Buttonwood Campground, Mifflintown PA

DKirk · 04-25-2013, 09:34 PM

Anyone ever camped at Buttonwood?

I got no replies on my inquiry about good places to camp in southwestern PA

. . . . . so I've continued my search and found Buttonwood, It looks great on the website and I love that they rent canoes and have a livery service,
Would love to hear of any first hand experience before we try to book it.

GarthJ · 04-25-2013, 09:46 PM

where are you looking in sw PA? Mountains, or farther west, a little better area would help with suggestions. Do you like full service campgrounds or more rustic. State parks or private.

Sirsea · 04-25-2013, 10:12 PM

Buttonwood has great reviews on RV Park Review, I would certainly stay there when in the area. We stayed at a nice KOA not far away in Jonestown and visited Hershey Park and several candy and snack mfg in the area.

**ependydad** · 04-25-2013, 10:28 PM

My wife's family camps there yearly for Memorial Day and enjoys it.

DKirk · 04-26-2013, 06:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GarthJ

where are you looking in sw PA? Mountains, or farther west, a little better area would help with suggestions. Do you like full service campgrounds or more rustic. State parks or private.

We are looking for something fairly close to the Southern border of PA on the western end. We will be coming down I-81 after we leave CT, will camp for 3 nights in PA and head to Philpott Lake VA on July 4, so I'm looking to stay within a 5-6 hr drive to Philpott.
We don't have kids, so we try to avoid places close to amusement parks and places that really cater to kids. We much prefer rustic/state parks, but seems most PA St parks only have electric, no W or S hookups. I'd like at least E/W. So I've been looking for a park with full hookups and access to mild to moderate hiking trails or even better, rental canoes/kayaks with a lake or stream we can get on.
I also like that Buttonwood will allow you to have a beer at your campsite if you keep it reasonable. Most places are strict about no alcohol, but we'd like to be able to enjoy a beer with dinner.

I've read that the trains across the river from Buttonwood can be annoying and I hoped to camp on the waterfront.

10Isola · 04-26-2013, 08:25 PM

We are staying at Buttonwood Memorial Day Weekend. We camped at another CG in the area last year, and discovered this place on our way home. We stopped in, and they gave us a personal tour on a golf cart. Extremely nice people working there. The young owners seem to be constantly upgrading the facilities. We had to book a year in advance. The CG is sort of split in two. I would highly recommend staying on the Juniata river side. Seems to be less crowded and with better sites along the water. The CG is easy to get to as it's just off rt. 322 between State College & Harrisburg. Good luck finding a location, and I hope this helps.

DKirk · 04-29-2013, 07:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 10Isola

We are staying at Buttonwood Memorial Day Weekend. We camped at another CG in the area last year, and discovered this place on our way home. We stopped in, and they gave us a personal tour on a golf cart. Extremely nice people working there. The young owners seem to be constantly upgrading the facilities. We had to book a year in advance. The CG is sort of split in two. I would highly recommend staying on the Juniata river side. Seems to be less crowded and with better sites along the water. The CG is easy to get to as it's just off rt. 322 between State College & Harrisburg. Good luck finding a location, and I hope this helps.

Thanks for the report! We have made a reservation for a site on the river, and plan to do a canoe trip also.

stitchinsue · 05-03-2013, 09:31 PM

A friend of mine camps at buttonwood and enjoys it. They have kids tho, and told me there is a lot for the kids to do. We will be staying there later this summer.

DKirk · 05-10-2013, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 10Isola

We are staying at Buttonwood Memorial Day Weekend. We camped at another CG in the area last year, and discovered this place on our way home. We stopped in, and they gave us a personal tour on a golf cart. Extremely nice people working there. The young owners seem to be constantly upgrading the facilities. We had to book a year in advance. The CG is sort of split in two. I would highly recommend staying on the Juniata river side. Seems to be less crowded and with better sites along the water. The CG is easy to get to as it's just off rt. 322 between State College & Harrisburg. Good luck finding a location, and I hope this helps.

