Francis Slocum State Park is a small state park outside of Wilkes-Barre, PA. The park consists of a two-loop campground, a pool, a playground, picnic areas, hiking trails, and a horseshoe shaped lake. Like all PA state parks, there is no fee to enter the park.
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I recently spent a weekend camping in the Hemlock Hill loop of the campground. Like most PA state parks, the campsite sizes vary greatly. I had done a little research when making my reservation so we had a spacious site. If you click on the “Show Details” button on any site you are interested in you can see the site length and width, as well as other important information such as whether a site has shade and how far away the bathrooms are. Most of the parks we have stayed at limit on-site parking to one car and if two are allowed, you have to pay an additional fee but that was not the case at Francis Slocum. But not all sites could accommodate a second car. Each campground loop had a bathhouse with flush toilets and hot showers. Outside the bathhouse were two utility sinks for washing dishes. The bathhouse in our loop was clean and functional but could use some updating.
Unfortunately, our weekend was a series of unfortunate events. The trip to the park should have taken two hours but instead took three due to accidents and other slow-downs on the highway. It also poured most of the trip, after hardly raining for the previous two months. Thankfully the rain did let up shortly after we arrived so we were able to set up and get dinner cooked. The sky cleared after dinner so we were able to walk down to the lake, where Marie spent some time fishing.
As we were settling for the night, the people at a neighboring campsite had a domestic dispute. After a visit from a ranger, they stopped screaming and cursing but they continued to make noise most of the rest of the night. This was the first time we have ever encountered such an issue in any campground.
After breakfast the next morning, we spent some time fishing and kayaking. I use an Intex double inflatable kayak so it is easier to transport, although it doesn’t glide through the water nearly as nice as our hard-shell kayaks. The kayak apparently has a small leak because the left side slowly deflated so we quickly paddled back to shore. After lunch we decided to go to the pool for a while but when we got there we found it was cash only. On the way back to the campsite to get cash, Marie decided she would rather kayak instead. (The leak is pretty slow and only effects one of the 5 chambers so I figured if I inflated the leaking chamber we would have a while on the water and we would just stay close to the dock.) By the time we got to the dock the wind was picking up and black clouds were rolling in even though the forecast didn’t call for rain until two hours later so we aborted our kayaking attempt.
It poured almost all afternoon. When the rain finally let up we found that our tent had leaked so we packed up our soaking wet and muddy camping gear and headed for home. Except we weren’t finished packing before the skies let loose once again.
My Takeaway
Francis Slocum State Park looks like it could be a very nice park but after my series of unfortunate events I can’t give it an unbiased review and with all the other state parks in Pennsylvania to visit, I don’t desire to give it a second chance.