Hawthorn Park Campground

Little hidden gem. We came down to Terre Haute to move our son into his dorm at ISU. This is a really nice county park with a decent fishing lake with a nice kayak launch and decks and picnic areas. Nice playground area and lots of shade. Archery range, paved paths, walking path around the lake as well as hiking paths. Not very crowded! Next to Rose Hulman Engineering School. One side of the park had nice campsites, some with electric and water, spacious gravel pads fairly level, and primitive tent sites with nice tent sand pads. We camped in our 24’ class C Sprinter with our two dogs. Camp host was friendly and helpful, and staffed entrance booth checked is in and was so friendly and welcoming. Shower house is big and well appointed - not sure on cleanliness as we didn’t use it. Nice quiet get away.

Traveling through the area on a weekday needing an overnight. This park has electricity & water at most sites, flush toilets & showers. Some sites are pull through and most are flat. Size of sites is acceptable. The registration was easy. The price per night has gone up. County run park adjacent w/walking trail & fishing. Surprised by the highway noise in the morning.

I had trouble with my cell phone to make a reservation.
So when I got here greeter ask me if I had reservations, I said no, that I needed help with it. He seemed short with me and asked me to pull ahead out of the way and let other people behind me in first. There was really anywhere to park, they had No Parking signs up, so I really had no place to go.
Then he assigned me a campsite that would not accommodate my rig.
Other camp hosts came over and told me to try another site and they would let greeter know of my new site number.
Won't come back.
Picnic tables where dirty mossy, bird poop hadn't been taken care of. Site was unkepted. Lots of bugs, I think due to lots of died leafs piling up. Seems like a lot of long termers.

We decided on this park because we could snag a site over the weekend - but their website really doesn't give you much information on the sites themselves. We selected 20 at first, but it was really unlevel and kinda narrow - but no worries, the park attendant was able to move us to site 21 - which was awesome.

Lots of great sites here - some more private feeling than others. But overall, nicely spread out. Electric only at most (some have water too), but there are spigots all over the campground to fill up. Dump station on the way in and out.

Loved exploring the trails here and there's an awesome labyrinth. And there's an easy bike ride into town for dining. Super cool feeling little university town.

And great cell signal.

What's not to love?

Stayed one night on my journey from west to east coast a few miles off I 70. There are 10 primitive sites which cost $12 and water/electric sites (about 50) cost $25. There is a two dollar reservation fee on the website. However link from Campendium site is not correct and I did not book online first. There is a reservation hut at entry to site and people were friendly and helpful.
www.vigaparks.org to book for 3 different campgrounds in the area. Fowler Park, Hawthorn Park and Prairie Creek Park. Sites are close together but lots of lovely tree coverage, two lakes with a variety of activities. Busy at weekends, showers (didn’t use) restrooms and some vault toilets. Sorry I forgot to take photos😊