Happy Acres Resort, Waterville PA - Grand Canyon of PA

[chris199]

Wife and I were planning to ride the Pine Creek Rail/Trail from the Waterville access area. Happy Acres is literally right around the corner! Originally did not find Happy Acres because Google did not return a resort when my keyword was campground.

Sites for many seasonal campers were much nicer than those for day campers....we stayed 3 nights. Had full hookups. Site map showed square sites....sites are actually at angle. Map showed large open area outside our door but actually another site was squeezed in next to us. For just a few days or a week of camping, I would not stay here again. Would rather dry camp at state park literally hundreds of feet from Happy Acres. State Park sites were very very nice. Happy Acres sites for non seasonal camping are very very narrow. Fortunately, no one was on either side of us but still did not spend any time outside due to weird site logistics. Door opened right to power pole of next site over. Site was not level (off 4 inches side to side) and had a major crater. Site was on 45 degree angle. Back of site fell over a hill. Angle of site long with rear hill cuts off a fair amount of site square footage.

People there are absolutely excellent. Had restaurant, nice store, nice Internet cafe, recently paved entrance and drainage areas. Bathrooms were very clean but somewhat dated. Game "barn" … new building seemed nice … but far from camp sites......would not have let non teenage kids roam there alone. Definite evidence of investment and improvements but they are trying to squeeze in sites to get more fees but are sacrificing quality of camping experience. I suspect they will have limited repeat day campers. If sites were not so cramped and a bit more level, I would really like Happy Acres.

As a campground I would rate as a 4/5 but due to site issues I rate as a campground 3/5. Not resort quality.....yet.