For those who want to experience Helmsburg, but still want the creature comforts of home, consider glamping for your trip. Glamping offers the perfect opportunity to explore Helmsburg and stay off the beaten path. The Dyrt makes it easy to find glamping near Helmsburg.
$25 - $40 / night
$25 - $55 / night
eXplore Brown County at Valley Branch Retreat is located in historic, scenic, southern Brown County, Indiana. Year-round adventure featuring: zip line canopy tours, paintball, off-road vehicle tours, arrow tag, mountain biking, hiking trails, camping, and cabins. Including the longest, fastest, and highest twin zip line in Indiana.
Stay in one of our rustic camping cabins, all with heat and AC. Our campground features primitive and full-hook-up sites. Rowboats and canoes are available to rent on our 4-acre fishing lake. Our Gallery Banquet Hall is available to celebrate your wedding, special occasion, corporate retreat, reunion, or social function.
We host many events here at eXplore Brown County, large groups are always welcome. Plan your next adventure with us today.
Free Wi-Fi is available at the Gallery on the porch.
Come eXplore with us today!
$15 - $40 / night
Scout
This would most likely be a last resort for us. Went to our campsite only to find someone else using it. Not what you need after driving 400-500 miles. Had to go back to the office and ultimately took a different site after dirty looks from the poachers.
Then the staff told us there was music that night after we told them we just wanted a peaceful nights sleep so we moved to another site further away from the jam session. Whew a lot of work to be here. Cannot recall being impresses with the bathrooms/showers.
Guide
Spacious sites. Beautiful forest. Quiet, but only 5 minutes small town with gas stations, grocery, etc. Not many amenities. Only pit toilets and water spigots. Firewood was not available during our visit. No reservations. First come first serve, but even on a "busy" Saturday in July less than 1/3 of the sites were full. Two "loops" one in a pine forest below the small lake and one at the lake/up the hill. Multiple playgrounds. Great trails to hike. Cool CCC construction. Highly recommend.
Guide
This was my first time at a campsite, so I don't have other sites to compare to. Overall, my experience was great. Clean area with lots of amenities. They stack free firewood at your campsite to burn. I'm military, so the gunfire, canon fire, and helicopters didn't bother me at all. Those things don't happen all the time though.
Traveler
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.
Scout
This is one of the best camping experiences I’ve had. Wonderful atmosphere and staff. Will totally be coming back
Scout
This was a repeat visit. Just as perfect as the first time. Lake was beautiful and staff are always so helpful. They even have an on-site RV Tech that works for them who helped us fix our hot water heater. Very professional young man. We also enjoyed live music at the pavilion, and PIZZA from their new café, it was fabulous. They even have Boba tea.
Scout
I have never had a bad stay. I absolutely love camping here. The scenery is beautiful and I love how small the campground is.
Scout
Amazing property for quiet relaxing and star gazing.
ScoutThis campground  offers, high-speed Wi-Fi that actually works!  the new owners upgraded last year and it’s fabulous !
ScoutThis campground became a KOA in late fall 2022. Since the new owners took over they have made wonderful improvements. Added a new saltwater pool, deluxe cabins, deluxe camping sites. All sites have 50/30 AMP. Most with lake views or select a site right nearest the lake. They added a New Cafe with pizza, coffees and Boba tea. Super clean park & restrooms
ScoutThe power and water pressure was just fine. The campsite was muddy and needed maintenance. Let's just say it was" Rustic". Office staff were very polite.
Scout
New owners are great! The whole staff was friendly and helpful. Minutes from state park and downtown. Big rig friendly sites, Tmobile worked perfectly, facilities clean and weekend activities made the stay enjoyable for our kids.
RangerWe 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.
Guide
Electric sites near the lake with several water front sites. Full hook up sites that are well spread out so you are not on top of each other. Very friendly staff. Clean facilities. Quite the hidden gem.
Guide
Well kept campground. Cleanest campground bathrooms I have ever seen. Friendly staff. Our site was directly beside a tiny cabin and could have been a little bigger but that’s what you get often times with RV sites. Unfortunately, witnessed one of the staff members abusing their dog.
Scout
Very well kept, pleasant people. Nice location.
Scout
Booked here last minute for the night on my way west. Beautiful campground with lots of activities for the family. They are all dog friendly with a few small dog runs spread throughout the sites. Primitive is $60 n/, full water/electricity is $80 n/. A bit pricey, but It’s worthwhile due to all that they have; horses, goats (that you can feed), a medium camping store with an ice cream shop attached, showers and running toilets.
GPS will take you to the back entrance that you cannot get in at. Instead of turning at the light, continue going down to the roundabout until you see the KOA sign and it’ll take you to the actual entrance and then office to sign in.
