for tent campers. You may or may not have a picnic table and fire ring with a grill at your campsite when you arrive. According to staff, people take the fire rings and I guess there’s nothing they can do. Bathrooms were clean. The lake view trail was nice and accessible from the campground.

General: 172-site state park with a mix of full hook-up, electric, and no hook-ups in separate areas plus a 33-site family hike-in camp, two group camps, and three cabins. All sites need to be reserved – no walk-ins are allowed. There is a beautiful visitor center, and the camp office has a small store as well. There is a very nice coin-operated laundry room. Don’t count on cell service– with a fleeting one bar of Verizon, it was just enough to tease us, but the break was also a welcome respite. 

Site Quality: Standard issue for state parks with paved driveways, picnic table, and fire ring, however, there are a few things to note: Some sites are decidedly not level (#105 is very sloped). 103 and 101 meet at a V at the back end and this impedes the separation between the sites. Our site (103) had a drop-off between the driveway and the rest of the site that could pose a tripping hazard if you are not careful. All of the restrooms emit a hum, but the wastewater treatment facility is very loud and is located directly behind the first 9-10 full hook-up sites. 

Bathhouse: The restrooms were clean, but the showers were just adequate (not the worst camp shower but definitely not the best I have experienced) but at least there was hot water. 

Activities: We came for the hiking, and we were not disappointed. This park is gorgeous! We hiked the Blue trail (Grandma Gatewood Trail) to Cedar Falls, taking in Upper and Lower Falls, and Old Man’s Cave along the way, and returned via the Rim Trail, which was much easier (fewer roots and up and down). We received a color-coded map of the trails upon check-in but had difficulty deciphering it, especially the mileage. We went to the Camp Office before starting our hike to get clarity. Once on the trails, they were well-marked with either signs or blazes. While you could do a long hike (12 miles one-way) from one end of the park to the other), don’t miss Ash Cave – we drove there the next morning before leaving. There are also mountain biking trails, two playgrounds (the one more centrally located is a bit dated and does not look very safe but there is a newer, larger one at the very end of the road (near the lake trail) and there are also horseshoe pits and a volleyball net there. In season, there is a large swimming pool. 

The campground itself gets 3 stars for some of its flaws but the scenery is so beautiful, 4 stars are merited, in my opinion. I would recommend reserving in one of the “spurs” as there would be less traffic.

Campground Review: With a close friend coming to visit from Spain, I wanted to show her a cool backpacking location in Southeastern Ohio. Zaleski State Forest seemed like a good choice for a new backpacker. There are multiple loops to trek, averaging about 10 miles per loop. Overall the trails are well maintained (minus a few dense areas). There was almost an excessive amount of blazes. Campsites are plentiful along the trails. We stayed at Campsite C. Each site has access to communal well-water and a restroom. Each site usually has a small fire ring and logs to sit on. Overall, the campsites were pretty decent and secluded, but nothing special view wise aside from the typical Ohio forest. I would say pretty overall, but nothing quite outstanding.

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