Best Glamping near North Vernon, IN

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.

Jackson-Washington State forest encompasses 16,500 plus acres in the rolling hills of south central Indiana and neighbors Starve Hollow State Recreation Area (see review). The property offers several stunning hiking trails and some are of the more challenging nature due to the elevation changes. The park also has an amazing scenic drive, Skyline Drive, which lives up to its name with spectacular panoramic vistas showcasing Indiana's gorgeous farms. The campground consists of 62 primitive class "C" self registration sites with a picnic table. Potable water is available seasonally and firewood can be purchased at the forest office. A number of the sites are waterfront offering a relaxing view...but definitely geared for the tent camper or RVer not requiring shore power. Just 2.5 miles from the town of Brownstown which has grocery shopping, restaurants and sundries. lat:38.8451 lon:-86.0519

Mounds State Recreation Area located near Brookville Indiana is a beautiful location with camping for tents, trailers and motorhomes. There’s plenty of outdoor recreation available with trails and water access to Brookville Lake. About a dozen of the campsites have full hookups with 50amp power, water and sewer. These sites are big rig friendly. When booking online be cautious of site grade as many of the sites in the original loops have a moderate grade and are uneasy for motorhomes to level. The camp store has both ice and firewood available as well as souvenirs and snacks. Be cautious when making reservations as there is also a similar park with the same name located in northern Indiana.

Super helpful friendly owners that quite frankly made our experience. They are also trying to improve the spot. This campground is mainly seasonal spots on the banks of the Ohio River. Close to the quaint town of Vevay, Indiana.

Lots to do here. Fishing, kayaking and hiking. There are some awesome hiking trails here, they are very rugged for Indiana lots of hills. J-W offers some real pretty views. Skyline drive is real nice and Strave Hollow is down the road a few miles. There are several RV sites(10 to 15) available most are pretty level. Reservation can NOT to made (first come first serve).

Looove this hidden gem. We stayed there in early March, the first weekend it opened for the year. It's a fairly new park on the site that used to be the Indiana Ammunition Plant. Good-sized sites with a very helpful staff. I hiked trail 2 and found the waterfall and several other gorgeous views. Will definitely be back!

Awesome campground... everything you want to do while on vacation with your family or kids. There are several fishing ponds and a lake with a beach area. There are 2 pools, and a golf course. Laundry facilities are decent, and there are plenty of machines. My one negative is the condition of the roads throughout the campground. The owners seem to be slacking off on maintenance and therefore, there’s a lot of mud and potholes on here. We are frequent here while visiting family in Indiana.

My husband & I spent 5 nights at Charlestown State Park in mid-September 2020.  Campground was nice with concrete pads and full hookups. Campground was not heavily shaded, but we didn't mind that at all.  We biked throughout the park and hiked 4 of the trails, 3 of which were pretty rugged and all had elevation changes for a good hiking challenge.  From here as a base we also spent half a day in Madison Indiana, (shopping, dining & winery) and biked the Ohio River Greenway path - nice 7 mile one way bike path from Jeffersonville to New Albany and stopped for lunch before turning around to head back.  The bike trail also has a bike/pedestrian bridge across the Ohio River to the trail which runs along the river on the Louisville side.  Would absolutely recommend and would go back again.

We live locally and travel nationally.   Who would have believed this great park would be only 30 miles away.  The grounds are very clean and well maintained, the sites are very wide and individual with the landscaping aiding the feeling of "private".  There, of course, are never enough full service sites but enough with good planning.  In Indiana, INDNR, allows for advanced reservations with a maximum stay of 14 days.  $7 at the main gate + camping fees get you access, unless you have membership, into any state park.  Go to the website for full details https://www.in.gov/dnr/state-parks.  The bath houses are always clean and well maintained.  Importantly, feel safe as the grounds all have a host and are well patrilled.  Charlestown is a model for both public and private camp grounds east of the Mississippi.  Lots of nature trails.  We recently watched two doe's with their 4 young fawns grazing while we ate breakfast.

