Campground Reviews

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

McCormick's Creek State Park, Spencer, IN
July 15-17, 2016

	GRADE	COMMENTS
Campsite	C	Site 28, Slight grade, shaded, electric, no water. The site was okay. Turns out 'slight grade' means that the leveler under our trailer wheel was maxed out. The site wasn't too far from the restrooms and was spacious. There was a reasonable amount of privacy on two sides. I love those firepits with the built in grates. Sites 18 and 21 - 25 look promising.
Restrooms	B	Clean on Friday, filthy on Sunday. I don't know how all that dirt gets in the shower room. Wet floors plus dirty shoes I guess. Good temperature in shower. 4 separate showers for women with a shower, private dressing room with bench for your stuff . Men also have separate showers, but they don't have the private dressing rooms. Shower room is totally separate room from the toilet. Limited number of stalls and 2 sinks in womens. Men only had one urinal. Given there are about 120 sites on side A and 2 men's toilets with one urinal each, that's about 60 men per urinal which my hubby thought was a little off.
Trails	A	Nice trails. We've been on Wolf Cave trail a few times in the past so we took some others this weekend. Very pretty hiking.
Campstore	B	Decent campstore. We got smores ingrediants, ice, and firewood there. They moved it farther away from the campground. This is different from our last stay. Its now up by the hotel and is combined with a nice little recreation center.
Park Map	Park Map PDF
Campground Map	Campground Map PDF

McCormick's Creek has a lot of sink holes.

A historic farm building - a spring house

A lot of stairs

Afternoon hike

Morning hike

A historic farm building - a barn foundation

Charlestown State Park, IN
July 25-26 2009

	GRADE	COMMENTS
Campsite	A	Site 147. Electric. No water. Very well maintained. There was almost no one there which I thought was odd for July. It is a new park. Asphalt pad. Site was somewhat secluded. Site was large. We had a couple of trees on either side of the the site and the forest behind. Couldn't put out the awning because of the trees. NOTE: Site 153 looks like a good one. ALSO NOTE: the employees are super. I left my watch behind in the showerhouse and never expected to see it again, however I got a call later in the week that it had been found!
Restrooms	A	Very clean. Good temperature in shower. 3 separate showers for women with a bench for your stuff and one of those annoying push buttons. Men also have separate showers. Our site seemed really far from the showerhouse. If it weren't for the low attendance allowing us to use a short cut through to the bathrooms it might have been a very long weekend.
Trails	B	We only got to hike one trail, but it was fairly boring. It was rugged, but did not have the visual interest of Clifty State Park.
Campstore	F	None.
Park Map	Park Map PDF
Campground Map	Campground Map PDF

Clifty Falls State Park, IN
July 18-20 2008

	GRADE	COMMENTS
Campsite	C+	Site 34. Electric. No water. Very well maintained. Gravel pad. Site was open to other sites. Site was large. We had a couple of trees on the site, but it was more of a field situation. Due to the large number of campers this weekend, it was almost like a jamboree with kids riding bikes everywhere and very little privacy. If you want a site that's easy to get into this is an A, if you value privacy, it's a C.
Restrooms	C	Reasonably clean. Good temperature in shower. 3 separate showers for women with a bench for your stuff and one of those annoying push buttons. Men have an open shower room with 2 showerheads.
Trails	A+	This is my favorite park in Indiana. It is the closest to Colorado or real hill climbing I've found in the midwest. Rugged and very rugged trails can be found and they are rugged because you have to do a lot of climbing and scrambling. Trail 2 takes you up the creek which has water now and the dogs got to do some swimming. Again, A LOT of rocks and boulders.
Campstore	F	None. This seems to be the norm that I'm noticing. There was a campstore, but its been closed.
Park Map	Park Map PDF
Campground Map	Campground Map PDF

Gifford Pinchot State Park, PA
June 14-20, 2008

	GRADE	COMMENTS
Campsite	B+	Site 213. Electric. No water. Very well maintained. Asphalt pad. Site was well separated from the other sites with a barrier of trees. Lots of interesting boulders and birds including hummingbirds that fed from honeysuckle on the back of our site.
Restrooms	C	Reasonably clean. Great temperature in shower.
Trails	D	Park seems to be geared to visitors of the lake and not hikers. Hiking trails were not well maintained.
Campstore	F	None. Very surprising for a campground this nice.
Park Map	Park Map PDF
Campground Map	Campground Map PDF

Brown County State Park, IN
August 24-26, 2007

	GRADE	COMMENTS
Campsite	B+	Site 296 - Taylor Electric. Very well maintained. Nice view of a ravine. Asphalt pad. This site was steep with no flat place for the table. Fire pit was broken.
Restrooms	A	Clean and very good for state park restrooms. Good temperature in shower. Benches.
Trails	C	I'm sure they have good trails, but we only saw trail 9 and it was totally uneventful. It was dry out and the only item on the trail of interest, the stream, was dry.
Campstore	B	Very well appointed. Coffee was mediocre.
Park Map	Park Map PDF
Campground Map	Campground Map PDF

Jellystone Campground - Gatlinburg, TN
July 15 - 21, 2007

	GRADE	COMMENTS
Campsite	A	Site 21 - electric and water - nice campsite near the stream. The owners are extremely nice and really take care of their guests. They guide you into your campsite.
Restrooms	B+	Very clean. Would be an A, but there's a button you have to continuously push in the shower
Trails	B	There is a a trail into Great Smoky Mt St Park directly behind the park. Good trail straight up.
Campstore	A	They have cappuccino available

Shakamak State Park - Jasonville, IN
October 6 - 8, 2006

	GRADE	COMMENTS
Campsite	B+	Site 36 - Electric and Water - Sites well designed
Restrooms	A
Trails	C	almost no trails, but beautiful lake
Campstore	A
Park Map	Park Map PDF
Campground Map	Campground Map PDF