Oak Hill - Lake Vesuvius
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:05 UTC
- A night
- $20When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 32In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Oak Hill Campground is one of two camping areas within Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area. It has recently renovated and upgraded with modern conveniences like electric hookups and flush toilets. Lake Vesuvius is very close, providing access to ample recreational opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
Boating, fishing and swimming on Lake Vesuvius are the most popular activities. Anglers may catch bass, catfish, crappie and bluegill. More than 40 miles of trails exist in the area, with trailheads beginning at or near the campground. A spur within the campground connects to the Rock House Trail, which leads to a cave Native Americans used as a hide-out many years ago.
Facilities
The campground offers dozens of accessible single-family sites for tent and RV camping. Each campsite can accommodate up to eight individuals. A group site can accommodate up to 50 people. Some sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Picnic tables, lantern posts, and campfire rings with grills are provided, as well as electric hookups, accessible flush and vault toilets, showers and water hook-ups. A dump station is located on-site.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on the west side of the 143-acre lake. A mixed hardwood-pine forest with many mature oak trees covers the area.
Nearby Attractions
The closest town is Ironton, Ohio, less than 10 miles from the campground.
What the agency tells you
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.
Campers may not occupy more than three developed camping units at one time (one RV and two tents sites).
Everything else this campground posts · 5
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
- 32
- Hookups
- 32 electric, 32 water, 4 sewer
- Longest rig
- 64 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 32
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- “…conveniences like electric hookups and flush toilets. Lake Vesuvius is very close, providing access to… / …electric hookups, accessible flush and vault toilets, showers and water hook-ups. A dump station is…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 10th darkest of 20 in OH
- Bortle 4
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:05 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
OpenBookedClosed
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 · 13
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
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Oak Hill - Lake Vesuvius closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
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 · 60 mi · 2 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 16:05 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
32 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 28 mapped sitesAll 32 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 28 of the 32 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. 32 of the 32 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Pine Knob | 025 | rv electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | yes | 61 ft | 1,025 ft | 1,286 ft | $20 |
| Pine Knob | 026 | rv electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 47 ft | 1,086 ft | 1,342 ft | $20 |
| Pine Knob | 027 | rv electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | yes | 47 ft | 1,095 ft | 1,327 ft | $20 |
| Pine Knob | 028 | rv electric | 62 ft | 30 amp | yes | 53 ft | 1,108 ft | 1,313 ft | $20 |
| Pine Knob | 029 | rv electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | yes | 83 ft | 1,027 ft | 1,235 ft | $20 |
| Pine Knob | 030 | standard electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | yes | 72 ft | 1,113 ft | 1,281 ft | $20 |
| Pine Knob | 031 | standard electric | 62 ft | 50 amp | yes | 75 ft | 1,076 ft | 1,189 ft | $20 |
| Pine Knob | 032 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | yes | 75 ft | 1,123 ft | 1,200 ft | $20 |
| Post Oak | 009 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | yes | 66 ft | 1,113 ft | 1,075 ft | $20 |
| Post Oak | 010 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | yes | 66 ft | 1,160 ft | 1,134 ft | $20 |
| Post Oak | 012 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | yes | 90 ft | 1,017 ft | 1,234 ft | $20 |
| Post Oak | 013 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 90 ft | 929 ft | 1,313 ft | $20 |
| Post Oak | 014 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | yes | 94 ft | 1,048 ft | 1,277 ft | $20 |
| Scarlet Oak | 011 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | $20 | |||
| Scarlet Oak | 020 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | yes | $20 | |||
| Scarlet Oak | 021 | standard electric | 64 ft | 30 amp | yes | $20 | |||
| Scarlet Oak | 022 | rv electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 56 ft | 934 ft | 924 ft | $20 |
| Scarlet Oak | 023 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | yes | 56 ft | 895 ft | 888 ft | $20 |
| Scarlet Oak | 024 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | yes | 90 ft | 973 ft | 996 ft | $20 |
| White Oak | 001 | rv electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | yes | 117 ft | 1,305 ft | 2,016 ft | $20 |
| White Oak | 002 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | yes | $20 | |||
| White Oak | 003 | standard electric | 46 ft | 50 amp | yes | 52 ft | 1,210 ft | 1,945 ft | $20 |
| White Oak | 004 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | yes | 67 ft | 1,262 ft | 1,685 ft | $20 |
| White Oak | 005 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | yes | 89 ft | 1,320 ft | 1,616 ft | $20 |
| White Oak | 006 | rv electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | yes | 86 ft | 1,314 ft | 1,453 ft | $20 |
| White Oak | 007 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | yes | 86 ft | 1,346 ft | 1,529 ft | $20 |
| White Oak | 008 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | yes | 84 ft | 1,237 ft | 1,517 ft | $20 |
| White Oak | 015 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | yes | 84 ft | 1,159 ft | 1,563 ft | $20 |
| White Oak | 016 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | yes | 67 ft | 1,231 ft | 1,627 ft | $20 |
| White Oak | 017 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | yes | 102 ft | 1,204 ft | 1,769 ft | $20 |
| White Oak | 018 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | yes | 52 ft | 1,181 ft | 1,904 ft | $20 |
| White Oak | 019 | rv electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | yes | 126 ft | 1,096 ft | 2,004 ft | $20 |
25 of 32 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Lake Vesuvius Recreation AreaWayne National Forest · 1.0 mi
Iron Ridge - Lake VesuviusWayne National Forest · 1.1 miFrom U.S. Highway 52 at Ironton, take State Route 93 north for 9 miles to the 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 40°F, day 68°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 20°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
Oak Hill - Lake Vesuvius 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 →