Best Glamping near Ellettsville, IN

This is just a beautiful Indiana State Park located near the small community of Jasonville, Indiana which offers simple dining, grocery store, hardware store and fuel. The park has numerous recreational activities to include 3 lakes spanning some 400 acres that are known for spectacular fishing, seasonal family aquatic center for swimming with a large water slide, seasonal nature center, and several hiking trails. The campsites are in a heavily wooded area with fantastic tree canopy for shade and comfort. Sites are mostly level gravel pads ranging from primitive to 30 amp electric, 50 amp electric or a limited number of full hookup; water, sewer and 50 amp service sites plus plenty of clean bath houses. Large rig friendly. The park also has family cabins available. A small camp store supplies firewood, ice, bait and sundries...Indiana fishing license at the park office. Want to relax...enjoy beautiful sunsets on the lake, paddling a canoe or kayak, or casting a line for dinner...this is a perfect place to make that happen.

PROS:
Beautiful lake with geese nesting areas and great fishing opportunities. Calm waters for kayaking.

CONS:

Since July 2020, the Governor of the State of Indiana has mandated face coverings in indoor areas and in outside spaces where social distancing is not possible (and signs are posted everywhere). During our three-day-stay, we did not see any DNR staff at the gatehouse, the campground store, or a conservation officer complying with wearing a mask. In addition, most campground guests were not wearing them either.

In addition, this park is listed as participating in the Explore Indiana pin program but no one seemed to know anything about it. We did the work to earn it but were not able to add it to our collection.

Jackson-Washington State forest encompasses 16,500 plus acres in the rolling hills of south central Indiana and neighbors Starve Hollow State Recreation Area (see review). The property offers several stunning hiking trails and some are of the more challenging nature due to the elevation changes. The park also has an amazing scenic drive, Skyline Drive, which lives up to its name with spectacular panoramic vistas showcasing Indiana's gorgeous farms. The campground consists of 62 primitive class "C" self registration sites with a picnic table. Potable water is available seasonally and firewood can be purchased at the forest office. A number of the sites are waterfront offering a relaxing view...but definitely geared for the tent camper or RVer not requiring shore power. Just 2.5 miles from the town of Brownstown which has grocery shopping, restaurants and sundries. lat:38.8451 lon:-86.0519

Lots to do here. Fishing, kayaking and hiking. There are some awesome hiking trails here, they are very rugged for Indiana lots of hills. J-W offers some real pretty views. Skyline drive is real nice and Strave Hollow is down the road a few miles. There are several RV sites(10 to 15) available most are pretty level. Reservation can NOT to made (first come first serve).

This is probably the best state forest in the state of Indiana. The property is well maintained. There is a new visitors center built a few years ago. There are some picnic areas and a couple of shields and 2 cabins for rent. There are a lot of trails to hike 2 of them are over 10 miles (lower gap and three lakes). The Tecumseh trail (40 miles) starts in Morgan Monroe State Forest passes through Yellowwood State Forest and ends in the Hoosier national Forest. There are some shorter trails also. The trails are very nice and well maintained. There is a paved bicycle trail approximately 5 miles long one way Three small lakes are on the property for fishing and kayaking. There are three campgrounds on the property. The main campground has around 20 sites. The overflow campgrounds as about 10 more sites. There is a youth campgrounds to. Each campground has pit toilets and wash station with water available to take to camp site. There is also camping on the some of the trails. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is, we are RV campers and there are only about 5 sites we could get in to. Our camper is about 25’ and it was tight get in and out of the campground. If you have a small camper (15’ or smaller) there would more sites. There is a dump station, but I barely got in to dump. So not real RV friendly.

Couples and families usually welcome call befour your first visit

rentals available

pool could be better nice conversation pool

seasonsl sites available if accepted

My wife and were at site 15 from 09/02/21- 09/06/21 camping in a Winnebago Micro Minnie 2108 TB. This park is not for large rigs, but we had no trouble fitting into our small camper. This is a great place to camp and hike, although there is no electric hookup we had a generator that we used sparklingly. The only drawbacks were that the vault toilets are in pretty bad condition and the dump station hose did not have a connection to allow me to flush the blackwater holding tank.

