Locust Lake State Park Campground Pennsylvania
Locust Lake State Park Overview
Locust Lake State Park campground has 282 campsites and is located in a beautiful forest next to Locust Lake. Tent camping is permitted on the north side of the lake and in the trailer/RV camping is on the south side of the lake. There are 77 campsites with electric hookups. Each campsite also has a table, fire ring and grill. The campground has drinking water, flush toilets, hot showers and a dump station. Group camping is also available. And there’s also a number of walk-in campsites.
Locust Lake State Park also has a visitor center, camp store (with wood, ice and supplies), boat rentals, boat ramp and picnic area.
Locus Lake State Park – Area Recreation
Hiking, fishing, boating, canoeing, kayaking, swimming, hunting and winter sports are all popular outdoor activities at the park. Boat rentals area also available.
Two other Pennsylvania State Parks in the area include Hickory Run State Park and Tobyhanna State Park.
Make a Reservation for Locust Lake State Park
Amenities
- Amphitheater
- Bait Shop
- BBQ Grills
- Boat Launch/Ramp
- Boat Ramp
- Boat Rental
- Boat Trailer Lot
- Camp Store
- Campfire Center
- Campground Host
- Campsite Tables
- Concession Stand
- Dock
- Drinking Water
- Dump Station
- Electrical Hookup
- Equipment Rentals
- Fire Pit
- Fire Rings
- Firewood Available
- First Aid Kit
- Fish Cleaning Station
- Fishing Pier
- Grills
- Group Camping
- Hike/Bike Campsites
- Ice
- Pets OK
- Picnic Tables
- Ranger Station
- Rentals
- RV Hookups
- RV Supplies
- Showers
- Snack Bar
- Vending Machines
Activities
- Beach
- Biking
- Bird Watching
- Boating
- Boating (non motorized)
- Canoeing
- Creek
- Fishing
- Fly Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Ice Fishing
- Ice Skating
- Kayaking
- Lake
- Mountain Biking
- Nature Trails
- Paddle Boating
- Photography
- Picnicking
- Playground
- River
- Snowshoeing
- Stargazing
- Swimming
- Visitor Center
- Walking Trails
- Water Skiing
- Water Sports
- Wildlife Viewing
- Winter Sports
- Winter/Snow Sports
Barnesville, Pennsylvania 18214
570 467-2772
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Campsite Types
- ADA
- Group
- Primitive
- RV
- Tent
- Trailer
# of Campsites:
277
# of RV Hookup Campsites:
77
Season:
March – October
Elevation:
1,752
Locust Lake State Park Comments & Reviews
Visited Locust Lake State Park Campground lately? We'd love to hear about your adventure. Did you find us useful? Did we forget something? Anything our community should know before heading out to Locust Lake State Park?
campsitephotos.com
harvesthosts.com
The site numbers here are not the same as the site numbers on the locust lake website, so it is difficult to know which photo here matches with which site there.
Hi Rachel,
Thanks for your comment. We took the photos of each campsite at Locust Lake State Park in May 2014 and those photos are current/accurate. The smalle/thumbnail photos you see on ReserveAmerica are the same – but may be from a different angle. And ReserveAmerica is missing photos of campsites 51-126. Several other photos are just of the campsite sign post. CampsitePhotos.com has all of the correct campsites photos for Locust Lake State Park.
Hello, Im a first time camper.I want information regarding tent camping & rental stuff required to spend a night. Thank you
Hi Nafiz,
Welcome to camping! Locust Lake State Park does have boat and other recreational equipment rentals, but I’m not sure if they rent tents/camping gear. It would be best to visit their website HERE and contact the park directly.
Have a great time on your first camping trip!
Hello. We would like to get an eletric, dog friendly site for 5 people. We have a pop up camper, however we would like to also pitch a tent for 2 of the people. Do the campsites have enough space for the pop up and then a small tent?
Hi Kelly,
All of the Locust Lake State Park campsites that allow tent camping will fit both your pop up camper and a tent.
I was wondering if campsites 39 thru 21 can acess the lake with canoes from thier site?
