Grand Lake St Marys State Park

We stayed here for a week in mid June of 2019. The campground is divided up into main distinctive sections. One (by the pool area) are mostly "pull-thru's. The pull-thru's are somewhat short, so if you have a RV unit over say 35' there will be no room to park your toad or truck on your paved pad. And this section has no trees. The spacing between campsites was rather close. But, it is right next to the new $1.5M pool. All the sites in this section are level. There was a new shower building for this section. The other section of campsites including some full service sites is situated on a very slight hillside. Nothing crazy, but 2/3 of these sites will include the need to block up one side of your RV's wheels. The second negative is most of the sites in this section are 90 degree back in sites, so if it's wet the wheels of the RV drop into the mud off the pavement. Overall spacing between sites in this section was average to larger than average. About 3/4 of the sites in this section had widely spaced large trees offering some shade. The bathrooms and one showerhouse in this section were the old block type buildings common in Ohio State Park system. The new $1.5 pool complex with a circular slide is the star of the place. Without the pool locals say the place would only fill 50% on summer weekends, now its been full on the weekends since the pool was put in last summer (2018). Access to the lake is either by the first row of campsites or just after the pool. The lake itself had some algae bloom issues back about 4 years ago , since then it has improved, but I still would not swim in it. The water still has a green color. I did kayak in it 4 of my 7 night stay. The short hike trail is, how should say it, in very poor condition, evident of no upkeep in the last 10 years. Overall I gave the place a 4 star only because of the pool, otherwise a 3 would be a fair grade. Near by in St. Mary's there is a community park (KC Geiger Park) mini golf coarse (18 holes $2 er adult) on a very professional level. During the week days ( 10am to 2:00) the local "special needs" people run it with proceeds going to their organizational. There is also a long 18 hole disc golf course there too. In the near by town of New Bremen there is the Bicycle Museum of America. Very well done exhibit ($3 per person). The whole area running north and south is where you will find the old Miami Erie Canal with many locks in the downtown city parks. It was in operation from the 1840's to 1915 connecting the Ohio River to Lake Erie.

A pool full of children splashed a wall of water into the air as Jim Zehringer, Ohio Department of Natural Resources director, State Rep. Keith Faber and many other people cut the dedication ribbon for the new swimming pool at the Grand Lake St. Mary’s State Park Campground on Friday (June 15). “Last year we added the splash pad and this is a great compliment to that,” Zehringer said. “Our goal is to keep improving our state parks so people want to come back.” According to the Lima News, the $1.7 million pool was created as a compliment to the splash pad and also an attraction was needed to keep campers coming to the campground, Faber noted. John Bergman, Auglaize County commissioner, said he was pleasantly surprised at how great the pool looked when he arrived for the dedication. “It’s really nice,” said Mandy Lehmkul of Fort Loramie. “It gives the boys something to do in the day when it’s hot. They like fishing in the morning and swimming in the afternoon.” The funding for the swimming pool came from $500 million of capital infrastructure funding set aside by Ohio as a push to improve Ohio state parks. The goal of this investment is two-fold, Faber said: to improve amenities Ohio State Parks offers visitors and to improve natural resources like water quality. “This is a huge Ohio resource,” Faber said. “Our parks, and frankly our natural areas, are something that add to the quality of life throughout Ohio.”