I'd like to hear what you think about the amount of noise from the train across the river.

butchjr · 05-10-2013, 12:21 PM

Nice campground stay here last year in june and we are giong back this june staying on the water side not far from baltimore.

Roo5008 · 05-13-2013, 08:40 PM

We've been there twice over the 4th each time and the campground is well taken care of. Impressed with the flower beds and entire grounds. We stayed on the pool side to be closer to the shuffleboard and horseshoe pits. We also took along innertubes to float from the bridge back to campground. Good place to float down and catch some smallmouth.

DKirk · 05-15-2013, 04:27 PM

I appreciate the replies. No one has commented about the trains so I guess it's not too annoying. Anyone know if the campground has inner tubes for floating on the river or if you need to bring your own? We have already set up a reservation for a canoe trip but inner tubing could be fun also. I don't currently have any but we can buy them!

Roo5008 · 05-15-2013, 07:39 PM

I should have mentioned before we had some innertubes we also had to buy some in the camp store, very reasonable prices, and they have an air compressor on the river side just for blowing up tubes.
There's also a place up river about 3 miles that rents tubes and canoes. We didn't rent there we just used their parking area and ramp down to the river.

yelnad · 05-22-2013, 06:26 PM

They have an active Facebook page you can check out. I haven't stayed there yet but have heard positive things from other central PA folks.

10Isola · 05-27-2013, 11:18 PM

Just stayed there this weekend. We went ahead and booked for next Memorial Day weekend. We stayed on the river side, and had a fun, relaxing weekend. The CG had a lot going on, but didn't really participate as the river kept the kids busy all weekend. Friendly and helpful staff. Yup - there are a lot of trains that pass by across the river at all times, but they were no bother to us. We kind of liked them.

**ependydad** · 05-28-2013, 07:42 AM

You were there with good friends of ours! They're whole family goes and they rent a few sites. Always seem to have a good time.

DKirk · 05-28-2013, 02:32 PM

Thanks for the additional replies. From all the favorable feedback I feel confident that we will have a great time there.

DKirk · 07-29-2013, 07:56 AM

We loved Buttonwood. What a nice place, very clean, lovely landscaping, and very friendly owners and staff.
Enjoyed their livery service and did 2 canoe trips.
We had a site on the row closest to the water, and loved the lower section of the park which was further from all the great activities they had for kids.
The trains didn't bother us at all, only a brief horn blast after they were past the campground.
they rent golf carts there and all of them running around bugged my DH, but hr was just being a grump, they weren't that bad!
I highly recommend the park, and would definitely go back if we are in that pay of PA again

jaydash2 · 08-06-2013, 12:34 PM

Lake Raystown resort is very nice. We are headed back there in a couple of week after we drop of our son at Juniata college. The only thing is the closest store is about 20 minutes away. Glad to see the great reviews on buttonwood. We were thinking about trying it.

DKirk · 08-06-2013, 01:48 PM

They have a good map on their website. If you have kids you might want to stay on the upper side to be closer to the activities for kids and you don't have to worry about them crossing the road ( which is not very busy) If it's just adults you might want to stay on the river side of the road. The sites that are closest to the river do not have mature shade trees yet ( they have trees planted during a recent renovation of the lower side, but they are still small)

The center rows have a few mature trees and the uppermost row has plenty of shade trees. You may want to look at the Google satellite view although the image is older.

All the sites are nicely graveled which you don't see in the Google photo, and the shadows from the trees by the river make it look like the waterfront row is shaded but it's not. There is also a new exit road which isn't in the aerial photo.

I just took another look at the aerial of the upper campground and it must be a really old photo. All of the upper sites look unfinished in the photo, but in fact they are fully finished, graveled sites, grass all around, they've added cabins, bathhouses, laundry. The jumping pillow, mini golf, laser tag and peddle carts, horseshoe and shuffleboard areas aren't in the photo either. But at least you can see the layout of the park.

Can you tell that I was really impressed by how nice the campground is?

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