Hi Gwen,
Those campsites are certainly next to the lake, but we’re not sure if there are any regulations on where you can launch your canoe from. I recommend calling the Locust Lake State Park and double checking: 570-467-2404
Camped here Last weekend for three nights on sites 165 & 166. Upon arrival, we were surprised at how small the sites were in person, but luckily, they allow you to move the table and the fire pits to accommodate your equipment if needed. You do have to return it to its original location before departing. It rained fairly heavily during our first day there and the sites became extremely muddy, so be prepared if rain is in the forecast. As the weekend progressed I took a walk around the loop and the sites in the 180’s (closest to Locust Creek) were severely flooded due to the downgrade of the loop.
First time RV camping and wanted to know if your sites have water?
Hi BJ
Yes, campsites 1-88 at Locust Lake State Park have both water & electric hookups.
The last time I stayed at Locust Lake in site 21 it did not have water hookup. I see that a previous comment states sites 1-88 have water. Has water been added to some sites since 2018?
You are correct Thomas (our bad). The 77 electric sites do not have water hookups (only electric) at Locust Lake State Park. We made the change to our overview copy.
I’m going to Locust lake for the first time and was wondering what you do for check in? Do we just go directly to our site, or do we have to check in at the office?
Hi Mady,
If you already have a campsite reserved, either you’ll check in at the entrance kiosk/gate/office or (if the gate does not have anyone manning it) you can go right to the site (check in is 2pm or later) to start setting up. Then you can go over to the camp host or back to the office to check in.
We’re staying on site 245 in a few weeks. By look of the photos, site 247 seems to almost share a potion of same grounds. Are there distinct markers per site?
Hi Barb,
That is correct – the tent/camping area of campsites 245 and 247 ‘share’ or are right next to each other. There are no distinct markers in place showing the separating of the sites.
Is a non-electric 12×7 foot ‘pop-up’, a Taxa Tiger Moth, permitted on the north side of the Lake?
Hi Barbara,
I believe so, but you may want to call Locust Lake State Park to confirm: 570 467-2772
How do you get to the bath house from sites 170 and 172, it is hard to tell from the map on the website.
Good question Kelly. The map was provided by the State Park and does not seem to have all of the restrooms or bath houses. There should be one in your loop.
I had the site # wrong I was actually wondering for the lakeside sites, #269 and 270. I see a bathhouse in the loop but i don’t see a path – looks like campsites all around it.
There will be a path to the bathhouse. It’s required by law. It is not just accessible to the campsites adjacent to it.
Good for day trip (but not returning). Bad for camping. Racist visitors. Rude and ignorant staff. Brace yourself, this is a long review.
In short, staff are rude. Park ranger don’t know how to critically think. Racist visitors are allowed to stay (details below). Illicit drug use allowed by staff/ park rangers.
The park: it’s a nice park with a good lake and activities. Short hikes are easy and fishing is good for kid activities. There’s also a small beach area with sand that’s great for kids and adults. Kayaking was decent and we caught some good size fish in the deeper parts. It’s a shame our experience will lead us others to never return.
The campsites: they’re the average small campsites that could fit two 4 person tents and one car, some sites are larger. We got a good shaded site with tall trees. Our picnic table was in pretty solid shape and not deteriorating. Most sites are too close to each other where neighboring ignorant campers will be ignorant. That’s where one problem lies.
The bathrooms: there’s no nice way of stating this. They were awful. I camp all over the country and this is the top 10 dirtiest bathrooms at a campground I’ve been to. Maybe they were busy and couldn’t get to it, I have no idea. Nonetheless, there was toilets that seemed to be clogged or someone just didn’t care about sanitation and the toilet papers were either empty or running out. Why didn’t I mention this to the staff? Keep reading.
The staff: this is the real problem. I can deal with racist people; that’s easy. What I can’t is rude, ignorant, and or inexperienced staff. As mentioned, I camp all over the country and highly respect park rangers. This team was very different.
We arrive at the gate and was greated by Jane, we state our reserved site. Jane stated ,”I already gave the handouts to the reserver, so you’re good. Do you have any pets or alcohol with you?” We say we don’t. She said “ok just drive in make a left, go across the bridge and follow the numbered signs to your site.” My brother in law and his wife on the other hand, told her “yes we have one small dog with us, but we are just here to enjoy the day, we won’t be staying at the site. We just have some camping items we need to unload for our family, is that ok?” Jane said “yes, you have 10 minutes to unload, then you have to come park at the main parking here.” We said okay and we all continue.
