Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area
- Right now
- ClosedThe agency’s own sentence, quoted below
- Sites
- 1In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area, named for the old Vesuvius iron furnace, is the Wayne National Forest's premier developed recreation site. The 143-acre lake and 1,200-acre complex provides the perfect spot for a getaway. Keep reading
Recreation
Lake Vesuvius is a popular location for swimming and fishing. Anglers may catch bass, catfish, crappie and bluegill. A boat ramp is located on-site. A swimming beach is located at Big Bend. A large playing field and multiple hiking trails are available within the recreation area. The accessible 1/3-mile boardwalk along the southwest edge of the lake provides an opportunity for a leisurely stroll through the area, and the slightly longer 1/2-mile Longbow Archery Trail, accesses at least 25 field targets for shooting practice. The area boasts more than 25 miles of hiking trails and more than 45 miles of horseback riding trails.
Facilities
The recreation area offers two developed family campgrounds, a group camp and group picnic shelters. The group campsite can accommodate up to 50 people for tent camping. It is equipped with tables and campfire rings with grills. Accessible vault toilets, showers and drinking water are provided. Group shelters can accommodate up to 150 people. Picnic tables, campfire rings and grills are provided, as well as accessible flush toilets and drinking water. One shelter provides electricity, while the other does not. Each has access to an amphitheater.
Natural Features
The lake sits on Storms Creek, which was dammed in 1939 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The rugged hills and rock outcroppings offer a scenic backdrop for this beautiful recreation area. The historic Vesuvius iron furnace is located at the base of the dam.
Nearby Attractions
The closest town is Ironton, Ohio, less than 10 miles from the campground.
What the agency tells you
Pets are permitted within recreation areas, but must be caged, on a leash not longer than six feet, or under other physical restrictive control.
Camping or the establishment of a campsite within the Wayne National Forest shall be limited to a period of time not to exceed 14 days in any 30 day time period.
Click here for more information on the Wayne National Forest
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Don't move firewood: To limit the spread of invasive tree-killing pests, firewood from outside the area is not permitted. Some states have quarantines and may confiscate your firewood. Please help protect our forests from invasive species by obtaining your firewood at or near your camping destination and burning it on-site. Visit dontmovefirewood.org for more information.
Reservation Cut-Off Window: Reservations must be made 4 days prior to arrival. Any unreserved sites within the 4 day cut-off window are no longer reservable and only available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
State of Ohio Buckeye Pass is not accepted at any Wayne National Forest recreation sites that charges a fee.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- “…campfire rings with grills. Accessible vault toilets, showers and drinking water are provided. Group… / …are provided, as well as accessible flush toilets and drinking water. One shelter provides…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…Accessible vault toilets, showers and drinking water are provided. Group shelters can accommodate up to…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach
- Archery
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Picnicking
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
Nothing to book until it reopens
Lake Vesuvius Area Closure Public Health and Safety.
The closure above is the reading. We hold no availability snapshot for this campground, so there’s no thirty-night strip to draw under it.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
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
What the agency said · 1
Lake Vesuvius Area Closure Public Health and Safety. The purpose of this Order is to close Lake Vesuvius to all public access to draw down the lake 31 feet below normal pool levels in order to repair the dam gate. The dam gate is unable to close due to debris obstruction or malfunction, and personnel must assess the area to determine repairs.
U.S. Forest Service · posted Sep 19, 2025
Filed as emergency from the agency’s own words “Public Health and Safety”. That reading is ours.
Open within 60 miles · 1
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Claylick Boat-In CampgroundDaniel Boone National Forest · 59 mi · 2 sites
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
3 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 3 mapped sitesAll 3 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 3 of the 3 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 3 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.
| 2 Point | 001 | group tent only area nonelectric | 5325 ft | 1,975 ftLake Vesuvius | 2,013 ft | $35 | |
| FURN | 003 | day use | 15 amp | 563 ft | 211 ft | 2,137 ft | $52 |
| ROAD | 004 | day use | 563 ft | 423 ftLake Vesuvius | 2,148 ft | $42 |
The agency files 2 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
Iron Ridge - Lake VesuviusWayne National Forest · 0.9 miPine Knob LoopWayne National Forest · 1.0 mi
Oak Hill - Lake VesuviusWayne National Forest · 1.0 miTwo Point Group CampgroundWayne National Forest · 1.1 miFrom U.S. Highway 52 at Ironton, take State Route 93 north for less than 10 miles to Lake Vesuvius Road (County Road 29). Turn east toward Lake Vesuvius and travel 1 mile to the recreation area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ironton, OH
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 67°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 23°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
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area is in Ohio’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Dave Taylor (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →