Best Tent Camping near Wilsondale, WV

Camping: As far as camping goes there’s a little variety. On top of the hill there is camper sites with full hook ups which is actually quite spacious and spaced out from other sites compared to other campgrounds, but some sites are better than others of course. There is also primitive tent camping on top of the hill, but appeared slightly cramped. In my opinion the best sites are the boat in tent camping sites down the hill by the lake. The sites also run along a gravel rode that can be used to hike in. All sites throughout have fine gravel pad, picnic table, a fire ring and access to numerous bathrooms of which have a compost toilet and running water for the sink. Camp staff will deliver ice or firewood to any site if requested. Extras: The main attraction is the lake of course which is quite clean for swimming, boating or fishing, but can be a little busy at times. There are a few hiking trails near by, but I wouldn’t come here for that. There is a golf course and I did notice, but didn’t get to check out, there is a place called The Cove at Yatesville lake that has a beach for swimming with climbable inflatables in the water, kayak rentals and among other things. Conclusion: A great local place to have fun on a lake, but not somewhere I’d travel an extended distance to see.

We tent camped at one of the hike-in (it's a well maintained gravel path) sites at PLSP, #33. This is the first site on your way in. I was by myself with my son and dog so I felt more comfortable being here near the bathhouse. There are raccoons who like to eat so be sure to put your food up at night. The lake is really calm. There are boats coming in and out but not "traffic" per se, no issues at all kayaking and we went out several times. Fishing was good with rooster tails and panther martin spinners (silver), 1/8 and 1/16 oz. The water was down so there were a lot of places to paddle onto the shore and wade fish. There is some access right at the campground for littles to get in the water. I really recommend water shoes as there are some hooks/lures in the water. We never left the campground during the weekend, so I can't comment on the proximity to restaurants but it was only 5-8 min or so back to town. I had terrible phone service with Sprint here. We did have one new camper come in at 3am on Saturday morning to set up their tent and being so close to the entrance of the hike-in spots, I woke up. That was tough. When we go back, I'll pick a site further back up the hiking path and bring a wagon to tote our stuff. The staff at the gate are amazing and so friendly. The restrooms are clean. Three showers. NO ONE other than the tent campers seemed to use the bath house so I never waited for a shower or anything and there were several families tent camping and the rv sites were completely full. It's a really nice and safe place. I really recommend it and look forward to going back. One thing, the actual tent pad was 11x13 and seemed a bit small but worked fine for us.

Negatives: This campground is pretty hilly. Many of the spots don't have a great space for a tent. The flattest spots are in the middle of the circle with an open field behind them (but then you won't have any privacy or tree coverage). Even the RV camping on the inside of the loop across from us had its front tires suspended about a foot in the air to make it level though. Considering the flat spots are very limited, I don't think its a great tent campground and geared more towards RVs. One side of the campground runs against a golf course. If you're tent camping over a weekend, be prepared to have golfers tee-ing off next to you beginning at 7am. On Monday morning, be prepared for them to start mowing at 7am. The opposite side of the campground sits against a tree-line and therefore has much better spots. Many of the picnic tables are in pretty rough shape. The ones that have been replaced were done with the metal style that is dipped in plastic and are much sturdier. Likewise, some of the firepits are in pretty bad shape. I'd recommend having a grill grate with you just in case if you cook over the fire like we do. The firewood that is sold at the campground is kept in a shed but it was very wet, there also aren't any options around for buying wood outside the park. The office is supposed to be open until 6pm but one night it was closed earlier and the camp host wasn't on premises all weekend so we were stuck resorting to finding and burning downfall to get dinner cooked. 

The positives: Its a good location and there are plenty of kayaking spots on Grayson Lake. Going to "The Grotto" aka Clifty Falls is a must (4.5 mile round trip). The same boat ramp has a decent place to get in and swim. Lick Falls Loop hike can be done from the campground and was nice (4.5 miles). We also kayaked the Southern portion of Grayson Lake in Laurel Gorge and that was much quieter than the Clifty Falls area. The campground bathrooms were clean. Most of the campsites were a decent size.

This park is so beautiful in autumn! Even if a person comes for a picnic only a couple of hours they will enjoy the scenery. The hike-in tent sites are nice. I did expect a bit more privacy from a walk-in site but it was not busy when we were there, so it wasn’t a great issue. If it was busy, that may have impacted our experience greatly! There is a nice dock area if you have a boat otherwise there isn’t a whole lot to do (no hiking or anything like that). But an okay place to escape for a bit :) (the photo posted by another reviewer is a great view of the tent sites!)

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.

This state park was easy to find and we followed our RV GPS and the multiple signage to the golf course and campground(CG) area. Check in was a breeze at the gate and we headed in to find back-in site 30 with electric(50/30 AMP) and water. We were in a small cul de sac that we had to go through a tight spot with trees to get to, but had no issues getting our 39’ 5th wheel through. Once in the cul de sac, it was wide open and we easily backed into the 48’ asphalt pad(per reservation info on site lengths that seemed accurate). As we have a F450, we had to disconnect to get out of the road but the CG had no issues with you parking on the grass. We noticed that multiple campers didn’t even park on the asphalt site pad and instead moved their rigs onto the grass using the pad like a driveway. There are no FHUs. The electric was placed towards the center of the pad and worked well. The water spigots for 30 and 31 were located together and were on our door side so I needed to run about 35’ of hose going under the rig to connect. Water pressure was pretty good at around 42 psi. We got 4 bars on Verizon and a handful of OTA channels, but no major networks. We had a clear shot to the southern sky, as did the other cul de sac sites, for satellite but did not use our dish. The main CG has more tree cover so satellite service could be iffy depending on your site selection. Not all sites in this park are level with some having steep slopes. As far as bigger rigs, being able to back past the asphalt pad is a plus. The longest site in the park seemed to be pull through 50, which was also spacious but with some slope. Our site was spacious out the back and utilities side with 31 being nearby. During the weekend we got foot traffic directly through our site versus using the cut grass path on the back of our site that leads to the water. Sadly it was a mix of kids and grownups. There was about 1/2 mix of RV and tent campers. The partiers were up near the bathhouse and playground but were respectful of quiet hours. We did enjoy walking our dogs around the CG and trails. On one hike, we went down the cut grass swath behind us to the trail along the water and went right. This steep little winding trail brought us right back up to our area of the CG about 150 yards away. That trail is not one of the park’s formal trails but at the end linked to the Heritage trail where it ends near our loop. So we went up by the gate where the formal trails, Lick Falls and Heritage start as they are better trails. The dump station sits where the road coming into and out of the CG intersect, so when we got in line to dump around 11:00 AM vehicles were trying to get around the dumpers. If you plan to depart or leave or come back into the CG on Sunday, plan accordingly. We really enjoyed our 3 day stay and plan to come back during the week to kayak and again play the golf course.