Hocking Hills State Park Campground

This campground is not as nice as most Ohio state park campgrounds, in my opinion. The sites seem tighter than most and the entry road up to the sites is narrow and winding and dangerous if someone is coming fast in the opposite direction. Especially if they're in a big rig or fifth wheel. The campground is right in the middle of the area attractions so great location. The camp store is nice. The staff friendly and the restrooms are pretty typical of other Ohio state parks - clean enough but not great, old. The noise level is okay. It's an ok campground but there are other campgrounds in the area that I have stayed at and like better than this state park campground.

We spent a stormy November night here and although the weather made for a rough night, I have little criticism of the campground. We arrived to find that there were perhaps 5 other occupied sites throughout the grounds, so had our pick. Knowing that a storm was closing in we were looking for a site with strategically located trees that would suspend tarps for additional shelter from the wind and rain and had no problem.

I cannot speak for conditions during the busy season, but our experience was serene with abundant deer, including a few bucks, and yipping coyotes in the distance. The nearby shower house was a total shock. After a quick inspection my wife came running back to the car demanding that my son and I have a look for ourselves. We opened the door, took a step inside and felt as though we'd entered the lobby bathroom of a W hotel. Pristine with granite-ish tiling, outlets near the sinks, stainless steel shelf running the length of the mirror...I've never seen anything like it in a state park. As I'm not sure of the condition of the other shower houses, check them out for yourself or find a site within walking distance of this one, near the pool.

As you continue down the main road past the pool there is some kind of pump station and a water tower at the end of the road. The pump station made a low hum that may or may not be a bother. We couldn't hear it from our site but worth keeping in mind.

Our site included a picnic table, fire ring, and nothing else.

We had no AT&T cell reception.

Nice state park in SE. Ohio. One of the busiest state parks in Ohio. The campground is located on a ridge. The road up to the campground is very narrow, with 2-3 very tight curves. If you have a 34' + RV, especially a trailer, you will have to swing out into the other lane to stay on the asphalt. Over-all the campsites (about 150) run the full variety from large and level to tilted and close together. So if you have a 30'+ RV, it might be worth your time to do a drive by to mark down a few sites to reserve for a future visit. If you need to fill your water tanks, there is a water faucet as you emerge onto the ridge after the drive up the twisty campground access road. It's in a bad spot, because you will have to turn your rig around for the water on the other side of the road. One of only 3 campgrounds in Ohio to have a pool in the campground. On our visit two years ago, it could use a upgrade. The showerhouses (3) are OK. For the amount of people in the campground they were kept rather clean considering.

The main hiking trails to the Hocking Hills trail complex can be had from the campground, but it might be too much of a hill (1/2 mile) to get back into the campground for small kids or older adults. There is plenty of parking if you go back down the campground access hill and drive a 1/4 mile to the Hocking Hills Visitor Center.

There is a nice fishing lake behind the campsites (Rose Lake) but in order to get a canoe or kayak to it is hard. There is one paved (very steep) road to the dam area located behind the pool area. You can't take your vehicle down there, so you must carry you kayak about 500' to the waters edge down a very steep single width road.

There are many sections to the whole Hocking Hills area. Worth checking out is Cedar Falls, Ash Cave, Rockhouse and Conkles Hollow and a few more. That is why a weeks visit you can try a different hike every day, all within a 5 or 10 minute radius of the campground.

Yes, it is a busy park, especially on the weekends the main Old Mans hiking trails and parking lot will be full. There was a upgrade to the parking lot a few years back that has greatly improved that area and added more parking.

My wife and I first camped here in October 1973. That was our first camping trip as a married couple. Hocking Hills has been our favorite camping destination in Ohio. Our kids grew up camping here.
Even though the park has now been "found" and is overrun with tourists and vacationers it still retains much of it's beauty.
The campgrounds have 3 nice shower houses and 3 vault latrines. There are three playground areas.There are water fountains throughout the campgrounds all of which have potable water spigots on the backsides of them. Also there is a rv dump station and a winter hydrant for water all year round. They also have a pool that opens in May it has a kiddy pool too.
A lot of trees have been lost over the recent years due to wind, snow, Emerald Ash Borer and the natural process of the forest maturing.
Cell service is spotty. We also see folks using satellite dishes regularly.
There is plenty of great hiking in and around the park. We have been camping here for over 40 years an we still find new areas to hike.

