Established Camping
Hickory Run State Park Campground
About
State Park
Are you daring enough to hike the Shades of Death Trail? This is just one of the hiking trails available to visitors at Hickory Run State Park. Not to worry though, the trail is not nearly as ominous as its name. Hickory Run was established as a state park in 1945 following a long and storied history of devastation and restoration. The first settlements in the area occurred following the American Revolution, when landowners began building mills on the local creeks. By the mid-1800s, the area was clearcut, then experienced several incidents of fire and flooding. In 1935 the area was purchased by the National Park Service (NPS) for use as a recreation area, and many of the roads, campgrounds and trails were developed. Ten years later, the NPS transferred the land to the state of Pennsylvania for use as a state park.
Just 30 miles south of Scranton, Hickory Run State Park is a 16,000-acre natural area in the foothills of the Pocono Mountains. The area features numerous trout streams, boulder fields, wetlands and restored forests. The area is also home to a variety of wildlife, from birds to black bears. The park’s large campground features more than 300 tent, trailer and RV sites, as well as a few walk-in sites and camping cottages. Some campsites are ADA accessible. Park facilities include restrooms with showers, drinking water, two playgrounds, amphitheater, fishing pier, dog-walking area, and a camp store. There’s also recycling and dump stations. The Shades of Death and Beach trails are accessible right from the campground. Campsite rates range from $15–$40/night; cabins and cottages range from $38–$105/night.
There is no shortage of outdoor play to be enjoyed on your visit to Hickory Run. On warm days, cool off with a dip in Sand Spring Lake, or go wading below Hawk Falls; cast a line for brook and brown trout in Hickory Run or Mud Run; or test your precision at the park’s disc golf course. There are also several geocaches hidden in the park if you’re up for a little treasure hunting. If you’re packing hiking boots, you have 44 miles of trails to wander. Choose from short, family-friendly nature and wildlife-watching trails, to the more strenuous Boulder Field Trail, which traverses a 16.5-acre field of sandstone boulders that predate several of North America’s ice ages. In winter, many of the park’s trails are open for snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling.
Location
Hickory Run State Park Campground is located in Pennsylvania
Directions
The park is within a two- or three-hour drive from Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and New York City; and one hour from Allentown, Scranton, and Wilkes-Barre. From I-80, take Exit 274 at the Hickory Run State Park Exit, and drive east on PA 534 for approximately 6 miles. The park may be reached by either Exit 95 or Exit 87 (EZ pass only) on the Northeast Turnpike. From Exit 95, drive west on PA 940 for 2.5 miles, turn east on PA-534 for approximately 7 miles. From Exit 87 (EZ pass only), drive north on PA-903 to PA-534 West. Turn left to follow PA-534 into the park.
Address
4 Family Camp Road
Jim Thorpe, PA 18229
Coordinates
41.0250045789877 N
75.68685674317788 W
Access
- Drive-InPark next to your site
- Walk-InPark in a lot, walk to your site.
Stay Connected
- WiFiUnknown
- VerizonGood
- AT&TAvailable
- T-MobileAvailable
Site Types
- Tent Sites
- RV Sites
- Standard (Tent/RV)
- Group
- Cabins
- Tent Cabin
Features
For Campers
- Market
- ADA Access
- Trash
- Picnic Table
- Firewood Available
- Phone Service
- Reservable
- Showers
- Drinking Water
- Electric Hookups
- Toilets
- Pets
- Fires
For Vehicles
- Sanitary Dump
- Sewer Hookups
- Water Hookups
- Big Rig Friendly
Beautiful Hickory
❤️😊We would like to thank Hickory for letting us stay their peace fully it was our first camping trip in a 🚎RV travel trailer our first RV purchase you made our stay amazing I loved the environment our favorite spot is the beach trail 🏞️💦right their you can let yourself go and meditate with mother nature 🌍 so amazing hickory has alot to offer you just have to seek it . 🌞 Our favorite spot guess where 😜stay tuned for more The Outsider's 💋🇵🇷🇺🇲
- (5) View All
Great location, good tree cover
We went on a last-minute trip from Philly in what I think was opening weekend (April). We wanted to hike with toddlers, so that took up most of our Saturday. Main Ranger Station was really nice. We hope to come back and see more of the campground itself and try additional hikes. We took the short drive to Hawk Falls Trail and also completed the Orchard Trail Loop. Bathrooms with showers were just what we needed and easy to walk to, shared between our pet-friendly loop and another loop. Good sinks for cleaning dishes.
