Best Campgrounds near Carmel, IN

It was our first night in our brand new RV. Our first RV. Wendy was awesome! She helped with the reservation, she greeted us when we arrived, she even called to make sure we were doing ok driving it the first day. Great site, I’ll be it is terrific in the summer when you can stay outside and use the lake.

Very clean, friendly staff and lots to do for the whole family!

This campground is decent if you get one of the few good spots. Many sites are small and can only accommodate a tent. Has water and vault toilets. This campground typically remains available as an overflow camping area but is still a good spot.

Stayed here recently and overall the trip was a 10, but as for the campground itself there are somethings that could definitely be better.

First, for all intents and purposes the sites are not marked.  At some point years ago they stencil painted the numbers both on the concrete parking block and on the ground near the entry pad for each site, but obviously over time most of these are worn away.  It's very difficult to find your actual site, even during the day when it's not busy.  At night, or with a campground full of people - not a chance.   Even more perplexing is why it's still like this when it's so easy to fix.

Second, on the back loop, where we were, almost every car we saw was going the wrong way around the loop.  I've never seen this before and wasn't just one car.  There is a sign at the start of the loop indicating it's one direction, so not sure why this happens.

Third, they have a camp store at the entry to the family campground, but it was never open in the time we were there, which was Friday / Saturday / Sunday, during the summer, so not sure what the situation was.

Fourth, while the campground does have functional flush bathroom and shower, they only have one, and the rest are pit toilets, so depending on how far your site is from the building, it could be a very long walk, especially at night.

The front gate to the park did have covered firewood, but the hours of the gate operation were not clear.  The sites themselves were fine, but not particularly deep, and some are basically completely exposed to all the foot and vehicle traffic going to the toilets, the dumpsters, or just driving around, so basically zero privacy.

We did drive into Crawfordsville, which took about 20 minutes, and it was very nice with a local college (Wabash) and plenty of retail options to restock, grab a cold beverage, or refill the tank before driving home. 

Would I stay here again, yes 100%, but be prepared and plan ahead.  Would I recommend this to others?  Meh.

Since my experience here growing up and having family get-a-ways, it’s always been my dream to live here!!

Very clean and quiet campground. There was not a lot to do, but we took Kayaks and had a good time. However, our son and his family joined us for the weekend and any time they pulled in the campground host would follow them down to our site and remind them that there is only 1 car allowed at the campsite(which we already knew). Friday, they came in and, within 40 seconds, got the 1st"reminder." He was just there unloading the car. Saturday morning, he went home to pick us up his wife and came back. Again, less than a minute later, the host came down to remind him of the rule. He unpacked the car of a scooter and bike and 1 more blanket. Both Friday and Saturday, his car was down at the site to unload a total of 3 minutes before he went to park it in overflow parking. We have camped there for 30 years and always obey the rules. We do not camp to get harassed each day we are there. Then you look around the campground and there are 2 to 3 cars parked at every 3rd campsite we came to. They need to give people 15 minutes before following them down to harass them and spend that time letting the people know the rules that were next to us with 2 cars parked at their site the entire weekend

We traveled to Indianapolis for the Olympic Swimming Time Trials. Stayed here 2 nights with our 2 grand-daughters. The area we stayed was directly adjacent to a bike path. It was separated by a fence and there was a gate right next to our site. The gate was locked however the gates were far enough apart that someone could get between them. Our first night, someone actually did this and walked right behind our site.

The shower house was in serious need of some improvements! Old, dark, leaky pipes. 

The area was OVERLY well lit, to the point we were hanging sleeping bags over the windows to try and make it somewhat dark inside the camper! 

Getting to the sites took some figuring out also. We entered at the main gate to the fairgrounds and there were no signs directing us to the sites. Had to use GPS with satellite view to figure our way there. 

For comparison, we've stayed at the Iowa State Fairgrounds and this is a night and day difference. Iowa Fairgrounds sites are $20 less per night, very nice shower facilities and plenty of room between sites. 