Great campground in the middle of the best SP in Ohio. Our site was on the end o a turn around so it was very private. Beautiful tree cover for shade. Great hiking all around. We ate a great dinner at the lodge for our anniversary. Paved and 30 amp, no water. Our site was heavily sloped to the point that out trailer younger was almost touching the ground. Nice clean shower house, two pools, laundry. Looked like they are renovating several sites to have water as well.

We had some difficulty getting to this campground, google maps had the entrance at the intersection of 664 and 374, my Garmin had it down a dirt road off of 374. We got to the intersection, with many cars behind us, saw a campground sign and turned onto 374. Don't do this! The roads all leading to the park are narrow and winding with no way for a rig our size to turn around. We were committed, glad that we had the Garmin, because no cell phone signal (AT&T or Verizon), made reroute get on my iPhone impossible. So, we drove in a loop, fairly confident the entrance would be just before we reached were we shouldn't have turned. Ends up, we weren't the only ones who had difficulty finding the campground, both of our neighbors had similar issues. The only sign for the campground is right in front of the entrance.

The checkin is a drive up window, no need to go inside. From there, the road leading up to the campground is narrow and curvy, not a problem as long as there is no one coming the other way. To back into our site, we had to go completely to the end of the road and loop back to be facing the correct direction. The paved pad looked small, but we could hang off the back and still have room for our truck in front.

The campground has a variety of hookups, our entire row was 50 amp and full, some are electric only. Most sites back up to the woods, with only a handful being between two roads. Most sites have enough room between them to spread out, but there is no privacy. There are bathhouses, latrines, laundry and a pool, which closed and was drained after Labor Day. Our site, number 30, backed up to the waste treatment facility and it ran 24/7. Kind of took away from the quiet of the park. The firepits where lifted quite a ways off the ground and the sides were tall, making it difficult to see the fire as you sat beside it and the coals could roll our from underneath the pit. Seemed strange, and somewhat dangerous to us, but we saw the same setup at another Ohio state park. We decided, after the first night, that it was a waste to use firewood when you couldn't see the fire.

Our AT&T phones worked fairly well at the campsite, but once we left the campground area they were worthless until we got into town. Our Verizon mifi didn't work outside of the park, unless close to one of the small country stores.

This is a great location to visit all the interesting features of Hocking Hills SP and the surrounding areas. Water levels were extremely low while we were there and little to no water flowed on the waterfalls in the area.

One big complaint, people seemed to speed through the campground, even when towing.

I don't know what else is in the area, so I'm not sure I would stay again. If I did, I'd make sure I was away from the waste processing facility.

What a wonderful and beautiful state park. The rock formations and the all the places to hike. Old Mans Cave is magical. The admission is free, and offers so much to see.

We loved the Hocking Hills area for its great hiking! Old Man's Cave and hiking is the highlight here! The scenic location is why I gave 4 stars rather than 3 stars.

This is a family campground with a couple of playgrounds a swimming pool and fishing down at the lake. There's also a laundry room and activities at the park.

All sites are smallish with a paved pad but many pads were not level. Many tent sites had no level spot to pitch a tent and Very little privacy between. There are 2 shower houses and latrines which are okay. The facilities seemed average (except for pool which looked nice). We were next to the showers which stayed busy until after 10pm.

Drove in and the woman at the office was really very disappointing. Ask for a site near a toilet and she gave us one by the pit toilet in the overflow. So we went to the closest flush one since it was after she left and we were only there for one night. Bugs all over the water faucet and really rusted out feel.

The hiking was great but you can easily hike without staying here. We will probably just hike the Old Mans Cave trail and head on down the road.

Used to be one of the best sites when I was young in the 80’s but the area has of course exploded into becoming the “little smokies.” It’s been moving away from tent sites to becoming almost exclusively RV oriented and getting a weekend tent site is getting problematic from the start of the season through the end of fall. I prefer the nearby Lake Hope if you’re a tent camper but decent camping can still be had here if you can come during the week in early spring or fall or are good to book in advance. I did winter primitive camping here in 1995 and saw a bobcat once. Majestic.