This was a great little find right on the banks of the Ohio River. Family owned operation…and just the nicest people you could ever imagine. Most of the little RV parks in this area are seasonal camper focused; and it shows. The owners here are focused on growing their business and have just completed a new building to accommodate a store and reception area, potential for limited dining, and activity center. They have also completed a new deck area that overlooks the campground and Ohio River. The park does have a large number of seasonal tenants however; they have reserved a number of great sites, even some on the river front, for nightly RVers(and have plans to expand that number). They offer both full hook-up and electric, 30-50 amp with water sites on a daily, weekly or monthly rate. The location provides easy access to both the communities of Vevay and Madison Indiana which are rich in history, unique architecture, dining, shopping and wineries. The location is just 20 minutes east of Madison on IN-56. Contact Tom Skojac at 317-902-4112 swisshavenrvresort.com 38.710849,-85.125427

Indian Lakes Campground is 10 minutes east of downtown Batesville, an hour to the east of Indianapolis and an hour to the west of Cincinnati. With over 1000 sites they offer a KOA section, year round leased sites, Thousand Trails sites and individual sites. We’re a married couple in our forties traveling with two dogs and a cat in our 37 foot motorhome and members of Thousand Trails. We arrived on April 3rd, the day prior to Indiana Covid-19 stay at home restrictions. The property owners were gracious enough to allow us to extend our stay beyond the normal 14 day limit for our personal safety. We were assigned a 50 amp site with water and sewer in loop 4B. This is an open loop with very few trees for shade. Immediately across from our site is a large field about the length of a football field. We can see the lake in the distance past the recreation and pool areas. During our stay we did not access the restroom, laundry, recreation or store areas as we were practicing social distancing. We plan to make many return trips to this campground in the future. Because we were the first to stay in our site since the campground closed for the winter season we had a little site maintenance/pickup to perform but nothing too out of the norm. The noise from the highway can only be heard about once a week. On weekends there’s an increase in golf-cart users and most neighbors are respectful during quiet hours.

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.

Really great place

We liked it

The Wooster Bay primitive area allows campers to moor their boats overnight. It has a very relaxed atmosphere. There is a pit toilet and water pump and overflow parking lot in the primitive area. The electric campground is seperated so the Wooster stays nice and dark and generally quiet. It' a great place to take the dogs although they aren't allowed on the designated beach area, which is a bummer. But it is fun to canoe, fish, and relax.

Around the camp is nice from archery to the local sites like skyline drive but the camp itself not so nice. From dirty pit toilets to trees falling on camp site in the middle of the night to only a few level sites I like to ruff it but this is a little too ruff. Most people bring entire uhual sized trailers full of gear to make this place nice for a weekend. But unless you are an Archer or someone trying to just get drunk in the woods travel the 40 minutes away to Hoosier national forest and stay at one of the camps there.

Best place to camp and relax. The archery range is great. We have been going here for a few years and it’s never disappointing.

I went hiking here and it was sort of rugged. The campsite was right near the lake which provided a perfect view. There was a picnic table and fire ring for only 13 dollars.

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.

Honestly coming in, we were a little suspicious because it doesn’t seem like a RV park and since we didn’t have anything to reference we kept going.

We found an empty site just across from the playground but we camped in the car. There is water hookup, a fire pit, and electrical outlets, and picnic tables at each of the sites. The grounds are well taken care of but there’s a lot, A LOT of permanent RV campers.

The playground is open to campers!

Im not a huge fan of not having water access at the site but overall I recommend!

Open spacious plots with electrical access but no water at the specific sites! The area also has a bathroom and a gatehouse.

The area is only open in June and in September because of hunting season and their are rifle competitions in September!

But the grounds also include a huge pavilion, a trapping practice area, and a shooting range in the grounds. I don’t believe we were allowed to set fires, but we didn’t need or attempt it.

I also liked being a little ways from the next RV/ camper, we personally stayed in our car though and had so much room at the ground. It made it feel like we had room to run around and experience the all the area had to offer!

Great for the season! And a great camp recommendation for RV travelin! Check it out!

Review 2019: We are here for an overnight stay and are happy we chose this place. Sites are level, water is good, power is stable at 118 VAC. The sewer entry on our site is plain PVC so we had to use a foam doughnut to secure the elbow with 20' of hose. We found it easy to maneuver our 36' Class A towing a dolly and Honda Civic. If you rig is more than 60' including Toad ask owner about available spaces. Owner is friendly, open and park has trimmed trees and about 90 sites of which 60% are for transients and the remainder are seasonal.

The WiFi is good with adequate bandwidth. My Verizon hotspot works fine and the cell site is not too far away. The park is about 4 miles from I-65 with good roads to/from on SR 56. They accept Passport America and Good SAM. I think all sites have a fire ring and there are areas for children to play down by the pond. We will return as it is quiet and you can see the stars.

Review 2020:  We tried to stay here in April 2020 but owner said it was closed due to Covid-19.  We proceeded North to Columbus Woods-N-Waters:  Jellystone is a much nicer place to stay.  If you are pushing the season call to confirm they are open.  https://jellystoneraintreelake.com/      4577 IN-56, Scottsburg, IN 47170   +18127524062