Ohiopyle State Park in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, has been crowned the nation’s top destination for affordable adventure, according to HomeToGo’s 2025 State Parks Index, which evaluated 100 state parks on affordability, hidden-gem status, size, hiking-trail quality, wildlife diversity, and scenic score.
The ranking arrives as interest in Pennsylvania state parks remains high and new campsites come online, creating fresh opportunities for private campground, RV-park and glamping operators positioned to catch overflow demand. HomeToGo’s scorecard rewarded Ohiopyle for its extensive trail mileage, scenic views, room for solitude and a perfect wildlife-diversity rating driven by thousands of iNaturalist observations.
For businesses courting nature-minded travelers, Ohiopyle’s emphasis on biodiversity offers a ready blueprint. Simple upgrades—such as installing full-cutoff, warm-temperature LEDs to enhance stargazing and posting QR codes that let guests add their own sightings to iNaturalist—mirror the experience visitors now expect.
Eight other Pennsylvania parks cracked the index’s top 100, underscoring the state’s rising profile as a budget-friendly alternative. The list includes Caledonia (19), Black Moshannon (24), Cook Forest (26), Worlds End (30), Presque Isle (39), Bald Eagle (45), Parker Dam (56) and Cherry Springs (95), the latter certified as an International Dark Sky Park by the International Dark-Sky Association.
Together, those placements give private operators within about 90 miles of any state property a marketing hook: advertise proximity to award-winning parks and be prepared when public sites fill.
Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has helped fuel demand by adding 149 full-service campsites since June 2024 through its “Still Open. Still Awesome.” initiative, including 89 at Pymatuning, 20 each at Bald Eagle, Lackawanna and Ohiopyle. According to the “Still Open. Still Awesome.” release, this build-out is designed to respond to federal campground closures and reinforce the availability and appeal of Pennsylvania’s state-run campsites.
Reservations across the 124-park system are running 10% ahead of last year, and Trough Creek has logged a spike of more than 60% in bookings, according to the same release. Higher public-park occupancies give nearby private operators room to raise peak-season rates without jeopardizing an “affordable” reputation.
To convert public-park popularity into private-sector profit, operators can hold back a small block of sites for last-minute walk-ins, bundle shuttle, bike or kayak add-ons to ease parking strains, apply dynamic pricing only on peak weekends, deploy quick-set safari tents for surge events, and enable a two-click wait-list with SMS alerts to capture cancellations. Each tactic captures overflow from parks such as Ohiopyle while preserving value perception.
Beyond Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania offers a broad menu of benchmarks: Locust Lake circles 282 sites around its namesake water; Shawnee lists 293 pads with electric hookups and a central bathhouse; Keystone splits 40 lakeside and 60 hillside electric sites; Codorus keeps 193 spots open April through November on Lake Marburg; Ricketts Glen features 120 wooded sites near Lake Jean; and Promised Land anchors day-use activity with a beach, boat launch and picnic complex.
Cherry Springs’ status as an International Dark Sky Park signals another edge for operators willing to pursue low-impact amenities. Adding pollinator gardens, designating generator-free quiet loops and capturing graywater for dust control all enhance guest satisfaction while aligning with the conservation narrative that propelled Ohiopyle to the top.
Operators can further align facilities with wildlife-forward, low-impact experiences by swapping existing exterior lights for full-cutoff, warm-temperature LEDs that meet dark-sky standards, designating at least one “quiet conservation loop” where generators, amplified music, and exterior lighting are curtailed after dusk, replacing portions of manicured turf with native pollinator gardens to attract butterflies, capturing graywater from RV wash stations for non-potable uses such as dust control on gravel roads, and posting QR codes linking to iNaturalist projects so guests can log wildlife sightings.
With Pennsylvania parks drawing strong crowds and additional public sites already built, private campgrounds that fine-tune inventory, pricing and eco-messaging stand poised to capture the next wave of travelers seeking Pennsylvania’s newly crowned parks.