Kirwan Reservoir fills the view from West Branch State Park, and down at the boat launch the muskellunge anglers are already on the water before most of the campground is up. By afternoon pontoons and sailboats crowd the open water, and the shoreline you look at from your site is the same one they spend the day circling. It's a lake you settle into for several nights, with the reservoir as the plan for every one of them.
A motorhome earns its keep here by staying put. It's the kitchen, the bunkroom and the shade under the awning, so the day goes to the water, a boat out on the reservoir or a line cast from shore, and supper happens back at the site with nothing to pack up. A long weekend works, and so does the full week, with a second lake east at Mosquito Lake if you want to move the rig once.
Getting a West Branch site, then the rig
Summer is lake season at West Branch, and it's when the campsite has to be reserved before the motorhome is. The pad you land decides the rental, because a long site and a short one call for different rigs. If the only sites left are short ones, or it's just the two of you, the Cleveland campervan page covers the smaller-vehicle version of a Cleveland trip.
If you'd rather not drive or tow at all, look for trailer listings whose owners deliver to the park. Many of Cleveland's rigs sit at homes in Strongsville, Brook Park, Maple Heights and the other suburbs, and some owners will haul the trailer to your reserved West Branch site and set it up before you arrive. That's an offer that varies listing by listing, so confirm it in the listing itself and send the owner your site number and dates.
When West Branch is booked solid, Punderson State Park in Geauga County is the lake Clevelanders try next, with a lodge on the grounds and water of its own to sit beside. The same order applies there, site first and rig second.
Mosquito Lake State Park in Trumbull County
East of West Branch, Mosquito Lake is the second lake on this side of Cleveland, its campground loop running a long way through the woods along the water's edge. A rig under the trees with the lake showing between the trunks is the picture here, and it makes a good back half of the week after a few nights on Kirwan. Moving once, midweek, splits the trip between two different shorelines, the open reservoir with its sailboats and a wooded lake edge where the site feels tucked in.
Treat it the way you treat West Branch. If you're splitting the week, reserve both lakes before choosing the motorhome, so one rig fits the shorter of the two pads.
From either lake, Cleveland itself is a day back toward town. The Rock Hall, West Side Market and Headlands Beach are written up on the Cleveland campervan page, along with Geneva State Park's campground on the Lake Erie shore, and the Ohio RV page covers Cedar Point and the mainland base for the island ferries.
