roadtripper5306381

Camped at Scoria Pit on 9/11/20 for 1 night in a tent and again on 9/25/20 with a 19-ft trailer for 2 nights. Both stays were on the BLM grassland area with free dispersed camping. Primitive with no facilities. There were very high winds on both occasions and 40-degree nights. The road is dirt with some very deep ruts which may be difficult to navigate, especially if muddy. Some big rigs managed to park up on a ridge. We camped well away from others to avoid generator noise. Clear nights provide an impressive night sky as it is totally dark. The drive to the top edge of the pit gives beautiful Badland views. Scoria Pit makes a good home base for sightseeing in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Watch out for the buffalo piles! There is excellent cell phone coverage.

Wolf Run St Pk has very shallow open unlevel sites, no privacy. Sites were clean. Cherry Trail was nice. Other trails were overgrown and ended abruptly, encountered ticks in the high grasses on the unmaintained lake trail. The outhouses are the worst I've seen in 50+ years of camping. No lids on toilets, no doors to outhouse & there seems to be absolutely no treatment of excrement in pits, therefore flies & bugs are unbearable. The smell extends far into the campground. Horrendous! There is a port-a-potty at the picnic ground that is a highly recommended alternative and well worth the drive.The Ohio State Parks pamphlet & Wolf Creek pamphlet indicate a Nature Center. I asked the woman in the park entrance booth & she said it was a brown building just up the road. When I told her I looked but couldn't locate it, she then offered up that it is no longer open. I found the broken down building that was a bit larger than an outhouse, a disappointment as I go to parks with nature centers for my grand kids. When reserving a site on Reserve America there were many sites with no pictures or specs on shade & site length. That should have been a red flag. I gave a 2-star rating only because the lake is beautiful & I imagine excellent for boaters. I would not return to this campground.

Camped here on 5/11/23. The cost reflects a 25% senior discount. This campground is conveniently located just off Rt 75. Though we arrived late in the day the campground attendant chose a great site right on the lake for us, #27, which was directly across from the shower house. There was a filtered water refill station and the water was nice and cold. The sites are nicely spaced and clean, each with a concrete picnic table and pad, water & electric and the parking pad is gravel. A few people were fishing and fish could be seen jumping out of the water. We also saw bullfrogs, a heron and a muskrat. We noted sites #82 & #92 for the future. We camped here previously on 3/24/19, site #80.

Camped at Coleman Lake 5/12/23 to 5/16/23. Great campground in remote location in the Talladega Forest. Camped in site #32, $10 with senior pass. Nice clean site provides water/electric, level asphalt drive and pad, pebbled area around pad and wooden pedestal picnic table, 2 tall lantern posts and firepit. Shower rooms are large and provide a bench, hooks and plenty of hot water. There is an additional overflow campground just down the road where we camped in 2019 - no amenities in overflow but vault toilets were clean and sites were roomy, $4 with sr pass in 2019. There is a well-maintained easy 1.8-mile hiking trail that circles Coleman Lake with great views of the lake and small waterfalls along with many benches along the way to rest. Perfect weather/no bugs at this time of the year. The campground was a good base camp to travel to Little River National Preserve and Cherokee Rock Village.

Camped 5/16/23. Sites were in an open grassy area close together. Pad was a sand/gravel mix which was pretty messy. Site was not clean. Nothing special here. Cost of $35 was with a senior discount. The shower was nice. This place is too crowded to relax but it did quiet down at night.

Extremely clean neat campground with many sites right on Pelican Lake. Grounds are well-manicured, not a weed in the grass, and nice level roomy site pads that are well separated. We strolled along the lake and viewed waterfowl. Impressively clean modern restroom/shower facility, actually the best I've seen across the USA and we travel a lot. There are also vault toilets around the campground that we didn't check out. At this time you can't just pull in and choose a site and pay. You are required to call the toll-free reservation number at the check-in kiosk if you don't have a previous reservation. Though the site cost is $26 there is a mandatory day use fee of $7, plus a $2 reservation fee plus tax so the actual total cost was $36.56. Being late Sept we were the only campers in sight. There were 4 sites occupied and 77 open sites at this time.
We had a previous stay in one of their small cabins that has only shelving, a tiny wood table with bench seats and beds with sleeping mats. The mat was thin and springs poked through from underneath. Very uncomfortable! Nice outside sitting area with views of the lake. Restrooms are close.

Stayed in Site #54 in Loop A on 6/22/21, which was a nice site with an asphalt drive and gravel picnic area. All sites are large, level and staggered for extra privacy with many right on Melvern Lake. There is a grassy area along the lake perfect for relaxing and viewing the sunset and also a gravel path around the entire lake for hiking. Campground was quiet and clean. Previous reviewer mentioned the check in. We came in at 3pm and also discovered there was no direction or way to pay except that an attendant arrives at 4pm. We chose a site but did not set up because the sign also said some sites may be reserved or taken. None were marked. The attendant arrived and stated 4 pm is check-in and check-out time. They do not mark reserved sites, nothing goes on a post. She could not take cash. I asked what to do if coming in late and leaving early as there are no envelopes to leave payment. She shrugged and said there is no way to handle that. Very unusual.

We just happened to find this campground driving along Rt 12 on our way home east. We drove the dusty rough dirt road through the grasslands to find this hidden gem. We stayed in site 17 in the Willow Hollow loop right on the edge of the sand beach of Deadman's Basin Reservoir. We were the only campers on the 1st loop. There are beautiful views of grasslands, mountains and stunning blue-green water. The vault toilets are very clean. There is a 2nd loop down another road, the Bluebird loop, which had 2 campers. We took a walk on the hillside for a perfect view of the sunset. The only downside was the high wind which you had to lean into to keep from blowing over! It had to be 40 mph or more. This is one of my favorite campsites ever.

Devil Creek is a quiet beautiful primitive campground set amongst the trees. Sites are spacious with black top pads. The vault toilets are very clean. The hosts were very kind and friendly.

Stayed at Dam West Campground on 6/21/21, site #24. The cost was $8 using our senior pass. This site has a spacious double-wide asphalt pad and is also extra long. Sites are well-spaced and very level. There is a nice circular raised concrete area with fire ring and grate. The grounds are clean and well maintained.. Many sites are right on Carlyle Lake and others have great lake views. The restroom at the end of this loop consists of individual-use rooms with toilet, sink and shower in each. There is a centrally located field for play along with a basketball court and 4 horseshoe pits. This end of the campground is close to Rt 75 so there is noise from traffic and trains. We stayed at this campground again on our way home, 7/7/21, in site #73. We got the last site, camp full on a Wed night. This area has a community air-conditioned shower house/restroom.