RE: Frances Slocum SP -- PA

[jawilson]

 
Does anyone know about this state park? We ve been to a number of the PA parks (Hickory Run, Locus Lake, Ricketts Glen, Promise Land) and have enjoyed them all. We want to try this one, but don t know anything about it. All comments are welcome.

[tlhdoc]

 jawilson
The only thing I know about this park is that Frances Slocum was kidnapped and raised by indians when she was a little girl.  I have a book on PA parks that was written a few years ago it says there is a 165 acre lake, dam and campground.  The campground has 100 sites with 3 loops.  Some are very private and others are more open.  There are some electrical hookups.  The book gives recommendations so if you let me know what type of site you want I call tell you what the book says.

[jawilson]

 tlhdoc

ORIGINAL:  tlhdoc
 The only thing I know about this park is that Frances Slocum was kidnapped and raised by indians when she was a little girl.  I have a book on PA parks that was written a few years ago it says there is a 165 acre lake, dam and campground.  The campground has 100 sites with 3 loops.  Some are very private and others are more open.  There are some electrical hookups.  The book gives recommendations so if you let me know what type of site you want I call tell you what the book says.

Thanks for the offer, but I ve visited the web site for the park and a lot of that info is there. I was more looking for someone who had actually been to the park itself. I eventually decided to go for it and book a site in the Hemlock loop -- tent sites -- for July. I haven t been to any of the PA SP parks that I was disappointed with (except for Promise Land), so I m going to give it a shot.

[jawilson]

 jawilson
Okay, I finally got my chance to camp at this park. Here s my 2 cents...
 
 Frances Slocum was on our " B"  list of PA SP s. Why? Because it s a bit smaller then we like, the hiking trails are not considered to be an attraction and it has some amenities we try to stay away from, like a pool and a play ground (yup, we are " true"  campers -- we like to have nothing but trees anywhere near us -- and we like for the kiddies to use their imagination and find things to do, and make some new friends in the process).
 
 There s a small lake where you can rent row boats and do some fishing. Didn t seem like anyone was catching much though.
 
 The park itself is small, and there are relatively few sites. It s clean and well maintained, like all the PA SP s we ve been to. The bathhouses have nice showers, although in order to get any water you had to push this little button instead of turning a dial. And it would stay on for only about 10 seconds per push. You also couldn t adjust the temperature, which I found to be terribly odd. It felt okay for me, but the girls -- all 4 of them -- complained it was too hot (funny how that is, especially considering how d@mn hot they have the water running when they take a shower at home!).
 
 If you re into hiking this isn t the place for you. One of the main trails (and I use the word " trail"  loosely) was a disaster, not at all laid out like the map showed. AAMOF, we almost got lost a few time because of how poorly it was marked and how far it deviated from the map they gave us.
 
 The park contains 2 separate loops right next to each other. The sites themselves are pretty small (most of them anyway). Some of them were so tiny as to be unusable; why they existed at all is a mystery to me. They re also laid out in a manner unlike those at any of the PA SP s we ve been to before. First off, they have what initially appears to be parking for 2 vehicles per site, yet you re only allowed one vehicle for each family (additional parking is available at a separate location). After close examination it becomes apparent what this " extra"  site is for; your camper, or in our case the tent. They have the sites setup so the fire ring and picnic table are separated from the parking area. In a lot of the sites you have to go up or down steps to get to the table and fire ring. Initially this seemed like a stupid way of doing things, but after a few days it wasn t all that bad. Our site, which was easily one of the best and biggest, had 5 steps to get from the parking/tent area to the table/fire ring location. The steps were 4x4 s held into the ground with rebar -- plenty sturdy.
 
 The pool turned out to be a bigger hit with the kids then we had anticipated. We went there twice. It s pretty large, well maintained and had at least 2 lifeguards on duty at all times. The snack bar had an assortment of food and drinks. The prices weren t too bad either.
 
 Another bonus was no bear problems! This is a pretty serious issue in some of the PA SP s, but there was no evidence of bears at all. And we didn t spot any roaming around other, something I surely can t say about places like Hickory Run, Locust Lake, Ricketts Glen, etc.
 
 If you are the type of person who waits until he gets to camp before buying supplies you might wish to rethink that strategy. The closest town, if you could call it that, is Wyoming (no, it s still in PA). There s not a whole lot to choose from their, so you had better not be too picky. Wilkes Barre is about 20-25 minutes away, and probably has everything you might need, but it s a bit tough to navigate around if you have no idea where you re going or what you re looking for.
 
 So, would I go again? Yes, provided I got the same site, and I wasn t staying too long. For a couple of days it s a pretty nice place, but it wouldn t be for much longer then that.
 
 BTW; there were a number of sites with electric, and I even saw a couple of people dry camping in PU s too, so you can fit some of your smaller tow vehicle/camper combos on the sites. But if you have a larger trailer or MH this is not the place for you.

[tlhdoc]

 jawilson
Thanks for the review.  What sites do you recommend?

[jawilson]

 jawilson
If I tell you that, I ll have to shoot you afterwards! []
 
 Depending upon what you like in a site (secluded, big/small, proximity to bathrooms, etc) we like both 67 and 69 the best, with the nod going to 67. There were a few others, but these seemed to be the best for what we like (big, secluded woodsy sites within walking distance to the bathroom).