A post like this is a necessity. Somewhere, there should exist, for every place imaginable, a rating of restroom facilities. People need to know, when they book a vacation, exactly what they should expect from their toilet/shower experience.
My take is limited to the PA State Parks in which I have spent time. I cannot vouch for bathrooms I have not seen. My ratings are based on things like cleanliness, modern convenience, updates to the buildings/facilities, appearance, water temperature, availability of water....
Some of the parks have "rustic" facilities that do not provide running water. Some of those are better than others. Some parks, depending upon which loop or area you stay in, have some "modern" and some "rustic" restrooms. Some parks have what my family calls "The Million Dollar Bathroom" (but we will get to that.
I am rating on a scale of 1-5 1 being the worst, 5 being the best. Some parks will have more than one rating, and an explanation of which bathrooms are located where, and which are better.
Cherry Springs- (which is where I am writing this particular blog)- Rustic facilities. "Drop Pots". No running water in the restroom itself. This rating only applies to the campground, and not the astronomy field. However...the facility itself is surprisingly clean, with no distinctive drop pot smell. Sanitizer and towels are provided. There is a cold water spigot right outside the restroom for clean drinking water. The building itself looks fairly new.. I'm actually going to give this one a 3 the simple fact that it is taken care of and doesn't smell. Running water be damned, I can scrub my hands with sanitizer....or boil water and scald the germs off later!
Trough Creek- Ugh. For a beautiful park and a really nice campground, these toilets stink. Literally. They've got the drop pot smell and the institutional look. They are sorely in need of an upgrade. I am okay with rustic, but these were way way way past rustic. They had a twinge of POW camp happening. 1.
Lyman Run- Two sets of restrooms here, in two different camping areas. Both are quite nice. The lower area has a composting toilet system that is a green way of getting rid of human waste. The upper campground has a regular bathroom with flushing toilets and sinks. The showers are a good temperature, even later in the morning. Both were updated, clean, and cared for. Nice on the outsides as well, with landscaping all around (blueberries if I remember correctly). Both areas get a 4.
Ole Bull- This tiny little park, nestled in the Kettle Creek valley in Potter County has one of the nicest bathrooms of any of the parks I have been in. Modern, clean, plenty of hot water, good water pressure. This bathroom looks like it is fairly newly remodelled. They provide squeegees so that you can remove excess water from the floors after your shower, which is a very nice touch. It makes it very nice for the next person. We love Ole Bull in general, we have some wonderful memories of that little park, and to this day, my husband will call it "that one with the nice bathrooms". It is a solid 5. This applies to the bathroom in camping area 1, nearest the beach.
Hickory Run- I'm going to start by saying that we stayed in an electric loop, so we had the luxury of "modern" (running water-flush toilet) bathrooms. Other loops do not have these same facilities. Boo for them. However, our shower house/ restroom was really nice. It could have been cleaner, but it wasn't terrible. It was updated, with tile on the walls and floors, which was nice. Similar in appearance to Ole Bull really, but not as clean....however, there were more people using the restroom at Hickory Run as well, so factor that in. 4.5. I'd imagine that had I gone in right after cleaning, it would likely be a 5.
Ricketts Glen- modern. Similar in appearance to Hickory Run on the inside. Rustic looking on the outside. Hot water dependent on which shower stall you use. If you hate cold water, avoid number 3. Could be cleaner. It is cleaned once per day, and needs to be done more, as one bathroom serves a very busy campground. (There is another facility for the pet friendly sites.). With the high volume of people at this campground, it also needs to be larger. It is also cleaned around 9 am, which is an extremely inconvenient time. There is always a line outside waiting for cleaning to finish. 3. I'd love to go higher, but I'd also like to not see TP on the floor when I go pee. And that cold shower thing!!!
Caledonia- Yet another wonderful park with less than savoury bathrooms!! Shower houses are green in color. Inside they have concrete block walls and concrete floors. Shower houses have both toilets and showers. Showers are hot enough, but getting water is awkward. You've go to hold a metal knob in the open position to get enough of it to actually take a shower. If the knob isn't held open, the water just shuts off. My sister rigged up some sort of string thing to tie into the exposed pipes and hold the knob open. I'm all about conserving water, but come on! The dishwashing areas outback looked as though they'd seen better days as well! Toilet buildings (sinks and toilets only) are a yellowish tan color, and are of about the same mold as the shower houses. I had to set a few crickets free from the bathrooms, just so the spiders wouldn't get them! Cleaning crews are around daily, and I'm sure they do the best they can given the circumstances. As dated as these facilities are, cleaning them would be a hard job. 2. And it really is a shame because this is a great park and a great campground.
