Paint Creek Dam Site
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 · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
Paint Creek Dam Site Area, located on Paint Creek Lake, offers great opportunities for outdoor recreation in the Scioto area of southwestern Ohio. Visitors enjoy boating, fishing, camping, picnicking and rock climbing. Keep reading
Recreation
The campground is operated by the Ohio Department of State Parks and offers a wide variety of outdoor recreation activities, including mini and disc golf, a nature center and an amphitheater. Other activities on land include picnicking, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, hunting and rock climbing. A swimming beach, summer nature programs, three boat ramps, a marina and boat rentals can all be found around the lake. In winter months, sledding and cross-country skiing are available. The Corps of Engineers downstream recreation area offers picnicking, a trail, a play area and rock climbing opportunities. Two access points to the stream provide kayaking and canoeing opportunities on the river. Paint Creek has long been a popular fishing stream, where white and black crappie, blue gill, smallmouth and spotted bass, rock bass, suckers, darters, channel catfish and saugeye are commonly found. A 1.5-mile hiking trail meanders near Little Pond, and individual picnic sites with grills are scattered throughout the area and available on a first come, first served basis.
Facilities
Paint Creek Dam Site Area offers two accessible day-use picnic shelters that each accommodate up to 100 people. A visitor center is located on-site. Little Pond Shelter (Shelter 1) sits next to Little Pond and contains 15-amp electric hookups. Corn hole courts are adjacent, but bean bags are not provided. A water fountain is available at the shelter; a fountain and playground are just across the parking lot from the shelter. Overlook Shelter (Shelter 2) overlooks the lake and emergency spillway. There is an environmental restroom but it has no water or electric hookups. Overlook Shelter is located near the visitor center which houses a water fountain, flush restrooms and visitor information. A small playground and corn hole courts are adjacent to the shelter and an accessible fishing pier is within walking distance.
Natural Features
The lake is situated among gently rolling hills, where a mix of open meadows and wooded areas cover the shoreline. A variety of songbirds and waterfowl can be found in the area.
Nearby Attractions
The Paint Creek Lake area offers several points of interest within a short drive, including the First Dental School Museum, Highlands Nature Sanctuary and the Sugarloaf Outdoor Drama Theater. Several points of cultural significance include Tecumseh, Serpent Mound, Seip Mound and the Hopewell Indian Culture National Park. Rocky Fork State Park, Paint Creek State Park and Pike Lake State Park are all in the area as well, offering additional recreational opportunities. The nearby cities of Greenfield, Chillicothe, Hillsboro and Washington Courthouse host annual festivals in the spring, summer and fall.
What the agency tells you
For more information, contact the Paint Creek Lake Office at 937-365-1470
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…center which houses a water fountain, flush restrooms and visitor information. A small playground and…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…but bean bags are not provided. A water fountain is available at the shelter; a fountain and…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach, Meadow
- Biking
- Boating
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Swimming
- Water sports
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:27 UTC
The agency files 2 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.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 10
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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:27 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 records · the site map
All 2 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 2 of the 2 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Caesar Creek Lake42 miWilliam H Harsha Lake Dam44 mi
Cj Brown Dam and Reservoir - Dam Site (OH)54 miTwo Point Group CampgroundWayne National Forest · 58 mi
Oak Hill - Lake VesuviusWayne National Forest · 58 miPine Knob LoopWayne National Forest · 58 miFrom Chillicothe Ohio, take Route 50 west for 18 miles to Bainbridge. Ohio. Three miles past Bainbridge, turn right on Rapid Forge Road. Go 2 miles north and turn left into the Paint Creek Dam Site Area.
Little Pond Shelter is located on the right just before crossing the dam. Overlook Shelter is located at the end of the road at the emergency spillway overlook.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bainbridge, OH
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 67°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°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
Paint Creek Dam Site 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 →
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 moneyDavid J. TaylorU.S. Representative · Ohio’s 2nd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationBernie MorenoU.S. Senator · Ohio
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJon HustedU.S. Senator · Ohio
Read the draft, or change the wording
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Paint Creek Dam Site has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear David J. Taylor, I’m a constituent in Ohio’s 2nd district. Paint Creek Dam Site, Ohio carries 2 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 Paint Creek Dam Site (Ohio) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Paint Creek Dam Site has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Bernie Moreno, I’m a constituent in Ohio. Paint Creek Dam Site, Ohio carries 2 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 Paint Creek Dam Site (Ohio) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Paint Creek Dam Site has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Jon Husted, I’m a constituent in Ohio. Paint Creek Dam Site, Ohio carries 2 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 Paint Creek Dam Site (Ohio) via campanac.com