From a campsite at Deer Creek State Park you look across the lake to the lodge on the far shore, with the swim beach along the near one. By dusk the beach has emptied, deer are working the edge of the campground in the half light, and the lodge windows come on across the water. Families from Columbus keep coming back to it with a motorhome, because once the rig is level on its pad the whole week happens within sight of the water.
Days at the lake fall into a rhythm: the beach in the morning, the shade of a paved pad when the afternoon heat builds, and the air conditioner humming while somebody naps in the bunk over the cab. When the kids want a change of scene, Columbus is close enough for a day in town and a drive back to the lake by supper.
Reserve the campsite before you look at rigs. Deer Creek's campground books through the state park reservation system, and summer weeks are the ones that go. The site you land decides which motorhome or trailer you can bring, so check its length and its power while you're on the reservation page, because central Ohio summers are hot and sticky.
Southeast of the city, Hocking Hills is the other trip Columbus talks about, with its sandstone gorges and the waterfalls around Old Man's Cave. A couple doing those gorge nights is better off in something smaller, and the Columbus campervan page covers that trip, along with Alum Creek, Delaware State Park and Buckeye Saturdays.
Ohio State Fair and the Korbel RV Park at the Expo Center
From late July into early August, the Ohio State Fair turns the Expo Center into a small city, and the lot beside the midway fills with rows of rigs. Families stay for the barns and the rides, then walk back to their own beds instead of sitting in fair traffic.
The grounds keep their own campground, the Korbel RV Park, with water, sewer and electric at 250 sites in Korbel East and North, plus water and electric at 110 more in Korbel West, where the dump and fill station is. Sites carry 20, 30 and 50 amp service.
Fair time doesn't run like the rest of the year. The fair limits on-site camping and sends everyone else to partner campgrounds, among them Alum Creek State Park and Delaware State Park on their lakes north of the city, Cardinal Center Campground and the Franklin County Fairgrounds. Those lakes fill with fairgoers the same fortnight they fill with summer families.
That puts the fair and the July lake weeks on the same dates, competing for the same rigs and the same pads. Settle where the rig sleeps first, whether that's a fair spot or a partner campground, then book the motorhome for those exact nights right away.
Outside the fair, the Korbel park runs first-come with no reservations for most Expo events, which makes it an easy in-city overnight when something is on at the grounds. The Quarter Horse Congress in October is the one event the Expo takes reservations for.
