Cowans Gap State Park, PA

[dnovosat]

We stayed at Cowans Gap State Park July 14-17th, 2006. Cowans Gap is in southcentral PA near Chambersburg. It is a beautiful park with a large lake for swimming and fishing.

The park is well-run and clean. The paved roads are a bit narrow and there are some steep grades. Some of the sites are right on the road so you will want to talk to someone if you reserve a spot in the blind!

The park was closed completely a couple of years ago and they totally rebuilt the campground. The roads are all new, that sites have all been levelled with crushed stone and the bathrooms are like a luxury resort! The bathrooms are all "family" friendly bathrooms with real tile floors. The showers are the same with a men's shower, a women's shower, and a family shower where you can wash off all the kids in private!

There is electric at some sites but water must be carted in a jerry can. They have water spigots every 5-10 sites so it isn't a huge deal. There is a dump station but to get to it when you are ready to leave you have to circle back through the whole campground to get to it.

Gypsy moths have taken their toll on the trees here so many of the sites are very open. You will see moths flitting about through the day.

They have an excellent ranger program here with lots of planned activities for the kids. My daughter loved the bat show. We sat in the grass near their bat houses and watched the bats emerge at dusk! The ranger gave a very age-appropriate speech to the dozen or so kids there.

The cost for 3 nights was $48 for an electric site.

I would rate Cowans Gap State Park at 4.5/5.