alum creek state park

This is a must see and do if you are ever in the Delaware Ohio area. Great scenery, quiet and lots of fishing and hiking or taking Fido for a jog.

Worth every penny. It is 15 USD per car and the drive was for around 40 minutes. The lights were amazing. We visited with family. It was all fun! Decorated with more than 200K lights. Plus, we visited the resort across the street for a pic with Santa and free hot chocolate and free cookies.The physical address of the lights will be:2911 S. Old State Rd., Delaware, Ohio 43015The Santa House with free hot chocolate and cookies will be held at Cross Creek Camping Resort,which is 30 seconds down the street. The physical address for the Santa House is:3190 South Old State Rd. Delaware, OH 43015 November 21st 2014 - January 4th 2015Sun - Thurs 5:30pm - 9:30pm: $15Fri & Sat: 5:30pm - 10:30pm: $15Limos, Large Vans, and Motorhomes: $20Motorcoaches up to 30 people: $30Buses and Large Motorcoaches: $60

This is a really beautiful park just north of Columbus. From the broad grassy areas beneath the dam, to the beach, to the marina and the campground this Central Ohio recreation area offers plenty. The horse camp is up on Howard Road and Hogback Preserve is worth the trip most seasons. With 3,500 acres there are a number of boat ramps and other areas.

I like it. I work the Brown Jug in September, and this is a good place to stay at an affordable price. It isn't what I would call a forest type park, with only a few small bushes and skinny trees separating each camp site, but it's nice. The trails are more like small walk ways, and it's very peaceful. You can go near the lake, or near the pond. You won't see much wildlife. There are shower houses near every site. Very rough, but they have what you need. a picnic table is at each camp site, too. For larger groups, there are cabins which I haven't been in, but they look primitive, yet have the amenities one expects. I like the quiet, serene atmosphere myself. I'd hope there would be more wildlife, although I know the raccoons are there, as I made the mistake of leaving a loaf of bread on the picnic table overnight. Whole wheat. They ate good. I have no camper, so I use a pup tent. One year was very cold. Last year was just right.

There were 4 of us, 2 in a tent and 2 in a pop up. We chose a site on Road E which was nice since we had no one behind us and no one in front of us. There seem to be no restrictions about the number of campers per site, and the people next to us had 4 tents, 4 cars, and we counted 9 kids, all on one site! The campground is older so heavily wooded, which is nice. There are a ton of activities here, but keep in mind that most require you to drive to them. We used the mountain bike trails and disc golf course, both on the other side of the long man-made lake. The beaches are terrible, just dirt really, but we live in Michigan and are spoiled by white sandy beaches. The lake was clear and warm. As for the campground, the bathrooms and showers were just ok. I never saw anyone clean them, and they definitely needed to be cleaned, but it was also Labor Day weekend.

Boating at Marina for years. Great little lake to tube, fish and just hang out for the day. Great for families with kids. But, ramps are very congested if you are launching your boat. Main ramp is STILL under reconstruction! Quick little restaurant for a bite at marina. Food is good.You can also rent jet skis, pontoons etc. Beach is average. Gas is pricey at dock.

We stayed in the furnished cedar cabin that had a small bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room with two built in bunk beds. Good layout, air conditioning, clean and nice lot. However, the Queen bed and bunks had mattresses that were brick hard; the futon in living area was as comfortable as a futon! Even when we used sleeping bags to try to add cushioning, neither of us slept much.

"the beach area" -- We did not have a reservation so we showed up at 7:30 to claim tables and a grill. There was so much trash. I understand it was early but WOW! We made do, shifted some tables around, popped up our canopies, and made do. But the trash was unbearable. I picked some up with gloves. I understood there would be no trash cans so the dumpster was a plus- I was prepared to travel home with bags of trash. So that was nice. The bathrooms-- if you were potty training a kid, come with diapers. I cannot understand how dirty, unkept, and NO doors on half the stalls, bugs stuck to the sink and toilet... It was just disgusting to change in there too. I could not even handle the showers-- very open, gross, and no curtains. No thank you. The beach was decent. Too many people smoking at the beach- there should be a smoking zone. The 'sand' was fun and it brought back childhood memories! The water was actually warmer than I expected- it was about 6pm and windy most of the day. Our party was successful-- even though giving directions was difficult.

