Date: 08/22/2019
I really wanted to go hiking in Hocking Hills, but the online reservations system said it was booked through mid October. I noticed they had about 29 sites designated as “walk-up”. 23 of them are electric. The others are primitive and non-electric. Apparently these sites can not be reserved and you must show up in person to get them. Plus, once you get a site, you have to pay through to the day you are leaving.
To get to the Hocking Hills State Park Campground you head south on 664 toward the sign for Old Man’s Cave from US 33 in Logan. The entrance is on the left and has a brown and white “Campground” sign right before the entrance to the Old Man’s Cave parking area about 11 miles from Logan.
I arrived at the State Park around 5pm on a Thursday. Since I didn’t have a reservation, I was interested in trying to get one of these walk-up sites. I wanted to stay at the State Park due to the central location to all of the good trails. However, I knew that if I couldn’t get a site, I could try one of the numerous other commercial campgrounds, and even get a hotel for the night if I had to. Originally, I thought that a walk-up site had to be reserved every day in person in order to keep it, so my plan then was to get up early Friday and get a site if I couldnt get it Thursday. What I didn’t know was that once you are on a site, you can keep it. I think these rules differ by campground.
I lucked out. They still had 5 or 6 sites available. I was able to reserve it until Sunday. I got my pick of what they had and chose site #1 which was a corner and had more space. It had electric and a place to pull my car in. It could probably have fit another, if a friend decided to join.
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