The gorge floor at Old Man's Cave is hemlock shade over the creek, the sandstone pinching in and the boardwalk following the water until the cave takes the light.
Day visitors crowd that same path and then leave. The evening walk is quieter, which is the point of sleeping in the park.
Ash Cave is the easy gorge walk. Cedar Falls is a moderate mile to the water. Conkle's Hollow, just outside the main park, is a nature preserve with two trails and a no-pets rule. You can reach more than one of them without moving the van.
From Memorial Day through Labor Day, the campground is how you stay for more than one walk, and those drive-in pads go first. Most of the walking starts at the Old Man's Cave lot on State Route 664. Sites come as full hookup, electric, or none, and reservations open up to six months ahead. Lock a site before you lock the van. Skip this as night one if you still do not have a pad, and skip the hike-in sites off State Route 374, which are tent-only.
Cabin country around Logan is next to the park if you want a private night outside the state campground. Mohican State Park is the Canton overnight when you want the next gorge.
Alum Creek State Park
Open sand meets the reservoir here, with swimmers on the beach and shale coves farther up the shore. The park calls it the largest inland beach in Ohio's state park system. Swim in daylight, and keep pets off the sand.
Full-hookup and electric sites sit behind that swim, some with a lake view, all of them pet-friendly. Reservations open up to six months ahead. Lake Erie is the Ohio campervan trip.
In late July and early August, on-site RV camping at the Ohio State Fair is a lottery that favors exhibitors, and the fair sends everyone else to Alum Creek and Delaware State Park. A beach weekend in late July is a fair weekend too.
Delaware State Park
The electric loop at Delaware State Park is under a mature canopy, woods closing in around a paved pad. Pets are allowed on every site, reservations run up to six months ahead, and the campground scales back what it offers in winter.
Book Delaware when you want trees more than a swim, or when Alum Creek is already gone. Stay this close and the Scioto Mile and the Columbus Zoo are the city day, with no overnight at either.
Buckeye Saturdays
On a home Saturday, rigs back into painted rectangles in the Gray Lots and Buckeye Lots near the Schottenstein Center. Awnings come out hours before kickoff, and you sleep there.
An RV permit is required, sold mostly by the season with limited single-game permits, as of September 2026. Season permits are how most of those spaces get sold, so a one-Saturday plan depends on the thinner single-game supply. Lock the permit before you book the van.
Each space is about 40 by 60 feet, so if you need more sleeping room than a campervan, a Columbus RV rental still has to fit that box. You leave by 10 a.m. the Sunday after the game. Home games run from Labor Day through late November.
