Lincoln State Park in Southern Indiana. About as far South as you can go! (In Indiana!). We did a weekend visit.
150 electric sites. There's 30 & 50 Amp sites with water at each site!
6 handicap sites. There are NO pull through sites.
The best sites are by Lake Lincoln- 40 & 41. 39 is ok, but all 3 of these sites are in the sun most of the day. Also, 40 & 41 are not ON the lake. Trail 1 & a wide grassy area are before the water. The only advantage IMO is an unobstructed view of the water & a short walk to the lake.
The sites seemed short, but people were able to park very large rigs in them. Check the site dimensions before booking or call the office to make sure you'll fit.
There's a large primitive campground. They have a modern bath house with showers. Some cabins.
There's 2 bath houses in the electric side with flush toilets & showers. Very clean for a state park!
A double dump station.
6 trails from easy to moderate. The longest is 3.7 miles.
Boating & fishing are popular, but electric motor only. There's boat rental.
There's a beach, but closed after Labor Day. The camp store is in the pavilion by the beach & has limited hours after Labor Day.
There's a small nature center.
Lots of history in the park & in the area. Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial is directly across the road from the state park
. Santa Claus Indiana& Holiday World are nearby.
Tried this KOA on the spur of the moment. We won't be back.
It's easy on/easy off from the interstate. The hills were terrible getting there, then another hill to get to the KOA. The ANOTHER hill to get to our site.
Asked for a site by the bathroom. It was closer than all the other sites on the hill. Yes, all the sites are cut into the hill. There's stairs to get down to the bathroom/shower(!?!?). Some people living in a trailer by the stairs have a big dog that will lunge & bark.
It seems like cosmetic things have been done. Planters spaced on posts leading up to the KOA main building. The bathroom had some newer looking siding & some flowers, but the floor in the women's bathroom had holes in it. It smelled funny in there too. This place needs a major remodel!
There were cigarette butts EVERYWHERE!
We were thinking about using the pool, but decided against it. Sites were full sun.
Can't believe this is a KOA…
The 5th & last state on our East Coast trek is Delaware!
We took the ferry from Cape May & it was a novelty for us. We enjoyed it so much!
The state park is just a half mile on the left when you pull out.
For Delaware I had my heart set on Cape Henlopen State Park. The sites go fast & I felt lucky to get the site I ended up with. When we got there we found out a water main broke& there was no water. Fortunately, we only went a day without.
There are cabins & primitive sites with their own bath house. The water/electric sites are in rows A-F. We were in B 14.The sites are laid out at an angle, but some were a straight backin. The even A sites- you park your rig or car on the road in a straight line & you get a big wooded site. Not sure if these sites have electricity.
There's 2 dump stations on the way out.
There's shower houses for E/F/T, the G loop& on the B loop road. They were clean. There's an asphalt trail leading through the main sites for bathroom access. It's clearly marked on the map, so keep it in mind when you pick a site.
There are some pullthroughs that can take big rigs. The sites are not uniform, some larger, some smaller. Watch the site dimensions or you might not be able to fit your vehicle AND camper on the site. It HAS to all be on the asphalt behind the white line.
There are combo toilet/showers which I'm not fond of. You're a tenter & want to go for your morning BM& all the doors are locked with people showering. :( They're clean.
The camp store/ laundry is the building next to that. The playground is also right there.
This was my husbands favorite campground on our trip. It was a very enjoyable place!
This park has a LOT of activities: the beach, a nice nature center. Fort Miles for WW 2 history. Biking is hugely popular & they have bike rentals at the nature center if you forgot yours. You can climb a WW 2 watchtower. There's hiking trails, a fishing pier. So much to do.
Lots of good restaurants in the area also.
We had a great time there. Sorry we had to leave…
We stayed in New Jersey for our 5th campground on the East Coast: Turkey Swamp Park in Freehold. This is a County park.
Near some Revolutionary War battlefields.
I really liked this park! They have 2283 acres. A 17 acre lake. Some hiking trails & a nice campground! The sites are all pullthrough. There's lots of vegetation for "privacy". We had a site on the perimeter, which are forest views. Only problem is none of the roads are paved. All are packed sand. We could tell it rained recently because of the muddy tracks. Fortunately it didn't rain while we were there!
Shower/bathrooms are clean, but dated. They're checked regularly. The bath house is for the entire campground. 3 out of the 4 women's were working. There's a shared dressing area.
There's a laundry that doesn't take quarters. EPay.
There's a nice playground in the campground.
They have 3 cabins for rent, with forest views.
