Looking for a rustic and comfortable horse camping experience near Monroe Lake? Camping with horses is a beautiful way to experience nature. These scenic and easy-to-reach Indiana campsites are perfect for your horse camping excursion.
The camp is located along Tower Ridge Road in the center of the Charles Deam Wilderness area, approximately one mile from Highway 446. The camp also is a trailhead for the Charles C. Deam Wilderness trail system.____
Blackwell is a campground for all types of users. It provides access to the Charles C. Deam Wilderness Trail system with approximately 35 miles of trails. The nearby Hickory Ridge Trail system is also available.
Blackwell is a campground for all types of users. It provides access to the Charles C. Deam Wilderness Trail system with approximately 35 miles of trails. The nearby Hickory Ridge Trail system is also available.
The camp is a large grassy area with gravel parking areas on the east and west end. The trailheads are located on the east and west ends of the camp by the parking areas.__
$20 - $45 / night
The Charles C. Deam Wilderness offers 36 miles of trails for hiking, backpacking, and horse riding through scenic hardwood forest and varied terrain with views of nearby Monroe Lake. The area was designated a wilderness in 1982 and encompasses nearly 12,953 acres of the Hoosier National Forest. Wilderness designation places this area in a special legal status (subject to the 1964 Wilderness Act). It is managed to preserve a natural condition and provide opportunities for solitude. Since its designation as a wilderness, visitor use in the area increased to a point that significant damage was occurring. Special restrictions are in place to protect the wilderness character. Visitors to this special place are asked to follow these restrictions to lessen your impact and share responsibility in preserving this unique natural resource.
This campground loop is a shady campground with 60 tent and trailer sites. This is the most remote and wooded of the loops at Hardin Ridge. Several of the sites are set back from the campground road and 14 of the tent sites are walk-in. None of the sites on Southern Point have electricity. ACTIVITIES Camping: This is one of six shady campground loops in the Hardin Ridge Recreation Area. It includes 60 sites, none of which are electric. Southern Point is generally open year-round. A maximum of 2 vehicles and 8 people are allowed per site. Recreational Vehicles: This is one of six shady campground loops in the Hardin Ridge Recreation Area. It includes 46 sites appropriate for RVs, none of which are electric. Southern Point is generally open year-round but if closed in winter months, another loop will be open. A maximum of 2 vehicles and 8 people are allowed per site. Wildlife Viewing: Each of the six shady campground loops in the Hardin Ridge Recreation Area provide ample opportunities to see wildlife. While staying in the campground you share the birds and animal's home and are likely to see them come right up to your campsite.
A primitive campground with vault toilets, hitching racks, and a picnic shelter is available. Around 12 and half miles of trails are available for hiking, mountain biking and horse riding.
The Youngs Creek Campground provides access to the 12.7-mile Youngs Creek multiple use trail for horseback riding, mountain biking, and hiking.
Shady trails, scenic hardwood forests and a variety of terrain
Guide
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.
Traveler
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.
Guide
Very long secluded road. Took a bit to find the first spot to camp, once we found it the other spots weren’t too far past.
RangerThe perfect dispersed site for my way through, quiet and peaceful. Good spot for tent camping , we enjoyed our stay.
TravelerWe 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.
TravelerBeautiful secluded site that is pretty far off of the road, but not too far. There was no traffic or other people in site. I have a promaster conversion and had no trouble making it to this site, however the road was gravel and steep at times. I have lived in Indiana for ever and have made many trips this way, but I never knew sites like this existed.
Legend
This is a State Forest campground near Nashville, Indiana. Primitive camping. Pit toilets only. This is by Yellowwood Lake, so boating & fishing opportunities.
All these sites are first come, first serve. No reservations.
There's a Forest Office with area information & a small display.
There's several trails of varying length.
Believe it or not- gold panning is a thing here! You need a permit.
They rent boats at the Forest Office. Electric motor only.
There's several camping loops. There's a horse camp also.
The boat ramp is near the horse camp loop.
We didn't go down the Red Pine Loop, but did check out White Oak/Redbud& Black Gum.
Hickory loop is right off the road & the sites are visible from the road. They looked nicely spaced.
White oak loop had several nice sites. Redbud is close to a building they call a camp store. It may have been many years ago, but not open now.
Several picnic spots by the lake. The best site in Redbud would be 39. Large site with some shade. I would also say 38, but site 37 is directly behind it. This is the camp host spot, so occupied. These sites are near the pit toilets.
The best spot in Black Gum would be site 75. Large site at the end of the loop & right by the lake.
If you go back to Hwy 46 where the road split on your way in, follow the sign to the dam. Just a large earthen dam, but there's trail heads here. There's the Scarce O' Fat Trail which has been mentioned on the Facebook Indiana Hiking page.
$13 per night regular camping.$16 per night for horseman's.
Traveler
nice camping here,but they have small area ,i see racoon,cath meow lol but they attack
ScoutFor those of you who don't understand disperse camping this is the perfect site for a tent to camp without anything but what you bring in and take out understand what dispersed camping is and then there won't be any complaints about can't get a camper in or whatever I always see the complaints this is dispersed camping at its best
Scout
The chorus frog do roar through the night. 100% worth it, make sure to bring bug spray, and travel carefully up the roads. Lots of wildlife, and kind people.
