Best Campgrounds near Terre Haute, IN

This park is just other-worldly.  We loved it.  We hiked Trail 3, which has the ladders, and  parts of trail 10, 4, and 2.  Trail 10 was nothing special but was relatively flat.  It was pretty crowded but people were respectful.  

As for our campsite, it was really nice.  We had site 94, which was right next to the bathhouse.  It had almost a whole extra campsite's worth of space next to it for my kids to run around.  It also had a tree for shade and was nice and level. 

The bathrooms were okay.  They were older but seemed to be fairly well maintained.  The only complaint I had was that there wasn't enough counter space to set down items for getting ready, but that is minor.  

Overall, wonderful park.

We arrived later in the afternoon and it was a little tricky to get to a spot. They have had a lot of rains lately. We did find one that was a little bit more open for Starlink. But if you want treed sites there are beautiful spots for that. The people here are very friendly and it has 50, 30, and 110 outlets and water at the site with a dump station by the bathrooms and shower house. The bathrooms and shower house are pretty simple but available there is a train that runs about a block and a half away, but I love that so it was a very enjoyable stay.

This campground was reasonably priced, had clean facilities and quite unusual and intesting hiking nearby. There are multiple trails and some quite challenging ones. No water hookups at the site but all except the "youth sites" had 110, 30, and 50 amp power. I was able to charge my ev without issue. Sites tried from all concrete to a dusty dirt and rock tent area, and all had old wood picnic tables. While the hiking was incredible, the maps of the trails were poor and not up to date, with some trails not on map at all. On one trail part of it went through box canyons up an active, though trickling, stream bed.

This was a camping weekend. We've camped here before, but many years ago. It was time to go back. 

So, we couldn't remember much about this state park. We were never compelled to go back sooner. Now I remember why. This is a nice park. Not outstanding. Not special. It's just...nice. 

  There's 7 hiking trails. All are nice walks in the woods. All were muddy in sections. There's an old coal mine on Trail 2. Blocked off for safety. 

There's no beach, but they have an enormous pool. It has slides & everything. 

This is a fishing park. Boating with electric motors, so a quiet lake. Fishing was fair according to my fishing guy.

The Nature Center was inexplicably closed "for the season". Disappointing! 

There's many boat launches & picnic areas. Cabins for rent. Boats for rent.

 We stayed at the electric campground. The sites are great- wooded. This is a well established campground. 

The sites are all flat- ALL FLAT!!! No inclined sites at all! Unheard of in an Indiana State Park, but there you go.

There's some train noise.

 The bathrooms/showers are KOA clean. Also unheard of in an Indiana State Park. I couldn't even find a spider web. Kudos to the park employees& camp hosts!

 We had a site by the lake, but there was no lake view & there was a steep incline to get down to the water.

  This campground has a beautiful fishing pier just for campers. 

Bring an extension cord if you're in a pull through. If you want your door facing the fire pit- the electric box is in an awkward place.

 There's also another campground that has a mix of electric/full hookup & non electric sites. They have a beautiful bathhouse. 

All in all a pleasant weekend. We camped at Shakamak State Park in a Travel Trailer.

We took our van and stayed at Turkey Run for a three night weekend. We were in a wooded section and it was pretty private however our site was pretty sloped. Next time I would probably pick the site on either side of 167.

As some other reviews stated, watch out for the raccoons. Those guys are not afraid of anything.

Also, the open, grassy area sites don’t offer any privacy. If that’s what you’re looking for, try to get a wooded site on the outsides that back up to woods. The majority of those have a decent number of trees separating you from the site next to you.

The bathrooms were super clean and the showers were hot with good water pressure.

We hiked Trail 3 with our dog, but we cut off early before the ladders using Trail 10. Our dog did pretty well in the section of Trail 3 before the ladders, and be prepared to get wet :)

In order to avoid crowds on the trails, we got there Thursday night so we could hike Friday morning / early afternoon. Saturday we rented a canoe from a canoe place right down the road from the campground. It was great and once we saw the crowds at the beach area of the park on Saturday afternoon, we were super glad we had been canoeing all day instead of fighting crowds at the park.

I would definitely recommend visiting Turkey Run State Park!

I was not a fan. I was tenting and there was not a great spot for the tent and there was dog poop everywhere (tracked some in the tent when setting up so I wasn't pleased). Also a bunch of large Widowmakers in the trees above was nerve-wracking. The people around me were LOUD! One dude listening to a college football game until past 10 and a guy and his kid playing glow Frisbee right in from of my tent past 10 as well. As I was on a road trip and wanted to get to sleep, this was not appreciated.. On th e good side, the bathrooms were very clean. I would NOT stay here again