Salt Fork State Park

Wonderful tour, beautiful night, great food. Tour was canceled 3 times but well worth the wait. Very informative. We then went for pizza. The white pizza was the best. Its on Monday nights happy hour, I will be back! This was a 5 star night.

We’ve boated and stayed at the both the lodge and cabins. Here’s the skinny:
The lake is quaint and good for finding a little nook for anchoring. We bring“floatys” and do a some swimming, lunch, etc., but the ski areas are too crowded and choppy for a fun ride. It’s best to start early in the day. The water is realitivley clean for a Ohio resevoir.
Skip the cabins. They are over-​priced, worn-​out, circa 1970s moldy smelling remodels. Hot tubs on a small screened porch? No thank you. Too claustrophobic. They belong outside where you can look at the stars.
Finally the lodge. It’s… OK. A bit pricey. Rooms are clean, though dated. The building layout is confusing. Balconies are usless in the summer due to the 45-​year-​old-​jet-​engine-​300dBA-​HVAC-​units, which also makes for a noisey sleeping experience. The resturant is, well, weird. There is a giant mural of confederate soldiers engaged in battle (Quantrill’s raiders?), rebel flag et al. Creepy and highly inappropriate. The food wasn’t that bad, somewhat pricey, but our server barely spoke English and was sloooooow. The whole experience at the lodge could be summed up as strange. Not entirely disappointing… just strange.

you may find this funny its the truth
when I was young I came here with my mom deadbeat dad and sister 19 years ago.
my dad always would get drunk. he was in his room watching a porno drunk on the bed. I walk in and hurry up change it before my mom come in the room. my dad did things like that.
I remember the outside pool. its big and nice. the lodge is nice. the inside pool is nice.
I haven’t been there since 96. I may go back I may not
I will go to hawking hills next time
true story

My wife’s family has been getting together for over 20 years here for a week stretch. I came down on my day off from work and booked a room at the lodge. Though I didnt ask for it, I was offered a pool view (awesome!) instead of what I was booked. I got to my room and it was good. The beds were hard as rock though. My wife came to join me from her cabin since she was already there. The restaurant there leaves a lot to be desired. The dinner portion sucked for the price and nothing seemed that good on their menu. The service was slow. Breakfast the following day was better, though the sausage patties could be bigger.
At the cabins, they need to clear some trees around some of them to give you clear views of the sides and lake. Too many cabins have obstructed views, which defeats the purpose. What they should also do is put some kind of path from the cabins to the lake with steps. Alot of places, there is poison ivy along paths people made and you have to jump down from a ledge.

Nice park. Huge with lots of outdoor options. Massive lake and open land for hiking. The lodge is decent, not great, not bad. The restaurant is bad. The service is slow, the manager is an a-​hole.
Nice for a few day family get away.

All of my reviews are solely intended for visitors seeking vegetarian, vegan, and, (my preference), plant based, whole foods.
There were two options on their menu. There is a portobello sandwich I had on a previous visit. Ask them to hold the cheese and mayo. I’ve never be a big fan of portobello’s, so I only have them when its the only choise. This time I had stir fry vegetables with a fruit side. Portions were a good size. However, it was served with butter (or oil). Not their fault. I didn’t request anything special.

Ok first experience.
Rented canoe from Sugar Marina for a full day a$ 120 plus $ 20 deposit. Be mindful even if you opt to use it less than the reserved original one day you «have already paid for it.» Translation — we won’t credit your change of mind as you paid for a full day. What would have been helpful was at the time of our reservation being advised the cost of what you register for is non refundable. Serve it up in a way so you are in charge assessing. Same message more savvy customer spin.
So if this is your first time renting anything go easy and rent for less than a day (specific canoe) just to see if you even like the experience. The guy who got us boarded this am was cool. The lake is beautiful.
One big point in their favor was our original reservation was a week ago. The am we woke up it was overcast and borderline rainy. We had no problems bumping our reservation to this weekend.
Glad we did it. For the cost of a full day rent you’re already a bit more than 20% in the cost of a a new canoe. If you rent make it worth you’re while.

Absolutely disgusting lodge. Way over priced and so dated it will make you uncomfortable. The food is terrible and the cleanliness of the rooms will make you want to sleep in your car. Worst lodge ever!

After having come here many years its obvious updates and service are not on the managements mind… cabins are rundown and hugely over priced. 22 $ per night hotels have better comfort that this and the rules are only followed if you feel like it. In your bill is charges for the internet that is not availbe unless you are actually in the lodge… Beds are apparently from the 1970’s along with the bedding.
Issues take multiple visits to the front desk to rectify. Golf is ridiculously priced!
Unfortunately I will not be a guest again

This is a great park for camping. My wife and I went camping in tents with some friends. We were disappointed with the spot that we chose because if you’ve never been there, it’s hard to know what the best spots are. We had a spot right by the shower room which was convenient except that everyone else walked next to our tents throughout the entire weekend. It would be nice if they had would have had more trees around, but I really wish they would have pictures for the sites so it would be easier to choose your sites.
Other than our actual site not being that great, the facilities were decent. The buildings seem like they could use some updating, but they are adequate. Since we slept in tents, we really only used the washroom so the outdated facilities didn’t really affect our weekend.
Overall, I liked the camp and I would go back again.

