Deer Run Camping Resort — Hotel in South Middleton Township

We took a chance and decided to make plans to camp for two nights so we could get some hiking in nearby at the Pine Grove Furnace State Park. You're greeted by a sign on the front office door that says "Masks are optional," so that tells you all you need to know about camping here during the COVID-19 crisis. ||||Check-in is easy enough and you are given a card to hang on your mirror that has a barcode to scan to get access to the campground. Then you drive to your site. The signs/directions posted are...not very helpful, and you can easily find yourself face-to-face with someone driving a golf cart from the opposite direction or kids running around through the road, so be very careful.||||We picked a tent site (218 or 219) as far away from everyone else as we could get. A bunch of the tent sites border the woods, and I definitely recommend snagging one of those if you're able. The tent and RV sites are absolutely crammed together. We started setting up our tent and were somewhat pleased with the amount of space we had from a big family in the next site because we could all enjoy our respective spaces without getting in each other's way. Then another car pulled up and signaled that there was ANOTHER site between us. There wasn't even 10ft between our tents; you could hear everything. The RV/camper sites looked even more snug, so I can't imagine trying to maneuver there.||||Our tent site was one of the flatter and less rocky ones that I could see. Each site is provided with a fire ring (more like a fire pit/contained cauldron) and picnic table, which was great. I will say that from what we saw, the grounds are kept very clean.||||The bath house near the tent site is cleaned daily, however not always at the posted hours so I would say to assume it is half an hour before the posted time. There are 2 showers and toilet stalls in each bathroom. Here is where we were the most unhappy about masks being optional: not a single other person that we saw over 3 days was wearing a mask while in the enclosed bathrooms. There are hand dryers, so particles are flying all over the place. There was a concert that ended while I was showering and it was a line of people to get in and the dryers were constantly blasting; I basically held our breath while I was in there.||||Speaking of the concert, in addition to almost nobody wearing masks whether they were indoors or in close quarters while outdoors, Deer Run hosts concerts and events on weekend nights at a stage. Once again zero masks and zero social distancing. We saw people from separate campsites standing close together and talking. With an uptick in COVID cases in the surrounding counties, this was especially unsettling.||||The campgrounds are clean and easy to find off of the main roads. However, if you're looking for a place to stay outside during the COVID-19 situation,...

We just started full time RVing and Deer Run was our very first stop after selling our home in Fairfield. I cannot say enough good things about this beautiful family friendly campground.

First I will say the owner, Jim, is very obviously passionate and dedicated to this place. He was the first face we saw upon entering the campground after hours and helped us get situated. He continued to be just as warm and helpful throughout our stay that turned into an entire month instead of just one week.

The staff at Deer Run is equally as wonderful. Jamie and Malia(I’m sure I got that wrong and I apologize) in the store were always so helpful and patient with me and especially my 4 girls as they ran around the store indecisive about what flavor of ice cream or type of candy they wanted. My kids were able to be kids here and run around never being made to feel like they were a nuisance in anyway.

There is also Aaron(I believe he’s the maintenance guy) that was our neighbor. He was kind enough to hop in our truck and back our 44ft RV into the monthly site when we were certain we would not get it in ourselves. He’s incredibly talented and hard working and built a beautiful Sleuth while we were there. He even baked our family an upside down pineapple cake!

The grounds are beautifully maintained and the absolute gem for me as an avid outdoors person was that the campground backs up to the Appalachian trail. There’s an entrance down behind the tent sites and the trail will take you to a beautiful creek with a lovely bridge. And if creeks aren’t your thing the pool was just pristine. There’s also mini golf, a cute little game room with a pool table, horse shoes and a shuffle board. The bathrooms were always so clean and have been recently renovated.

The weekends! Man they really go all out and every weekend was like a holiday there. Really great bands and vendors and even a bounce house the last weekend we were there.

We recently bought a camping membership to save some money while we acclimate to this new lifestyle and let me tell you we are really regretting leaving. No more happy friendly faces, no more clean pool, no dog park and it feels like we moved to a trailer park in comparison.

The rates at Deer Run are fair and absolutely worth it. Especially for the monthly sites.

This was lengthy but if anyone is reading this from Deer Run we will be rolling back soon cause my kids are absolutely miserable here and miss it so much. It became like home. I’m all kinds of emotional just writing this review. Thank you...

September 2023-June2024||I recommend listening to the people with bad reviews. ||This is not a place to stay if you travel for your job. When we first arrived to this campground in September of 2023 in our NEW 5th wheel they put us in a horrible spot on a slight incline with tons of trees. Two of the workers helped my husband to get the camper into our spot and while assisting him he backed into a tree. This caused damage to our ladder and his bicycle that they gave us a check for in June of 2024 before we left the campground. We replaced the ladder on our own due to the fact that we did not want water damage from snow and rain after waiting months for them to do so. I saw someone else’s review about a power line in 2023 so let these both be warnings to you. This place is too crowded with trees depending on which part they put you in and type of trailer you have.||My husband and I have been here since September of 2023 for his job and it is now June 2024. We got a random email in May stating we need to be out by June 28th to accommodate other campers. We are in a “monthly” spot, outside of the gate to the campground to camp through the winter so this makes no sense. Even the person beside us was there since we got there. We have been to the office following the email and they have not once mentioned the email and not even a phone call to talk in person about us having to move. Every time we would go in or call to pay our lot fee they would ask when we were leaving as if us staying here is an inconvenience. We are now staying at a much nicer campground and wish we would have found this one from...