We would stay here again but we'd need to exhaust all other options first.

BTW, the price listed is wrong. We paid $50/night.

We stayed pretty much on our site. Generally, we aim to do a bit of exploring, but we used their camping as a rendezvous. I was slightly disappointed by the site selections being mostly on a slant, but we did find one on the overfill site that suited our needs and we ended up loving it. I do plan on returning specifically to update a better review on the available views.

Summit Lake is our go to get away. Beautiful campground with several amenities. Several campsites offer full shade and most are level. There are a few pull through sites. There is a large (shallow) lake for fishing and kayaking. Idle speed only allowed using a motorized boat. There is also a beach area for swimming. Several picnic areas with beautiful views of the lake. This campground also offers several walking trails. All are easy walks with various distances. Campground is very well maintained and staff are very helpful and friendly.

Beautiful home feeling

It’s decent—but the bathrooms are most certainly not. Definitely need someone out there at the very least keeping it tolerable for campers.

We came in at 10 pm in search for our site. It’s about a 1/2 mile from the main road. It’s a big place we noticed at daylight. Nice playground, appears they have some cabins to be rented, some sites were on the water, very clean and maintained. 40 miles from Greenwood, In. Sites are large and easy to maneuver our 42’ 5th wheel. Our site had full hookup, flat ground so easy setup. The only cos are- while the campground sign can be seen from the main road on the way in- it all disappears in the dark after you turn onto the road. It’s needs to be marked better. Had there been arrows or signs it would have made it SO much easier. Day or night. We felt our way to the office since there were a few roads going in opposite directions. The girl said she’d leave our paperwork at the office. No paperwork or maps. This little road is quite narrow, has some pretty tight turns with trees on both sides and in the night it’s hard to tell where the rear end of your camper is on the turns where there are trees close to the road, if it’s a long one like ours. So needing to back up would literally be a nightmare. We drove down this little road quite a while unsure if we were heading in the right direction for the office. An office sign finally appeared like a beacon in the night about 3/4 mile off the main road- but at that point if we would have been incorrect it would have been a long way to back up our 42’ in the dark on these little roads. A lot of campgrounds make this mistake. They don’t plan on people coming in at night into a strange campground. There were several roads leading in different directions and it was hard to tell which one was the “main” road had there been directionals showing which road went to which sites would have been helpful. Site numbers were hard to see unless you walked up to each site with a flashlight. Not sure why campgrounds make their site numbers so allusive. Either they aren’t marked at all, they’re so small you can hardly see them or there is no rhyme or reason as to where they put them. Consistency would be great!!!!! It was just very difficult to navigate in a strange campground in the dark. Like many I’m sure we ended up just walking in front of the truck with a flashlight to be able to see the numbers. We avoid setting up in the dark at all costs because it’s absolutely the worst but sometimes you just get caught for various reasons- and there should be a better way.

We stayed here because of the discount offered through Passport America, and somehow the price was still too high. We paid $42 for a FHU pull through site (that was after the discount). However, it was a nice park and it was nice to get caught up on laundry and showers. 

You can pay for laundry with the CSCPay app ($5 credit when you first sign up, so your first load is free), or you can pay with credit card. No coins taken. Laundry was nice and clean and the dryers worked excellent. 

There are FHU pull through sites, or back in sites with electric only (there is a dump station available). There are also cute cabins available as well. 

There are lots of things to do here at the park, but the park itself is out in the middle of nowhere. It was a really eerie feeling when we were there, because almost every spot was taken, but nobody was there. I guess people pay for the season and leave their trailers on site and come in for the weekend. 

There’s a nice tent area in the back, rolling grassy area where we let our dog run around off leash since nobody was around. The lake in the middle of the park was really nice, and you can rent pedal gokarts or golf carts, or boats for paddling around the lake. 

The camp store is nice, lots of food and supplies and gifts available for sale. There are trash dumpsters here but no recycling.