I stopped at Cowan Lake in my motorhome overnight. The night before I was at Barkcamp which was heavenly and only $20. Cowan is $27 for dirty bathrooms, mildewed shower curtains and clogged drains. The one good thing was the water was hot!
Years ago we used to camp at Cowan Lake, and we do visit this wonderful Ohio parks several times a year.We often also visited the small restaurant near the lake and enjoyed the fare.More recently we "get our nature fix" at Caesar's Creek State Park.
Campers beware! If you plan to stay in the cottages or cabins at Cowan Lake, you may think twice. We stayed in a cottage that was infested with bed bugs! My son has hundreds of bites all over his neck and face. Apparently they have had a bed bug problem for years, and they can't get it under control.
You can't expect much from a state park that doesn't charge an entrance fee. We were there to spend a few hours kayaking in our own kayaks. The leaves were starting to change colors so it was pretty. We started paddling by the boat ramp near the lily pads, went around the island, and back through a path cut through the lily pads. Paddling by all the lily pads was fun but wear bug spray to keep mosquitoes away.
It really wasn't just ok, the gut at the boat rental, and bait shop should have told us of the spill and the fact that there were no fish in the lake at that time.
I go here at least 20 times a year it is a great place to just be with you family and enjoy the outdoors and enjoy life. Great places to cook and have an aming view great cabins and tons of places to camp and lots of hiking
Have been camping at Cowan for many years. Beautiful park and clean. Wooded campsites. Nice camper beach and commissary. Wilmington is close if you need to go for groceries or other supplies.
We love going to Cowan Lake SP for camping, the campgrounds have nice sites, with many of them having shady trees. This is an older park so it's not like camping in in some of the newer Parks that have had all the trees removed and lack imagination for making camping a more outdoorsy experience. The lake is also nice, limited power on the motor boats, a lot of people take their small sail boats, pontoons, to this lake. We take our kayaks, from the dock at the GIANT lily pads! There's also a store/commissary where you can buy snacks, food, ice cream, charcoal, ice, etc which makes it nice if you forgot the hot dog buns. Hiking is nice too. Too make of the camp sites allow dogs, I like dogs, but don't want them barking or staring at me when I'm eating. The beach is awful - the sand is very coarse and too make rocks. I guess you can't have it all in an Ohio State Park with the limited funding they get from the State.
Last year my friend went to cowan and I tagged along. Cowan has a lake to swim and fish in and they have a variety of boats to choose from. They had a park for the kids right across the cabin. It was a very safe environment.
The cabin we stayed in had a very strong odor! It smelled like mold and smoke even though it was a non smoking cabin! We went to buy air fresheners but the smell did not go away! Also on our last night my husband saw a mouse in the cabin! The sheets on the beds looked clean but the extra ones in closed definitely not!The little beach on the park side had a sign that said bacteria in the water were above state limit, so the kids couldn't go swimming!The only thing that was nice was the playground for the kids to play on!