Onaway State Park — Attraction in North Allis Township

We LOVED camping at Onaway State Park! The sunsets were breath taking and the sites on the water are right by the water! We camped in the lower campground. We were bummed that the bathrooms/shower house down there was closed though. They should really mention that when booking, it looked like they have been down for a while. It was quite a trek up to the main bathhouse, which could be problematic for some folks. However, there was a vault toilet down there. When we were there it was decently clean (for a vault toilet...) And they kept it stocked with paper. They also had a water spicket down there. The Lake was rocky, but perfect for floating, kyacking, and fishing, if you can get to the middle. It was pretty shallow near shore, and I never did find the deep part. So bank fishing was a bust. For swimming, I reccomend some water shoes. It did get sandy several feet out, but near the shore is all rocks. We really liked that the lower campground sites came with a bench, in addition to the picnic table and fire pit. I would recommend looking at photos of the sites when booking as the lower campground has smaller sites and mature trees on them. Which offer ample shade, and plently of hammock hanging space, but I noticed bigger rigs had some trouble fitting down there and some large ones simply wont be able to. So, pay extra attention to the site demensions and photos. AND I reccomend bringing extra long extension coards and adapters, as some of the electric boxes are far from the available space to park your campers. If You're a small rig (less than around 20ft) van or tent camper, these are...

We had a site right on the water, beautiful view. Every other aspect of our camping trip was horrible. We are not ones to complain or ever write a bad review anywhere, but this state park was extremely ridiculous. The sites were very small, and we had barely enough room for our three tents. There were trees in the sites that made it difficult to fit your car or tents. We got yelled at for our tents being a foot over our line, it’s hard to tell exactly where the cut off line is. Then we got yelled at for our car being a few inches into the road, even though there were plenty of cars along the road that were further into the road then we were. There was one bathroom/shower building for the whole campground, a mile up the hill from our site. We had 4 friends come to visit us for a quiet relaxing day, and got complaints for “having too many people on our lot.” Then we got yelled at for putting a small car on our lot in place of our other one, this one at least a foot off the road. We decided we had had enough and packed up to leave a day early. We then proceeded to be yelled at for having too many cars on our lot (we were not even close to being in the road) that we were putting all of our camping supplies into. Did they expect us to carry tables and tents a mile up the road to overflow parking to pack our things into our cars? Worst camping experience we have yet to have. We will not being coming back and we will be sure to inform all of our friends not to go...

Hate to go with three stars but unfortunately they earned it. First the pros; great views over Black Lake and gorgeous sunsets. Very nice newer shower house that was well kept. The trails were decent and two of them lead to a very pleasant and peaceful overlook. Now the cons; nearly every site in the upper main campground is horribly out of level as the campground is built on a hill. Description on the website for our site said it was level with full shade and it was neither. Trail access points are very, very difficult to locate and there is no signage at trail junctions. Lower campground on the lake is more level but has only one outhouse and it’s a major hike up to the bathroom/shower facilities. In five days of camping we never saw any staff patrolling the campground. When we questioned the very young staff about trails, picnic facilities, dumpster location, etc. we were met with very hesitant or negative attitudes. Unless you are renting the beautiful pavilion then don’t bother with the day use area. There wasn’t even a drinking fountain for hikers there and the two outhouses are at the back end of a blazing hot parking lot. This park could be so much better than it is but in the 17 years since our last visit almost nothing has changed except for the new shower facility. What a terrible waste and abuse of an absolutely...