Bush Recreation Area
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $25–$35Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 4543 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Bush Recreation Area is located next to the scenic Loyalhanna Lake. This location provides picturesque views of the lake as well as opportunities for bird watching, boating, fishing, hunting and paddle sports. Keep reading
Recreation
The Bush Recreation Area offers boating with unlimited horse power. Visitors to the area can kayak or canoe the lake as well, and take advantage of kayak rentals located in the Bush Recreation Area. The Loyalhanna Lake offers great fishing opportunities, with multiple bass tournaments each year. This lake also has some of the best channel catfishing in Pennsylvania, with multiple fish stockings each year. If you like fishing from shore there are plenty of opportunities to fish both moving and still waters. Those that like to go bike riding can find the West Penn Trail located at our sister project just 10 minutes away.
Facilities
This campground has a variety of sites available from full RV hookup to primitive tent camp sites. Picnic tables and campfire grill rings are equipped at every campsite. Patrons at the campground will have access to flushing toilets, drinking water, showers and a dump station.
Natural Features
The campground is located in a beautiful valley overlooking Loyalhanna Lake. Among terrain characterized by its diversity, visitors will discover rolling foothills of the Laurel Highlands, from which the headwaters of the Loyalhanna Creek flow.
Nearby Attractions
The West Penn Trail offers excellent hiking and biking opportunities within a short 10 minute drive. Additionally the site of Loyalhanna dam provides interpretive displays of the dam as well as a great scenic view.
What the agency tells you
Off-road vehicles are not permitted, including dirt bikes, ATVs, etc.
Horseback riding is prohibited.
For more information about Loyalhanna Lake please call (724) 639-9013 or contact us at our Facebook page
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Be aware that the campground and boat launch can be closed due to a high water event.
vessels under 16 Ft., canoes, kayaks, and paddle boards are required to wear there life jackets at all times.
Dogs are required to be on a leash no more than 6 feet at all times.
All Drone use is prohibited on property.
Protect our forests from foreign pests, please do not relocate fire wood that is not from the area.
Pennsylvania state law requires children under 13 to wear a personal flotation device (PFD); all people on boats less than 16 feet in length and all canoes and kayaks must also wear a PFD.
For review of our Regulations under Title 36 click the link below: https://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Portals/48/docs/Recreation/ODS/Regulations/RulesandRegulations.pdf
Camping at one or more campsites at any one water resource project for a period longer than 14 days during any 30-consecutive-day period is prohibited without the written permission of the District Commander.
Alcoholic beverages are prohibited.
If you have any questions about the rules and regulations for the Loyalhanna Lake Recreation Areas please call the Ranger Station, 724-639-9013.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 45 · 12 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- 16 electric, 10 water
- Longest rig
- 22 ft
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…at the campground will have access to flushing toilets, drinking water, showers and a dump station.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…will have access to flushing toilets, drinking water, showers and a dump station. Natural Features The…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Night sky · 44th darkest of 48 in PA
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 2 days ago, in Westmoreland County
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 43 of the 45 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 16
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $25–$35 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
45 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 43 mapped sitesAll 45 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 43 of the 45 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| BUSH RECREATION AREA | Kiski Nonprofit Group Campground | group tent only area nonelectric | 1559 ft | 339 ft | $50 | |||
| Loop 1 | 001 | type not stated | 254 ft | |||||
| Loop 1 | 002 | type not stated | 171 ft | |||||
| Loop 1 | 003 | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 84 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 004 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 48 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 005 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 52 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 006 | standard nonelectric | 83 ft | 133 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 007 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 49 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 008 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 65 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 009 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | 92 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 010 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 163 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 011 | rv electric | 30 amp | 47 ft | 81 ft | $30–$35 | ||
| Loop 1 | 012 | rv electric | 30 amp | 49 ft | 64 ft | $30–$35 | ||
| Loop 1 | 013 | rv electric | 30 amp | yes | 64 ft | 52 ft | $30–$35 | |
| Loop 1 | 014 | rv electric | 50 amp | 64 ft | 113 ft | $30–$35 | ||
| Loop 1 | 015 | rv electric | 30 amp | 64 ft | 169 ft | $30–$35 | ||
| Loop 1 | 016 | rv electric | 50 amp | 75 ft | 230 ft | $30–$35 | ||
| Loop 1 | 017 | rv electric | 30 amp | 63 ft | 305 ft | $30–$35 | ||
| Loop 1 | 018 | rv electric | 30 amp | 60 ft | 368 ft | $30–$35 | ||
| Loop 1 | 019 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 417 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 020 | rv electric | 30 amp | 48 ft | 280 ft | $30–$35 | ||
| Loop 1 | 021 | rv electric | 22 ft | 50 amp | 48 ft | 289 ft | $30–$35 | |
| Loop 1 | 022 | rv electric | 22 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 281 ft | $30–$35 | |
| Loop 1 | 023 | rv electric | 22 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 306 ft | $30–$35 | |
| Loop 1 | 024 | standard nonelectric | yes | 81 ft | 144 ft | $25 | ||
| Loop 1 | 025 | standard nonelectric | 81 ft | 65 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 026 | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 132 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 027 | tent only nonelectric | 61 ft | 184 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 028 | rv electric | 50 amp | 54 ft | 326 ft | $30–$35 | ||
| Loop 1 | 029 | tent only nonelectric | 55 ft | 403 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 030 | tent only nonelectric | 55 ft | 427 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 031 | tent only nonelectric | 79 ft | 467 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 032 | tent only nonelectric | 79 ft | 495 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 033 | standard nonelectric | 135 ft | 565 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 034 | tent only nonelectric | 101 ft | 698 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 035 | standard nonelectric | 98 ft | 671 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 036 | standard nonelectric | 98 ft | 626 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 037 | tent only nonelectric | 49 ft | 586 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 038 | tent only nonelectric | 49 ft | 553 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 039 | tent only nonelectric | 31 ft | 524 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 040 | tent only nonelectric | 31 ft | 509 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 041 | rv electric | 30 amp | 120 ft | 436 ft | $30–$35 | ||
| Loop 1 | 042 | rv electric | 30 amp | 95 ft | 425 ft | $30–$35 | ||
| Loop 1 | 043 | tent only nonelectric | 55 ft | 336 ft | $25 | |||
| Loop 1 | 044 | rv electric | 30 amp | 77 ft | 346 ft | $30–$35 |
25 of 45 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Crooked Creek Lake Pavilions19 mi
Crooked Creek Lake19 mi
Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area20 miMilton Loop Campground34 mi
Outflow Camping44 mi
Youghiogheny Recreation Area44 miFrom Pittsburgh, take I-376 E (12.1 miles) keep left and continue onto US-22 E. Make a left at PA-981 N located in New Alexandria, PA near the Sheets gas station. Make a left onto Bush Road, passing Mannitto Golf Course, make another left into the Bush Recreation Area.
200 Boat Dock Road
New Alexandria PA, 15670
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for New Alexandria, PA
Typical weather
Typical October night 40°F, day 64°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Bush Recreation Area is in Pennsylvania’s 14th congressional district. Its representative, Guy Reschenthaler (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →