Shawnee State Park, Turkey Creek Lake
Shawnee State Park at Turkey Creek Lake offers a beautiful and peaceful natural setting with well-maintained hiking trails, scenic loop paths, and family-friendly amenities such as playgrounds and picnic areas. The park is dog-friendly and wheelchair accessible, making it suitable for visitors of all ages and abilities. It features barbecue grills, picnic tables, public restrooms, and various recreational activities including hiking and paddleboarding. The campground is popular and well-kept, though some primitive camping sites have limited vehicle access. Overall, the park is cherished for its nature, facilities, and welcoming atmosphere.
Reviews
(This review is specific to the Turkey Creek campground) It feels wrong to leave a 1 star review but here I am. I drove down late on a Friday which took me about 4.5 hours to arrive. I booked one of the three primitive sites that state they are vehicle accessible / back in sites. Upon arrival around 11:00 PM I discovered that you cannot get your vehicle to the site. Instead you park on the road and have a very short walk to a platform where you can setup a tent (maybe 20 feet or so). The problem was that I didn’t have gear for sleeping outside of my truck. Since the site was labeled incorrectly online, I now have nowhere to sleep. I was unsure if I would be allowed to sleep in a parking lot so that I could possibly look for a different site in the daylight. Unfortunately, there is no cell service in the campground or in the general area. I didn’t get far enough for reliable service until around midnight, which at that point I decided to just drive all the way back home. Upon waking up the next day, I reported the listings as inaccurate to reserve ohio. At first they were extremely adamant that the sites were accessible by vehicle. I told them I took pictures and while I wasn’t intimately familiar with the campground and had no light, I was fairly confident they were incorrect. The rep then agreed with me and said the listings are likely incorrect. However, they can’t do anything about it and they wanted me to contact the campground manager. I explained I was not looking for a refund and just wanted to report the sites so that no one else repeated my mistake. They again reiterated I needed to report it to the manager. I’ve called the park three times and haven’t got anyone on the phone. I lost my entire Friday evening, didn’t get to bed until almost 5am, I’ve made numerous calls to report the site descriptions that have gone nowhere and now I’m spending more time writing this review.
I’m sure the campground and surrounding area is gorgeous. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any of it.
Shawnee State Park is gorgeous. I hiked the Park Loop and the trails were very well marked. Lots of beautiful dragonflies, butterflies, and wildflowers. I’m looking forward to going back!
My husband and I have come here to get away, for the past two years and we love it.
There is always something to do, putt putt, movies in the evening, hiking!
We stayed near the trailhead that leads straight to the Reservoir and the nature center.
Wow!
I took a paddleboard session with Jenny on Saturday! Loved it. She was super friendly and informative.
Got to see them feed a copperhead and rattlesnake.
And the facilities are always well maintained and clean!
Pam does a wonderful job of keeping bathrooms and showers nice! Thank you!
I would say one thing that I would do is use a blower on the putt putt course.
Next year we will have to try the paddleboats and canoeing.
We will keep this state park on our list for EVERY year.
Beautiful campground
Friendly staff very helpful,
Hiking trails everywhere so peaceful.
I would give this a 5, but my husband disliked the sloped asphalt sites. We have a motorhome and had trouble getting level. The sites are really beautiful, but the paved parts are quite small. Nice hiking paths…beautiful grounds and paved roads. I loved it. This isn’t our setup, but shows how much you have to do to get level.