Description:

Caledonia State Park is a 1,125 acre park approximately 15 miles from Gettysburg that offers a wide range of activities, including camping, hiking, picnicking, swimming, and historic sight-seeing. The park is free to enter for day use, and costs $19 a night for camping.

Campsites:

We camped in the West Loop of the Chinquapin Hill Campground. This campground is unique because it is built into the side of a hill, but you’re definitely not setting up your tent on a slope. Each site has a flat area for the tent pad, picnic table, and fire circle.  Most sites are fairly private with trees between them. The sites at the top of the hill were generally larger but further from the pool and picnic areas. We visited during 4th of July weekend, and the campground was almost full. It was mostly families, and quiet hours were respected (with the exception of a very unhappy baby one night.) Because there are so many things to do in park and the surrounding area, there weren’t many people around during the day. By the end of the holiday weekend, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Overall, a great stay!

Things To Do:

• HUGE swimming pool with a water slide. It does cost $3 per person for the day, but it was clean, and you can even bring a blanket and set up an area to lay out on the grass. Well worth the $12 we spent!
• Hiking trails. There are several shorter hiking trails that are perfect for small children. Trails are marked and well-maintained.
  

  A portion of the Amphitheater Trail.

• Amphitheater. Programs are offered at 8:30 each night in the amphitheater, and during our visit focused on different aspects of the Battle of Gettysburg.
  

  Amphitheater

• Playground. The picnic area had a pretty sweet playground with slides, swings, and even a huge field to run around on.
  

  Playground in the picnic area

• Creek for wading, swimming or fishing. The creek runs throughout the recreation area and has several places with slow moving water where children can play.
  

  Splashing around in the creek.