Leith Run
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $15–$20Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 21All of them booked ahead
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Leith Run Campground provides a beautiful location on the Ohio River, where grassy campsites and picnic areas make for a comfortable getaway in the Wayne National Forest. The campground is equipped with modern conveniences like flush toilets and electricity. Keep reading
Recreation
The campground provides access to the mighty Ohio River and the Willow Island Pool, where canoeing, kayaking, swimming and fishing are popular activities. A backwater estuary lies alongside the campground. A paved trail and a boardwalk with a gazebo offer not only wildlife viewing opportunities, but also an opportunity to access the estuary and surrounding wetlands area, where fishing is a favorite pastime. Anglers may catch bass, catfish and other species. Leith Run offers hiking opportunities, group picnic shelters and a playground for kids. A trailhead for the Scenic River Trail, which climbs to a bluff above the river, is available in the campground.
Facilities
Leith Run offers single-family campsites (accommodating up to eight individuals) and group picnic shelters, most of which are accessible. Picnic tables, campfire rings, grills and electric hookups are provided, as are accessible flush toilets, showers and drinking water. A dump station is on-site. An adjacent picnic area, complete with shelters, is equipped with tables, electricity and grills. It also offers a volleyball court, horseshoe pits, scenic overlooks and a playground.
Natural Features
The campground is located on the north banks of the beautiful Ohio River, just miles from the Ohio-West Virginia border, near the town of Newport, Ohio. A scenic hardwood-pine forest covers the campground, which has many waterfront sites.
Nearby Attractions
The Covered Bridge Scenic Byway passes by the campground and provides a romantic view of the countryside, complete with forested hills, open pastures and four 19th century covered bridges. Legend has it that it's a tradition for visitors passing over the covered bridges to hold their breath and make a wish.
What the agency tells you
Boat ramp is permanently closed
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.
Campers may not occupy an individual developed campsite with more than eight persons at one time.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Campers may not occupy more than three developed camping units at one time (one RV and two tents sites).
Pets are permitted within recreation areas, but must be caged, on a leash not longer than six feet, or under other physical restrictive control.
Click here for more information on the Wayne National Forest
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 campsites 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
- 21 · 3 tent-only
- Hookups
- 18 electric
- Longest rig
- 90 ft
- Paved pads
- 18 of 21
- Accessible sites
- 18
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…equipped with modern conveniences like flush toilets and electricity. Recreation The campground provides…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…accessible flush toilets, showers and drinking water. A dump station is on-site. An adjacent picnic…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Mountain biking
- Picnicking
- Night sky · 4th darkest of 20 in OH
- Bortle 4
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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, $15–$20 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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
23 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 23 mapped sitesAll 23 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 23 of the 23 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. 21 of the 23 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.
| FAM | 001 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | yes | 82 ft | 547 ft | 158 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 002 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | yes | 82 ft | 465 ft | 88 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 003 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | yes | 61 ft | 525 ft | 189 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 004 | standard electric | 90 ft | 50 amp | yes | 79 ft | 416 ft | 197 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 005 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 61 ft | 495 ft | 221 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 006 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 67 ft | 377 ft | 269 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 007 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 58 ft | 312 ft | 267 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 008 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 72 ft | 339 ft | 195 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 009 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 58 ft | 256 ft | 280 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 010 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 60 ft | 208 ft | 283 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 011 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 63 ft | 180 ft | 271 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 012 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | yes | 44 ft | 178 ft | 233 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 013 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | yes | 44 ft | 197 ft | 205 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 015 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 84 ft | 218 ft | 180 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 016 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 48 ft | 305 ft | 94 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 017 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 48 ft | 319 ft | 78 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 018 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | yes | 102 ft | 300 ft | 146 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 019 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 84 ft | 192 ft | 227 ft | $20 |
| FAM | 020 | tent only nonelectric | 79 ft | 178 ft | 336 ft | $15 | |||
| FAM | 021 | tent only nonelectric | 71 ft | 100 ft | 404 ft | $15 | |||
| FAM | 022 | tent only nonelectric | 71 ft | 104 ft | 418 ft | $15 | |||
| LEITH RUN | G01 | day use | 30 ft | 30 amp | yes | 333 ft | 486 ft | 120 ft | $55 |
| LEITH RUN | G02 | day use | 30 ft | 30 amp | yes | 181 ft | 159 ft | 323 ft | $55 |
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
Riffle Run Campground51 mi
Bulltown Camp55 miFrom Marietta, Ohio, travel approximately 21 miles on Highway 7 to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for St. Marys, WV
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 67°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 22°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
Leith Run is in Ohio’s 6th congressional district. Its representative, Michael Rulli (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: D-. See every public-lands vote →