Hoosier National Forest Bluegill Loop Campground

This campground is off the beaten path and is a very well kept secret. Because it is not easily accessible from major highways (15 to 20 minute drive on narrow winding roads), most people would not even look here. The campsites are level gravel (suitable for tent camping) and most have a paved parking area as well (up to about 40 ft). The campground is heavily treed and the sites are spaced nicely for privacy. These are mixed use sites so car campers, traveling motorcycle riders, smaller motor homes and travel trailers are all mixed together. Most sites have an electric hook-up and some have water as well. Water is available throughout the campground and it has a mix of pit toilets and shower houses with indoor flush toilets. You can make online reservations through www.rec.gov, but only about half of the sites can be reserved (the remainder are first come first served). Absolutely the best time to be here is during the week (Monday thru Friday), but weekend are surprisingly quiet for a campground near the lake

We stayed here last summer on our trip to Canada. It’s one of four large campgrounds with around 50 sites each. It’s in hardwood forest next to the popular Monroe Reservoir. We were able to get the last of the walk up reservations on a Friday at atriums 3pm. The campground tends to get full on the weekends from local campers. I would recommend reserving a spot ahead of time. The facilities were clean and roads were excellent. Lake Monroe is the highlight here and a number of campers were bringing small boats for fishing and tubing. The camp hosts were ok and trying to deal with the large crowds. We had the last spot on the end of Bluegill Loop which provided some peace and quite. I would recommend this place during the fall when the summer time crowds have gone.