Jamestown Campground - Pymatuning State Park (PA) — Hotel in West Shenango Township

4.5/5 if you have a family with young kids, otherwise 2/5

The good: -Well maintained -Quiet -Family oriented -Easy access to adjacent state park via trails

The bad: -Friendly but nosy rangers enforcing dumb rules -If you have no young kids, the rules will appears to be excessively strict as they appear to be intended to prevent accidental self-harm by a child. -Beaches 2 feet shallower than said -Seaweed all over beach -Dead fish litter the beach -Eclectic collective of individuals means some incorrectly preempt malice. -All around inefficient and dumb shower layout(more on that later) -Not permitted to swim anywhere except beaches with the aforementioned problems -Often lines at showers/bathrooms

The showers are not just showers -- they're entire bathroom units. in total, there are 16 units for the campground that may contain anywhere from around 90-450 people. The showers are seemingly cleaned regularly but still always have very wet floors and toilets that I would touch with a 10 foot pole. The showers work decent, however, they are activated by pushing in a button. If you take a shower that exceeds 3 minutes, this will become excessively annoying. The reason for this, is that the showers will turn off a minute after the button is pushed unless it's pushed again. If you take a 15 minute shower, you will need to press the button 15 times. Stupid, and inconvenient. The timer should be 5 minutes, not 1. Also, some units have infestations of numerous different flies. I didn't find this to be particularly problematic, but there was around 4,500 flies in my unit of varying sizes.

You will either have very good neighbors, or nosy and angry ones. There is no in between, I can attest.

If you have kids, this campground is good, but if you don't,...

We were a multi generational family camping for the weekend. We chose a non-electric site that provided direct access to the lake. Very easy to launch our kayak right behind the site. The inlets and islands made for interesting kayaking. The site was very shady and level. Because it was deep from the road to the lake the site had plenty of room. Firewood at the campground store was reasonably priced. Some really lovely shady hiking. If you like moss you will appreciate the moss "lawns". We all had a good time. Be sure to visit the spillway! Really interesting! Now for some negatives. Lots of poison ivy so be aware. Campsites are very narrow and our next door neighbor had set up multiple shelters on our site. We shifted down a site and then the folks who had reserved that site called in the rangers. Ranger Dan Hogan showed up and solved the problem tactfully and creatively without forcing anyone to break down their camp. He was great. BUT had the park been more proactive about enforcing rules this would not have happened. The electric sites were in the center of the loop and seemed very tightly packed in and less shady. The swimming beach is some distance from our loop so we drove. A big beach - bring some shade. Very gravely. The facilities looked like they once included showers but now only toilets. Sort of dodgy. We chose a dogs-allowed loop to get the lake access. If barking bothers you and you don't have your own dog, maybe choose a...

This was our first time camping as a family and we'll definitely be back. It's the most family oriented campground I've ever been to; Everyone is so welcoming and friendly! Living in the city,this is the first time we've felt like our little ones can play with others and wonder around without us looking over our shoulders every couple minutes. This was the happiest I've seen my kids since the pandemic; the freedom they were able to have is priceless. The only reason I gave it four stars is because the bathrooms are very outdated in my opinion. They are closing August 3rd to remodel the bathrooms so when we come back I'm sure it will be five stars all around. Another minor complaint is that the hiking trails either had ponds forming between them or it was pretty muddy. It may depend on the season how wet it is so I can't fully judge on that. I did hear that the lake is pretty high right now. Overall a great campground and a must for a family with...