Punderson State Park — Attraction in Newbury Township

My experience at Punderson was Miserable. I can only hope that it isn't indicative of the Ohio State parks as a whole Our stay at punderson involved Group site #3. When we arrived (after a 5 hour drive) the lady in the check in center informed us we should have asked if the site itself was on a hill, and advised us not to back down to the camping area. there was an excessively rutted driveway to the site off the main road, and there were two footpaths that were greater than a 45 degree angle leading to the site. no attempts at stairs, no railings. nothing. The labels on the parking spaces did not match anything on the maps. Our experience was literally and metaphorically going downhill. There were three power boxes adjacent to the parking spaces assigned to us. one tripped with an iPhone charger plugged in, but it was a junky old breaker and GFCI, so I wasn't surprised (I've been a journeyman electrician for nearly 20 years, and judging by the amount of weathering on the components, i wasn't surprised at its unreliability. fortunately, a different power box had been updated sometime in the 80's and it held enough to keep two phones charging. this brings us to the site, of the area advertised to accommodate over 20 people, there were maybe 3 spots sufficiently level enough to set up a 10x10 tent. we booked a group site to accommodate 5 families (about 20 people). the two late arrivals were willing to go pay for adjacent non group sites but those were pitiful as well. One even has leveling timbers bolted to the picnic table to make up for the slope. What parts of the site weren't and oddly contorting angles and slopes of some cubist painting nightmare had ruts in them looking as though we just missed a Sunday night mud bog or a ww2 trench warfare reenactment. Those spots lacking tire tracks that would envelop a toddler had potholes and sinkholes you could throw baby Jessica into and not have a two hour tv rescue special. Except for the one with the nest of ground bees. Just avoid that one, it's easy to miss unless you are limping from twisting your ankle from every other spot.

The bathrooms were borrowed from the set of a horror movie, and not one of those cheesy b movies either, I saw crews cleaning them out one morning and sweeping the steps, but evidently they lack the refinement to use cleaning products , since moments after they left there were still spiderwebs and soiled tissues on the floor. Two things you don't want to take in there are a bowl movement or a black light.

the beach: despite the signs identifying the different types of algae and sheen and skims on top of the water, and reading the posted advisories I descended the ramshackle broken concrete steps clinging to the rusty railing and waded out up to my knees. A deceptively nice beach is encircled by a ring of vegetation. you could squish the pond scum between your toes and there was s film from the surface of the water on your legs.... utterly nasty.

for $32 my family and I had an enjoyable swim at the lodge, really clean, really nice, parking lot full of Porsche 911's and Mercedes Benz's. I have come to the conclusion that this is where all of the Punderson state park budget and revenue goes. Before leaving I walked through the park and they did have several smaller sites if you had a two person tent and a compact car that looked rather pleasant, but the majority of the spots were crap by other parks minimum standards. They get RV folks with leveling jacks for pavement stays or suckers like me who unwittingly assume that they actually maintain their facility to a standard that would create an enjoyable experience and return visits. I will never be back, It's worth the drive to the...

There are good and bad things about this campground so I will start with the good. The park itself is very large and there are lots of things to do from boating, fishing, hiking and so on. The facilities like the bathrooms and shower houses are older but were fairly clean even during a busy holiday weekend. The employees in the camp store were very friendly and the store is stocked with quite a few things that may be needed if you forgot them like eggs, milk, big spray and so on. Now there were some things that I did not like at all and probably won’t come back to this campground for these reasons. The sites are not well maintained at all. Lots of brush and weeds between the sites so on a lot of the sites, you can’t extend awnings if you have a camper, no room for a 10x10 canopy, camp kitchen and so on. The first site we had when we went there did not have any working electricity, the picnic table was surrounded by overgrown weeds and because of that, there were mosquitos everywhere. We ended up moving to another available site that had electricity and it was pretty much shared with another family. Our picnic tables and fire rings were sharing the same small area. It was just the 2 of us with our dog so we really could not use our table and fire ring because they had kids running around and their 2 dogs. They were very nice people and the dogs were friendly but I go camping to escape people not to hang out with them for a 3 day weekend. There were some cool spots in the campground but they were mostly for tent campers. A lot of the sites are VERY sloped and it could be really questionable parking a camper there but people did it using some really scary looking methods to try and level them but not something I would do personally. The electricity at the sites is very outdated and if you have a large rig that uses a lot of power then I would not even try to get a spot here unless you plan on not using your air conditioners. If you can get a good spot, then it is not a bad campground but since they do not have pictures of he spots online it makes it really hard to pick a nice spot and you could end up with a scary slopes spot or one with no space and there are a lot of those. Now it is not the worst place but it’s just not a good place for us with our camper as we like to have a bit more space to hang out...

We have been camping at Punderson for close to 15 years. We enjoy the lakes, the trails, the playground, nature center. The park itself is quiet. The staff is usually friendly. The movie nights are fun if you bathe in bug spray before you go.

For the past six years, we have been taking our nieces and nephews on a yearly trip, and we landed on Sites 91 and 93 because there is a beautiful clearing at the top of the sites for us to all gather and there is a trail from that space to the playground. It's the perfect spot for a gaggle of children and a few families.

This past year, they turned the two sites into a group camp site, Group Camp 2, apparently because weekend tenants of 91 and 93 would argue over who had rights to the space up top. When I called to ask about 91 and 93 when I couldn't find them on the website, I was informed that it was now Group Camp 2 and we'd have to reserve it as such. That was fine by us because we book them tandem anyway.

For the past few years, my sister has been taking her pop-up camper because they are back-in spots with electric hookup. We purchased a travel trailer a few weeks ago and were excited to use it. We even had a tent to use "upstairs" for a few nieces.

When we arrived to camp. we were informed upon check-in that group sites are TENT ONLY. One woman behind the desk was incredibly rude, insisting that the website CLEARLY STATES TENT ONLY. It does not. It wasn't on the website. It wasn't in the confirmation. I wasn't told that when I called to ask about it. Even the picture on the website for Group Camp 2 is the wrong campsite.

After some back and forth, some eye rolls, and heavy sighs, she reluctantly let us park our campers for the weekend since we were there, we had paid for it, and they probably had nothing else open to move us to.

I don't understand the new tent-only rule on campsites with concrete pads and electric hookup, but I will follow it, and from now on we will camp elsewhere. We have one more trip planned at Punderson at different sites because there's less kids, but that will be our last.

They should also just add sites 93 and 95 to the group site because there's trails from the top section to those sites, as well.

The sledding hill is top notch, though, so we'll just visit the park...