Turkey Run State Park Campground

It is a great place for a family or a youth group field trip. There are several trails throughout the park ranging in length and difficulty and hiking these makes for a nice day trip. However, if you are looking for some rugged terrain, not the best place to go. Their one, "very rugged" trail wasn't to difficult to tackle and was mainly rugged due to it's climbing through small "canyons" carved out by creeks.

It is sad that I can't give this place a glowing review. The trails here were absolutely amazing and unique. We camped in May and the early morning hours were the only time we could be outside of the camper as the bugs swarmed in and tried to take us away beyond that. The campsites are well pretty well spaced out and they had a lot to choose from. There were both vault toilets and regular bath houses which were dated but acceptable. Not a lot of trees in the camping areas but plenty of grass.

First time camping with our new teardrop camper. We stayed on site 081 which is right near the entrance to the campground. Site was small but since we have a tiny camper it was perfect. We were able to fit our teardrop with 12 ft awning extended plus have room to set up a pen for our dogs and shower / porta potty tent. We camped opening weekend as the state parks were closed for Covid-19. Due to the pandemic the bathrooms were closed and campground porta potties were the only provided toilet option. We chose to use our own porta potty most of the time. The shower houses were open and clean. Verizon offered very good connectivity at site 081 with 4G speeds (on memorial day weekend with a full campground) topping out at 15 down and 2 up most of the time. We are Verizon pre-paid (Visible Wireless) so you may have even faster speeds on post paid with better network priority.

Nice enough campground to provide access to the amazing state park trails, which are unique by their sandstone canyons and gulches, hiking through creeks beds that have carved these incredible geographic feature. Campground itself is fairly generic. Two of the bathhouses were under renovation for part of our stay, leaving the west loop facility as the only one fully open with shower and toilet. Campground is packed on weekends With limited bath houses these get trashed pretty quickly. Lots of local state residents here, very few out of state plates – probably due to the fact that this SP is not near any main highways and is 23 miles to the nearest town. CG has asphalt roads and camp pads in good condition. Most of the wooded, outer perimeter sites are very short and sloping making front to back level difficult. Lots of grass space between sites.

Love it except for how busy it is on the weekends.

Peaceful campground. Nice site. Getting around and into our site was a bit tricky with a 39" tt, but it was doable in the section we were in. There was a loop that is much smaller that we wouldn't have been able to drive through. They don't sell propane and neither do the stores close by so plan ahead. It was also a really nice shaded spot.

The campground was busy and full when we stayed. Easy and close access to great hiking. The bathrooms were old, but clean. They have a playground for the kids and a small camp store. We did not see a fill station for water but many water spigots located throughout. We stayed in site 246 which was not private, but was spacious and level. Many sites that are tree lined are sloped. We would definitely stay here again because of the proximity to such great hiking. One down side is that they do not recycle. We packed our recycling out for disposal at home. Cell service is minimal here for AT&T.

Our second stay in two years and not much has changed. We come here only for the hiking in the main park area about a mile north. The campground itself is rather vanilla. Not as well spaced out as most state parks, so weekends you will find the CG very crowded and tight. While last year they were “renovating” the Twin Oaks section bathhouses, but I see they are still pretty shabby, not well-cleaned and the showers had no hot water. We experienced some heavy rain - some site partially flooded, and Site 20 was totally under water. While we come here for the hiking (some really cool trails) likely many folks come to use the Olympic size swimming pool in the main park area, or float down Sugar Creek (which is very nice). The pool was closed during our stay due to repairs underway (due to reopen in a few weeks). Our back-in site on the outer edge of the loop required some creative leveling both side to side and fore and aft. Electric only sites had both 50 and 30 amp. Sites had serviceable picnic tables and fire rings. Fire ring not cleaned and littered with trash and cig butts. Potable water fill station was lined up four deep with rigs waiting to fill fresh tanks on this Friday afternoon (we arrived with full tank so avoided the long wait). Verizon signal was strong. We picked up 4 OTA channels. If you are not IN state resident you will be required to pay an addition $9 use fee. As mentioned we enjoy the hiking here which is a real adventure.

First trip to this park. We stayed here 07 August, 2020. This was just about the perfect park for us. Trails are our priority, and this park had amazing trails. Site was well shaded. Our weather was perfect, but may not be a great place in the rain or snow. Excellent hiking opportunities. Turkey Run Gas & Grill nearby has good cheap food. Shades State Park is only 15 minutes away. There were young groups having parties into the night that made the evenings a bit noisy. This site is also near the road which increased the noise some as well. We hope to return.

Mostly level sites with elect. Best most private sites are numbered above #206 with tall tree shade. We enjoyed the hiking which has many fabulous views. Much activity at the Nature Center and Planetarium.