Campgrounds and RV parks near Lake Winola, PA

Water activity dominates the local calendar. Lackawanna Lake supports paddling, fishing, and small boats, and the state park adds a swimming pool, picnic areas, and multi-use trails through the surrounding forest. Frances Slocum Lake, stocked with trout and other gamefish, is popular for boating and fishing, and the park has nearly 14 miles of hiking and mountain biking trails plus an ADA-accessible swimming pool with a shallow-entry area and water slides. Off the water, families can tour Steamtown National Historic Site and the Lackawanna Coal Mine in Scranton, or head into Tunkhannock for shops and restaurants. Slumber Valley Campground has its own nature trail leading to a 20-foot waterfall on Meshoppen Creek, a state-recognized scenic stream. Highland Campgrounds keeps kids busy with a seasonal pool, playground, volleyball and badminton nets, horseshoe pit, and a rec room.

The camping window in this part of Pennsylvania is fairly short. The Lackawanna State Park campground runs from the second Friday in April through mid-October, and Frances Slocum State Park keeps roughly the same mid-April to mid-October season. Private parks track a similar calendar: Highland Campgrounds is open April 15 through October 31, and Slumber Valley operates through the warm-weather months as well. Summer weekends and holidays draw the heaviest bookings, and sites fill quickly for July and August. Reservations are strongly recommended for summer weekends at both state parks. Spring and fall bring milder temperatures, thinner crowds, and the region's best foliage color, though nights get cold and rain is common. Winter effectively closes overnight camping. The state parks themselves stay open sunrise to sunset year-round for day use, and Lackawanna State Park adds cold-weather activities like ice fishing, sledding, and winter hiking. Frances Slocum also supports ice fishing, ice skating, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and sledding when conditions allow. RV travelers looking for winter hookups will need to look outside the local state park system.

Lackawanna State Park's campground has forested sites with electric hookups, walk-in tent sites, modern shower houses with warm showers and flush toilets, and a sanitary dump station near the entrance. A phased shower house renovation project is underway, with impacted sites blocked from reservations while work is completed. Frances Slocum offers a 100-site modern campground with 85 tent or trailer sites (some with electric hookups), 15 walk-in tent sites, flush toilets, hot showers, drinking water, a dump station, and a nearby boat launch. Pets are only allowed at designated sites in the Pennsylvania state parks, and alcohol is prohibited. Cell service is unpredictable in and around many northeastern Pennsylvania state parks, so downloading maps in advance is wise. Bringing firewood into Pennsylvania from out of state is prohibited; buy local firewood and burn it before departure.