Great Experience at Ives Run Campground in Tioga PA

Campground Review on Ives Run Campground (COE), Tioga PA

Ives Run Campground sits on the eastern shore of Hammond Lake in north-central Pennsylvania. It is surrounded by lush forested ridges, the lake offers recreation for the entire family, including picnicking, swimming, boating, fishing, hiking, hunting and wildlife watching.

Why We Stayed Here

There is a lot more of Pennsylvania that we wanted to explore. Our friends invited us to join them at one of their favorite campgrounds. We did and enjoyed a week in this great location.

Key Points About this Campground

Ives Run Campground run by the US Army Corps of Engineers (COE) in Tioga, PA is on a lake with plenty of hiking and biking opportunities
We paid $15 per night (not including the website access fee) with America The Beautiful Access Pass
We made reservations six months in advance on https://www.recreation.gov/ to ensure we got a site we wanted
The park’s huge boat ramp is at the end of Beech loop is convenient for launching large or small boats plus kayaks
The main campground has a mix of full hook up combined with electric and water sites
A mile farther down the lake from the main campground is the Pine Camp loop, which is dry camping

Campground Review

We arrived at this very nice COE with no issues, easy to find. The check in office was not manned but had a sign stating to go directly to your site. As we arrived at back-in site 67 (Beech Loop) with FHUs, one of the camp hosts put a tag and campground (CG) info on our site post. The cement pads are pretty much 90 degrees so we had to maneuver a few times to get onto the pad the way we wanted. The road was fairly wide with no obstacles in the way when we swung our 39’ fifth wheel and F450 truck around. There were no issues with utilities as they were pretty much at the middle of the pad. As with most COEs, the water pressure was good (used a reducer) and we had no problems with the 50 AMP service. There is no WiFi in this CG but we got 4 bars on Verizon. We also received 4 OTA channels with one being a major network. There are a lot of mature trees in the park so satellite could be iffy depending on your site. Site 67 has plenty of yard in the front but that’s shared with the bath house so there’s lots of foot traffic back and forth. Also, this site has no shade from the afternoon sun. We noted that sites sit so you’re facing the next loop’s sites and you’re basically staring at each other. A lot of folks tended to sit around outside their site all day “watching.” Not sure if its a tendency in this area or just how the sites are laid out. The Hawthorn Loop bathhouse had 2 washers and dryers but only 1 washer was in service during our 6-day stay. Camp hosts and regulars go into Wellsboro to do their laundry. The park’s huge boat ramp is at the end of Beech loop, which is convenient for launching large or small boats plus kayaks. The main CG is a mix of FHU and electric with water only sites. A mile farther down the lake is the Pine Camp loop, which is dry camping. There is no bathhouse in Pine Camp, just vaulted toilets and a water spigot. We noticed that Pine Camp does have sites that will take large rigs but the larger sites right on the lake have some slope to them. There’s a camp store near the main CG loops that has a pretty good menu including burgers and ice cream though we did not try anything. The store also sold ice, wood, sodas, and chips plus a few sundries such as duck tape, bug spray, and fishing worms but no milk, bread, etc. Ives Run earned the Dawg Haus rating of Good.

Sights & Eats

Take a drive to Leonard Harrison State Park to check out the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Be sure to hike on the Turkey Path down to the gorge’s river of the gorge that has beautiful water falls.
There is also the Corning Glass Museum about 30 minutes away in Corning, NY.
Head down the road to Pag-Omar Farms Market in Wellsboro, PA about 15 minutes away. Interesting little deli that specializes in subs and ice cream. We had paninis, which were very good and they are generous with their portions.

Dawg Haus Rating

We publish CG reviews on RV Life Campground Reviews, Compendium, The Dyrt, and RV Parky. To date, we have provided over 200 reviews of private and public CGs. Here’s our opinion and rating based on what we like and dislike about a particular CG. We rate CGs differently depending on if we are just stopping for an overnighter or a few day rester or if it’s a destination type CG. Our subjective ratings are The Best (Five Paws), Very Good (Four Paws), Good (Three Paws), It’ll Work (Two Paws), and Not Impressed (One Paw). This campground hit quite a few of our likes such as price, spacious sights, the lake atmosphere, and hiking or biking. Ives Run earned the Dawg Haus rating of Good.