Camping in NE OH

[swerb]

Just got this sweet tent through one of my credit card reward programs, little guy now 5 years old ... looking to put together a little weekend camping trip sometime in August.

Haven't been camping in over 20 years. Any insight on good spots in NE OH?

[Orenthal]

Not so much NEO, but only an hour away is East Habor State Park. Went there when I was 12'ish. Gives you the option to do things near the lake, and close enough to other venues to have variety.

[swerb]

Did a little research, these seem to be the best options ...

Jellystone (ultimate kid friendly, in Mantua) - http://morganrvresorts.com/pages/jellystoneoh_homepage

Bear Creek Resort (also kid friendly w/ a lot of amenities, near Canton) - http://bearcreek.us/

Wildwood Lakes Family Campground - http://www.wildwoodlakes.com/

Then you got the two big state parks with all kinds of tent camping sites ...

Punderson - http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/parks/ ... fault.aspx

Pymatuning - http://www.pymatuning-state-park.org/Re ... mping.html

[Cease]

I'm a state park camper, but haven't had to entertain kids, so your needs will vary. I'd look for a place with a beach, trails, and playground to entertain while the sun is up (most all grounds have these).

For a West-Sider, you can shoot out just about a half an hour to Findlay State Park. Very convenient for a quick/easy camp, on 58 in Wellington. I also have enjoyed close state camping at Punderson and Portage Lakes.

On the private side, I've done Nelson's Ledges Quarry Park (adjacent to trail-heavy state park), but camping is a crap shoot due to all-night parties and raves that go on there. The quarry itself is pretty sweet and you can do your best "cutter" impression diving off rocks into the quarry.

[waborat]

Camping ain't really my bag, but I love Salt Fork

http://www.saltforkstateparklodge.com/

(kid friendly)

[jb]

Swerb - strated doing this as a cheap kid friendly outlet myself.

In general, I'd avoid state parks. the amenities aren't s nice as private places and they frown on beer, which is noce to have around a camp fire. Not get all crunk with your kids, but what's wrong with a pop or two?

This place is terrific for families and you almost never need reservations. On the down side, it's close to where Peeker lives. It can get fairly crowded, but it is GREAT to have a very nice, clean pool, catch and release fishing, clean modern bathrooms, and most importantly, the camp store is stocked w/ Gr8 lakes LEM. It also allows you to mix up some GOTL arcades and junk food if he gets bored, an dthere is a really good putt putt course on the premisis. Nice people, too. Low A-hole ratio and people got queit pretty early in the night and were respctful. My kids had a blast.

Ignore all the RV stuff on the sites. There's plenty of tent sites w/ h20 and even electric. Plus, you know how I loves me some NeckCar! TURN LEFT! Naw, really, I have no idae why they hype that, but they do show te races outside in a tent-a-theatre that is a stich to see. But there is open cornhole and ladder golf if you are social, like a little neckcar tail gate. It is right across the stret from lake Erie, so the cool nights are awesome.

http://www.morganrvresorts.com/pages/indiancreek_homepage

http://www.indiancreekresort.com/

I've also made the trek to Ohio's redneck riviera aka the Mohican region. Not bad, but a litle loud at night. This place was way, way better.

http://www.ohiocampers.com/map.php

I like the duuuurrrrrrrrrrrrr on the masthead

[hebner20]

Swerb - strated doing this as a cheap kid friendly outlet myself.

In general, I'd avoid state parks. the amenities aren't s nice as private places and they frown on beer, which is noce to have around a camp fire. Not get all crunk with your kids, but what's wrong with a pop or two?

This place is terrific for families and you almost never need reservations. On the down side, it's close to where Peeker lives. It can get fairly crowded, but it is GREAT to have a very nice, clean pool, catch and release fishing, clean modern bathrooms, and most importantly, the camp store is stocked w/ Gr8 lakes LEM. It also allows you to mix up some GOTL arcades and junk food if he gets bored, an dthere is a really good putt putt course on the premisis. Nice people, too. Low A-hole ratio and people got queit pretty early in the night and were respctful. My kids had a blast.

