Loleta Recreation
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $16–$25Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 4240 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Loleta Recreation Campground sits along the east branch of Millstone Creek in the southwestern corner of the Allegheny National Forest, offering a peaceful getaway that is popular with families. Keep reading
Recreation
Camping is available in both the primitive upper loop and the more developed lower loop. The Day Use area with picnic tables and grills centers around a Civilian Conservation Corps dam across Millstone Creek, which creates a small swimming/wading area. Fishing the stream is permitted with a legal PA fishing license, but the swimming area is off-limits between Memorial Day and Labor Day. There is a 3-mile hiking trail that starts and ends at the campground, passing a rock outcrop on the edge of the Millstone Valley at its furthest point from the campground.
Facilities
The lower loop of the campground has spacious campsites that are surrounded by mature trees. The upper loop sites are smaller and tucked into the forest for a more intimate feeling with nature. Each campsite has a parking spur, fire ring, and picnic table. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided in the camping loops while the Day Use area supports the bathhouse with flush toilets, hot showers, and changing rooms.
Natural Features
Loleta is a small opening in the forested hillsides around Millstone Creek. Native tree species in the area include red oak, white pine, black cherry, red and sugar maples, and a variety of others. Millstone Creek is a cold water fishery with a thriving population of native brook trout, and it is also priodically stocked by the Pennsylvania FIsh and Game Commission. Wildlife in the area include whitetail deer, black bear, turkey, raccoon, oppossum, fox, and smaller mammals, birds, and reptiles.
Nearby Attractions
The Buzzard Swamp Hiking Trails, a 9.6-mile network of trails that wind through an area of 15 man-made ponds, make for an enjoyable day trip just north of Loleta, while driving down a dirt road extending south of the campground leads to the beautiful Clarion National Wild and Scenic River. The paved road along the river is popular for bike riding, and the river offers access for canoes, kayaks, and tubes as well as fishing opportunities and large boulders for picnicking or just watching the water roll by. Cook Forest State Park is an easy drive for hiking, marveling at the grove of Old Growth Hemlocks, or climbing an old fire tower for a view of the river. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (814) 927-6628.
Charges & Cancellations
Cancellations and changes must be made through Recreation.gov
What the agency tells you
There is no dump station in the campground. Waste material in trailers must be hauled to another state-certified dump station for disposal.
Pets must be on a leash at all times and cannot be left unattended. Pets are not allowed on the beaches or in the water. Please clean up after your pets.
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.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
It is illegal to discharge weapons, firearms, or fireworks within the Recreation Area.
Please build fires only in the fire ring or grill provided. Dead material down on the ground can be used for fires but live trees, shrubs, and plants must not be cut or damaged.
Interagency passes are accepted at most sites and are valid for the pass holder only. Pass holder must occupy the site.
Check out time is 12:00 pm. Check in is 2:00 pm camping fees must be paid by 2:00 pm -If using self-pay station, don't forget to put your site number and license plate number on your fee envelope.
Please place trash in provided receptacles. Do not burn trash or waste food in the fire ring. This invites wild animals into the campground.
*Additional fees for group sites: $5.00 per Wheeled unit (RV or Motorhome) $5.00 (additional) per night for each unit connecting to electric. Where available. $5.00 per day for each vehicle over allotted passes for site
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 42 · 11 tent-only, 2 group
- Hookups
- 20 electric
- Longest rig
- 95 ft
- Accessible sites
- 16
- Pets
- Allowed at 34 of 35 sites
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- “…spur, fire ring, and picnic table. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided in the camping… / …Day Use area supports the bathhouse with flush toilets, hot showers, and changing rooms. Natural Features…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and picnic table. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided in the camping loops while the Day Use…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Birding
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 8th darkest of 48 in PA
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 8 days ago, in Elk County
- Near peak
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 40 of the 42 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 · 17
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $16–$25 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.
“Cancellations and changes must be made through Recreation.gov” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
42 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 40 mapped sitesAll 42 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. 40 of the 42 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.
