Gooney Creek Campground

Owned by honest good, people, book in advance and they will help you find the best campsite on the campgrounds. firewood is cheap there. And if your say enough you can catch decent trout

Day 4 — Gooney creek isn’t the prettiest, but if you’re from a place that doesn’t have mountains, clean creeks, or stars — then it’s pretty awesome.
The sites really close together but Pam, the lady that checked me in, tries to spread peolple out unless if you request a site. The whole place looks kind of messy, but if you’re out camping then who cares? Make sure to bring shower shoes or flops if you plan on using the bathhouse. This should be regular practice but you most definitely will want them here.
I had stayed at a few different camp sites this week and gooney was definitely the best for star gazing. It may not be primitive, but it’s far enough into the middle of nowhere that you don’t have much light pollution. If you want a good view of the sky then opt for sites 20,19 and i think may 18.
If privacy is your thing then maybe shoot for 18 since it’s the last site, but still don’t expect any real privacy because the trail to the swimming hole is at the edge of the site.
They sell firewood on site and have drinkable water out of the spigots from the camper spots just across from the registration office. Pam was really helpful and even informed me of the meteor showers that night. If you’re a big city person then you should appreciate what this place offers — just be aware that it may be kind of dirty.

For a campground and for someone who really doesn’t camp, this was great! Warm showers, flushable toilets. Pam and her mother are great and accommodating.
The best spots are by the creek. More secluded.

I read the reviews and thought «how bad could it be»? Got that answer pretty quickly. It’s that bad. The bathrooms are disgusting, I don’t think they are ever cleaned. I would gladly use a tree but there not many on hand and the sites are literally on top of one another to the point of not knowing who’s fire pit is who’s. The photos on the website were very misleading and if you want to go to the swimming hole, you have to walk through someone else’s campsite. You can see inside these poor peoples tent. They don’t deserve to have people walk between their chairs because they wanted a secluded site. And, I wouldn’t exactly call it a swimming hole. A better description would be a twenty square foot area of the creek that is four feet deep. I was woken up at 6am to the sounds of bridge construction happening one hundred yards away. The place is on a main road and generally just sucks. The sounds of the creek are probably wonderful, but I couldn’t hear it over the road noise. I might as well have gone camping along side route 1. There is also a street light in the area of the electric sites that light up your tent through the night. The tractor is true. The lady drives forty feet to discuss my site options with me, witch were plentiful. There were five sites occupied in AUGUST of one of the best summers we have had since I can remember. I would say to bring your own wood since it costs about a buck fifty a piece, but don’t go there. I have been camping 2 – 3 times a year for almost twenty years. This place is by far the worst «campground» I have ever been to. I paid up front foolishly for two nights. One was enough. We decided she could keep the extra money. Some lessons are priceless. I will leave you with this thought, my kids who love camping as much as video games were happy to leave. I asked them if it was ok with them, and their reply was «this place is gross». Big mistake. I advise you to heed my advice. If you are curious, like I was. Don’t be. It seems Unilocal won’t allow zero stars so I give this place one. But only cause I have to.

This is a C– campground. Rated average above only because it is not necessarily poor. Not to say that it couldn’t be a very nice campground. As mentioned in the title, maintenance is an issue.
This campground is close to Front Royal and to Shenandoah NP. There is easy access to the South Fork of the Shenandoah River with plenty of canoe/​kayak rental and guide services nearby.
There are many campsites situated along the creek, there are also spaces for RVs. The main area is a park like setting, pleasant enough. The play area consists of a dilapidated swing set and some plastic outdoor children’s toys. Not much of a play area. I only comment as it is advertised on the website.
The grounds around the private home, bath house, and general store are very cluttered, disabled cars, inoperable equipment, and other things that, well aren’t necessarily campground like.
Keep in mind that the campground is located right next to highway 340, traffic noise is an issue, although it does quiet down later in the evening.
The bath house is old and it shows. The shower curtains in the men’s area were old and did have mold on them. The fixtures are old and the paint is heavy, you have seen places like this before.
The group campsite is on the opposite side of the highway, and extremely close to it. It was not maintained very well, the footbridge is unsafe and in need of repair.
We reserved campsites 19, 20 & 21. The sites accommodated us all, they were adequate. A word of caution if you are contemplating campsite 18. This is the last campsite, and it is nice. However, the path to the fishing and swimming hole passes right through this site, I mean right through. In fact, we watched people turn around when trying to find the swimming and fishing hole because they thought the path was to the campsite. Confusing for those trying to find the site, inconveniencing for those camping at that site.
Many of the fire pits consist of a ring of rocks, I didn’t notice any that were not completely full of ash. No consideration is given to maintaining the fire pits, completely full, and we found plenty of cans, bottles, rocks, etc. in the pits.
Campsites not maintained. Trash, cigarette butts, little bits of trash were found all over the area. The industry standard of raking a site after check out is definitely not practiced here. A simple raking and emptying of the fire pit would go oh so far in making this a much better experience. The little things are certainly overlooked here.
The outhouses, and I mention these because they are shown on the website. Let me just say, not as advertised. Walk to the bath house, it is not that far.
During our stay we experienced the land owners on the other side of the creek. Loud ATVs, late night camping, loud music and talking. Luckily for us we were located about a 100 yards away. But their campsite was directly across from many others staying in the campground.
I would not recommend this as a destination campground, passing through, or needing a place to sleep, sure the price is right. The place has so much potential though, it really does. For whatever reason, maintenance and presentation are not a priority for the owners.

