Bucktail Camping Resort - Campground in Mansfield Pennsylvania
Bucktail Camping Resort is located in Mansfield, Pennsylvania. This is a campground that our family visits each year for our vacation. It is a place where our family has made a ton of great memories. We started going there on vacation five years ago and each year we can not wait to return. Each visit became slightly longer than the previous one due to the fact that we never want to leave. Our goal for the future is to purchase a camper and rent a spot up there year round, that way we can visit as often as we wish, and stay for as long as we can. Honestly, if I had the choice I would live there year round.
Weekend Themes
The Big Dinosaur Dig
Time to Play! It's Memorial Day
The Great American Rock Race
Bucky's Chocolate Festival
Bucky's Circus of Fun
Bucky's American Bandstand
Bucky's Firecracker Festival
Bucky's Kids Klub Party
The Big Squirt
Santa's Summer Vacation
Wacky Water Works
Bucky's Kids-R-King
Kids Kountry Karnival
Happy Days Rock & Roll Party
Bucky's "Whatever" Weekend
Still Time to Play! It's Labor Day
The Life of Leisure
Bucky's Two Bits ($ .25) Weekend
Bucky's Big Apple Fest
The Great Pumpkin Hunt 1 & 2
Items from Home
Depending on what type of rental you choose will decide on what items you will need to bring with you. You will need your necessities (clothing, soaps, towels, etc.), bed linens and blankets. You needs to bring items to cook and eat with, if you have a cabin with a kitchen you may wish to bring more than just basic cooking utensils as you will have a stove and oven available. A cooler will be needed if there is no fridge in your rental. No living items are provided other than toilet paper in rentals equipped with a bath.
Rentals and Sites
Bucktail offers a variety of rentals along with areas for RVs and tents. The rentals sleep anywhere from four to eight people depending on which type you decide. Some are equipped with just sleeping areas and others have kitchens and full baths.
Carriage House- Sleeps four and includes A/C and Mini Fridge. We stayed in this cabin our first year. We fit five of us in it because the kids we still small. Two of them shared the bottom bunk. It was rather small, it was equipped with a bunk bed and a futon and was literally just big enough to fit the furniture with not much extra room. Luckily we only rented it for three days.
Pennsylvania House - Sleeps six, double bed on bottom floor and two double bed which are located on a loft. These cabins have no other extras. Our family had six members now so we need the larger space. We were able to fit a playpen for the baby and still had plenty of room to move about for the four days we stayed.
Timber House - Sleeps four and includes A/C and Mini Fridge
Bucky Lodge - Sleeps six and includes an "Indoor Outhouse" (sink and flushing toilet)
Cozy Cottage with Loft - Sleeps six
Woodsmans Hut - Sleeps four
Vacationer - Sleeps six and has a full bath and kitchen
Holiday House - Sleeps eight and has a full bath and kitchen. We have rented one of these the past three years because we have been staying for eight days. It is much easier with the kids to have the bath and kitchen inside the cabin.
Holiday House with Loft - Sleeps eight and has a full bath and kitchen
Luxury Dream Lodge - Sleeps four and includes a heart-shaped whirlpool tub, central air, DVD-Video TV Viewer, along with a full bath and kitchen. Honeymoon oriented.
Hodge Podge Lodge - Sleeps five and includes a heart-shaped whirlpool tub, DVD-TV Viewer, full bath and kitchen. Family oriented.
There are also open or wooded sites for tents, trailers, or motor homes available with electric, water, and sewer hook-ups. Clean modern restrooms, free hot showers, and laudnromat.
There is also a general store on the grounds that provides ice, wood, camping supplies, some food and drinks, and souvenirs.
Free Activities, Rides, and Events
The campground is equipped with an Antique Merry-Go-Round, Mini-Train which takes you on a 3/4 mile ride, Hay Wagon, Fire Truck, Venetian Swing, Zip Line, Willy the Worm, Mini Golf, Bingo, Movies, Swimming Pool, Slides, Kids Dances, Parties, Weekly Themed Activities and Food Events, Square Dances, Bands, Professional Entertainers, Arts and Crafts, Contests, Stocked Fishing Pond, and more.