Ignore all the RV stuff on the sites. There's plenty of tent sites w/ h20 and even electric. Plus, you know how I loves me some NeckCar! TURN LEFT! Naw, really, I have no idae why they hype that, but they do show te races outside in a tent-a-theatre that is a stich to see. But there is open cornhole and ladder golf if you are social, like a little neckcar tail gate. It is right across the stret from lake Erie, so the cool nights are awesome.



http://www.morganrvresorts.com/pages/indiancreek_homepage

http://www.indiancreekresort.com/

I've also made the trek to Ohio's redneck riviera aka the Mohican region. Not bad, but a litle loud at night. This place was way, way better.

http://www.ohiocampers.com/map.php

I like the duuuurrrrrrrrrrrrr on the masthead

The scary thing in this post is that JB has kids. Just kidding.

Posted with my wife's ipad.

[Cease]

In regards to drinking at state parks- I was once pretty ripped and had a ranger stop at my site for a quick 10PM look-around. Showed the ranger my beer, told him we are drinking. He left us as we were. No problems because we weren't loud a-holes.

The site next to ours was a full on party at the moon tower, they were ejected pretty quick.

Don't be a loud a-hole. Such is life.

Can't wait until my twins are of age that I can attempt to take them camping.

[jb]

In regards to drinking at state parks- I was once pretty ripped and had a ranger stop at my site for a quick 10PM look-around. Showed the ranger my beer, told him we are drinking. He left us as we were. No problems because we weren't loud a-holes.

The site next to ours was a full on party at the moon tower, they were ejected pretty quick.

Don't be a loud a-hole. Such is life.

Can't wait until my twins are of age that I can attempt to take them camping.

Concur.

But I live in fear of The Man.

Nice ref about the moon tower.

But that Ingine crick thar place still rulz.

[OldDawg]

Did a little research, these seem to be the best options ...

Jellystone (ultimate kid friendly, in Mantua) - http://morganrvresorts.com/pages/jellystoneoh_homepage

Bear Creek Resort (also kid friendly w/ a lot of amenities, near Canton) - http://bearcreek.us/

Wildwood Lakes Family Campground - http://www.wildwoodlakes.com/

Then you got the two big state parks with all kinds of tent camping sites ...

Punderson - http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/parks/ ... fault.aspx

Pymatuning - http://www.pymatuning-state-park.org/Re ... mping.html

Hey Swerb.
Just wondering if you did your camping adventure. Where did you go?

I think camping with the little ones is a must. Heck, we'd throw the tent up in the back yard, or go visit the grandparents and pop it up in their back yard.

When our kids were little, we did Jellystone. It was a cool camp for the kids. Yogi and BooBoo putzin' around the park in golf carts. We fished. They have swimming (we didn't). I think they had evening movies (we didn't). And if I recall, they offered some camp sites with electricity and others without. So you could rough it at various degrees. My wife got the award for tough gal at camp. We were camping with our two little ones while she had #3 along for the ride. Sleeping on the ground while pregnant... she gets mad props for that. She's tougher than I!

[davemanddd]

most of these places seem like tourists traps, but if you truly wanted to get away from it all and not have to drive all that far to do it, there's a quaint little place just south of wooster on state route 3 called "long lake" near the little town of lakeville. how appropriate since there are a number of campgrounds in this area, all with lakes of varying degrees and sizes. if you're religious, there's a church camp just down the road called "round lake" too, but i think you need to belong to a certain church denomination to stay there, but i'm not for certain. i'm sure you could probably find a website about them if you really wanted to look into it though.

anyway, i used to stay at long lake all the time when i was a kid. actually learned to swim there in fact as they actually hold classes and teach people to swim there in the course of the camping season. i always liked going there because they had a nice sandy beach on a large spring-fed lake with all sorts of play-things like slides and swings, merry-go-rounds, monkey bars, teeter-totters and the like, but what i really liked best was their snack bar. after swimming all day, it was nice to get a decent snack like pizza or a hamburger or a hot dog and, of course, your standard ice cream and candy fare. it was a place kids truly loved to visit.

several years passed and then when i became an adult, my in-laws actually bought the place and they owned it for about 15 years before they sold it just a few years ago after they retired. we used to stay there almost every weekend through the summer while they owned it, but since they sold it, we only get down there now maybe once or twice on the major summer holiday weekends - memorial day, 4th of july or labor day and that's about it. we used to have our own permanent camp site there with a house trailer, but when my in-laws sold the place, we lost that little perk and now just go down to spend a day for a family picnic.