GuideLots of primitive campsites here. Many have short trails from them to the lake edge, making for some great night fishing with a cozy fire to return to.
TravelerIn January we found a couple of available sites at Spring Mill when trying to plan where we'd go for the eclipse, so we took them and then started looking at what the park had to offer. We started to really look forward to the park as much as the eclipse. The park lived up to expectations. We were able to do a lot of hiking. Our dog was welcome in most areas of the park (pioneer village being the only significant exception). They were planning for a ton of folks to be there for the eclipse, but the numbers were lower than expected. We had the perfect spot for viewing it right across the lane from our campsite, so it didn't really matter how many people came into the park for it.
The only possible negative was that our site wasn't very level for our pop up. We had our leveler with us, so it didn't matter. My wife and I decided that the eclipse was simply the cherry on top of a very good sundae. We loved the park and will likely return again.
ScoutHuge sinkhole that makes for a cool look. Dry area for tent, not big enough for a camper but cool for car camping!
ScoutSolo camped here with my dogs. First time I’ve ever been camping but this spot was really cool. Clean. Secluded and peaceful, though every night at around 5pm I would hear rustling in the leaves, I assumed it was a pack of cayotes and they would leave once I started banging on stuff and primally yelling. Very spooky! Awesome spot, though albeit I don’t have anything to compare it to. But I’m glad I found it!
GuideFree camp ground. Very private. Decent sized space to park for 2-3 vehicles. Trails, plenty of dry wood, away from the roads, no running water or electricity, decent amount of spaces we came in at night and counted about 9 very far spread out camp sights. Good ground to pitch a tent to. There was other camp grounds bigger than the one we stayed at and had several people at them with a big bonfire going but what’s great is when we found our spot we couldn’t see their fire or even hear them! One thing to note is that some of the camp sites are tucked back into the trees a little and can be hard to spot. At night we thought one was open but there was actually someone there and just couldn’t see them from the road so we had to back out and go to the next site (sorry whoever that was lol). It is also a ways off the beaten path for through car camping but honestly if we were ever coming back through this way I would make the hour detour to stop here again!
TravelerAbsolutely loved my time here. So quiet and peaceful.
Scout
The Rules sheet that is included in some of the pictures indicates that no tent camping is allowed. Someone should update the icons on the page for this site.
GuideIf you are looking for solitude and peace in the forest, you will find it here! I went to the 2nd or 3rd site past the coordinates provided. It was very clean, flat, and had a nice fire pit. The sites are far enough apart that I truly felt like I had the woods all to myself! It stormed all night...that was a little scary, but the misty trees in the morning were magnificent!
TravelerA quiet, peaceful spot in the forest. A few horses on the trail on weekends. French Lick is 30 minutes away.
GuideThere are a couple walking trails around, as well each site is fairly far apart. It's really quite only seen a handful of cars drive by and I've stayed here for 2 nights, would highly recommend.
Guidethis is a nice campground in a very touristy area. we arrived on a thursday and stayed through sunday. it got more and more crowded friday & saturday but quiet hours were observed and it was a relaxing stay at the end of a long trip. it says big rig friendly, i disagree, we have a 20’ trailer and it was tight. the lake is beautiful, no swimming kinda sucked. hiking was great.
GuideI really enjoyed the stay at this park. Lots of great hiking trails that are well traveled and easy to navigate. Plenty of signs. The pioneer village is beautiful and really something to see with staff playing as villagers of the period.
ScoutIf you’re a solar person, this is your spot! It’s a giant open field with vault toilets. It says horse camp, but anyone can stay here. If you’re looking for shade or here in the summer months, you may try elsewhere as there is not much shade to be had.
ScoutQuiet with sparse campers. People who were there were nice and we felt safe. Free. Easy to find but slow going w rig on winding narrow roads. No water hook ups had to drive to Hardin 3 miles over and pay $5 for their shower and water for our horses
TravelerI only camp at this campground once a year. It is mostly uneven and the shaded loop is very unlevel. It does have a lot of amenities such as trails, mountain bike trails, tennis court, basketball court, beach volleyball, astronaut museum, and the Inn.
ScoutOur original campsite wasn’t what we thought it would be so we found this place and it’s a very good and safe secondary campground. It’s very open, can park anywhere and pitch tents or RV’s wherever you’d like. 2 trail heads, one on each end that connect to all other trails of 15+ miles if wanted.
Very quiet, open, and spaced out and it has restrooms. I would recommend bringing a fire pit though otherwise you have to use designated fire areas.
Scout
I stayed for one night in a non electric site on a trip. The campground was ok. The bathrooms were clean-ish but I couldn’t get the showers to be not cold. The site was nice and level. The sites are right next to each other with nothing breaking up the views of the neighbors. The site had a picnic table and a fire pit. Not many people there on a weeknight. I didn’t really check out the beach or the pool.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular equestrian campsite near Monroe Lake?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular equestrian campground near Monroe Lake is Blackwell Campground — Hoosier National Forest with a 4.4-star rating from 21 reviews.
What is the best site to find equestrian camping near Monroe Lake?
TheDyrt.com has all 11 equestrian camping locations near Monroe Lake, with real photos and reviews from campers.
