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Campground Review: Kenshire Kampground

Nathan posted this in Places

Ken and Shirley, or so Shirley tells me, put their names together when they dubbed their little farm/campground “Kenshire Farms”. They’re an elderly couple, though quite able to get around and with their wits about them for certain; Ken can be found roaming the grounds on his tractor or vintage 70′s blue Honda motorcycle, while Shirley manages the house.

From the road — Pennsylvania’s US Route 6 — Kenshire Farm doesn’t look like much, with just a small sign and none of the actual park itself visible as it’s completely surrounded by woodlands. As you drive down the thin path that leads to the park you break through a thin part of the forest that serves well as a gateway. Unfortunately, the first thing you see is two or three rows of older, parked RV trailers. I’m not sure if these are left here by people who own them and only visit during the weekends or on vacation, and otherwise just leave them all parked in a row, or if it’s just that Ken is your typical farmer of an old man and collects all types of spare parts “just in case.” Either way, they’re a bit of an eyesore and at first put me off the idea of even staying, worried that we’d just be lined up with the others.

Luckily, though, I was too tired to give up so we approached the big yellow house that doubled as both the farmhouse and the office. It was a Sunday afternoon and signs indicated that I should just open the door and yell “Hello” twice, and that someone should hear me, and sure enough, Shirley herself did so. This set the tone for the entire experience and really shows what the entire place is like: you’re literally staying on someone’s farm. There is very little “business” that gets transacted, you pay for your space and then from there on out it’s all friendly waves as Ken passes you on this tractor or in that pickup truck.

The campground has three “sections”, including the aforementioned giant RV parking field, where very few people are actually staying (though a few were packed in there). I don’t believe your average camper would ever stay here, though during the summer it may get packed enough that you would be. This area is basically just a giant grass field and, to be honest, I would never want to stay there. They did mention, however, that they hold a non-denominational, “wear your camping clothes” kind of Church service in the pavilion that sat next to an old thyme weather vain here.

The second section is for permanent sites; the type of people who have their RVs permanently situated, jacked way up on blocks and with wooden porches built and tons of little gnome and country frog statues and Christmas lights strewn everywhere. This section also has riverfront access, to the Pine Creek River to be exact, the very same one that flows through “Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon”, the actual name of which is Pine Creek Gorge. These riverfront sites are available for occasional campers and are definitely the best spots.

The final section, where we stayed, was tucked far to the back of the campgrounds, behind a small grove of trees. There were probably 15 spots in this section, but as we were the only people staying in the park (late September) other than those frequenting their permanent sites, we had the entire spot to ourselves. In the corner of the area there’s wide open access to the river, and a pavilion and playground are in the center of the spots. In fact, every one of these three sections had its own playground.

The river itself was very low while we stayed, and though we rented tubes (for only two quarters an hour!) from the Kenshire’s, and were able to float down most of the waters that bordered the entire farm, there were definitely spots that I had to get out and walk. The farm also holds a giant, wonderfully typically red, barn that has showers, laundry, a store and a small game room. There’s also a particularly intrepid-looking bridge made of cables and two-by-fours that you can cross the river via, which leads to some simple paths on the other side. It’s all great, great fun.

As we stayed at Kenshire Kampground for the last week of September, the leaves were already very much changing, that particularly wonderful part of the beginning of Autumn where half the trees are still green and the sun is still hot enough during the day, but then the other half of the leaves are all of their goldeny red hues. The one time we floated down the river, the leaves were even falling down all around our tubes, quite pristinely, if I might add.

The only major drawback that Kenshire has is that there is basically no cell phone reception whatsoever, so if you rely on your cell phone for whatever reasons (like getting the Internet so that you can work) then you’re out of luck. The farm is just outside of a very small village (10 houses and a gas station which is open only sporadically but does sell a plethora of hunting and fishing gear) and about 20 miles away from Wellsboro, which is a truly excellent town. Aside from providing cell reception (for AT&T at least, not Sprint), it also provides town-wide free WiFi access and for faster speeds, the Green Free Public Library provides, as its name would imply, free WiFi access. Wellsboro also has two outdoorsy stores, a hardware store, a couple of bars, restaurants (including an old school diner cab), a large grocery store and a bunch of other places of business ripe for the frequenting. The town has a definite “Main Street” feel to it and could easily be right out of 1955.

All in all, for a relaxing get a way from the city, Kenshire Kampground and the surrounding Pine Creek Gorge area is an incredibly beautiful and truly wild place, which is why we chose to stay there even though it required me driving into Wellsboro every day to work.