long lake has been a campground with a storied family tradition for over 90 years but for several years during the 70's & 80's the place got quite run-down, turning into a haven for redneck drunks, incestuous hillbillies, jealous wife-beaters and motorcycle gang-types, but after my in-laws bought it, they cleared out all the riff-raff and made several improvements to it including installing a showerhouse/bathroom, a small basketball court, sand volleyball court, bingo hall and softball field. they also cleared out a lot of the dilapidated house trailers from the permanent campsites and then installed electric and water hook-ups to each of the temporary campsites.

as my father-in-law got into his early 60's, it just got to be too much work for him to maintain and so he sold it to a guy who i guess is a general contractor of sorts and he also continues to make improvements to it, even tearing down the old snack bar and installing a new, more modern one. i really have no vested interest in the place anymore since my in-laws sold it and so the policies and procedures could be slightly different now, but if you only want to camp for a weekend, they have both tent and trailer accommodations for that and if you want, you can actually become a seasonal camper too and just pay an annual fee to stay anytime you want for the whole summer. best of luck to you. enjoy!!!

[swerb]

Per JB's reccomendation, ended up going out to Indian Creek reservation in Geneva on the Lake last weekend with my 5 year old son and my buddy and his 4 and 6 year old.

Had a blast. Was as JB advertised.

Big place. Campground is prolly half a mile wide and goes back like two miles maybe. The front and middle areas are much closer to the bathhouses and all the stuff to do ... but we went all the way to the back row of the campground and were like totally secluded. Having young kids ... first time camping, it worked out well.

Really good time. Got out there about 4-5 PM Friday, set up the tent and campground, made some burgers, cracked the coolers, started a fire, and had a great time. Saturday ... there's all kinds of shit to do there. Went fishing, shot some hoops, kids hit the playground, played putt putt, got some ice cream ... and then went back to the tents and drank a massive amount of beer and listened to the Browns beat the Packers on the radio. There was an audible roar through the campground on each of Dawsons late FGs. You gotta love Clevelanders lovin their football.

Woke up Sun morning, cleaned up and got the F outta dodge. Love camping. But 2 days is enough when you're roughing it. Coulda done 3 with a bigger group of fun people.

Cool place to camp though. People were cool. Some characters. Some of those crazed hilbillies live there from May 15-Oct 15. Hard to fathom.

Give me a month out there with a video camera and I could put together a documentary that could go to Cannes and win Best Picture. Call it "Campground".

Good times though. Thanks for the recommendation JB.

[JCoz]

Thought indian creek was dry camping only? Maybe that was Mohican?

Dealbreaker IMO.

But you've got kids, could be completely different.

[swerb]

Thought indian creek was dry camping only? Maybe that was Mohican?

Dealbreaker IMO.

But you've got kids, could be completely different.

They were totally cool with drinking. Yet the security was good. Right combo.

Indian Creek security rolled around pretty regularly, police a couple times too. I can see why ... shit could get crazy out there.

People seemed pretty under control. 11 PM quiet time rule, which was respected, at least where we were.

[peeker643]

Lots of cottages in Geneva. And alcohol is their cottage industry. Wineries, bars, etc. There ain't no keeping it out of the campground as long as follow the golden rule of "Don't be an asshole".

[JCoz]

Thought indian creek was dry camping only? Maybe that was Mohican?

Dealbreaker IMO.

But you've got kids, could be completely different.

They were totally cool with drinking. Yet the security was good. Right combo.

Indian Creek security rolled around pretty regularly, police a couple times too. I can see why ... shit could get crazy out there.

People seemed pretty under control. 11 PM quiet time rule, which was respected, at least where we were.

Nice, I'll def. keep in mind. Your comments too Peek.

[swerb]

Lots of cottages in Geneva. And alcohol is their cottage industry. Wineries, bars, etc. There ain't no keeping it out of the campground as long as follow the golden rule of "Don't be an asshole".

Campground general store selling hard liquor and consisting of prolly 30% alcohol sets the tone as soon as you stop in there to check in.

[jb]

Thought indian creek was dry camping only? Maybe that was Mohican?

Dealbreaker IMO.

But you've got kids, could be completely different.

They were totally cool with drinking. Yet the security was good. Right combo.

Indian Creek security rolled around pretty regularly, police a couple times too. I can see why ... shit could get crazy out there.

People seemed pretty under control. 11 PM quiet time rule, which was respected, at least where we were.

They rolled by offering ice, too. I love that place. Like Rich said; perfect mix. No riff raff, no oppression. Fun for dads an kids.

[OldDawg]

Just a little trick to remember when your kids get older.

