West Ashtabula Crossing

Nice little campground! My boys and I spent the night here in our tent. Half of thw sights are near the water with accessibility to thw water through thw cattails in spots if you woukd like to beach your boat near your site. The boat ramp is seconds away from all the sites and very good. If you are bringing a large camper you may have to be a little more selective with sites as some are a little easier to navigate than others. For us and a tent it didnt matter and the gravel pads were fairly level. Even though it is a smaller campground the sites for the most part were spaced well enough that you didnt feel like you were right on top of your neighbor. The only reason I give 4 stars is the checking in/reservation system was a bit confusing. There is an online option but when you get there the sign says you have to check in. The reservation board has several options for what you need to do and it was confusing. Luckily a couple of park rangers stopped by and told me since I got an online reservation I didnt need to do anything else accept inhabit my site. I would recommend purchasing your site online so all you have to do is go to your site and setup. The rangers will check you in when they come through is what they told us. Overall great experience and a nice park. We will back I'm sure.

The campground was very nice with large campsites and new water spigots however the low rating was due to our poor experience because our neighbors arrived late, proceeded to set up music and flashing lights and talk loudly until 3 or 4 am. Quite hours started at 10pm and a park ranger did drive through a couple times right before then but we never saw them after 10 or talk to the loud neighbors.

Had a wonderful time! Enjoyed our stay so much the first time we came back a few weeks later! Peaceful, beautiful,and a short trip from home!

Of the Corps campgrounds we have visited this was the most rustic of all. No shower house as advertised, dirt roads and lots. We were the only campers. The host did direct us to another Corp grounds for showers and these were much nicer. I would not return here in future as a shower is important to me.

Nice campground. Unfortunately the power wasn't on at our site. It must of been too late in the season. Nice fish cleaning station. Will be going back.

Well it was a hot day and we unhooked and got our camper leveled which is all by hand not electric. And come to find out our sites electricity did not work. We talked with the camp host who by the way is old and it was hot out and he isn’t even provided with a golf cart. He radioed the park rangers and one who was very nice and he contacted another guy who checked things out while we ran to The store. When we got back he argued with my husband that it must be our electrical cords. I tested the box with my radio and it did not turn on. We were at site three there wasn’t anyone at site one or two so I tested them two also did not work but 1 and 5 did. Low and be hold we had to drive and find a new spot which we chose 26 so that we could be right by the water for our kayaks. Luckily that spot did work and surprise it was not our cords! But it was too hot to be having to work so much. And if that wasn’t enough the way the parking slabs are built up. As you would walk out of the camper and down to the grass you would slip on the loose gravel! They have done a poor job of constructing those spots. Once set up we enjoyed the view of the water and being able to take our kayaks in and out of the water. Not a total disappointment but something to remember!

We have been camping at west side Ashtabula for years. We we excited about the updates to electricity to all the spots. Then when we arrived we were very disappointed on the completed ground work. Very ulevel ground. Almost dangerous steep drop offs in spot that use to naturally level. In my opinion the are is worse.

> TWO STAR RATING? Read on why we chose that.
* AMG Construction of California won the bid of $244,000 in April 2023 to update the park.
* AMG completed the project early July 2024 and overall it looks like a rush job.
* New too soft material (class 5? or?) on several site pads causes tire ruts and leveling problems.
* Several sites are steeply sloped making leveling impossible, it's been like this since the 1960's: Why?
* THREE Camping Areas: only TWO have Concrete Outhouses.
* U.S. Army Core Of Engineers (COE) and AMG: where's the "engineering" aspect here?
* New 30 amp and 50 amp electrics have been installed in all three camping areas: Nice.
* Dump station on site.
* Outhouse we used was clean with plenty of TP.
* No showers here. Showers are across the lake at the East Crossing campground.
* There is one water tap in each of the three camping areas.
* Host was affable, aka friendly.
* Lake views from only a few of the 30 sites.
> Close to a quarter million dollars of work done by a California company: overall, a disappointment. <

Granted it rained a lot. The site prep on the sites for the remodel was pretty poor. There was not any compaction done to the sites. Campers and tow vehicles were sinking and leaving ruts before the rain even started. The sites were not leveled, causing many people to use blocking or dig down. Using excessive blocking is going to result in an accident or mishap someday. Navigating the area nearly requires hiking boots for all of the uneven terrain and rough campsites. Hydroseeding needs to be done. Areas of drainage should not pool right outside of a camper, but instead be taken all the way to the shore, then rip rapped or have the necessary erosion control put into place there.

The power upgrade was great. I do like the positioning of the sites, and the extra parking space. The Rangers are awesome. I felt safe the entire time with the presence from the Rangers and the Local Sheriffs Dept.

Thank you