Attended a family reunion at one of the beach shelters at SFSP this weekend. Huge park, great birdwatching, nice hiking and a big shelter cave. No admission charge to the park (this is surprising for us Californians). Facilities in generally good shape (much better than California parks), especially the public meeting areas at the Lodge. The beach concession stand and miniature golf could use some refreshing. My brother in law brought dogs, and a dog park was available near the beach for them to run and swim, expend energy before the reunion itself.
We stayed outside the park in Cambridge so no review of the rooms or food service there.

Fun place, but think some improvements could be made. The lodge appears to be old, but it is just old looking. The rooms are just ok, as the beds sink in the middle and the rooms have a musty odor. No PPV movies, which is weird for a hotel, which this isn’t but it is. Showers are hard to get going and good luck if you are over 5′ 7″… but we are not here to stay in the rooms, right? Even for $ 179 a night, you are tempted to enjoy your room.
The park map is hard to read and if you are into the hiking, good luck. Some of the trails are hard to find and once you do find them, there are parts that are very overgrown and even though it had been about a week since rain, the trails were soaked and we had to turn around and couldn’t even complete 2 of them. There are about 14 hiking trails, ranking from ½ mile to 2 ½ miles. Hosak’s Cave is not as dangerous as they make it sound, even though there appear to have been some young people that fell off the cliff. It is a pretty cool looking area… something that reminds me of when we were in Hawaii with a waterfall and cool rock formation. Check it out. Some of the other trails are serene and there are plenty of wildlife roaming around. We saw deer, beavers and some weird bugs.
The actual lake here is humungous as it is more of a series of tributaries than one big open lake. There are 2 marinas where you can rent jet-​skis, speedboats, pontoon boats, fishing boats, canoes or kayaks. We chose the speed boat, which is a 115HP baby who clips along pretty good. You don’t need any course if you are born before 1982 and after about 3 minutes of instruction, we were off. Fun, but very expensive… a little under 2 hours set us back $ 190, but how many times do you do this kind of thing, right?
Back at the lodge, the outdoor swimming pool was nice… warm and big enough for the people that were there. Unfortunately, there was a horrible band, who thought they were the best thing since sliced bread, and they made us leave after about 40 minutes. We went in to the restaurant, which is nothing to brag about. Standard burger, chicken, steak, salad menus for dinner and breakfast buffet. Service is slow and inaccurate and food is «meh». Ordered a beer, which was room temperature and the waitress didn’t understand why I would want such a cold beer.
Indoor swimming pool was crawling with rugrats after dark, but they had a nice bonfire about 100 yds past lodge. Roasting smores, someone playing guitar… seemed like it was geared more toward younger audience, but it was nice. They also have volleyball, tennis and game room and if what looks like an amazing golf course. Very hilly and wonderfully maintained. Kind of out of place though in the middle of a state park…
Overall a great place. Wish a little more attention was paid to the rooms and the hiking trails instead of the golf course and marinas. Fun time… good for a getaway with spouse or family.

My wife and I just stayed in cottage 39 at Salt Fork OH St Pk and it was mostly a positive experience, but I have a few comments: 1) Our mattress was very spongy and noisy, not what I would expect for a room that cost $ 220 per night. 2) We would track less mud in if a couple small shoe rugs were available by the door. 3) Many light bulbs were still incandescent. Switching to CFL would save 70% or more in lighting costs. 4) Many of the large trash bins in the parking lots were rusted through at the bottom so that trash was spilling out. Some bins had a pile of trash beside them and so were tempting wildlife to feed. 5) While we were not there to watch TV, I do like to catch a bit of the News Hour each night to stay informed and I find PBS news to be the most complete and impartial so I find it very concerning that the only PBS stationwas removed from the channel line-​up while at least five propaganda laced fox channels continue to be offered 6) Food service in the restaurant was a joke. The waitress training the new waitress (who should know better) brought our meals about two minutes after bringing us our salads… definitely amateur material in my book. 7) We met several employees while there and they all seemed to have something in common: they were working two or three jobs in an attempt to stay above water, were burned out from working 14 hour+ days, and had adverse health issues as a result. It makes us wonder what percentage of the steep price of $ 220 per night we paid stay in the local economy? I also notice that your fearless leader of Xanterra has a net worth approaching $ 7 billion or more. Does this seem fair to you? 8) It seems that $ 0 is allocated to the hiking trails while an un-​Godly amount of resources are spent on the golf course which I can’t figure out why is in a State Park in the first place. Please spend a few bucks on the trails, please. 9) This might be something to take up with park management, but visitors were hand feeding deer behind the lodge, something I think should be a huge NO-​NO in parks because I’ve always heard that «a fed wild animal is a dead wild animal». 10) I took an early morning walk around the cottages and lake in 64 degree temps and noticed that several UN-​occupied units had their AC units running. This is both very wasteful and noisy. Boat ride on the lake was awesome but expensive.