Cue Dueling Banjo music… As you drive in — piles of junk to the right — no not TLC’s HOARDERS– turns out to be the front office/​registration area. (saw a birdcage, old toaster oven, play pen, mannequin, gas cans, piles of clothes, old style standing ashtray, bits of yard equipment– why, we can play I SPY! all day long!). Run down cesspool to the left =communal bathrooms and showers. Scary area straight ahead w/​rusty equipment that OSHA must have deemed unsafe in the 70’s and sad eyed worn out plastic bouncing horses is the children’s playground. A tree or two to shield you from your (VERY close) neighbor… The Site that we were assigned (#14) — tiny, surrounded by people did not have a single tree on it. The creek– which may be beautiful– was low– so barely a trickle. The place was loud, dirty, cluttered– not at all like the beautiful scenic vistas that drew us in from the web page. The owner fired up her lawn mower (seriously– she rides around the place on a John Deere. Remember– place isnt huge. Now imaging a lawn mower firing up every time she wants to «hover ’round»), and rode over to see why we weren’ t setting up camp. Kooky is a generous way to describe her. Septuagenarian w/​flaming red hair– she was completely insulted (and a little insane) that I didn’t find the place charming. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings– so I didn’t tell her that the experience I was looking for was rustic seclusion– this was more trailer park crazy on a Friday night. She tried to bully me into thinking her place was beautiful– and finally told me to leave– and gave me back my money (unexpected! I was willing to leave and let her keep the money! «Don’t want no one here doesn’t wanna be here. Sheesh» is exactly what she grumbled at me as she peeled back ones.) We went up the road two miles to the Shenandoah RV and Campground. It was beautiful. No kookiness. Ran into two other carloads of campers we had seem checking Gooney Creek out while we were there. The proprietress at Gooney Creek had told us that we must not camp much if we thought we could do better than her establishment, and foolish for not seeing the beauty … but seeing that other campers had made the same decision not to stay reinforced that we weren’t crazy w/​unreasonable expectations… and I guess beauty is in the eye.

I don’t know if we were just spoiled at the Shenandoah RV campground three miles down the road, but this was definitely not as nice. The lady was kooky as can be and this place looks like a hoarders paradise… Apparently if you go back further in then you escape all that but we were put right next to this pile of crap… I will probably not be back, and by probably I mean it in the sense of there «probably» wont be more stuff hoarded in the entrance if I returned…

My family and I stayed there in late May. As soon as we got there, I had a bad feeling that the negative reviews were accurate. The entrance is pretty sketchy looking and it looks like a scene straight out of Deliverance. The owner was absolutely nice and gave us our privacy. There was only one other camper so we had a lot of it, which was nice.
There seems to be two areas to set up your tent. The first batch are near the entrance and have electricity/​water hook-​up. I wouldn’t stay here in a million years. It’s too close to the road, which can be loud. There’s no privacy. If this were the extent of the campground, I’d probably only give it a 1 or a 2.
However, there are three or four campsites further back which are more secluded and closer to the river. The scenery here is gorgeous. My family and I swam and fished (caught about five fish in an hour and a half). It was great. We will definitely come back again.
TL;Dr — Ignore the front of the campgrounds, head further back, and enjoy some good old-​fashioned camping.