The lake has fishing & boat rentals. No gas motors. There's no swimming at the lake. Cell service was fair.. No WiFi.
They have an archery range.
This was my favorite campground on our trip! I really enjoyed camping here! There's a rustic retro quality to the place. I adored the campsites & I didn't see any really bad ones.
Wawaloam Campground in Rhode Island was our 3rd state & campground on our East Coast trip. Not a lot of choices in Rhode Island, but we liked this camp ground in a rural wooded area.
This is kid heaven. Families laughing & enjoying themselves. Besides the pool they have a splash pad, a water slide, mini golf, a nice pond for fishing. The playground is nice. The grounds are well taken care of. The bathroom& showers were checked often. The showers are now free!
In wooded, rural Rhode Island, but an easy day trip to Newport.
Our 4rth state in our 5 state trip is New Jersey! We wanted to see Delaware Water Gap NRA & I found a campground by Newton called The Great Divide. This is a private campground. Very scenic with a small lake, a pond & surrounded by woods. This is also the most expensive campground on our trip at $96.11 a night.
Lots to do for families- they have kayaks for camper use. Horseshoes, tether ball, volleyball, a pool, a playground, a dog park. There's a swimming beach.
One strange thing is there's a lot of tent sites & they seemed popular. For the amount of tent/popup sites they only have 1 shower per loop. They are very clean & checked often, but they're used heavily during the weekend. I had better luck Sunday evening. A bench outside the bathroom would have been nice to sit & wait.
The rv sites were all full hookup on our loop.
We came in on a Friday & found out this campground ROCKS!!! They have live bands every Friday & Saturday night during the warm months. This might explain the higher rates. Party on!
I had a hankering for East Coast seafood, so I picked Hammonesett Beach State Park for Connecticut. Our 2nd state of 5.
Hammonesett Beach has a huge campground. They divide the loops with names. I unfortunately chose Pequot. This loop has THE WORST bathrooms/showers on the South side of the campground. Looks like they were built in 1950s with rotten wood siding. Dirty. The showers were outside the bathroom- there was a bench & hooks OUTSIDE! We found out all the other loops had modern bathhouses.
My first impression of this campground is it's loud, crazy busy & there's traffic noise from the beach road. I actually liked it! This is a fun campground for families. There were kids on bikes, scooters, skateboards,roller blades. Watch your speed! They don't always watch out for your car.
I found out most people stay through Sunday & leave on Monday. There were still lots of campers left. Lots of tent campers.
I chose site 14 on the Pequot Loop because I thought I would have a view of one of the ponds. There was tall vegetation, so that was out.
The sites on the other side of the loop were right by the main beach road. Noisy during the day, but quiet at night.
There are some sites with shade, but most are sunny.
There's no electricity at most of the sites. Our site was full sun(yay for the solar panel!). On Beach Road in the campground there's 2 rows of full hookup sites, but they go FAST! I tried.
NO PETS! Including dogs.
No WiFi, but there's cell service. At least 5 dump stations.
The beach was popular.
There was a stream running from a pond that kids were playing in.
They have a beautiful Nature Center. A couple of easy hikes through one of the preserves.
This was a good base camp for the area. Gillette Castle & other state parks are within driving distance. Connecticut is a beautiful state!!
We were on a 5 state East Coast camping trip. Our first campground was in New York Aug 8th. Unfortunately, Debbie was socking New York hard. North South Lake Campground in the Catskills was our camping home. Thursday & Friday it was Neverending rain & wind. Saturday was the nice day.
North South Lake has no electricity. The sites are almost all beautiful, tucked in under shady trees. Not a good way to try out our solar panel! Some are by a stream. A few are by the lake. This is a tent campers paradise. New York tent campers are hard core camping during Tropical Storm Debbie!
There are 7 loops. We were in loop 2. Site 85. There are some sites with an incline down to the site. That might give some rvs trouble. It did for us & I had to be driven out of the campground to call 911. Thank you Mary!! It all ended well & we got a different site.
There are bears that visit the campground & one came one of the nights & visited our camping neighbor's site. They showed us a picture- it was a large black bear.
Generators are allowed for 5 hours & they tell you when you can use them.
The bathrooms/showers are state park clean- which means not very.
There is NO cell service & just forget about WiFi. You are unplugged.
This is a hiking park & for this middle aged overweight flatlander they are pretty strenuous. Kaaterskill Falls is an exception - short, easy trail, but the parking fills up quickly. Then they close it! You'll have to take a shuttle to get in.
The trail to the Mountain House Site is also pretty easy, with more of an incline.
There's 2 nice lakes with beaches.
The Catskills are very scenic& we enjoyed our time there!