ScoutSite was very small for 55$ a night, plus I was charged 30$ fee for a credit card terminal payment!! Didnt even tell me! Campers still pay for swimming per person! Staff was rude, all of them! Security guy is a little jerk and has a need to over compensate! And to top it all off there is a road with tire spike strips!! So it you go the wrong way, which is super easy because there are no rode signs, you will flatten every tire you have! Thats how much they care about their campers! I would not stay here for free! We camped at Hidden Paradise Campground in a Travel Trailer.
TravelerDecided to try a new campground and glad we did! Staff was very friendly, and overall a cute, quiet, and nice campground! Beach was muddy and shallow, but the lake was beautiful! Bathrooms were decent nothing great nothing bad, bugs weren’t as bad as I expected. We had a great time, renting a canoe and keeping it on our site until we returned it. Highly recommend getting a site on the water! Would definitely return.
ScoutWe booked this location as a one night stop on our way to our destination, but it turned out to be way more than that. The owner, their staff, and fellow campers embraced us as part of the family. Their fire pit fellowship is second to none. It’s places like this that inspire us to continue camping.
LegendHidden Paradise:
(Scale 1- bad, 5-Very good
(70 yr olds in 17’ trailer)
Overall Rating: 4: Most all campers are here to enjoy the water and groups enjoying each other.
Price 2023: About $51 to $56
Usage during visit: During our time: Very heavy on weekend and very empty during the week.
Site Privacy: No low shrubbery to offer privacy.
Site Spacing: Decent for a private park. Some families reserve side by side site.
Site surface: gravel and grass
Reservations: You better if it’s a weekend.
Campground Noise: There is fun noise , but nothing out of line. Staff is visible and seem to do a good job of maintaining order etc
Road Noise: This campground is nicely nestled away from public roads.
Through Traffic in campground: No issue.
Electric Hookup: Yes
Sewer Hookup: No
Dump Station: Yes
Potable Water Available: At the site.
Generators: Not needed
Bathroom: Yes and clean
Showers: Yes and clean
Pull Throughs: Some pull overs and pull through.
Cell Service (AT&T). Pretty good. The park has internet for guests. Check to see where in the campground the strongest signal is.
Setting: Open park like with scattered trees. Along the bank are the nicest and most popular sites.
Weather: Some occasional thunderstorms. 80s.
Bugs: None during our stay
Solar: Most sites will work for portable panels if needed.
Staff: Active.
Rig size: There are spaces for large trailers and RVs
Best Sites: Along the river. Best: 60(most private - back in site. ), 68,69 ( a bit more spacious- pull over sites along river. 67 is spacious on one side and other side is blocked if a small trailer is backed in .
146 is not along river, but if you back in it is more private. Our corner site offered privacy when we pulled our trailer in forward onto the grass. However behind us, a trailer sits on high ground.
Scout
Nice quiet secluded lots of nature great atmosphere family friendly
GuideDown in the hills and hollers, is this beautiful campground and park. This place is beautiful and breathtaking. Very clean and super friendly staff. They do allow boats and the Knobstone trail is accessible here. I was very impressed and we definitely see ourselves coming back to this land of beauty. The only thing I can say that I didn’t like was how modern camping sites were very close together but we had great neighbors. The primitive camping sites looked a little more spaced out.
Guide
This is the campground for bringing your battery powered hammock string lights and bluetooth speakers to play Glass Animals or Boy Harsher at a reasonable volume.
We were looking for a quite night away and, without doing any research, booked a tent site close to the pond here. Upon arriving, laughter ensued, when we heard the music and saw the zip lines and paint ball facilities.
We still had a fun night as the bulk of the visitors seemed to be a very large group staying in two cabins. The tent area is on the opposite side of the grounds, by the pond so no matter how many people are in the cabins/paintballing you can't see them or hear them.
The folks working in the registration building were AMAZING. Facilities were clean and worked as they should. Firewood is super dry/stored in a shed.
This would be a rad place to take your kids/teens or if you're into more of a festival camping atmosphere (sites are spaced out though, you're not on top of each other) this would be the perfect place.
If you are looking to be away from people walking to their sites/the pond/trails and you want quiet... this is not the place, from my experience.
I'd probably take my nieces and nephews here for the first camping experience though!
GuideThis was a fun week here! The water park is so fun. But then there were the farm animals, which was so sweet and amazing.
We took over our leftovers on the approved list to feed the horses and goats. The animals were sooo sweet!
The campground is huge with a cool stream separating them. There’s a trail with a bridge to cut across which is fun!
TravelerIf you don’t mind fireing guns 24/7 it’s a great little place
TravelerIf you don’t mind gunfire 24/7 this is the best place ever. No issues with me or my Service Dog.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular glamping campsite near Helmsburg, IN?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Helmsburg, IN is Starve Hollow State Rec Area with a 4.4-star rating from 25 reviews.
What is the best site to find glamping camping near Helmsburg, IN?
TheDyrt.com has all 24 glamping camping locations near Helmsburg, IN, with real photos and reviews from campers.
