Cardinal Center Campground

Stayed 6/2023 at Cardinal. Close to Hwy 71. A little hard to find. Trust GPS but look for large billboard sign stating Cardinal with arrow. Heard road noise a all night. They have excellent private showers, wide spaces, lots of older infrastructure otherwise. Asked for WifI strength. Manager said no problem as not many RV’s that night. We had zero WiFi. Also no password as it is open connection. Would not stay again.

With gas prices at a premium and winter weather still happening, we decided to use this as a base camp for visiting Cuyahoga and Columbus. Cuyahoga was about 1.5 hours north and most attractions in Columbus were 30-45 minutes away and easy drives in both directions.

There are literally hundreds of sites here, although they are all in different areas, so it doesn't feel packed in. The FHU pull-through sites were VERY long and had wide grass spaces in between. Most sites looked level. The shooting range was not in use very much when we were there, but we saw a youth team practicing trap shooting one day. The pull-through sites are parallel to the freeway, but the noise did not bother us and the other campers were very quiet.

There is an indoor pool which was undergoing maintenance so not usable when we were there and a nice playground. The office staff were very friendly and accommodated my request to change sites from a back in to a pull-through without any problem and waived the additional charge.

Using our Verizon hotspot was an interesting and frustrating experience. There were towers close by and we would have 3-4 bars with good bandwidth and it would drop out regularly. Couldn't tell if it was switching between 2 towers or if the interstate traffic was disrupting it? The last day or two it was much more stable. The good news was that the campground had serviceable public wifi while we were there.

Don't let the name and main function of the trapshooting range scare you away. This is a beautiful campground, separate from the shooting range. They host big events, but there was no shooting or noise while we were there. The campground is quite large - hundreds of sites. There are 100s of sites. We stayed at the loop around the small lake, which I recommend. Campsites have lots of space between them around this loop, and there are lots of cabins too. Roads are wide, easy for those backing in. Great playground for kids and beautiful setting. There is a gazebo overlooking the pond, plenty of trees and shade. There is an indoor pool which looked nice but we did not use.

Reason for four stars rather than five was highway noise and difficulty finding campground. Signage on 61 is nonexistent. Located alongside I-71 so there is loud highway noise all night, even over the air conditioning. Also, our site was quite short and we had to disconnect our vehicle (we only have a 17 ft trailer) or we would have been in road even though we only stayed one night. Most sites are not this short. This campground is very convenient for one night stopovers but it is loud. We camped at Cardinal Center Campground in a Travel Trailer.

We came here to celebrate our daughter’s birthday and swim in the indoor pool. Unfortunately, we felt that the pool left quite a bit to be desired. There were no chaise lounges available anywhere to sit and relax. The temperature in the room itself is simply unbearable. It is almost impossible to sit and watch the children play as it is so hot. The sliding glass doors are kept shut so there is no hope for a breeze. The water temperature is not at all refreshing either. It is more like bath water. The recreation room lacks any type off games. It simply has sofas.
Our site was beautiful. We were surrounded by mature trees and wildlife. Many of our camping neighbors were friendly and we feel that this made our stay worthwhile. We would consider staying again in the Fall but would not count on visiting the pool or recreation room.

I hosted a rally here for my Airstream friends. There was over a dozen couples. We woke up every morning and had a group breakfast then out shooting by 10 am back to the campsites for lunch then back out shooting again till mid to late afternoon. We shot trap, pistols and archery. The range officers were friendly and helpful. The camping staff was accommodating and we were all in or near the 300 number series camping loop. Check in was smooth. The campsites in this section varied somewhat in size and shape nd were back in sites. I did not check out the larger pull through sites. There is a restaurant right at the entrance and gas nearby across the interstate. The Cardinal Center is located right off of I-71 so very convenient and easy to get to. Just down the interstate an outlet mall and a little further is the Polaris Mall. If you are into camping and the shooting sports I absolutely recommend this campground.

This is our first time camping after our travel trailer was winterized so we have had to use the parks restrooms and showers. It is amazingly clean. The heated pool was a nice surprise. They only negative thing I can say is if it was crowded it would be hard to get our large camper into the spot we had. This time of year there were only a handful of camper so it was easier to maneuver.

We stayed here for the SCTP National Trap Shooting. This is a large facility that is geared towards the shooting sports including Trap, Bunker, Sporting Clays, & Skeet. Having said that there facilities are very good including a very ample big rig section and everything in-between.
I didn't get to the indoor pool but from the outside the facility looked very nice and the fishing pond does hold fish.

Verizon worked fine until the 1000+ people all got on at the same time.

T-Mobile worked great anytime of the day.