Stayed at 199 on the pet-friendly 165-228 loop. Lots of people walking dogs. Very varied length of campsites and privacy. Many around the inside of loops, especially right at the bathrooms would have been pretty tight, or possibly good if you were reserving a couple in a row. Would have been nice to have a big tree between ours and site 195, but there was some distance.
Check out was 3pm, which is awesome!
- (6) View All
Great hiking
The bathroom facilities were clean, the hiking in the area was gorgeous and pet friendly and I’m looking forward to going back
- (4) View All
Quiet night in the woods
Hooting owls and fall foliage. This was a very peaceful night in the woods. The office staff was helpful with info about the camp and surrounding area. The bathroom and showers were clean and adequate. The sites were not too close together. Overall, we’d come back.
- (4) View All
Large sites and great hiking
Beautifully maintained park. Great sites. Clean bath houses. Great hiking spot. We tent camped in November so it very very cold.
Wonderful Fall Weekend
Hickory Run was fantastic! The leaves are beautiful, and we had a fun hike up to the boulder field. I wish there were more dog friendly sites! There are a few, but no walk in sites, unfortunately.
One of my favorite campgrounds
Been coming to Hickory Run for close to 10 years and it will always be in my favorites! Great campground, layout and location. So many hikes nearby including a fun disc golf course. Very friendly rangers, never had, or seen an issue there.
Beautiful Massive State Park with lots of options on what to do
Hickory Run State Park, this was our second effort. Last year it was a complete, cold, rainy washout. We didn't have a chance to do much. This year, however we got to explore and really enjoyed ourselves. We went on a couple of long hikes, here and also in the neighboring Lehigh Gorge State Park. There they have a path that follows the mountain river and it offers a relaxing hike with wonderful views. The hiking within the park has a good mix of trails, some areas, pretty difficult, starting with "The Shades of Death Trail". The mixture of forests, fields, rocky, rooty terrain, and the different altitudes, makes for some great trails to see things, but will also really wear you out. The Boulder Field is a must see. This is something that just makes you think, it is beautifully strange. It looks like they also have a nice swimming lake and in our area that had large well kept level fields to do outdoor games and a mini-playground. This park really should be 5 stars, by I just can't do it. After stopping in to one of the bathrooms in the campground area, it was plain disgusting, I wouldn't even go there, waited until we got back to our camper. Felt really bad for the tent folks if that is how all of the facilities are. The Visitor Center was nice, cell phone reception is not good, at least with Verizon. Too bad about the bathrooms, the rest of the park is awesome.
- (12) View All
Beautiful state park. Decent campground
Signs for check in were not well marked but the rangers didn't seem to mind that we went straight to our site without checking in. Campsites and the roads through the campground are a little tight. Bathhouse was decently clean. The best part of the campground was definitely the visitor center. Lots of educational displays for kids and everything seemed new.
The state park is gorgeous. We hiked the shades of death trail which was great. Close to Lehigh gorge and Jim Thorpe too.
- (5) View All
Just Okay - But it was probably the campers before us
Let me preface everything by saying, it rained for most of our trip, so we really did not get to do a lot of the hikes we wanted to.
We had high hopes after reading other reviews. I've been to Hickory Run State Park a number of times, about 20 years ago, never to camp, just for day trips, as my family had a home
Once we got to our site, it was super dirty. There was trash in the fire pit, beer bottle caps in the dirt, and other random pieces of trash all around the site that our Catahoula and 2 year old promptly brought to us. I guess we taught them well to "leave your site better than you found it." The water pressure was absolutely terrible, it took us all of Thursday and another 2 hours on Friday morning to fill our 40 gallon tank. On the positive side, on Friday we had the entire 300 loop to ourselves, but by Friday night, every spot was filled.
The park itself is sprawling, and you really do need to drive to the different trail heads. Be aware, the roads are all dirt and gravel, and they're not well maintained. You will be dodging potholes on the roads to the trailheads. We made it out in the rain to go see Hickory Run Lake and the Boulder Field. Our daughter was thrilled to watch the water pouring over the dam. With all the rain we got, it really was a spectacular sight. Her favorite parts of the trip were going to visit the "big rocks" and see the "waterfall."