When your boys hit the high school era and dad is no longer cool whatsoever, hook up a group of dads and sons and organize a father-son camping and whitewater rafting trip to Ohiopyle, PA. At least for that weekend, and then for some time after, dad will be pretty cool.

[jb]

Just a little trick to remember when your kids get older.

When your boys hit the high school era and dad is no longer cool whatsoever, hook up a group of dads and sons and organize a father-son camping and whitewater rafting trip to Ohiopyle, PA. At least for that weekend, and then for some time after, dad will be pretty cool.

Or you can just push them off, right? ;-)

Paddle faster, I hear banjoes.

[OldDawg]

Just a little trick to remember when your kids get older.

When your boys hit the high school era and dad is no longer cool whatsoever, hook up a group of dads and sons and organize a father-son camping and whitewater rafting trip to Ohiopyle, PA. At least for that weekend, and then for some time after, dad will be pretty cool.

Or you can just push them off, right? ;-)

Paddle faster, I hear banjoes.

Getting tossed (or pushed off) is half the fun!
Dad's always joke about the banjos. Kids have no idea what we are talking about.
Just don't wanna hear any pigs a-squealing.

[Ziner]

Just a little trick to remember when your kids get older.

When your boys hit the high school era and dad is no longer cool whatsoever, hook up a group of dads and sons and organize a father-son camping and whitewater rafting trip to Ohiopyle, PA. At least for that weekend, and then for some time after, dad will be pretty cool.

Nah, bring them out here, camping seems a little more intense where there is the danger of bears and mountain lions.

Pic from a recent camping trip. Also why I think I will find it hard to ever leave. That and the Great American Beer Festival

[swerb]

Heading back out to Indian Creek in Geneva on the Lake this Friday ... cue back up the same trip from a couple years ago.

[peeker643]

Heading back out to Indian Creek in Geneva on the Lake this Friday ... cue back up the same trip from a couple years ago.

Do you guys hit the beach across the street? It's a nice beach. Manicured nicer than Headlands with nowhere near the crowd.

[swerb]

Heading back out to Indian Creek in Geneva on the Lake this Friday ... cue back up the same trip from a couple years ago.

Do you guys hit the beach across the street? It's a nice beach. Manicured nicer than Headlands with nowhere near the crowd.

We didn't. Great to know for Saturday though.

[peeker643]

And by the way, despite the glut of golf courses from 1985 on, how does a place like that Deer Lake CC close its doors? Perfect spot for a course.

Someone needs to buy that land and re-open that place.

[Fire Marshall Bill 2.0]

And by the way, despite the glut of golf courses from 1985 on, how does a place like that Deer Lake CC close its doors? Perfect spot for a course.

Someone needs to buy that land and re-open that place.

Dude, they're all hurting

Social/pool/tennis memberships are whats saving most CC's

One course here in town was $7k initiation 8 yrs ago...now its $0...just start paying the monthly dues

Lakeview CC....most difficult well manicured lay-out in the area

[swerb]

Had a blast again this weekend - that is a good place to go camp.

Got up there Fri afternoon and spent all day and night burning things, playing catch w the football and baseball, eating meat, and drinking copious amounts of Goose Island beer. Went and hit the Geneva on the Lake strip Sat afternoon ... lunch and wine at that big ass winery right there on the strip ... hit some video arcades ... sports memorabilia shop ... bought some fireworks and headed back to the campground at like 5 PM. Was a good way to break up Saturday.

Some crazed hilbillies there, but mostly good people. Campground has bath houses, a fishing pond, pool, a baseball field, putt putt, and a store with firewood and everything else you could need.

Really a fun way to spend a weekend. With family, friends, or both. Highly recommend.

[jb]

And by the way, despite the glut of golf courses from 1985 on, how does a place like that Deer Lake CC close its doors? Perfect spot for a course.

Someone needs to buy that land and re-open that place.

Golf courses and cemetaries. Biggest waste of real estate.

[peeker643]

And by the way, despite the glut of golf courses from 1985 on, how does a place like that Deer Lake CC close its doors? Perfect spot for a course.

Someone needs to buy that land and re-open that place.

Golf courses and cemetaries. Biggest waste of real estate.

"It's a fucking parking lot, Wang"

[skatingtripods]

Golf courses and cemetaries. Biggest waste of real estate.

"It's a fucking parking lot, Wang"

I'm going to watch that movie every day during the week of the golf outing just to make sure I don't miss the opportunity to quote the movie or throw out a reference.