Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Hoosier National Forest

I make multiple visits here every year, mainly for the mountain bike trails. There are almost 30 miles of trails inside the park with new trails every year for the past 3+ years. Connectivity to Yellowwood and Hoosier National Forest is also available for those adventurous individuals with lots of gas in the bike tank. From beginner to expert, some trail for everyone at this location. Lots tend to be smaller in size with most activity happening up front in Buffalo Ridge, close to general store, water and trails. For more secluded and wooded setting, chose Taylor Ridge (careful with larger RV's) Typical Indiana campground with basic comfort stations. Negatives include no beaches or water sports for such a large park, no WIFI (unplug and enjoy!) and lack of shade on up front sites. Close proximity to antique and quaint town of Nashville with many shops and a few restaurants. Definitely try Big Woods Pizza and Quaff-On Brewery! Lots of hiking and scenic overlooks! One of my Indiana favs!

Tipsaw Lake Hoosier National Forest is a nice quiet family/group oriented area. There is a basic boatramp with dock, parking and pit toilet. It wasn’t busy so I took the dogs down to the ramp to enjoy a dip in the cool lake water when the Tipsaw Lake Trail ended I thought at the edge of the roadway to the dock. Apparently I missed the turn off :( I later discovered. The trail traverses the lake area. It’s a nice 5.9 mile tromp through the woods but I noticed it was a little unkept. 

The beach is the main attraction to this area of Hoosier NF . A very nice set up on the shore of Tipsaw with sand to get in all those cracks and a play area for the kids. Small pavilions on cement walkways and a picnic area with a pit toilet. Also in need of a good mow, we may have just visited between mowing rotations and with the excess of rain everything is growing well. No dogs allowed in the beach area. There was one pavilion on the far side of the parking lot that was not in the dog restriction area. When I visit again I’m inviting my daughter and granddaughter along because who ever set this area up had kids in mind.

I grew up in nearby Bloomington, Indiana, and my family were actually the very first campers at Hardin Ridge in 1966. We unwittingly set up camp the weekend before the campground opened, and we saw a picture of our travel trailer on the front page of the Bloomington Herald-Telephone with a caption "Somebody jumped the gun at the new Hardin Ridge Campground!"

This is a great place to set up camp for a week or two. In summer there is a nice sandy beach on the shore of Lake Monroe (it was free last time I went) with a simple shower house. The six camping loops have several vault toilets, and most have shower houses with flush toilets. While the campgrounds are fully open April 15 to October 15, you can camp year round if you are set up to dry camp. The very first camp loop (Holland Ridge) is often open all year, and no fees are charged when the water is off.

This campground was the destination for many a summer camping trip when I was a child, and for many more when my own kids were little. It's also not far from the Hoosier National Forest, with a horsemen's camp and trails, and a little further east a dozen or so dispersed camp sites.

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.