- (5) View All
Awesome
Vary easy to access’ Clean rest rooms’ And quite’ Great hiking trails a lot to see’
- (7) View All
The Way State Parks Should Be!
Back to Nature, Baby! We’ve been to so many campgrounds of all different types that we’ve come to expect that State Parks almost fall into the same category as RV Resorts.
With their amenities, immaculately groomed landscaping and higher prices, we’ve almost come to think of them less like parks and more like golf courses. However, Hickory Run is taking a different approach and letting the woods and campground be just that. Lots of space between sites and a ton of privacy. Completely natural setting, yet bathrooms were updated, immaculate, and spacious...and the showers were hot.
We only spent a night here on our way to Hershey PA, but the list of hiking options was impressive, check out the Shades of Death Trail? Don’t know what that’s about, but sounds intriguing! We'll be back the next time we pass through...
- (9) View All
Great campground !
We stayed at Hickory Run for 3 nights over this past weekend on a full hookup site. We arrived and checked in atthe visitor center. The staff memebr was very helpful and explained where our site was , the rules of the campground and infomred us that bears have been active in the area. The site we had was large and easy to get our trailer into. All of the sites appeared to be of a good size , and people appearsed to have ample space without being on top of each other. During our 3 nights we had no issues with anyone failing to follow quiet time.
The Campground is about 20 minutes from JimThorpe and all of its atrractions. There are many well known camping trails close to the campground as well as the Boulder Field. The campstore was well stocked and appeared to have everything anyone would need on a visit.
Cell service was poor with AT&T and Verizon. We did not get reliable cell service until we got about a mile and half away from the campground in any direction. Overall the vist was good and we will probably go back again.
Wonderful!
I had such a good time here. Rangers took care of some flim flam as some people got really loud.. Shades of death Trail was awesome and it was just beautiful here. Bathrooms were very clean.
- (5) View All
Disappointed and Disgusted
This place could have been halfway decent if the people running it showed the slightest bit of interest. The campsites are mostly good. The bathrooms need to be clean and they rarely were, especially when two of the three stalls were covered in vomit. The staff is astoundingly rude, and I’m told that goes with the region. There was absolutely no interest in enforcing rules, namely, quiet hours. People at the site next to ours started setting up at 10:00pm. They were still noisy after midnight. And then, the garbage truck started picking up the bear-proof dumpsters at 5:00am. That was a joy to wake up to. I’m fine with bare bones camping. This was just a disappointment across the board.
Used to camp here a lot
although I haven't camped here in 20 years, I hope the pictures I'm adding are helpful
- (6) View All
Central and well organized
This campground is great! We had an amazing time despite the rain. The campgrounds are central to everything in the state park and allow access to lots of great trails. (Sand Springs was our favorite) There we plenty of trees around to hang tarps and clotheslines. The facilities exceeded expectations and were very clean. The camp store was a blessing and had all the things we needed. We would go back in a heartbeat!
Amazing Place to Camp
We loved camping here. There is so much exploring to do. So much so, we made plans to come back really soon to do some more! We spent time at the awesome visitors center, the Shades of Death trail, the Boulder Field, the swimming beach, and spent lots of time hiking and taking in the beauty of this area. We enjoyed ourselves so much. Our campsite was nice, we rearranged the picnic table a little and had plenty of room for ten around our campfire. Plenty of trees for hanging hammocks. Our site was a little close to others, but we booked late and needed to be in the pet loop as we were camping with friends with dogs. They were in our neighboring site, so privacy didn’t feel like so much of an issue. The only downside is the bath houses. While clean and maintained, there is only one bath house for two big loops. And that bath house only has three showers and three toilets for each gender. Not a big deal midday, but certainly an issue first thing in the morning! We ended up using our pop up camper cassette way more than we normally like to. But all in all it was a wonderful weekend and we can’t wait to come back for a longer stay!
- (7) View All
Pretty Camping in the Poconos
We had a nice four night stay here. Very pretty wooded sites. Fairly close together but trees provide some privacy. Nice lake for swimming. Visitors Center has nice educational programming. Overall very pleasant camping on no close to NYC.
