Join the fun near Terre Haute. With tons of outdoor activities and scenic camping, this is an excellent vacation spot for all kinds of travelers. Terre Haute is filled with the activities, sights, and experiences to make everyone in your crew a happy camper. Discover great camping spots near Terre Haute, reviewed by campers like you.
As Indiana’s second state park, Turkey Run Campground was established in 1916. The story behind its name suggests that local hunters would find herds of wild turkeys gathering in the area’s narrow canyon bottoms—called “runs”—and funnel them out for easy harvesting. The area’s natural history goes back a little father—upwards of 600 million years. It was around this time that the sandstone and coal deposits seen in the park were being formed and compacted in a vast, swampy plain. Fast-forward several million years, and Ice Age meltwaters cut and scoured the creeks, canyons, and potholes seen today. Some of the glacial erratics (boulders) seen in the park are actually pieces of bedrock that were transported from as far north as Canada. Visitors to Turkey Run can explore these unique canyons, enjoy the park’s natural scenery, fish and paddle in Sugar Creek, and see several historic sites.
Located 10 miles north of Rockville, and 70 miles west of Indianapolis, Turkey Run State Park is year-round nature and recreation area covering nearly 2,400 acres along Sugar Creek. The campground at Turkey Run features more than 200 tent and RV sites with electrical hookups, picnic tables and fire pits with cooking grills; some sites are ADA accessible. Most sites are back-in and can accommodate vehicles/trailers up to 45 feet; a few pull-throughs can accommodate larger. All sites have access to drinking water, flush and vault restrooms, and showers; two dump stations are available onsite. There are also two primitive tent camping areas for youth groups, several cabins for rent, and the historic Turkey Run Inn, which offers 61 lodge rooms, a dining room, and meeting spaces. Dogs are permitted in the park, but must remain leashed. Campsites raters are $23–$33/night; other accommodations range from $67–$110/night; reservations accepted.
Besides exploring Turkey Run’s canyon runs, the park offers a variety of hiking trails, picnic areas, and sports courts. The park’s nature center showcases a variety of exhibits and interactive activities to educate visitors about the park’s geology, flora and fauna. Park naturalists offer guided hikes and nature walks, animal talks and campfire programs. Swimming is not permitted in Sugar Creek, but anglers can fish for bass and bluegill, and paddlers can head out in canoes and kayaks. Swimmers are invited to enjoy the park’s Olympic-sized swimming pool for cooling off during the warmer months. The park also offers hayrides and guided horseback rides. For a blast from the past, visitors can also tour the historic Lusk Home. Built in 1841, this restored European home displays a lifestyle from a bygone era. Watch out for the resident raccoons.
Native forest and large rock outcrops line the upper part of Big Raccoon Creek. Cecil M. Harden Lake resulted from the damming of the creek for flood control. Raccoon Lake Camping also provides recreation, wildlife management and economic benefits. A variety of fish, flora and fauna can be viewed at the property.
Nearby Historic Mansfield Roller Mill is a preserved, working example of industrialization in Indiana at the turn of the 20th century. This 1880s flour mill uses machinery from that time to show visitors how flour and cornmeal were processed from wheat and corn. It is an almost complete and unchanged example of flour mills from this time period.
Camping:
-Electric / 240 sites
-Non-electric / 37 sites
-Primitive / 35 sites
-Youth Tent Areas
-Camp Store
-Dumping Station
$25 / night
$12 - $25 / night
$20 / night
$23 / night
$35 / night
We have been coming here every year since 2016. Most of the sites are shady. Our favorite site is 72. It is close to a water hookup if you need to top off your fresh water tank, shady, and not too close to other sites. They added a new shower house close by in 2022 or 2023.
Turkey Run is a fabulous state park with a nice campground. My only complaint about the campground is that many sites are in an open, level area without a lot of trees or bushes between them. You don’t have a lot of privacy. Two sections of the campground, with the higher numbered sites, are much more wooded. If I go again, I will try to be there!
But the campground has two large modern bathrooms that are cleaned regularly. It also has clean well maintained vault toilets throughout the campground. Best of all, from the back of the campground you can access Trail 7, a moderate level trail that leads unexpectedly to a small stream running past a recessed cave. It’s a peaceful spot.
Be advised that a “moderate” hike at Turkey Run can be challenging, with plenty of steps up and down the hillsides. Many of the trails go along stream beds, so you often need to make your way across the rocks to avoid wet feet. Be prepared with hiking boots and sticks.
There are two covered bridges on the edges of the park. Be sure to check them out!
Turkey Run is arguably the most popular campground (and state park) in Indiana and has its pros and cons.
It is definitely designed to accommodate RVs, as the majority of the sites are situated in an open field. There are a few dozen sites that are in “loops” that are situated in shaded areas. Some camp sites have zero privacy while others have a little. Either way, if you’re here on a weekend, you’ll definitely have neighbors close by. You can see the entire campground via google maps street view, just FYI
This is a very family friendly campground and you will see lots of kids on bicycles flying around. I’ve stayed here a few times, and no matter the day of the week or the time of year, there are always lots of kids.