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.

My favorite forest with traditional camping, backwoods camping, and a wonderful secret pioneer cabin for rent. This is the best camping within an hour on Indianapolis and if your looking for free and solitary sites try the backwoods camping area for the low gap trail theres a parking lot there.

We stayed at site 13 at Morgan-Monroe State Forest, Mason Ridge Campground in June 2020. Site 13 has a little trail that goes down to a large flooded sinkhole behind the campsite. There were lots of tree frogs singing because of the proximity to water. Mason Ridge Campground has vault toilets and drinking water available. There are outdoor sinks at the drinking water stations. There is a dumpster in the campground for trash. Mason Ridge Campground is first come, first served, self-register and pay at the park office. Bring exact change. Firewood is available to purchase, but only when the park office is open, and hours are limited. It is also allowed for campers to gather downed wood throughout the forest for campfires. Chainsaws are not allowed, so bring a handsaw and spitting axe if you want to do this. Campsites are mostly good for tents, but several of the sites would be fine for small to medium sized travel trailers and RVs. Sites are primitive, with gravel parking pads. Campfire ring, grill grate, and picnic table are at all sites. There is a dump station. There are no electric sites. Oak Ridge Campground is a second campground loop in MMSF. It only has a handful of sites but feels very secluded. Most of these sites are suited for tents only, or little teardrop campers. Oak Ridge is only open as an“overflow” campground, so only bet on it being open during summer. There is also a group campground for scout troupes and other groups. When we camped here, there was a rowdy group of car campers that came to have a bonfire and drink all night two sites down from us. They would loud and obnoxious. I do not know if this type of thing is common occurrence at this property, or if we“lucked out” that night. The rest of the folks camping there were quiet. There were no hordes of flashlight children running amuck through the campground like you get at the state parks. There is a playground and fire tower right next to the Mason Ridge campground, but both were closed due to coronavirus. There are many trails in MMSF. Good hiking. 

Pros: sinks, feeling of seclusion, quiet(other than the one group), usually availability unless you arrive really late, long hiking trails

Cons: limited office hours for firewood purchase, obnoxious car campers

In summary, this campground is for those who like to“rough it” a little bit.

I’ve camped here several times and have always enjoyed it. When tent camping and want something quiet and a place with great trails, this is a good place to go. Even though it’s hot outside today, there’s lots of shade and a breeze. At this campground, there are two areas of pit toilets, and a big outdoor sink. Fire wood and maps can be obtained just up the road at the new Morgan Monroe headquarters. A self pay station is set up there. You select your site, set up, then go pay. Each site has a picnic table, fire ring and plenty of room for tenting with most sites big enough for a trailer. There’s a playground at the entrance of Mason Ridge campground and a fire tower.

Great forest for camping. Even with beautiful weather and the opening of squirrel season, it was relatively light with other campers. Water and bathrooms available. When you arrive set up at your site. Then you will need to go WITH EXACT CHANGE to the sign in at the main building. It’s easy, there is a little box on the side of the firewood shed. Make sure you take your tag to mark your site, it is in the box attached to the payment envelope. Plenty of great trails nearby. Nothing crazy or particularly noteworthy, but a nice little park. Recommend the tree trail.

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.

We keep our camper here full-time. Close to Lake Monroe. Nice pool. Great people.

This is my HipCamp so full disclosure:

We have 3 sites that back up to Yellowwood State Forest and can accommodate tents, vans, and trailers under 12ft.

We are very close to the Brown County frisbee golf course as well as the brown county state park where mountain biking and hiking is top notch.

Yellowwood lake is ~10 minutes away as is Lake Lemon. Lake Monroe is about 30 minutes away as well.

Come stay with us! We have hosted for over a year now with 48 100% positive reviews!

Friendly Staff. Camp site was a pull through so very easy to set up. Was a full hook up site at that. We enjoyed our stay and visiting IU in the process. Great location and clean camp ground.