Ohiopyle- modern facilities, flush toilets. Showers were nice and warm, and had good water pressure. The bathrooms were kept clean, but not as clean as some of the others I have visited. These ones had a healthy population of spiders. Not much remarkable about these ones really. Could probably use updating, but it isn't as necessary here as at other locations. 3.5
Keystone- Newly updated. Tile floors and walls, with flush toilets, and nice showers. Clean. Similar to other parks with newer restrooms, like Hickory Run and Ole Bull. 4.5. It seems to me that some of the nicer shower houses are at medium sized parks, and this one is no exception. The bathrooms and changing houses on the beach side of the lake are also clean and modern, and also deserve a 4.5 rating.
Clear Creek- Another medium sized park with exceedingly nice bathrooms. There are two bathrooms here, and both are nice. Both are modern, with flush toilets, hot showers, tile floors and tile walls. The bathrooms with the tile seem to be cleaner than those without, however I am sure they are easier to clean as well. The bathroom nearest the cabins probably gets the most traffic, as it serves the cabins and a portion of the campground. This is the first bathroom/shower house you see when you enter the campground area. Due to higher use, it seems to be the less clean of the two. More dirt on the floors...this one could probably be cleaned more than once a day, as it does seem to be quite busy. I will give it a 4.5. The second bathroom is near the riverside campsites in the back part of the campground. It is nearly identical to the front bathroom/shower house. This one gets less use and is the cleaner of the two. Showers here are also nice and warm, and kept clean. This one gets a 5.
Cook Forest- This park is sort of a home away from home for my husband and I. We both grew up coming here. Unfortunately, the bathrooms haven't changed much since 1980-something, except that back then, they were green and now they are off white. Floors are concrete, making it hard to tell how clean they actually are. There are shower curtains outside the showers, but not between the shower and the hooks to put your clothes. The shower curtains have a very institutional feel, as they are a stiffer plastic, and actually gap a bit on the edges. No doors on the shower stalls. Also, depending upon the weekend (we visit yearly on the 4th of July) and the time of day, you will either freeze to death or be scalded by the water in the showers. Oddly enough, or perhaps not, the off peak months, April, May, September, and October, have the most comfortable shower temperatures. Bathrooms are cleaned once per day, and again, should be cleaned more often, as this is a busy park with a lot of sites. This review applies to all 4 shower houses in th Ridge Campground. The state is spending a considerable sum putting in full hookup sites around the campground, but if you ask me (and they didn't....) they should have put that money into updating all the shower houses in this park! All four shower houses get a 3.
Parker Dam- There are 3 bathroom/shower houses in the park. Two of them are older facilities. These two have hot showers and flush toilets. They have block walls and concrete floors, and benches in the middle of the floor for your stuff, which is a nice touch. The showers here have doors, but there are no curtains between the water and the hooks for your stuff. I guess you use the benches for things that you'd like to stay dry. These have an older, almost locker room feel to them, and are in need of updating. They are however, kept clean by the park staff. We use them for going to the bathroom or brushing teeth, but not usually for showering. Both of these older shower houses get a 3. The newer shower house, which has been affectionately dubbed by my family as "The Million Dollar Bathroom" is wonderful. This bathroom is perhaps the nicest we have seen in PA. It is likely the newest. Tile floors and walls, flush toilets, and fully handicap accessable. According to a friend who's husband worked at the park at one time, the floors have in floor heat. I'm not sure if it is true, but this shower house seems generally warmer than the others. Easily a 5. Also note that the shower house and restroom near the beach is very nice. The inside is tile floors and walls. While it could be cleaner, it bears remembering that this restroom does serve the beach area and sand is bound to get tracked in. It rates a 4.5.
As we explore more places, I will be sure to make note of the restrooms and do a second round of Bathrroom/Shower ratings.
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