I first visited SFSP website online and learned that availability of rooms for Valentine’s Day was good. I eventually decided to book a private cottage opposed to a king size bedroom at the lodge for 2 reasons. A. Hot Tub. B. Fireplace. And to throw in a 3^rd reason it was also right on the lake albeit frozen.
There was a King Size lodge room package for cheaper that included food vouchers, and chocolate and champagne package, however I could not pass up the privacy and the above mentioned perks. I now decided to completely surprise my girlfriend as we both have been relatively stressed out from jobs and winter as well as recovering from flu like or even pneumonia like illness.
I told her the Wednesday before the trip that I had made reservations for a weekend getaway but did not mention details, as I wanted to provide a bit of surprise. Friday rolled around after work. She and I had already pre-​packed most of our belongings. I brought food for the kitchenette and began the 2 hour drive from our abode in greater Cleveland to Lore City Ohio. It was pleasant road trip filled with romantic chit chat and humor.
Upon arrival she was blown away. The outside of the lodge itself is very rustic and appealing. The stone structure makes you feel like at your some precious getaway in the middle of the wilderness. The surrounding forestry is beautiful, even in the dead of winter.
We checked in and decided to eat dinner at the lodge. We could not believe how quiet and empty things felt. It was perfect for privacy and feeling like you are the only people there. The food at the lodge was nothing remarkable, but we weren’t there for the food, we were there for US. After dinner we were excited to see our room in person. She at this point still had no idea what to expect.
We drove to the lake side chalet and parked the car. We walked down a small hill and then up a small flight of stairs onto a deck around the cottage, we opened up the door and explored the unit. When walking in immediately visible was the «living room» complete with gas fireplace, with the flip of a switch it was on and began to warm the room immediately. We then walked on the deck area to see the hot tub. She was ecstatic. I was ecstatic.
Our room included 1 queen size bed and 2 bunk beds; enough for 6 people though it was just the 2 of us. We grabbed our belongings from the car and unpacked and settled in for our little get-​a-​way. No phones ringing, no electronics, just us, the fire place, the hot tub and each other. We talked, played a game of Uno, and enjoyed each others company in a much needed way. We sat in the hot tub until we became wrinkly, and then decided it was time for bed.
We woke up the next morning to snow falling around the ice covered lake, which appeared as if it were a valley amidst small mountains. We decided to go back to the lodge for breakfast and coffee. After doing so we explored the lodge… played a little ping pong, some air hockey, worked out, and swam in the indoor heated pool and hot tub. It was a great way to spend the day carefree of the troubles of the working and living world. We then went grocery shopping to pick up a few things to cook.
The scenery was just so relaxing. She was all I needed to have a good time and enjoy it out there. We drove around town for a bit and came back to the cabin. We cooked; we hot tubed, and actually put on the TV and watched animal planets Cats 101. Not a care in the world, all was glorious. We both secretly wished to ourselves that we did not want to return to reality a day later. We stayed up into the night and eventually went to bed.
In the morning I was treated to an excellent homemade, err cabin made breakfast of sausage and eggs a-​la fireside. We dipped in the hot tub once more and simply took in the view of the lake while doing so. Sadly our trip came to an end and we had to pack up and leave.
The getaway here was not about luxurious expense or fluff. It was about us. If you’re looking for luxury, this probably is not the place for you; after all it is a state park that happens to be the largest state park campground as well. However, you have what you need, and things are comfortable. Food is accessible either via town or the lodge restaurant, or if you bring your own. The staff at the desk was very pleasant and accommodated our needs. You are away from the rest of the world here, enjoy its simplicity.
If there was anything they could improve upon I would say packages. I spent more money for a nicer room, and could have spent less for a smaller room and received food voucher, chocolate, champagne package; it would have been nice to have given the fact I spent more money than the king size lodge room, other than that, I was really happy and so was she.

4 stars for the park and 2 stars for the lodge rooms. We return to this park at least once a year because it is so beautiful and big. We met a friend of ours there since it’s a halfway point for us. It would’ve been nice to spend the night but the pictures on the website weren’t selling us. While there we asked for a key to tour a room and it wasn’t any better in person. I would call it 70’s chic but it’s 70’s non-​chic. If this resort wants to properly represent the best of what Ohio state parks have to offer, they’re going to have to remodel these rooms. The mattresses are in pretty bad shape too. It’s as bare bones as you can get. We’ve rented cabins in the past and again, very bare bones. We will always come back to the park but to stay in the park, not likely. I’d love to see that change with a remodel though!