Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Authorized by the Flood Control Acts of 1936 and 1938, Crooked Creek Lake is one of 16 flood control projects in the Pittsburgh District. An important link in a system of flood control projects, Crooked Creek provides flood protection for the lower Allegheny and Ohio rivers. The construction cost of over $4 million appears small when compared to the giant saving which have resulted. Since its completion in 1940, the project has prevented flood damages estimated to be in excess of $548 million. Crooked creek also stores water and releases it downstream during dry periods to improve water quality and quantity for domestic and industrial use, navigation, recreation, aesthetics and aquatic life. Keep reading
Recreation
The lake and its miles of scenic shoreline provide unlimited opportunities for water-based recreation. A boat launch with ample trailer parking is available for boating and waterskiing enthusiasts. Swimmers and sunbathers will especially appreciate the lake's sandy, peninsula beach. The great variety and abundance of fish found in the lake have lured many fishermen to its waters. Crooked Creek Lake has yielded many fine catches of bass, muskie, sunfish and crappie. Picnicking is well liked at Crooked Creek. There are several picnic areas maintained by the Corps that are provided with tables and charcoal grills. There are also six picnic shelters with picnic tables and grills.
Facilities
Both Constitution and Freedom Pavilion are located in the Spillway Recreation Area. The Spillway Recreation area features a playground (closest to Constitution) two volleyball courts, horseshoe pits, a basketball court and a ball field. Between the pavilions is a restroom facility with flush toilets and running water.
Natural Features
Nestled among the rolling hills of western Pennsylvania, Crooked Creek Lake is an ideal setting for year round outdoor activities. Located only 30 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers invites you to discover the scenic beauty of the lake and surrounding countryside at the Crooked Creek project.
Nearby Attractions
The long distance hiker will enjoy the 141-mile Baker Trail which crosses Crooked Creek Lake on its course through western Pennsylvania. The Crooked Creek Environmental Learning Center is operated by the Armstrong Center for Community Learning. It is used by groups and agencies interested in environmental stewardship and offers a variety of educational programs. To learn more, please visit: www.armstrongcenter.org/environmental-learning-center/
What the agency tells you
Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations governs the public use of Crooked Creek Lake administered by the US Army Corps of Engineer. These regulations are posted throughout the Day-Use Areas and are available at the park office or by contacting a park ranger. All visitors must follow the regulations for their safety and enjoyment.
Please wait until 8 a.m. to set up to allow time for scheduled maintenance and janitorial services.
Driving off the roadways to load or unload and parking in the grass at the pavilion is not permitted. Contact a park ranger for designated overflow parking area locations.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Pavilion reservations are for the pavilions only. Restrooms, ball fields, playground equipment and game courts located near pavilions are not included in the reservation fee.
Horseshoes, basketballs, volleyballs, baseballs and bats are not available to rent. Visitors must furnish their own equipment.
Posting of personal signs and/or balloons on park signs is not permitted. Personal signs may be placed on stakes or boxes at key intersections. Any personal signs placed must be removed at the end of your pavilion rental period.
Pennsylvania state law requires children under 13 to wear a personal flotation device; all people on boats less than 16 feet in length and all canoes and kayaks must also wear a PFD.
Alcoholic beverages are prohibited. If you have any questions about the rules and regulations for the Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area please call the Ranger Station, 724-763-3161
For reference, these are the rules and regulations of our facility: https://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Portals/48/docs/Recreation/ODS/Regulations/RulesandRegulations.pdf We hope your visit is safe and enjoyable!
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…pavilions is a restroom facility with flush toilets and running water. Natural Features Nestled among…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Fishing
- Wildlife viewing
- Fall color · reported yesterday, in Armstrong County
- Peak color
Nothing here to sleep in
The agency files 4 records here and marks every one of them day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
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 · 11
What you actually pay
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 · 4
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
4 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 4 mapped sitesAll 4 records
| Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area | Constitution AM | day use | 20 amp | yes | 8 ft | 528 ft |
| Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area | Constitution PM | day use | 20 amp | yes | 8 ft | 524 ft |
| Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area | Freedom AM | day use | 20 amp | yes | 10 ft | 831 ft |
| Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area | Freedom PM | day use | 20 amp | yes | 10 ft | 837 ft |
The agency files 4 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Crooked Creek Lake0.5 mi
Crooked Creek Lake Pavilions0.6 mi
Bush Recreation Area20 miMilton Loop Campground20 mi
Loleta RecreationAllegheny National Forest · 52 mi
Outflow Recreation Area (PA)53 miAddress: 114 Park Main Rd., Ford City, PA 16226
From Pittsburgh: Head northeast on Grant St toward Sixth Avenue. Turn right onto Seventh Ave. Use the left lane to keep right at the fork, follow signs for PA-380 E/Bigelow Boulevard/Interstate 579 N and merge onto Bigelow Blvd. Take the ramp onto I-579N/Veterans Bridge. Follow PA-28 N to PA-66 S in Manor Township. Take exit A from PA-28N/US-422 E. Continue on PA-66 S. Turn left onto Crooked Creek Dam Rd.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lenape Heights, PA
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 64°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 17°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 · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area is in Pennsylvania’s 15th congressional district. Its representative, Glenn Thompson (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- The member who votes the moneyGlenn ThompsonU.S. Representative · Pennsylvania’s 15th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationDavid McCormickU.S. Senator · Pennsylvania
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn FettermanU.S. Senator · Pennsylvania
Read the draft, or change the wording
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Glenn Thompson, I’m a constituent in Pennsylvania’s 15th district. Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area, Pennsylvania carries 4 records on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area (Pennsylvania) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear David McCormick, I’m a constituent in Pennsylvania. Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area, Pennsylvania carries 4 records on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area (Pennsylvania) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear John Fetterman, I’m a constituent in Pennsylvania. Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area, Pennsylvania carries 4 records on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Damsite and Spillway Recreation Area (Pennsylvania) via campanac.com