There are a number of reasons to love or hate a campground. A rundown, nasty bathroom can quickly kill the appeal of a campground, along with a very uneven site. There are plenty of expectations and commonalities of campgrounds that can make many campgrounds just seem very similar from one to another. When we pulled into Kenisee Lake RV Campground on September 25th, we were a little concerned, but by the end, it surprised us by becoming one of our favorites thus far.

First Impressions Of The Campground

On September 25th we left Brennan Beach in Pulaski, New York, and drove five hours to Jefferson, Ohio. This was the beginning of quite the storm that would last the next four days. During our drive, we saw our first tornado. Luckily the tornado seemed to be pretty focused on remaining above Lake Erie, but the rain that came with this storm made for an incredibly annoying drive.

When we pulled into Kenisee we realized that our cell reception was awful, probably the worst we’ve had so far. We couldn’t get anything to load and this was not good considering Bailey has to have good internet access for her job. We also learned within the first few hours that we would be in a flood warning for the next four days.

Ok, so neither of these are the campground’s fault, and later on, we would come to find that the campground actually did what many campgrounds don’t to fix at least one of these issues. Heavy rain in a travel trailer is just simply not fun, but four days of nearly non-stop rain (and I’m not exaggerating the “non-stop” portion) is really stressful. The area between our campsite and the sites that were behind ours became a small river and attempting to take the dogs out for bathroom breaks was a nightmare.

The Rain Finally Gave Us A Break

Eventually, the rain subsided a little and that helped a ton! We were finally able to get outside and appreciate how beautiful the area was. The ground never fully dried as rain would still come periodically, but it did become much easier to take the dogs outside. If you have dogs and live in a small space, you know how crucial this is.

Campground Rules

So many campers know that campgrounds have common rules:

Keep your pets leashed and clean up after them (a lot of you don’t follow this and really, really need to)
Respect your neighbors and the quiet hours (vary by campground)
Clean up after yourself

On many of our previous check-ins, I’ve remained in the vehicle with the dogs while Bailey goes into the office to check us in, this was the first time I’ve gone in as well. So these may have been items stated at other campgrounds, but this was my first time hearing it. One of their rules was to not park on the grass…I would be all for it if the sites had space to adhere to that rule. We have a short trailer and only one vehicle, but we barely fit in our site. The paperwork stated that if pulled in properly, you should have plenty of room to park both vehicles. This was not true, we parked our trailer on the very edge of our site giving us as much space as absolutely possible to park our truck and there was simply no room for another vehicle. This was actually one of the only things that I didn’t like about the campground. If you’re going to have a rule and emphasize that rule, then make sure that you can accommodate for that rule.

Cell Service/Reception

So, this was the most frustrating part of the campground. While it’s no fault of the campground, this is something that many RV-ers these days are extremely concerned about. The majority of full-timers are remote employees that need access to reliable internet. I mentioned earlier that Kenisee Lake did something most campgrounds don’t, they provided guests with a space to work. This is a unique feature to most of the campgrounds that we’ve been to. Inside the clubhouse, the campground provided multiple tables and even a couple of small desks for campers to work at. Unfortunately, we didn’t take advantage of this until the final three days of our stay, but the next time we stay, we will probably be there every day.

Kenisee Lake

Like many campgrounds, this one is named after the lake that it sits on. The lake is small but it is beautiful and we were there at the perfect time. I think it may have been one of the few benefits of the storm, but the trees really began to change during our second week there. This was especially nice for us during our final three days that we spent in the clubhouse working since it sits right next to the lake and gave us a perfect opportunity to see it daily and appreciate it.

The Location

So, we’ve quickly realized that many campgrounds are further from the cities than we thought. We knew that they wouldn’t be in city centers (and for good reason) but we weren’t aware of just how far away they are from most cities. They tend to sit near smaller towns, which can be fine, but sometimes those smaller towns really have nothing to provide, not even a decent option for groceries.

Kenisee Lakes sits in an area that was perfect for Bailey and me. For our many needs, like groceries and Planet Fitness for workouts, showers, and even internet to work later into the night, we had Ashtabula just 20 minutes north of us. We found an excellent Starbucks location to work at just 35 minutes west in Mentor, Ohio along with a Nissan dealership to service our truck. If we had more interest to do so, Cleveland city center was only an hour's drive west. Erie, Pennsylvania (which came in handy on our final night before leaving) was just an hour east. Youngstown, Ohio (which we actually had no true use for aside from fueling up on our way to another city) was just an hour south. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was 2 hours south (Youngstown came in handy while driving here), and Buffalo, New York was 2 and a half hours north.

I mention all of these because we used each of these cities during our time at Kenisee. We spent 3 nights in Pittsburgh to watch the St. Louis Cardinals play the Pittsburgh Pirates (We saw Albert Pujols hit the final home run of his career). The day we drove back to Kenisee from Pittsburgh, we realized the Buffalo Sabres were playing the Carolina Hurricanes in a preseason game in Buffalo. So after driving 2 hours home, we dropped the dogs off and then drove 2 and a half hours to watch the Sabres and back that same night. On our final day at Kenisee, we went to Erie, Pennsylvania to watch the Erie Otters play the London Knights in the Otters’ home opener.

My Final Thoughts On Kenisee Lake RV Campground

At this point in time, I really don’t know that I could pick out a favorite campground, but Kenisee is certainly up there near the top. Though the first week made us think that it wasn’t going to be, that second week really proved that it was a great campground. I will say that the bathrooms could use some work next year, but they certainly weren’t the worst that we’ve had. The location of this campground gave us the perfect opportunities to do some of our favorite things in just a short drive.

Liam Theo Spickelmier is the bigs portion of Littles and Bigs Adventures and this illustration shows him holding his camera while in the mountains — Liam Theo

Liam Theo is the “Bigs” in Littles & Bigs Adventures. He’s the photographer, designer, video editor, and driver of the traveling family.

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