Although this is a KOA Holiday, we used it as a KOA Journey on our way to the Catskills. Not too far from the Interstate & there was no highway noise at the campground.
We arrived right at 5pm, which is when they close up, but Victoria went above & beyond & took us right to our site. Good thing, since we were at the back of a confusing layout.
There are sites in this section that have a partial view of the lake, but they looked like seasonal sites. All the sites looked well cared for. We had a pull through on Chestnut Drive. Y1
If you have kids, most of the activities they would be interested in are at the front entrance. If you don't have a golf cart, you may have to drive to the front for the pool, mini golf, basketball court & jumping pillow.
It doesn't look like they have many cabins.
There's another playground in the back that was getting used. There was supposed to be a splash pad, but I didn't see an evidence of that.
The bathroom/shower house are duel toilet/showers. Not my favorite, but we didn't have any trouble getting in.
We used the back exit on our way out, which was convenient. At least we didn't have to go back to the front entrance!
BTW, Victoria is a treasure! She's friendly & goes above& beyond for customer service. We really appreciated the time she took with us.
First off- Brown County is a lovely park. This review is only for the campground.
The only time we ever camped here was in 2003 when we had 3 kids & a popup. New to the park I thought the Racoon Ridge Loop looked good & picked site 121. Bad mistake! We stayed 3 nights & every night we had a weird thing happen. The worst was the bat that found it's way into the popup one night. None of it was in any way Brown County's fault, but we never went back.
We were staying at Paynetown recently & decided to visit Brown County & the campground. The mirror tag helped with this. We visited on a Saturday morning in late June. The whole campground was full & it was jumpin'!
We skipped Buffalo Ridge. Raccoon Ridge is the smallest loop. Close sites. Our former site 121 has a pit toilet right next to it now. There's several sites along the main road, also very close to each other & right on the road.
I thought that Taylor Ridge was the best loop based on my memories from 2003. It's really a long warren of close sites, some with terrible inclines.
I was able to write down a few sites I thought would work- Sites with no one close by: 193/194/266.
265 was the only pull thru I saw, but there may be others.
End of loop: 317/318
Ridge view from your site: 310/311/312/313/314
Random sites that looked ok: 179/188/215/223/225/242/259/260/265/277/280/287/422- these sites are just what I eyeballed while the husband was cruising down the main road.
We decided we were never going to camp here again. The sites are too close together. There's too many people crammed in a small space. If you go be aware that summer weekends & leaf peeper season will be very busy. The middle of the week or shoulder season would probably be your best bet for a more relaxing experience.
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.
We did a drive through to check out the campground. It was $8 for day use, self pay.
This is a beautiful campground. There's 4 loops with 30 & 50 amp. 2 loops with no electric.
Well spaced all tucked into the trees on a ridge. Also some carry in sites.
If we tented camped still I'd be in heaven!
You can reserve sites, or some are first come first served.
Shower/restroom with pit toilets scattered around.
3 trails. A beach, picnic areas& a boat launch.
This seems less popular than Paynetown, but a lot quieter!!
This is a SRA on the shores of Lake Monroe by Bloomington Indiana. This is a boating/fishing park. We went on a hot weekend the 4rth weekend in June & it was completely full.
There's only 3 short trails. The longest is 1.25 miles. Not a hiking park.
There's a visitor center off State Road 446. This is NOT a nature center! Just a place to pick up some information.
The marina & boat launch get the most use. There's also a beach.
There's a large Class B campground closer to the marina. There's some pit toilets & one flush toilet building. No showers. No electricity.
There's a large dump station.
The electric campground has 227 sites. 3 are handicap accessible. There's also 27 pull throughs. Many have lake access due to camper made trails to the lake.
We had site 137 which was a good site due to the fact we had no one on the left. There was a woods view.
Many of these sites have a bad incline & people were putting their rigs sideways on the site close to the road. Our site was no exception, but we were able to make it work. This site also had afternoon sun.
Restrooms/showers were state park clean. I was impressed with the hard working staff trying their best to give us a clean bathroom!
The best sites in the campground are 171/172& 153/154. These have a lot of sun, but a stellar view of the lake.
132-137 have a trail to the lake. Very bad inclines though.
120-124 have trails to the lake & are in the woods.
103 is a large site& fairly even with lots of shade.
The sites from 180-227 are asphalt with concrete pads. The rest of the campground is gravel.
There's 4 carry in campsites for tents that looked very nice. Campsites in the E area have access to a sandy peninsula that was very popular for swimmers.
