9/16 West Branch SP, Ravenna, OH

Over the past 10 years, I have spent a lot of time at this state park because it is close to my son's house.  I cannot park in his subdivision, and the nearer commercial campgrounds are old and grungy, so this is my best choice.  This past summer I stayed here for three two-week stretches, but am leaving tomorrow morning for a few days in Detroit and then heading south to northern Georgia and to Florida.  Rather than post a few things here and there over the summer, I have gathered my photos and comments into one post.  

As some of you have no doubt figured out from past postings, I tend to stay in state and federal campgrounds because I prefer natural settings and do not care about things like swimming pools, activities, and such in commercial campgrounds.  However, there are some positives and negatives to this and other Ohio and Michigan state parks, as I have noted before.  Overall, however, I am glad this place is here and plan to be back here by next mid-May.

First, one of the big positives:  A couple of years ago, the State of Ohio invested some money in its state parks by adding some brand-new full-hookup sites.  The one shown below is a handicap site and is wider than most of the new sites. 

However, even the regular new full-hookup sites, as shown below, are wider than the older sites, but they also have a paved area around the hookups and a paved patio.  The paved area around the hookups makes it easier and safer to hook up than in the past when you often had to wade through a puddle to reach the electric box.  The paved patio reduces the need for people to put out plastic mats to put their chairs and other stuff on.  Mats can kill grass and cause more mud during wet seasons, which increases the need to put out mats, which kill more grass, etc. 

 

However, even in the new section, they made the roads too narrow and maintained the ditches on either side of the roadway.

 

 

During the two periods I stayed in the handicap site shown earlier, I watched a series of campers have trouble getting into their sites and getting stuck in the ditches.  The narrow road and the narrow opening of the site made it very difficult for even a small RV to make it in easily.  (Note the ditch on the other side of the entrance roadway.  For bigger RVs the choice was which ditch to fall into.)  Luckily, all I saw were able to disconnect their rigs and use their four-wheel drive vehicles to get their trucks out.   

 

 

Can't back up and not easy to pull themselves out of the ditch.  

 

A solution to the stuck vehicles, for this and other sites, would be to extend the drain pipes and widen the site entrances by three or four feet on either side. 

These new sites replaced some of the older sites which were too narrow and sometimes very unlevel.  Here are some examples:

This site is not only too narrow but too short for most modern RVs.

 

 

This one is an example of what I call a "ski jump" site.   It is also too short for most modern RVs. 

 

 

 This one dives down in the back. 

 

Here is what happens when even a short trailer parks on this site.  Notice that the rear wheels are jacked up by the stabilizers.  Luckily this trailer has the entrance door in the front.  had the door been in the rear, the steps would not reach down far enough for a safe entrance or exit.  And a longer vehicle will have to have the rear end jacked up even higher!

Another problem with this state park is the dump station.  Since most campsites do not have water hookups, you have to drive down and around into this dump station area to fill your tanks when you arrive.   However, it is a tight fit and, though it is not clear on this photo, your rig will be on an angle while you are filling your tanks. 

 

 

Also, it is a tight turn if you have a long vehicle, plus I do not like the sharp corner curbs.  

 

 

This is the entrance from the opposite side, and the sharp curve is more obvious.  The solution is to remove some trees, straighten and raise the whole roadway, and then raise water faucets and dump facilities so it is more level and possible larger.   

I have suggested to them that just moving the fill faucets to a nearby parking lot would be a serious help. 

 

Some nice things about this state park?  They have a very nice playground. 

The store is small, but it has ice and a coin machine for the washers and dryers. 

YES!!  Every Ohio state park has a couple of washers and dryers in each of its restrooms.  This is a big plus for a lot of us on long trips, though I admit the park attracts mostly local people. 

Also, the restrooms have showers and are modern and nearly always well-kept.  That is a real advantage over some state parks in this country which have only rudimentary facilities.

So, I will continue to come here in future years, but I hope Ohio manages to invest more money in making updates to its many state parks.