This campground has a raccoon “problem” due to campers having poor camp etiquette and feeding them. They come out of the woods towards dusk looking for food. They will come right up to you without hesitation, so don’t be alarmed if there’s one next to you while you cook s’mores over your fire (ask me how I know, hah). They will take any food that is left out. Do not turn your back to your dinner table at any time if there’s food out.
On my last visit to turkey run (I’ve camped here 3 or 4 times) I arrived to my campsite and someone had left dog food out for the raccoons in little piles all over the place which was super disappointing. Additionally, my neighbors didn’t put their campfire out when they packed up and left.
Perhaps I’m just used to camping in other areas where you have to worry about bears and burning the forests down…But campers here just aren’t as mindful or respectful of the campground.
The restrooms and showers (at least the one I use at this campground) is modernized and cleaned daily but there’s no dish pit/wash room available if you cook. Just be prepared to clean up accordingly and put trash in trash receptacles. There are a few vault toilets in the campground as well.
You can hike from the CG into the state park (highly recommend. It’s gorgeous!) just wear shoes that youre willing to get wet.
Overall, it’s a beautiful state park with a conveniently located campground. It’s not the best campground ever but for Indiana standards, it’s great. Even with my complaints, I always return because I enjoy visiting and hiking through the state park.
I stayed by the lake, the spaces there are parallel to the road. Which gives you a beautiful view of the lake. I was there early in April when all the flowering trees were in bloom! Full hook up made it even the nicer!
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Stopped here for lunch and stayed about an hour. Easy to find, multiple shelters with grills. Some light paths and a playground.
Super easy reservations online, and if it’s a weekday or a Sunday you could likely just roll up. $16/night for a tent site plus $9 out of state car fee. Security is at the main gate until midnight so later check-ins are possible. Great set-up after driving 11+ hours!
When asked why I couldn't put up a small fence for my dogs he went to great details to tell me why dogs had a bad rep in his park. When I said it wasn't on the website he got extremely angry, came close to attacking me and thru me out of his park and called the police. Don't stay there if you have pets.
On an east/west trip and only had an overnight here. Campground is well maintained. Bathhouse clean, plenty of showers, flush toilets. Will need to fill your water holding tank as sites only have electric. Most sites are very spacious. Only negative was our site description and picture. Described the pad as level when it was actually about a 30% grade. We are camping in a truck camper and had planned to leave the camper on the truck but had to take it off to get level. And said the “yard” was grassy but it was only dirt which then became muddy after a bad storm. Great areas to walk your dog. We would definitely stop again but pick a different site. Camp store and ice, other items sold.
While this is always listed among the top Indiana state parks because of its amazing beauty and historic sites, the campgrounds are not up to the same level. The shower houses are old. No sinks, no flush toilets, no solid doors for privacy. Just curtains. So yes, that means put/vault toilets only, and there is no light for a middle of the night visit except the flashlight you will hopefully remember. Other state parks in the area do have modern shower houses. If you are disabled or just prefer better hygiene amenities, camp at Raccoon Lake SRA and take day trips to Turkey Run. I’m not sure of the status of nearby Shades Stare Park comfort facilities since we haven’t camped there yet.
Our family loves this park. There is plenty to do or not do. Lake is great for fishing, also the beach is very nice. Pioneer village is so neat to walk around. Camper spots are a little small but nothing you can't work around. Park is very clean, personnel is very nice. Can't say enough nice things.
Place was huge and packed. Really nice and it was quiet to sleep with nice facilities.
Nice quiet secluded lots of nature great atmosphere family friendly
We stayed in the modern section of the campground. This is the electric and water only section. The sites range from very uneven to moderately uneven in this section. The full hookup site section is flat but with less tree cover. The sites in modern electric water only can be awkward to back into with no room to pull forward due to a ditch in some areas. We stayed in site 10 which was uneven, no room for a tent, and small. Next time we would try 9. The campground offers a beach and fairly busy fishing lake, some trails. Over all it was less busy on opening weekend than Turkey run or raccoon lake.
Stayed for 5 days , very nice park with lots to do, hiking, biking,fishing, bird watching. Hiked 3 trails all well kept. Trail 3 favorite. Good place to ride bikes. Shower house clean also new one just built. Wi-Fi was ok, was able to download email and get on company site for work, limited Verizon connection but some. Larges sites Staff friendly and helpful. Will go back again
Great place for an overnight stay. The new owners couldn't be any nicer. They're working hard to maintain and improve the campground. I had back issues while there and they kept on rearranging their reservations to accommodate us. Even offered to take me to a doctor. Fantastic people.
The Casey KOA has a full range of offerings typical of camping/RV resorts. Friendly service, Clean restroom/showers and even a pond for fishing.
We originally planned to tent camp the first weekend in October but with 30 degree temps and children, we decided to check out the cabins at Greene Sullivan. They did not disappoint. Heat was phenomenal. Vault toilets were well maintained. Beautiful views.
Large campground with spacious sites. The pictures for each site and details they give while booking are pretty good. However, it said 202 was level and for a tent there's def a bit of a slope (manageable but definitely present). The women at the gate was friendly and buying firewood from her was easy. Only checked out the pit toilets near our site, but they were incredibly clean!