This is known in Indiana as a party park. There's some truth to that. It's VERY noisy & busy on a summer weekend. If you like a quieter experience come Monday through Wed. or wait until the off season.
We were camping at Holland State Park, which isn't that far away & decided to take a morning to see the pier & lighthouses at Grand Haven. Unfortunately, we picked the Saturday they were having the Kite Fest on the beach so the parking was CRAZY!
I asked the guy at the gate how to get to the pier & he said "cut through the campground". I'm pretty sure there's a city park outside the state park, but like I said- crazy weekend parking.
My thoughts on Grand Haven State Park is the sites are VERY tight. I thought Holland was bad, but Grand Haven is much worse.
The pro- You can get a site right on the beach. Imagine sitting & watching the sunset every night from the comfort of your site! You get a nice view of the lighthouses.
The cons- Very Tight Sites! This is also a very small state park, so it's parking lot/beach/campground & that's about it. There's only 1 bathhouse. You have to bring your own portable fire pit. No hiking trail, unless you count the walk to the pier.
This is a tough park to get into in the warm months. The back up to get in is crazy. The staff at the booths move things along, but the cars were still backed up a mile.
There are 2 campgrounds. The Lake Macatawa campground is across the street from a small beach on the Macatawa Lake. This is a wooded campground. The sites are pretty tight as is usual for a Michigan State Park. This is where you check in to camp here & at the beach campground. Don't forget or you'll have to turn around & come back!
The best thing about the beach campground is it's closer to Lake Michigan & the campground has beach access. No dogs or bikes on the beach. Sounds good if it was actually enforced. We saw no one getting yelled at, so go ahead & do what you want!
The campground is surrounded by sand dunes on both sides.
This campground is entirely on asphalt. You're not allowed to put anything on the sand- including tents! Crazy.
There's no fire rings at the beach sites. Bring a portable if you want a fire.
The interior sites up to the shower house have full hook up. All others are electric only. There's one restroom/shower house for the whole campground. The showers are individual & we had no trouble getting one in the late afternoon. They look recently remodeled & were SUPER clean!
The best campsite is 348. This site gives you a good view of the beach outside your rig. Other good campsites are 347 & 349, but your door faces away from the beach.
There are trees by the following campsites: 305/309/319/321/323/331. They won't give you a lot of shade, but they look nice.
I would recommend getting a site North of the bath house. You have a shorter walk to the beach. There's a double dump station& that's where you also fill up your water tanks. There's also dumpsters there.
We camped here about 19 years ago & I swore I'd never go back. I hated the dirty bathrooms & showers. I hated the park in general. He talked me into going again & I was pleasantly surprised! Must be better management.
The playground looked fairly new. The bathrooms/showers had a plastic type lining on the walls. The rest looked like it needed a total rehaul. The bathrooms were "state park clean", which means the sinks & toilets were cleaned & not much else. I'm used to that!
The sites were nicely kept, but some had a steep incline. I would call the park office directly if you're concerned. The F loop has the best sites. Some have a better view of the lake than others. The beach was closed for the season when we were there, but looked ok. They needed to get a Scout group or something to pick up small trash.
The fishing pier was closed because it's falling apart. There's a boat launch.
The picnic areas looked uninteresting.
The trails had pretty good with signage, but The Lake Vista Trail had downed trees every 50 feet. The vista wasn't all that great.
Although this is has 1300 acres this is a hikers park. Most of the acreage is accessible by trail. The Knobstone Trail has it's Southern most trailhead at this park. That's a 60 mile backpacking trail. The rest of the trails are much shorter, but it seems more rugged. The exceptions are Trail 1& 2- under 1 mile. The Lake Vista is 1.6 & very rugged due to the steep incline to the rock vista.
Fishing was poor according to my fishing guy, but it was in the 30s overnight a couple of nights. Warmer weather might be better.
Sellersburg has restaurants & grocery stores. I saw a Walgreens.
If you've camped at a KOA before, then you know what you're getting here. Easy on, easy off I-75. It's close to the interstate, but the noise was never intrusive. Mostly because of the stiff wind blowing out of the North.
The sites are tight, particularly the inside pull throughs. The back in sites are more spacious, though that's relative. Site 7 is a very spacious back in site. 1-6 are by Trails End Road, but it isn't really that busy or noisy. I would get a back in site, especially if you can get away with 30 Amp service. 16-20F are back in sites with 50 Amp. There are some deluxe pull throughs with patio & grill on site. There are some extra long pull through sites.
There are the usual KOA amenities like a heated pool, playground, a game area & bike rental. There's a nice hiking trail in the back. It takes you to the bike trail, so back track back to the campground unless you want to walk on the bike trail/road.