Relaxing with a lot to do!
This campground is awesome. There is a lot to do in and around this park - such as hiking and swimming. The only con is that there are a ton of sites so it can get quite loud if all sites are booked. A pro? The campground store has anything you may need that you forgot to pack.
Our non-electric site was shaded and spacious!
Nice place to visit, at least once
The boulder field was the highlight of our camping trip. The campground has great playgrounds, several well-marked trails, and functional (if dirty and rustic) restrooms and showers. The visitors center boasts the most modern updates and a truly lovely interactive museum displaying the history and current wildlife of the park. Cell service is respectable in most parts of the campground. Just don’t expect the rangers to show up if you need them.
- (5) View All
Cozy Mountain Vibes!
I stayed in Hickory Run in late November, I love the sheer elements of nature found in this park. It is so calm and beautifuls with trails scattered throughout the entire park. I will definitely come here again to experience the poconos in different conditions. It was very cold when I camped here, but not miserable! There are nice bathhouses, mental hangers for trash and food, and roads are very well maintained. I love Hickory Run!
- (9) View All
Been camping here for 20 years
I love this park, and have seen it really evolve over the past 20 years. There is something here for everyone whether you like to hike, fish, mountain bike or go white water rafting. The newly built park office and entrance rivals some national parks. Staff is helpful and professional and the campsites are always very well maintained. Hiking trails are clear with plenty of parking at the trailheads. Many of the trails lead to beautiful waterfalls and some even hold stocked trout. The town of Jim Thorpe is near by and has businesses that cater to outdoor adventures. Outlet shopping is also a short drive away for anyone look for something more on the mild side.
- (5) View All
A nice escape!
Our first visit to a PA state park and we couldn't have picked a nicer park to begin with. Stayed in the Pet Loop in our 19ft trailer. Site was nice and long and fairly level. Lots to do at the park - checked out Boulder field, hiked the shades of death trail, and took our two pups on several walks that they loved. Nice quiet campsite, checked out several other nice sites for future visits.
- (4) View All
Would recommend
Lots of hiking trails, a very cool boulder field, and plenty of solitude. Black bears wander around though, so make sure you put away food and scented things. One came right through our campsite. Also has an excellent camp store that is stocked with literally anything you’d ever need.
- (4) View All
Excellent creeks close by and in the Park to fish and hike
Late spring camping, high 50’s in the evenings and warm days. Fishing at the local creeks was excellent as they are typically spring fed, they keep trout all year long. Biking along the Lehigh River was a great choice and the views are majestic. The new visitors center is a welcoming place, Road traffic at times was annoying as campers don’t respect 15MPH Speed limit. Site was clean, our site was self contained with my ALiner and I didn’t need to use the facilities. I’ll visit again and enjoyed my stay.
So fun!
We had a wonderful time in this park (July 2019). So so much to do, plenty of hikes (Hawk Falls was super crowded and Shades of Death was our favorite), Boulder Field is a must see. We camped mid week so there weren't many others around. Wooded sites and so quiet! Clean enough bathrooms. Site size differs a lot so make sure you really know how much room you need or want.
Beautiful Fall Getaway!
Our first visit to Hickory Run State Park was in 10/19. I was a little nervous when I booked as I booked the last site available in the pet loop. It was the first site in the center as you enter the loop. However, it worked out great. The sites are a little close together but the way they are angled you have just enough privacy. We camped in our small travel trailer in site #219. A small electric only site. The bathrooms were clean. Shower stalls had small changing area to keep your belongings dry. The dump station was very convenient with several stations. The hiking trails were beautiful. I especially loved the Shades of Death Trail. The fall is an amazing time to visit to enjoy the beautiful scenery.
- (6) View All
Great spot
Great location lots of hiking trails right in the park and many more close by
Lots to do here
This campground felt huge and was totally packed for Memorial Day weekend. The bathrooms were fine but definitely got crowded and dirty (it rained off and on so lots of mud tracking). The sites are nice but pretty close together. Overall it was a good experience considering that it was a busy holiday weekend with some rainy weather.
There are lots of things to do when staying here. We took an awesome hike down to the waterfall, fished at the lake, played on the playground, swam at the beach, and visited the boulder field.
The camp store is just incredible! You could get lost for hours in there!
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