Pedro, Ohio: Iron Ridge Campground in Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area / Wayne National Forest

 May 2024, weekdays - weekend, 4 nights, campsite 18

We originally thought we would stay in Hocking Hills campground on our way home this trip; however, when I saw the rates at that campground are now $36 to $50 a night, we changed our plans. We liked the hiking in Hocking Hills when we stayed there in 2016; however, most of the campsites are pretty close together. We had been lucky that year to get a semi-private site at a reasonable rate.

I happened upon Wayne National Forest as I was searching national forests in Ohio, and then we chose Iron Ridge Campground in Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area. 

Campsite 18 in Iron Ridge Campground Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area
Camper barely visible on right [below] when approaching from the entrance

Iron Ridge Campground, site 18

We reserved site 18 online about 6 months in advance. The cost with our senior pass was $14.50 a night. This campground has power, water hookup, and a dump station. We proceeded directly to our site when we arrived, as there is no staff in the campground. There was a reserved tag on our site.

Campsite 18 in Iron Ridge Campground Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area

Campsite 18 is one of the more private sites in the first section of the campground. After you pass sites 18 and 22, the road continues up a steep hill to a second loop. We were able to back directly into our site when we arrived; however, we needed to drive up the hill to turn around the day we departed. Site 18 has a slight incline uphill, and it was level side to side.

Visitor vehicles parked in tent sites 19 - 21 in Iron Ridge Campground Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area

It was peaceful in this campground during the week, and surprisingly noisy on the weekend. Folks down the hill from us (sites 10 - 12), tied their poor dog up over the hill behind their campsites and ignored him. He barked almost nonstop the entire weekend. At one point, the guy camping on site 22, which is much farther away than we were on site 18, hollered out, "Shut your dog up!" Unfortunately, that did not help the poor dog, or any of us within sound range. Additionally, many overnight visitors parked in spots that are intended for tenters on sites 19, 20, and 21. There are two hosts in this campground, one in each section, although they did not appear to do much. The only activity we observed from the host in the second loop was non-stop traffic to and from the site at all hours during our entire stay. 

Whiskey Run Trail in Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area

Recreation: hiking, boating, fishing, swimming

There is a a lot of hiking in this area, and nice printed trail maps are available in the campground. You can get on Whiskey Run Trail from Iron Ridge Campground, across from the second host site [29]. This is a loop trail of about 1 mile. From our campsite, this hike was 1½ miles total. The hike was fairly easy, even though we had a bit of elevation change. 

Lakeshore Trail in Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area

You can get on Lakeshore Trail from Whiskey Run, and in a few other places: the picnic area, the boat ramp area, and the beach. The trail map shows that Scarlet Oak Trail and Backpack Trail connect to LakeShore Trail, as well. We only hiked a small portion of Lakeshore Trail from the boat ramp.

Rock House Trail in Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area

Rock House Trail was one of our favorite trails. This is an easy paved trail of less than 1 mile roundtrip. We liked this trail because it was educational and the rock house is beautiful.

Above: overlook on Beach Road in Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area

Botany Trail was extremely overgrown when we tried to hike it. The beach was not open yet in mid-May, although we did walk down there from the group camp parking lot. There is a nice lookout about three quarters of the way there. There are signs warning of poisonous snakes, and we saw them during our stay!

Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area

We had a nice day with our kayaks on Lake Vesuvius. We were surprised that there are no buoys or signs warning people on the water to stay back from the dam. Many people were fishing from the boardwalk.

Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area

Misc. and overall

We enjoyed this visit, and look forward to visiting Wayne National Forest again. We thought the camping rate was reasonable, so we were surprised to see vehicles overnight in the parking lots near the picnic area. The lot behind the Iron Furnace had a sign that said no overnight parking (vehicle camped there anyway), although the one on the river did not have a sign posted.

We drove through Pine Knob Campground, and most campsites in this area are closer together than the ones in Iron Ridge. Iron Ridge Campground had a few empty sites in the lower section during our stay. Other than the host camper, we observed only one other camper in the loop at the top of the hill.

Let me know if you have any questions or information to add. Feel free to share this post for others!