We came from Pennsylvania for a weekend trip that included a baby shower at the Park. We arrived nice and early as we had heard it gets crowded and grills and tables are at a minimum (which is very true)... The area by the beach and the main shower house was covered in trash and filth as if it wasn't cleaned, ever! There are no trashcans throughout the picnic area (which is ABSURD) and you have to walk any trash to a large dumpster in the parking lot, not convenient at all. After getting all set up, I decided to go over to the shower house and bathroom area and I have to say, I could not be any more repulsed by what I saw! These were the most DISGUSTING, DIRTY and unkempt facilities. We have been camping many times and have had bathrooms and showers much cleaner than this in the middle of the woods! Bugs were dead and dried on the sinks in layers, the bathroom stalls were SO DISGUSTING and had thousands and thousands of bugs living in the corners of them. Toilets were not clean or flushed at all, stall doors did not have locks and just dead and live bugs EVERYWHERE! The shower room looked just as bad from the outside, but I refused to go in, so had no idea in reality. Coming from another state where we have amazing State Park facilities (in most places anyway), this is somewhere I would never care to go again!!! While the park has incredible potential with the beach, the lake, hiking, camping, etc... the facilities are so sub-par, I would never recommend long term use of this park! Also, no-smoking signs should be installed for the beach area, there were WAY TO MANY PEOPLE smoking around other people, not enjoyable either!! I certainly would never go back here!

We recently camped at the campground for Alum Creek. The "premium" sites were nice sized. They were advertised as "Lake View" We did not really have a view of the lake from our site due to trees, but I guess that is expected at a park though. Maybe a better description would be lake access. We were right near the lake and had a nice, short path to walk down to access the lake for fishing and to get on and off a boat we rented. The sites are electric only. There are water filling stations nearby throughout the campground. There is a nature center in the park, but it was closed each time we tried to visit it. It would be nice to have hours posted. We inquired at the welcome center about the hours, but the people working at there did not seem to know when the nature center was open. The campground has some fun activities on the weekends. Our site was pretty muddy due to not much grass growing in that area and the site being on a slight slant. It would help to move the site up a little bit. I was disappointed in the cleanliness of the restrooms and shower houses. The restrooms did not seem to be cleaned at all during the five days we stayed. Our first day there, we saw that someone had urinated on the floor, and on our last day there, it still had not been cleaned. The shower houses were dirty. There were cobwebs in the showers, and they had an unpleasant odor. The lake is beautiful.

My family met at Alum Creek State Park for two days in a row. We first met at the beach which I was beautiful and large and doesn't look man made. Their concession food was awesome, and the water appeared to be clean and the sea gulls wasn't aggressive ,but the bathrooms were filthy and smelled pretty bad and there wasn't many picnic tables. It also had too many gnats especially under trees. The ice cream man said that bug repellent wouldn't work because they are immune to it. I accidently swallowed a gnat and cant get it out and caused my throat to be a little sore, but over all it was nice. Later in the evening we met where the cabins was. The cabins were surprisingly nice it has no bathroom so you will have to leave the cabin and go to the shower room. The cabins have a small table flat screen TV two separate rooms and a nice bar-b-queue pit. My sister and my brother in-law stayed at the cabin. They like it so much that they stayed an extra night. The only thing I did not like was there policy. Guest were allowed as many visitors they like before 10 pm which it wasn't a problem. The problem was that there must be only two cars parked by the cabins, if there were more cars you can get a ticket. It does not matter were in the park your cabin is at, your guest still have to park their cars at the entry of the park. The park is very dark and you will have to walk a distance from your car to the cabins I did not want to park my car near the woods were I can't see it. I had some bikes on the rack of my car and I wasn't going to park there, so I risked getting a ticket. I can understand if they enforce it after 10 pm because the guest should leave at that time, but before that I think it was ridiculous. Some of us bend the rules, but nobody got a ticket. It was hard to find the bathroom too. The second day we met were the dam were and the play areas and the pavilions was nice. The bathrooms was not as bad like the beach area, but still could be a little cleaner. The was park was clean and beautiful we all had fun and we most likely going to revisit.

I had no idea you could rent boats and other water sport equipment. We've gone several times now and have had a blast. The staff are very friendly and helpful with newbies. There's a ton of parking and the beaches are clean. The restrooms were very clean as well. Love this place!!!!

It was a wonderful sight at the marina ,full of boats. Had to climb many steps to see the dam, but fully worth the trouble as the view was fantastic from the top, well worth a visit.

When I first moved here from the east coast and people said they were going to the lake to swim, i was a little worried. Plenty of parking, Free access, clean sand. Nice family environment. People bring grills and cook out in the grass also. A few miles away, near the marina is a dog park. Nice, large area for the dogs to run and play. There is also a dog 'beach' -- three fenced in areas for the dogs to run and play in the water.. (bring mud shoes for yourself) there is a hose at the restroom for hosing off the dog.

From start to finish we had a great time here. The marinas are readily accessible, the camping parcels are adequate, the woods are wonderful and the shower/bathing facilities were surprisingly good (a real hot shower in the morning goes a long way for me). The kid at the front office was really helpful even though he was swamped. This is a really nice location, and close to columbus.