Best Campgrounds near Greencastle, IN

When I was younger this is the place the family would go. For fishing, hiking, and just being in nature . Has some really great trails, and if you stay at the campground itself , it has activities for the youguns ‘. When ever I am in the neighborhood, I will stop by for a weekend in a tent. Near a roaring campfire and widdle some thing out of a piece of wood. It’s peaceful, yet you’re not alone. It isn’t entirely off grid. I prefer BLM myself. But if you’re going to hit a “camp ground” this is one of my favorites.

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.

I found this place a few years ago and it has become my local go to. It is free camping and first come first serve. There are vault toilets. Plenty of space to spread out.

The site we stayed in was lovely. It was backed up to the edge of the woods which made for a lovely view. Driving through the campground it looks like there are some sites pretty close together but ours wasn’t too bad. I would say pay particular attention to the size of the site you’re booking as some were pretty small. Also, some sites were fairly sloped as well. This site was a slight slope and overall I would book it again. We have a full size truck with a small travel trailer that fit perfectly. Camp store was stocked nicely. Staff was friendly. The campground itself was very quiet and you could enjoy being out in nature. The site was walking distance from showers/bathroom. The park as a whole is beautiful and there’s a trailhead that’s walking distance from the campsite that leads down a beautiful trail to a lake.

Open areas with pit toilets and water available. Shade and sunny locations. Pick a spot and set up with hammock-large rvs spots. No fee, no reservations, no problems. Officers from federal, state, and local patrol. Cell service by various providers is 1-2 bars. Highly recommend.

A staple of our state here in Indiana. Unfortunately due to some storm damage, trails were rerouted or straight up inaccessible.

Great places to find and set up camp. We even discovered a few extra hidden sites just by being forced off trails due to the damage.

Every dispersed camper should add the hikes to the lake to their checklist.

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.

We really liked the set up of this campsite. The fire rings were spread apart amidst a green hill. There was some shade available around the edges. Plenty of room to spread out from your neighbors; it wasn’t too busy when we were there (a Thursday). Camp accesses two trailheads directly. There were two bathrooms, a place for garbage, and potable water. Screech owls and active birds made it an exciting evening.

We were so fortunate to have found The Retreat at Hickory Hills and stay there for a month! There’s two pools, a pickle ball court, a basketball half court, farm animals, golf cart trails, kayak/canoe/row boats, exploring creeks, fishing, a dog park, several playgrounds, Gaga ball, tether ball, volleyball, frisbee golf and several weekend activities for everyone. Saturday mornings were our favorite where we could get biscuits and gravy, coffee and the kids had craft time. It’s definitely worth bringing mountain bikes or renting their golf carts to explore their golf cart trails! We went out on these several times and it never got old! Staff and campers were welcoming and friendly. We still haven’t stopped talking about how CLEAN they keep everything. The sites were large and they’re still expanding and adding more sites. There’s a seasonal campers area and an overnight or monthly area. We stayed in the overnight/monthly area. It was peaceful and relaxing throughout the week and lively during the weekend. It was a wonderful balance!! We’ll definitely be back.

We have been coming here every year since 2016. Most of the sites are shady. Our favorite site is 72. It is close to a water hookup if you need to top off your fresh water tank, shady, and not too close to other sites. They added a new shower house close by in 2022 or 2023.

 First off- Brown County is a lovely park. This review is only for the campground. 

The only time we ever camped here was in 2003 when we had 3 kids & a popup. New to the park I thought the Racoon Ridge Loop looked good & picked site 121. Bad mistake! We stayed 3 nights & every night we had a weird thing happen. The worst was the bat that found it's way into the popup one night. None of it was in any way Brown County's fault, but we never went back. 

We were staying at Paynetown recently & decided to visit Brown County & the campground. The mirror tag helped with this. We visited on a Saturday morning in late June. The whole campground was full & it was jumpin'!

 We skipped Buffalo Ridge. Raccoon Ridge is the smallest loop. Close sites. Our former site 121 has a pit toilet right next to it now. There's several sites along the main road, also very close to each other & right on the road.

 I thought that Taylor Ridge was the best loop based on my memories from 2003. It's really a long warren of close sites, some with terrible inclines.

 I was able to write down a few sites I thought would work- Sites with no one close by: 193/194/266. 

265 was the only pull thru I saw, but there may be others. 

End of loop: 317/318 

Ridge view from your site: 310/311/312/313/314 

Random sites that looked ok: 179/188/215/223/225/242/259/260/265/277/280/287/422- these sites are just what I eyeballed while the husband was cruising down the main road. 

We decided we were never going to camp here again. The sites are too close together. There's too many people crammed in a small space. If you go be aware that summer weekends & leaf peeper season will be very busy. The middle of the week or shoulder season would probably be your best bet for a more relaxing experience.

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.

Turkey Run is a fabulous state park with a nice campground. My only complaint about the campground is that many sites are in an open, level area without a lot of trees or bushes between them. You don’t have a lot of privacy. Two sections of the campground, with the higher numbered sites, are much more wooded. If I go again, I will try to be there!

But the campground has two large modern bathrooms that are cleaned regularly. It also has clean well maintained vault toilets throughout the campground. Best of all, from the back of the campground you can access Trail 7, a moderate level trail that leads unexpectedly to a small stream running past a recessed cave. It’s a peaceful spot.

Be advised that a “moderate” hike at Turkey Run can be challenging, with plenty of steps up and down the hillsides. Many of the trails go along stream beds, so you often need to make your way across the rocks to avoid wet feet. Be prepared with hiking boots and sticks.

There are two covered bridges on the edges of the park. Be sure to check them out!