Less 10 minutes goes by (I know this because we just got to the site and opened the car doors to unload) the same lady, Jane drove by and said, “I said that you have 10min to unload, policy is 1 vehicle per site. You guys have too many vehicles, you have to remove them now!” A family member walked up to her and said, we just got here 5min ago. We are in the process of unloading. Once we are done we will remove our vehicles.” Then Jane proceeds to say, “I also said no pets anywhere in this site. I see you have a dog. You need to take your dog off the site. They can’t stay.” She said this as a couple walked their 2 full grown labs right by us. The family member asked her “what about them? Aren’t those dogs?” She looked at us and said,”there’s a dog park further down for those sites down there. Your site isn’t allowed to have dogs.” If you remember when we entered we already established that our brother in law had a dog and they were not staying the night i.e. day trip, and Jane was okay with it. So we tell her that we’ll unpack and move the cars as she instructed at the gate. Jane drove off and stopped to talk to the couple camping behind our tent. As they were talking, I noticed the man Jane was talking to kept turning back to look at us. I didn’t think much of it, little did I know that man would become the antagonist of our weekend. We continued to enjoyed our day and the dog that Jane was complaining about left the campground as we said it would.
Keep in mind, this is a “family friendly campground” where one would expect there to be kids of all ages. It was maybe 5am the next morning, someone’s child was crying. And from the tent behind us where Jane was talking to the man the day before, we hear a male’s voice yelled,”SHUT THE F*CK UP!” Yes, around 5 in the morning. Around 6am we called to report the man and the lady we talked to said someone will come out asap. Someone may have came but we didn’t witness it, though we weren’t paying attention.
Throughout the day the same man that was accompanied by a female, hurrled slurries of racial remarks to us and the other surrounding neighbors (they were not caucasian) throughout the day. Yes, we and two other families that we know of reported him. Again, the front office said someone will be out asap, yet throughout the day the man continued his racial remarks. At this point we had a feeling nothing was done about the racial-remarks-yelling man. We gave up on the staff that was responsible to keep the establishment a family friendly environment.
This is where all hope was lost of the staff: someone reported us for having a dog and too many cars on our campsite. I’m 90% sure it was the racial remarks guy, there was only 3 other sites around us and he was the only one that would have a reason to and he was watching the whole thing unfold. No doubt he was raised or became a racist. Maybe he even believed in the ideology of Nazis (we understood this from his remarks). And so, a park ranger came and told us in a not-so-friendly way to remove the dog and limit our vehicles. This park ranger was clearly ignorant. If he took seconds to assess our campsite, he would have counted 1 car per campsite. My 2 year old niece can count to one. Oh as far as the dog goes, there was none due to the fact that it left with the owners the day before as stated to Jane (from the gate). The ranger obviously did not assess the situation before engaging in a demand that proved his ignorance to the many people before him.
Though we knew his ignorance was apparent, we hoped God would enlighten him to do the right thing. So we proceeded to inform him of the racial-remarks-yelling man behind our campsite continuing to do what he was raised or learned to express; hate. And also that multiple people at our campsite smelled a stench of what can only be marijuana coming from behind our campsite. Sure, we don’t know 100% exactly where it came from but it was strongest around the campsite where the racial-remarks-yelling man resided. The park ranger confirmed with a slight flat affect expression saying that they have received other complaints about that racial-remarks-yelling man and that “we” will loop back around and speak with him. I checked and marijuana was not legal for recreational use in Pennsylvania.
Their policies possessed a strict 10 minute limit to unload your camping gear along with your supplies and children but must not possess anything about foul language, rudeness, hate speech, or illicit drug use because the racial-remarks-yelling man was still there with his female companion and the stench of marijuana after we left the campground. That or the staff believed the racial-remarks-yelling man’s action were fair. Whatever the case, it is a mystery for there was no update from the rangers or staff and the man continued to hurl hate towards us and the surrounding non-caucasian families after multiple reports from multiple families as confirmed by the park ranger.
In conclusion, racist people are easy to deal with. But when the staff and park rangers fail to enforce a family friendly environment at a family friendly campground, victims to people like the racial-remarks-yelling man wonder what kind of people are operating this establishment?
Benefit of the doubt, maybe staff was busy…