Pluses:
It has a creek that runs through it.
Not too far from DC
Only $ 20 a night
The old woman who runs it is super cute
Close to Shenandoah National Park (where it’s impossible to get a site)
Close to Canoe/​Kayak/​Raft/​Tube rental place
Minuses:
Not very wooden or secluded
There is a road right by it that you can hear traffic all night if you don’t have a site far enough back (it didn’t bother me, but bothered the other person)
Many sites are on top of each other & in a field-​like area
Bathrooms were ok for a bathroom, but I probably wouldn’t shower there
Outhouses weren’t usable, no toliet paper and seemed like no one had been in them in a long time
Things to remember:
Bring your own soap because there isn’t any in the bathrooms
Make sure you get a good site, I think 27 was right under a street light that was on all night so that would’ve been terrible.
I loved the woman, but she did seem sorta like a hoarder with lots of stuff all over, so if that weirds you out, then maybe it’s not for you.
Overall, for a last minute camping trip it fit the bill. We wanted to sleep outside, have a fire, drinks some beers, and then spend most of the day around the Shenandoah. So it met those needs. If you are a fancy camper, I don’t think you would be into this place at all. Nothing is new here, but it’s «charming». If someone asked if I would go again, I’d say «maybe».

My partner and I were looking for a quiet two night getaway. To our surprise we definitely found it. We were the only campers the first day/​night. It was so quiet. However the entrance is scary and run down. The owner is a «character» and maintains the grounds herself.
Fire wood is $ 10 so bring your own if you do not want to pay. Her area (the office and her house) is very cluttered. We stayed at site 16 on the creek which was leveled for our tent, and large. Not a lot of shade, but it did have a water and electric hook up. There is an outhouse nearby. I didn’t use it. It is a little bit of a stroll to the bath house.
The worst part about this place is the bath house. It is not clean, there was residue (hair and fluids) from previous campers. Paper towels and soap is not provided so make sure to bring your own when you venture to the bath house. There are two facilities each for men and women. If the bathrooms were in better condition I would have given it a higher score.
There is a place to wash your dishes which is great, and even a library to borrow and/​or keep books the owner provides.
There is a swimming hole, unfortunately the water was too low so we were unable to take a dip. You have to walk past some unlabeled camp sites then walk a short way through the forest on a path to reach it.
There is lots to do in the area. So rent a canoe, kayak or tube and enjoy a day on the river!
If you can get past the dirty bathrooms then definitely try it out. It is primitive, definitely not for RV people.

U can’t go wrong with a campground by a creek. I was in site 7 traveling by myself as a single female I felt super safe here. I loved hearing the creek waters flow as u fall asleep. There r showers toilets n running water and the eccentric old lady running the place just adds to the charm.

The best way to put this is… if you’re looking for a commercialized, camper/​trailer-​preferred campground, this is NOT going to be it. This campground is best suited for tent camping and is not suited for people looking for a commercially run site.
While the owner of this campground DOES come across as «eccentric,» I found her to be a very nice lady. Sit and talk to her a while… hear her stories. She’s got a lot of them. Yes, the area around her home is definitely cluttered, but the campsites and grounds themselves are beautiful. Sites 18 – 22 are the best ones to get as they are far away from the road and a bit more secluded. Campsite 22 provides the most privacy. If you take campsite 20 or 21, you will need to bring a canopy for shade. Sites 18 and 19 are well-​shaded.
I was actually quite impressed that an 80-​something year old lady could maintain this place as she has. To the best of my knowledge, she maintains the grounds BY HERSELF, which astounds me because the whole grounds flood badly at least once a year. She’ll tell you of times when the entire camp store was under water! Yet it is still up and running.
The photos on the website do not do this place justice. The rock formations and mosses are beautiful. The river itself is gorgeous… except for after it rains when it is rushing madly by! Each tent site is equipped with a firepit (rocks formed into a pit), a trashcan, and a picnic table. There are bathrooms with flush toilets and showers. It’s not luxary, but it’s better than SOME places I’ve seen! Wood is expensive ($ 10 per «bunch» and a bunch is not really defined), so I recommend bringing your own wood if possible.