| LOLE | 019 | standard electric | 68 ft | 30 amp | yes | 89 ft | 357 ft | $25 |
| LOLE | 020 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | 87 ft | 446 ft | $25 | |
| LOLE | 021 | standard electric | 90 ft | 30 amp | 87 ft | 532 ft | $25 | |
| LOLE | 022 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | 58 ft | 429 ft | $25 | |
| LOLE | 023 | standard electric | 66 ft | 30 amp | yes | 85 ft | 489 ft | $25 |
| LOLE | 024 | standard electric | 57 ft | 30 amp | 60 ft | 407 ft | $25 | |
| LOLE | 025 | standard electric | 57 ft | 30 amp | 127 ft | 466 ft | $25 | |
| LOLE | 026 | standard electric | 57 ft | 30 amp | 67 ft | 390 ft | $25 | |
| LOLE | 027 | standard electric | 57 ft | 30 amp | yes | 67 ft | 345 ft | $25 |
| LOLE | 028 | standard electric | 83 ft | 30 amp | yes | 83 ft | 292 ft | $25 |
| LOLE | 029 | standard electric | 54 ft | 30 amp | yes | 53 ft | 232 ft | $25 |
| LOLE | 030 | standard electric | 61 ft | 30 amp | 60 ft | 340 ft | $25 | |
| LOLE | 031 | standard electric | 59 ft | 30 amp | yes | 53 ft | 254 ft | $25 |
| LOLE | 032 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | yes | 61 ft | 257 ft | $25 |
| LOLE | 033 | standard electric | 77 ft | 30 amp | 60 ft | 352 ft | $25 | |
| LOLE | 034 | standard electric | 58 ft | 30 amp | yes | 45 ft | 272 ft | $25 |
| LOLE | 035 | standard electric | 85 ft | 30 amp | yes | 45 ft | 275 ft | $25 |
| LOLE | 036 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 65 ft | 343 ft | $25 |
| LOLE | 037 | standard electric | 57 ft | 30 amp | yes | 65 ft | 408 ft | $25 |
| LOLE | 038 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | yes | 58 ft | 400 ft | $25 |
| MILL | 1 | group standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 165 ft | 647 ftSugarcamp Run | $80 | |
| S&P | S&P Standard Electric | type not stated | ||||||
| S&P | S&P Standard Nonelectric | type not stated | ||||||
| SUGA | 2 | group standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 111 ft | 696 ftSugarcamp Run | $80 | ||
| UPPR | 001 | tent only nonelectric | 110 ft | 717 ftSugarcamp Run | $16 | |||
| UPPR | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 110 ft | 747 ftSugarcamp Run | $16 | |||
| UPPR | 003 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 159 ft | 803 ftSugarcamp Run | $16 | ||
| UPPR | 004 | tent only nonelectric | 111 ft | 796 ftSugarcamp Run | $16 | |||
| UPPR | 005 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 125 ft | 830 ft | $16 | ||
| UPPR | 006 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 119 ft | 722 ft | $16 | ||
| UPPR | 007 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 119 ft | 608 ft | $16 | ||
| UPPR | 008 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 63 ft | 540 ft | $16 | ||
| UPPR | 009 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 63 ft | 477 ft | $16 | |
| UPPR | 010 | tent only nonelectric | 134 ft | 442 ft | $16 | |||
| UPPR | 011 | tent only nonelectric | 134 ft | 365 ft | $16 | |||
| UPPR | 012 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 142 ft | 329 ft | $16 | ||
| UPPR | 013 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 124 ft | 685 ft | $16 | ||
| UPPR | 014 | standard nonelectric | 95 ft | 124 ft | 732 ftSugarcamp Run | $16 | ||
| UPPR | 015 | tent only nonelectric | 100 ft | 500 ftSugarcamp Run | $16 | |||
| UPPR | 016 | tent only nonelectric | 100 ft | 482 ftSugarcamp Run | $16 | |||
| UPPR | 017 | tent only nonelectric | 126 ft | 406 ftSugarcamp Run | $16 | |||
| UPPR | 018 | tent only nonelectric | 126 ft | 431 ftSugarcamp Run | $16 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 42 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Kelly Pines CampgroundAllegheny National Forest · 6.9 mi
Kellettville Recreation Area (PA)13 mi
Minister Creek Campground and TrailheadAllegheny National Forest · 16 mi
Outflow Recreation Area (PA)20 mi
Tionesta Rec. Area Campground20 mi
Farnsworth CabinAllegheny National Forest · 22 miFrom the west, take I-80 east to Clarion, Pennsylvania. Turn left onto State Route 66 and continue northeast to Marienville. Turn right on South Forest Street and go south 6 miles to the Loleta Campground entrance sign. From the north, take State Route 66 to Marienville, turn left on South Forest Street and go 6 miles south to the Loleta Campground entrance sign. From the east, take I-80 west to the PA-36 exit towards Sigel/Brookville. Turn right onto PA-36 and take it to PA-949. Turn right on PA-949 to Bridge Road and cross the Clarion National Wild & Scenic River. Turn left onto River Road then right onto Gregg Hill Road. At the end of Gregg Hill Road, take a slight left onto Loleta Road/SR3002 and follow it to the campground entrance sign.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Marienville, PA
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 62°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 16°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
Loleta Recreation 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 →