Winter Camp French Creek, PA

Hey no fair!  

Tempting, but I'm in leave-conservation mode right now.  Between regular vacations and chasing the last 2 shuttle launches I burned through 4 1/2 weeks of leave this year, and now I need to save it up for a trip around the US in the next 2-3 years...

Hoping to be there!

If you have an idea of where it is maybe Walt can check it out next weekend.

We spent a lovely weekend at French Creek SP. Lovely weather, hi 65, low 38, lovely sites, met some nice folks. By Friday afternoon/evening there were no empty sites - full with big RVs, little RVs, tents of all sizes.
The C loop was the only one open. The CG is at the top of a hill. About half the sites - at the top of the loop- have electricity, water is not at the sites, but available at a number of places around the loop. Dump station is on the way out. Sites are paved with assorted types of surounding areas. There is a heated wash building with (hot) showers and toilets. We had reserved a site at the bottom of the loop with electric, but it had a large mud puddle and a drop off on the dome side of the paved area. As we were there early on Thursday, we moved to an unreserved site at the top of the hill - C1. Quite pleasant.
Some good samaritan local dropped off a large pile of pine and plywood wood working scraps by the entrance which folks gathered for fire wood and kindling.
I checked the PA SP web site today and all sites are still open for the second weekend of January. We recommend, on the basis of flatness and ease of using an R-Dome or Pop-up cover next to the R-Pod, the sites C-1 thru C3, 14, 15, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 44, 45, 46, 48. The website lists which ones are pet (dog) friendly. The high numbers are ADA with large paved areas. If we have our druthers we will probably pick C33.

The park was hit hard bythe Halloween snow storm and there a were downed trees all over - rnaging from 2 inches to 2 feet in diameter. A large number had fallen across the roads and site areas. The rangers had been through and cleared most of the sites and road sides from blocked fells, but the green lumber in the raw was still scattered everywhere. On Saturday there were locals with chain saws and trucks harvesting the free fire wood.
If one hasn't been there, the Hopewell Furnace Historic Site, a National Park Service site, is well presented and quite interesting - and right up the road.
Given it was Thanksgiving weekend, the rangers were all on holiday, so the only ranger we saw was on Saturday morning, checking out the complaints about people taking reserved sites. The campground was quiet and well behaved despite the lack of ranger care.
We are looking forward to another stay there in January.