What makes KOAs & this KOA special are the clean bathrooms & showers. It's always a pleasure to know that a shower will be KOA clean!
Staff was courteous & efficient. They delivered ice & wood to your site.
This is a good base camp for the area. I would stay again if in Mackinaw City!
This is a beautiful campground right next to the Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park in the U P of Michigan. After reading the reviews of the Union Bay Campground in the park, I'm glad I could get a reservation here!
This is a well established campground. There's 50 sites with water & electricity, but no sewer. There is a dump station.
Some sites have more room than others. We had site 16, which was roomy. Site 20 is also roomy & shady.
The best sites over look the Union River. Sites 27/28 are nice & site 29 is outstanding. There are a few pull throughs.
Any of the perimeter sites would be good. These have a woods view in the back.
Avoid sites 24A/45&46. these sites are very near the dump station, with 45 right by it. There's a tall fence separating you from it.
The bathrooms are beautiful! Clean with hot showers. Decorated nicely, with music also. There's a community fire pit on the front lawn with swings & chairs. A nice view of Lake Superior. The sunsets are outstanding. There's a free beach across the street. You need to take the stairs down to it. Don't try climbing down the rocks!
I didn't have much luck looking for Yooper Stones.
The gift shop is small, but has some nice things.
Out of the 3 campgrounds we stayed at this trip, this was our favorite!
We stayed for one Monday night on our way to the Porkies.
This is an established campground. The sites are tight, most have no bushes/trees. We were lucky on our right side to have some privacy. The perimeter sites back into a chain link fence that has a view of the woods. This is on both sides of the campground.
The bathrooms/showers were clean. The showers had 2 large lips to step over. My mobility challenged husband had some trouble.
The best sites are 26,27,28,76&77. These sites are right by the beach & have great views. 27 looked like it didn't have electricity & might be a tent site. Strangely, 26 & 27 were empty the night we were there.
The beach is small & you can swim there. There's no pool. There's several swings & benches to sit & look at the water. There's a game room by the store.
I did like this campground. It reminded me of what camping must have been like in the 50s/60s. A retro feel to it.
This state park was established in 1925, so almost 100 years old. The campground must be the original layout. There's a maze like quality to it. The roads are narrow & you may be driving off the road for a big rig.
Some sites are level, some aren't. Some can accommodate larger rigs, most can't. Check the site descriptions carefully & to be doubly sure, call the office & ask.
There's water stations that look very old. They have wooden, shingled roofs. There's 2 dump stations located in loops 3 & 4. IN THE CAMPGROUND! NEXT TO CAMPSITES!!!!
There's 5 loops to the main campground.
100 loop is small & closer to the lake than the other loops. It's the loop we chose this time.
The sites are on the small side. There's 3 campsites that are close to the lake. 115, which is a larger site. 117 & 119 which have clear views of the lake. 117 is more a tent or popup site & is small. 119 is the best of the bunch. A large pad & a large site. There's no privacy bushes. These sites have a view of the lake with trees & brush & are on a ridge overlooking the lake. They aren't ON the lake.
On either side of 117 & 119 are 2 trails that lead to the lake. There's benches & a dock to tie up your boat.
The rest of the sites are a mixed bag. Some are level, some have an incline. If you have a big rig, be aware that the road to the 100 campsites branches into one way. Leading into the campsites, the road is narrow & has a ravine on one side!
200 Loop is non electric
300 Loop is the biggest loop & seems like the best bet for larger rigs. As stated above, some sites are better than others. There's a uniformity here that's missing from the other loops.
Stay away from sites 393& 395!!! These sites are literally right on top of the dump station! As always watch for pit toilets near the sites.
400 loop is a smaller loop next to the 200 loop. There's only one shower house for both loops. Avoid site 444 & probably site 454. These sites are VERY close to the dump station.
500 loop is also smaller& has some nice sites tucked by themselves in the trees. There seems to be more privacy brush on this loop with SOME sites.
512 is close to the shower house. 511 & 513 were somewhat secluded.
If you have a boat you want to tie up at the dock, go for the 100 loop. If you can't get it, be aware there's no parking near the trails to the lake. You can park by the bathhouse & walk.
The shower & restrooms are atrocious!!! Worst looking buildings since Spring Mill SP! Dirty & need an entire overhaul. In fact, raze the buildings & build new ones! They're "cleaned" once a day. Suuuuuure they are. There was actual poop on the door of one of the women's toilet stalls the whole time I was there. Mold & spiders& dirt in the corners. Looks like the last upgrade was in the 50s.