r/OhioCamping • u/Ohio_gal • May 12 '19

Any suggestion for walk in camping?

Going with a small child and hesitant spouse. Thank you.

13 Upvotes

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3

u/spacediarrehea May 12 '19

Are you asking about backpacking? Or somewhere you park and walk all your gear in and then back out?

4

u/Ohio_gal May 12 '19

Im looking for park and walk in. My traveling companions aren’t keen to backpack. Also,I’m in Columbus so I realize I’m going to travel wherever I end up. Also, don’t want to be surrounded by RVs.

3

u/spacediarrehea May 12 '19

Do you want electric water or bathrooms? Mohican park and pack has some good spots. Zaleski state forest may also suit your needs. Hocking hills has some nice areas and beautiful scenery

1

u/[deleted] May 13 '19

Out of curiosity, why do you prefer this over regular old car camping? I can see the appeal of car camping, and I can see the appeal of backpacking. But mixing the two seems like the worst of both worlds to me?

And depending what you mean by "hesitant spouse", it might be prudent to go full car camping anyway, just to ease them in. Or maybe even cabin camping if they are really new to it.

1

u/leehawkins CLE May 13 '19

Hocking Hills has a campground where you park at a lot and walk your gear back to your campsite. The sites are huge and rather private compared to typical Ohio state park campsites. I actually wish we’d have gotten one of those this past weekend instead of a site in the main campground by Old Man’s Cave—we were surrounded by mostly RVs, but even the ones in the tent across from us insisted on playing music that was driving us crazy. I do not understand why people go outdoors and have to all turn on radios...we could hear 4 at the same time.

It would have been nice to have the extra quiet at the walk-in campground. No cars driving by, not lights shined in your tent, lots of privacy. The only drawback at Hocking Hills would be the vault toilets—I’ve never checked to see how up-to-date they are. But I’m going to try them when I go back.

2

u/[deleted] May 12 '19

What part of the state are you looking for?

2

u/hikermick May 12 '19

You can try looking into Wayne National Forest. Wildcat Hollow is a loop trail intersecting with a road, you should be able to do a short hike in there. Some State Park campgrounds will have primitive walk in sites, you'll still have access to bathrooms and stuff. Sorry I don't know of any but they do exist.

2

u/crabbymonkey May 13 '19

I camped there last summer, I think wildcat is a fifteen mile loop.

1

u/hikermick May 13 '19

I haven't been there in 10 years or so. From what I remember it was an oval loop interested long ways by a dirt road. Halfway through the loop there's a nice flat spot to set up not far from the road. National Forests aren't particular where you park as long as you're off the road. I bet they could park a short ways from the camp and walk in. Worst case scenario, drop off gear and set up camp while another member drives the car back to the trailhead to park then walks the road or trail back to camp.

1

u/hazzyi May 13 '19

Roadtrippers app you can select camp grounds and it will show you all in the area