Camping near Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

Really great park! It had a lot of really nice trails that were fairly easy to follow for being sand. The beach was well maintained, and had lifeguards during certain hours, which gave me a little bit of extra comfort in bringing my kids to the lake. It had really nice bathroom facilities, and changing room facilities there. There was also a café, but I did not go into that.

The visitor center is nice, fairly large and the workers were very friendly. They had one of the nicer programs that I have been to in the state.

The park sites were nice, most of them had grass and trees, but a few of them like sites 98 through 102 did have sand on them, which is kind of cool. It was also the nicest showers that I’ve been to to date.

The only reason I rate this park a three is that it’s very close to train lines and the trains going through and blasting their horns all night long. If you’re a heavy sleeper and can deal with that, you’ll be just fine but us tent camping there was nothing to block the sound, and it kept waking me up. Nothing the park does wrong, clearly, but something to think about.

The lake and dunes are spectacular and live up to the hype. The 3 dune challenge is not really a challenge if you are moderately healthy but it is fun and scenic! The cool soft sand feels fantastic, definitely best hiked barefoot. The campground itself is pretty typical of a state park- decent spacing, level sites and well kept. It is electric only but that didn't really bother us- we just showed up with the water tank full and other tanks empty and enjoyed ourselves. Our site was right between the playground and beach trailhead, but still private. The best sites are the ones on the outside from the beach trail to the nature center. These are up against the dunes and have some shade. The middle sites are more exposed and much less private. The campground was pretty full but had a nice communal family feel to it. The beach and dunes are the star of this show, but the campground is a good supporting actor.

Broken Arrow is a pretty nice campground. We stayed over Memorial Day weekend and enjoyed our stay. We go here a lot as the In-laws have a permanent spot there. The campers are pretty nice, not too loud, but still know how to have a good time. The office is a bit of a cluster, though. We were told that they don't take reservations, but it turns out they do if you want a spot with sewer in a different area. Those spots are taken up pretty much right away at the beginning of the year, mostly for the holiday dates and Halloween, where the whole campground comes together. The spot we got in the "first-come, first-served" area was fairly nice. There was a lot of room, even though we only have a 22 ft single axle. Most other campers were 5th wheel and fit in well enough. There are shower and bathroom stalls just a walk away that were, in the camping world, clean enough. The dump station is up by their old entrance and in an odd spot. If you use it, you will have to take a long loop around the campground once you're done to get out.

3/5 because while the campground is nice enough, with nice permanent campers, the office doesn't like to answer their phones, and options and questions may be hard to get answered. The site was reasonable at $45 a night with a 3-night minimum because of the holiday.