Best Cabin Camping near North Vernon, IN

Busy campground connected to a sports complex. Paddle boating, mini-golf, swimming pool, fishing lake, rental cabins and rental pop-ups. Campground sites are closer than I prefer but still doable. Of their 312 sites, 2/3 are full hookups! We visit here 3-4 times each year.

Great little park located just far enough away to get away but close enough to town to run and get something if you forgot it.

Campground is pretty compact but stays pretty quiet. Two well maintained restrooms and shower facilities. Property has a lodge, cabins, pull through, full hook up, and water/power hook up, primitive spots, and day use shelters.

There is a pool and a restaurant are located at the lodge. There are a few hiking trails and a playground for the little ones. There is mini golf canoe and paddle boat rentals available as well.

Free wifi (speed is questionable) but we found 2-3 bars on T-mobile and AT&T.

We frequent this park since it is close to home and the smaller size makes it easier to turn the kids loose. They have enough to enjoy but not so much where we have to be active every second.

There are full hook-up sites and electric. Regular electric sites on the water are beautiful but not sure we could park our 41 ft fifth wheel on a water site. Trails are rugged at times and you can access them through campground. We are here in the fall but the beach looks like a good size. Boat rentals. Cabins look cute. We peeked in one. Double bed with bunks in room. Theres a loft for kids. A/C and heat but not bathroom. Bring a mattress or sleeping bags or you will sleep on wood. I recommend the water cabins. Playgrounds are sprinkled throughout. DNR dont patrol a lot. Quiet campground.

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!

I have been going here since I was a kid and very little has changed since. That is one of the great things about it. It's a great place to camp with a tent, t.v. or you could rent a cabin. They also have a quarry you can swim or paddle boat in. It has a slide and a trampoline.  No lifeguard on duty, so be careful. Flat rock river runs by a lot of the camp sites. Makes for a beautiful scenery, good fishing and/or float on it in your kayak or on a raft. Fun for all ages!

The campsite was small so if you have a large tent be prepared for it to take up most of your site.  The area was beautiful and had ample trees.  We would have been better off splitting into two camp sites due to the size (married couple and two friends).  It was a challenge to get both tents and a shelter set up on the site with the two cars as well. 

I was able to also set up my hammock in the near by trees. Do explore the area as lots to do and see.  The lake naturally:) but they also have a cool fire tower and cabin in the area.

Take bug spray in the summer! Swimming beach and boat ramp/kayak rental available.

Honestly, I would give this campground 5 stars but we had a big safety issue at our site. At site 11 and a few others, they had no backstops at the back of the blacktop pad. If the site was level, it wouldn’t have been as bad. Upon setting up our 16’ camper, it began to slip backwards down toward the woods. Our wheel blocks were probably placed, but the grade was just too much. We ended up pulling the camper higher up on the blacktop almost in the road and had no issue. No other RV sites were available to move to. Other than that, the campground was very nice. Trails were very well kept, playground equipment looked new and safe, workers were friendly, and bathrooms were clean. The golf course wasn’t operational (exept mini golf was neat and working) and there were a lot of tree stumps left from all the cut Ash Trees that were affected by the emerald ash borer beetle. The State Park did have informational signs explaining the effect on trees in the area. They have many cabins of various sizes and in great shape. Workers were seen cleaning everyday. The Butler Mansion was well taken care of though we didn’t make it there when it was open. Our campsite was nice. We lucked out that our neighbors were tent campers because our two sites were so close together. Heads up to check the map and Google Earth when booking. Some sites have a lot of room and others are super close to neighboring sites. The Kentucky Speedway is about 15 minutes away. Louisville an hour. And if you want to checkout a cute little town, stop in La Grange, KY (30min drive) See the “Trains on Main”, drink at La Grange Coffee Roasters, antiques, local artist shops, and eat BBQ at Big R’s & Shannon’s Bar-B-Q.

Charlestown State Park is a great, quiet campground for us to get away in our RV. We love that all of the sites are paved and most of the full-hookup sites offer a lot of privacy.

There is always a bathhouse close by and they are usually very clean. Staff is always super nice.

We prefer Charlestown because the hiking trails are wonderful, there’s lots of paved roads for biking, but the lack of a pool means that there tend to be fewer kids and it’s a lot more quiet than some of the neighboring state parks. There is a great boat ramp for the Ohio River so many campers are there to spend time in the river on their boats.

We 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.

Older Indiana State Park just West of Indiana / Ohio state line South of IH-74. Roads tight and only 1 dump station for 70+ sites (most site are water electric only)

Versailles State Park is the second largest state park in Indiana. Within the last year with the coordination of the Indiana Trail Riders Association, DNR and volunteers, primitive, overnight, horse camping was added to the park. Several more miles of horse trails were opened and a mountain bike trail section was also added to the park. Plans are in place for more mountain biking trails and a fourty-five site electric and water Horsemans camp, to be completed in phases. This is a very clean park, large pool, hiking and lake activities available. Bald eagles have been spotted in the park along with local wildlife. The local restaurants are family owned and offer large portions if casual dinning is in store, with homemade desserts.

PROS:
Beautiful lake with geese nesting areas and great fishing opportunities. Calm waters for kayaking.

CONS:

Since July 2020, the Governor of the State of Indiana has mandated face coverings in indoor areas and in outside spaces where social distancing is not possible (and signs are posted everywhere). During our three-day-stay, we did not see any DNR staff at the gatehouse, the campground store, or a conservation officer complying with wearing a mask. In addition, most campground guests were not wearing them either.

In addition, this park is listed as participating in the Explore Indiana pin program but no one seemed to know anything about it. We did the work to earn it but were not able to add it to our collection.