Pine Grove Furnace State Park

I loved staying here in October mid week. It was peaceful and all I had were the trees surrounding me. The sites are pretty well spaced and there are some easy trails for a morning walk.
The campground host was friendly and helpful.
Unfortunately for me, the boat rentals had already closed for the season.
And there is NO Internet signal in the area. I have Verizon and on occasion had a signal, but typically had to drive a few miles down the road to deal with some work communications.

Laurel and Fuller Lakes offer a wonderful day for swimming in the summer. The campground is clean, and during the early summer you can see AT hikers coming in to do the Half Gallon Challenge (ice cream eating). The AT museum is cool, and there is a historic iron furnace on the grounds. Take the time to hike Pole Steeple Trail and enjoy the view. There is often people rock climbing or rappelling.

We have stayed in this state park many times. They have 2 sections,one for campers with dogs and one for campers who don't have dogs.Many sites have electric. The bath houses are fairly new. They have 2 lakes. The one closet to the campground has a nice beach and new bath house and snack bar. The office has a small display on the history of the park and wildlife. There is a former CCC / POW camp about a mile away. The park sells a book on it and has a map of the former camp which shows where the buildings were. Some of the sites in the campground are nice and secluded. There are some buildings left from the furnace operation,one is used as the camp store. Another is rented as a cabin. This is supposed to be the half way point on the Appalachian trail. There is a tradition that through hikers eat a half gallon of ice cream from the camp store. There is also a hostill where hikers can spend the night.

We stayed here one night while traveling through so we did not get to use many amenities. The campground was quiet and the bath house clean and newer. The bath house closest to our site did not have shower facilities, but another one a short walk away did.

Most of the RVs we saw were 30 ft and under. We did see one 40 ft Class A near the entrance. The roads in the campground are narrow with some turns that larger rigs should consider before making plans to camp here.

There was no Verizon service at our site. The camp store did have working WiFi.

Nice State Park, very wooded park and lots of wildlife could be spotted. They have an Appalachian Trail Museum and a nice General Store. We met two of the greatest fellow campers and nicest people ever, a couple sites over. Cell service was “spotted”, but their website to warn you of this. The sites do not offer water so you will have to fill your fresh water tank at one of the designated fill stations.

We wanted to spend a weekend in Gettysburg, and this campground was the ideal location. It was about 30 minutes from Gettysburg. There is no actual check in process, there is a board at the entrance where you can find your campsite information. One thing I want to mention, is that the road within the campground is one-way, and it is very tight. At some points the trees were brushing up against our camper. That being said, the sites had very good privacy as it was so wooded.

I found it interesting to stay at the halfway mark of the AT trail, and that many hikers will stop here and eat a half gallon of ice cream to celebrate their milestone. They also have an Appalachian Trail Museum.

We also did the Pole Steeple Hike which we would recommend, its short but steep but led to some pretty epic views!

Our only negatives were the tightness of the road, and there is absolutely no cell service!

Nice clean park, but those horrible showers! You push the button and it runs ‘maybe’ 2 seconds. I tried 3 different ones, freezing my buns off each time. I get it, we need to conserve water but it’s just TOO much to ask to wash your hair, etc when the water doesn’t stay on AT ALL.
The only way I’d stay here again is an overnight stay where I didn’t need to shower.

Join us on a video tour of Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania. Within the Pine Grove Furnace State Park, video uploaded here on Campendium for your immediate reference. We visit the campground, iron making furnace, picnic and day use areas, the Appalachian Trail and the Appalachian Trail Museum. The campground has a dump station and a fresh water fill station. The Appalachian Trail bisects the state park and the adjoining Michaux State Forest. AT&T and Verizon cellular service was not useable within the campground and spotty elsewhere with 3G service on the AT&T cellular network.

Overall, a very nice campground. Sites, for the most part, were good size. That said, I’m glad my travel trailer was no bigger than it was as I had a tough time backing into site 4. Looked to me like virtually every other site would have been a piece of cake to back into; just my luck. Restrooms were clean and well maintained. The showers, as noted in another review, were push button style. A tad inconvenient but not all that bad and the water was warm but not overly hot. I found it very comfortable and refreshing.
Normally I’m able to walk my dogs all around a campground...not here. Dogs were banned in the sections of the campground that had ‘no pets’ sites.
Good hiking all around and the AT is just down the road from the campground. Overall a very nice place.

Stayed for a few nights back in October 2020. Great getaway, host was wonderful. Cut down all our own wood. Showers where okay, but bad by far. Good for a quiet getaway