We only spent one night here but had a great time. The campground is a very quick drive from I-64, no more than 20 minutes from Exit 133.
There are several different 'loops,' some of which are first-come first-serve and some of which are reserved. We're not adventurous enough to just show up and hope for the best, so we reserved a spot on C loop. The sites are back-in only but really big; I had no problems positioning our pup and even had room to turn my truck around. Our site had a huge double picnic table and a fire ring with a built-in grill. The pads are gravel; I only had to do minimal leveling work before we opened up.
The campground was full but the sites are spaced out far enough and the trees are so full that other than being able to see a couple of other campers it was honestly hard to tell there was anyone else around.
There was a bathhouse about 500 yards, give or take, from our site. Two unisex bathrooms with flush toilets/urinals/sinks and two unisex, fully accessible showers (the shower rooms also had toilets and sinks). Very clean and well-maintained. I feel like it would be a bit of a walk if you were on the 'back' part of the loop, the way the sites are laid out - there's no way to cut across the middle that I could see, so you would have to walk the road all the way around to it. We happened to get one of the sites adjacent to it.
The sites on our loop had electric hookups but no water; there was a water station near the bath house but we just took a big three-gallon jug for drinking and I brought our dirty pans home to wash.
The only minor issue we experienced was around 10:00 p.m., which is when visitors (there's a ranger station at the front of the park and they hand out window tags based on whether you're overnight or visiting) had to clear out. There was a moderate amount of traffic on our loop, with headlights shining into our camper - only an issue for us because our kids were already in bed at that point. There was also a little bit of extra noise when a few folks stopped by the dumpster (near the bath house) on their way out. Again though, this was minor and didn't last more than ten minutes or so.
There are a lot of things to do. We didn't get to check out everything, but we took the girls to swim at the beach on Cave Run Lake and hiked one of the several trails within the Twin Knobs Recreation Area. The trail was a mile long and very clearly marked out and well-maintained. There are also basketball courts, horseshoe pits and I saw a volleyball court down the by the beach. There was a ranger-led program at the amphitheater the evening we checked in but the girls were having so much fun in the water we didn't make it over to check that out.
Things were a little spread out; the campground map makes some things look walkable that really (practically) aren't for little kids. There were a LOT of folks on bikes so that's an option if you enjoy that. We drove our truck around to get between activities. There's plenty of parking everywhere so that wasn't an issue either. If you're particularly into hiking, a couple of the loops have spurs over to the trails so you might want to check those out. I know when we were hiking the Summit/Observatory Trail we passed by J-loop.
Checkout was super easy; there was a drop box at the gate and we left our window hanger in that and were on our way.
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Overall, we would definitely go back - and probably will!
There are several different 'loops,' some of which are first-come first-serve and some of which are reserved. We're not adventurous enough to just show up and hope for the best, so we reserved a spot on C loop. The sites are back-in only but really big; I had no problems positioning our pup and even had room to turn my truck around. Our site had a huge double picnic table and a fire ring with a built-in grill. The pads are gravel; I only had to do minimal leveling work before we opened up.
The campground was full but the sites are spaced out far enough and the trees are so full that other than being able to see a couple of other campers it was honestly hard to tell there was anyone else around.
There was a bathhouse about 500 yards, give or take, from our site. Two unisex bathrooms with flush toilets/urinals/sinks and two unisex, fully accessible showers (the shower rooms also had toilets and sinks). Very clean and well-maintained. I feel like it would be a bit of a walk if you were on the 'back' part of the loop, the way the sites are laid out - there's no way to cut across the middle that I could see, so you would have to walk the road all the way around to it. We happened to get one of the sites adjacent to it.
The sites on our loop had electric hookups but no water; there was a water station near the bath house but we just took a big three-gallon jug for drinking and I brought our dirty pans home to wash.
The only minor issue we experienced was around 10:00 p.m., which is when visitors (there's a ranger station at the front of the park and they hand out window tags based on whether you're overnight or visiting) had to clear out. There was a moderate amount of traffic on our loop, with headlights shining into our camper - only an issue for us because our kids were already in bed at that point. There was also a little bit of extra noise when a few folks stopped by the dumpster (near the bath house) on their way out. Again though, this was minor and didn't last more than ten minutes or so.
There are a lot of things to do. We didn't get to check out everything, but we took the girls to swim at the beach on Cave Run Lake and hiked one of the several trails within the Twin Knobs Recreation Area. The trail was a mile long and very clearly marked out and well-maintained. There are also basketball courts, horseshoe pits and I saw a volleyball court down the by the beach. There was a ranger-led program at the amphitheater the evening we checked in but the girls were having so much fun in the water we didn't make it over to check that out.
Things were a little spread out; the campground map makes some things look walkable that really (practically) aren't for little kids. There were a LOT of folks on bikes so that's an option if you enjoy that. We drove our truck around to get between activities. There's plenty of parking everywhere so that wasn't an issue either. If you're particularly into hiking, a couple of the loops have spurs over to the trails so you might want to check those out. I know when we were hiking the Summit/Observatory Trail we passed by J-loop.
Checkout was super easy; there was a drop box at the gate and we left our window hanger in that and were on our way.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Overall, we would definitely go back - and probably will!