This whole campground facility is top notch! Wow. I’m speechless. The wooded walking trail all around is beautiful. Highly recommend early Fall!
We last visited in 2014 & not much has changed. This is a good base camp for visiting the covered bridges. The DNR office in the park has lots of area info, I got a map of where the bridges are & we were set!
The bathrooms are typical state park. They look like they were updated in the last 15 years, but are state park clean( which means surface it looks ok, but needs a deep clean). There are pit toilets scattered around the campground too, which were pretty good according to my husband.
The hikes are really run down. They need to start maintaining them better. Lots of erosion & broken slats on the bridges. Signage was ok, but I was let down a couple of times. Trail one has scenic overlooks & vistas, but none of them are signed if you're on trail.
This campground has a reputation as being a big party place. That might be true, but we were on the far end of White tail loop & noise was moderate on Friday & Saturday.
There's plenty of sites that have a VERY bad incline. Bring extra levelers. People were complaining on Facebook that the site descriptions have the inclines wrong.
White tail loop is where we camped the last time too. We looked at the other loops & I marked down a few I thought were pretty good. White tail: Site 130/145 are somewhat secluded & large. There's a bad incline on 145 though.
Sites 135/136/137/138 are paved & relatively flat. 139 is paved. 140 has a nicer view of the lake, but to get to it you have to walk. There's a trail from the campsite.
These sites are at the end of the loop & there's a walk to get to the bathrooms. There's also a large playground here, which gets loud during the day.
There's an overflow site 141 that's not marked on the reservation map. It stayed empty the whole weekend we were there. There's a trail from this site leading to the lake. Be prepared for the rest of White tail campers to use this site to access the lake & trail 4. There was a constant stream of people while we were there. They don't think anything about walking through site 140 either. Very annoying!
Lakeview is the nonelectric side. The vegetation was covering the view of most sites. Sites 93/94/99/102 looked like sites with a view of the water. I only saw access to the lake from 102.
Songbird I only wrote down site 8 as being level& by the bathroom.
Hideaway looked nice & it's a small loop.
This is a KOA Journey, it is right off the interstate in a nice little town in East Central Illinois. It has full hookup, and electric and water sites.
The ground seems pretty level throughout the entire place so getting your rig setup should be fairly easy. The sites are pretty close together but I expect that at a commercial type campground. The staff was nice and responsive when needed. The playground is old and could use an upgrade along with the recreation room. The pool was nice and well maintained and so are the showers and restrooms. But the shower house does not have AC so keep that in mind.
Overall it’s a nice get away we did stay on Labor Day weekend so there a lot of people coming and going but it worked for us and the kids enjoyed themselves.
We stayed in Site 20 for 5 days and had a great experience. The hosts at the time of stay were Alice and Jim. Very sweet old couple.
It was very quiet, even during the day. Nobody was too loud or disrespectful. Sites vary in size and some are FCFS (20-32) while the rest are reserved. Site 20 is the largest FCFS available. Site 14 seems to be the nicest and largest site on the grounds and is where we’ll be staying during our next visit.
Women’s bathroom was in good shape. Kept clean but stained due to age. Women’s vault toilet is fine, but spend the extra 5 minutes and walk to the actual bathhouse if you can.
Cell coverage for Verizon was 1 bar consistently, 2 bars occasionally. Fine for basic tasks but don’t expect to game or stream HD video.
Pleasant experience. Only crowded on Friday and Saturday. Shady spot.
Primitive sites are very nice. We had a fairly quiet weekend. The raccoons definitely are active so make sure you lock it all up at night. The water was breathtaking and very calm even with all of the boat activity.
The primitive camping spots are very spacious and there’s plenty of trees for hammocks and a little privacy. The lady working there was super nice and it was pretty cheap. A road was next to our spot though so it was kinda loud.
The Turkey Run State Park Campground is great because of its location to the various creek tour spots.
The camp store is small, but has enough stuff to get you out of a basic bind: food items, household stuff, some clothing, souvenirs.
Campground had decent signal for Verizon and AT&T.
Camp spots were tight, uneven, and many had strong-to-severe grades.
The campsite has a wonky layout and for a lot of the bigger rigs, this is a tight camp ground to navigate.
We had a pull-through site so no complaints.
Septic dumps were almost a complete 90* angle turn from the main camp road into the lane for waste dumping. For a longer rig, the angle of the turn will give you some anxiety.
Camping near Terre Haute, Indiana, offers a variety of experiences for outdoor enthusiasts. Whether you're looking for a family-friendly spot or a peaceful retreat, there are several campgrounds to choose from.
Camping in Terre Haute, Indiana, has something for everyone, from families to solo adventurers. Just remember to plan ahead and enjoy the great outdoors!
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular glamping campsite near Terre Haute, IN?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Terre Haute, IN is Turkey Run State Park Campground — Turkey Run State Park with a 4.5-star rating from 66 reviews.
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TheDyrt.com has all 16 glamping camping locations near Terre Haute, IN, with real photos and reviews from campers.
