Hickory Run State Park

My boyfriend and I had a wonderful fine camping here for a few days. There are great trails to hike and the lake is very nice. It was quiet and peaceful. A great escape. I would suggest finding a park ranger to help you decipher the map so you can follow the trails more easily.

After looking at this Pennsylvania State Park campground online and seeing it's rates (which, listed on Reserve America, are very reasonable), I swung by to check it out.

The real rates are vastly different. Maybe Reserve America just lists base rates? Regardless, additional fees were tacked on for it being a weekend night, for being out of state residents, and for having a dog (which are only allowed in two small areas of the campground)...then they charge a $5 reservation fee regardless of whether you reserved or are a walk up.

At the end of the day it was $36 for an electric-only site far away from the bathrooms, on an overgrown and narrow gravel pad that was too sloped to allow for leveling.

The park itself is worth a visit. There is a lake for swimming, a cool drive through the woods to an open boulder field, a disc golf course, and lots of trails for hiking.

Cell service on both Verizon and AT&T were 3G, slow speeds.

We loved our stay here. The campground is beautiful. We were in the full-hookup RV section, which is fairly open without much privacy, but the sites were still nice. They surrounded a large field for the most part. There would be a lot of good space for activities. We rode bikes through some other parts of the campground, and the sites were much more in the woods and had better privacy. You'd probably need a smaller rig to get in them, though. I'm not sure what the rated size on those was, but there's no way we'd get our 30' 5th wheel in them.

We were in site 380, and it was very easy to back into since it was along the curve of the road. Most of the sites on the loop have quite a bit of space in the field to use for maneuvering, if necessary. There are some slightly low-hanging trees on the drive in, though, so go slow.

One additional warning - on our way into the park going north on rt. 903, our RV GPS tried to send us on Old Stage Rd, which has a bridge with a weight limit of a couple tons. Stay on 903 all the way to 534, and you'll be fine.

Cell service is ok. We had a couple bars of LTE on Verizon. Most of the time, we got around 2 mbps down, less than 1 mpbs up. We did use a cell booster, and it helped a little bit, but reception was good enough without it, too.

We were here on 27 & 28 of June 2018. It rained the entire time so we did not check out the other camping loops. We had no power or water at our site. It was a fairly open camping area adjacent to the power loop. The restrooms were old and open to bugs along the ground. There were no showers in our loop or the loop with power. We wanted to visit the boulder field but it rained too much.

This is one of my favorite parks in PA. Stayed here at the end of April. Electric, pet site. There were very few people here at this time. The sites were spaced nicely- lots of trees, clean bathroom, nice showers. My only complaint would be not having a little heat in the bathroom when its in the 30s -40s. The park has a lot of great hiking trails.

The loop with full hookups is in a grassy area with trees skirting the loops. There are not showers or flush toilets in these loops, but if you have a self contained unit, then no need to worry. We enjoyed our stay. The state park has a lot of great hiking. The camp store is overpriced. Find wood outside the campground a few miles toward Rt 80.

Beautiful woods, with variety of campsites. Inadequate restrooms, as it is a shared facility brtween loops 165-228 and 229-273. 3 stalls, 3 showers, not very clean due to heavy use. TP is also very low this morning. Sites are well laid out for as much privacy as possible in crowded conditions. Paved road and pad. 247 was 6-7” out of level front to back, 2” side to side. We prefer sites we can back into and have the back of the rig higher, where our heads are in bed. If that is your preference, dont reserve 245, 246, or 248. Sites we thought were pretty level and nicely situated are 274, 253, 258. Site 262 looks lovely and private, but be aware it curves to drivers side when backing up. Electric box is around curve. Fee is $35+ reservation transaction fee.

Hickory Run is a classic. A camp store that operates like a magical NYC bodega (everything you could want, including what you didn't know you needed) and great hiking trails accessible right from camp. However, try to avoid the "rustic" loop where there is little tree cover and the bathrooms are classic (super smelly) pit toilets. 💩We often went over to other loops to use the facilities + showers.

While you're in the neighborhood, make sure you go to Jim Thorpe for a fun, quaint downtown and hike/bike along the Lehigh Gorge (hike to okana falls!)

Wooded sites, most for tenting. A number of sites had electricity only and very few with full hookups. We had an electric only site which overlooked a dense forest. Our site was fairly level with good space for our 22 ft TT. Unfortunately this site was a little exposed on one side. The park offers hiking and not far away is access to the D&L bike trail and kayaking on the Lehigh river. Bathrooms had warm showers and were relatively clean. We would definitely stay again but not in this site since we noticed a few others in the loop that were nicer.

For those in the NY metro area, this was a quick ride west on Route 80 in the Poconos.

Great family campground with a small camp store, beach lake with snack stand. Close access to great hiking, waterfalls, fishing and a Boulder field!