The two playgrounds offer plenty of things for the kids to do. They can play basketball, volleyball, horseshoes, frisbee golf, and they can hit balls in the batting cages. There are playhouses, slides, swings, and a huge sandbox. The kids spend hours each day at the playgrounds and it is equally as fun for the adults. There is also an arcade where we love to take the kids. They love to cash in their tickets they win playing the games for prizes at the end of our stay.
The swimming pool in in-ground and goes from three feet to six feet deep. There is no lifeguard on duty so all children must be supervised by an adult. We used the pool more this year than any other year due to the record heat that struck during our entire stay.
Quality Time As A Family
We spend a lot of quality time together during our vacations at Bucktail. When we are at the cabin we cook out on the fire ring for most of our meals. We sit at the picnic table together discussing what we did that day or what we are going to do later. It is nice spending this time together without all of the normal daily distractions from home. There is no phone ringing, no TV, just us laughing and having fun.
In the late afternoons we head to the playgrounds as a family and have fun on the playground equipment. It is great to be able to act like a child again with your kids digging in the sand and doing whatever they want you to do with them at that moment.
After dark we spend time sitting around the campfire roasting marshmallows or just listening to what the kids had fun doing all day. Each year their conversations get more interesting in regards to what they talk about. This year the older ones were constantly talking about who they wanted to ask to the dance which was a change from the first year we went!
The kids go to bed easily each night because they are completely exhaused and truthfully the same goes for us. There is just something about being out in the fresh air from morning until night that puts your mind and body at ease!! Overall it is a refreshing and relaxing place to be and that is why we return each year.
We started burying time capsules that we dig up the returning year. We started this two years ago. We were unable to find our first one last year, but we were able to find last years one this year. Each of us write message that only we can know, we label each with our names and place them in a watertight container and bury it. The following year we dig it up and read to each other what we wrote the previous year. No matter how hard you try to remember what you wrote down, you never can quite remember the whole thing, so it is fun hearing what was written. It also brings back some memories that may have been slightly forgotten. I can't wait until next year to dig up this years memories and do it all over again.
Activities We Participated In
The camping season starts at the end of May and goes until the beginning of October. Each weekend at Bucktail offers activities based on that weeks theme. Every year we try to book our vacation within a different theme from the previous year. We have participated in five different themed activities over our course of staying in the campground.
Our first and second year was the "Kids Kountry Karnival" which consisted of playing games such as; Wacky Wire, Toilet Toss, Weight Guessing, and more, the kids also had their faces painted. Everyone was able to receive balloons, popcorn and cotton candy all for free.
The third year was "Bucky's Kids Klub Party". The kids were invited to help Bucky with his Balloon Blast-Off. The Balloon Blast-Off was neat because every child release a balloon with a card attached that included the child's name and rental number. It had the campground phone number and address also printed with a message to contact the campground if the card was discovered. Prizes were awarded to the children whose cards were found quickest, and farthest away from the campground. There was a clown that weekend who made balloon art for the kids, and free ice cream treats for everyone.
The kids had a blast our fourth year during the "Big Squirt" weekend. This weekend offered an all day water gun fight on Saturday. Everyone, big and little, were asked to bring their biggest and best water guns. I am not sure who had more fun that weekend, the kids or the adults, but I can tell you it was pretty close.
This year was "Santa's Summer Vacation" so we celebrated Christmas in July. Santa was camping there also and he brought a sack full of gifts for all the kids. We had free snow cones and we asked to help Santa's elves make decorations for the Christmas Tree. Everyone at the campground was asked to bring Christmas decorations to decorate their sites because there was a site decorating contest. The kids also participated in the Christmas Parade and were asked to decorate their bikes. This was a lot of fun, the only downfall this year was the record heat which made it hard to focus on Christmas, but we made it through and still had fun.