Turkey Run State Park Campground

Turkey Run State Park was decent, but could use a little TLC. For one, after checking in at the booth, we were immediately met with low hanging branches that swiped up the front of the fifth wheel and over the roof. That wasn’t the only one though. At the water station, the leaves over the road measured only 9′ above the road. While that’s fine for some of the smaller rigs, that’s a no-go for a 13’6″ tall fifth wheel. I mentioned this to the person in the booth, but all she said was we have a guy that comes by and cuts the branches but he’s not due out here anytime soon.

We had electric only, but they do have fresh water and a dump on site. Back up into the site was a little tricky as there was only a one lane road in front and the sites in front of us that were empty were offset, so we had to roll over some of the grass to get into our spot.

The bathrooms were fine, but the showers only had cold water.

There were too many trees to use Starlink. 4 bars on the Verizon phones and 5 bars with the cell antenna (91/26). AT&T was 5 bars with the cell antenna (25/18).

This park is a mixed bag. Turkey Run State Park itself is a geological treasure, with amazing hikes along riverbeds and through ravines, including stairs, ladders, and mad scrambles up steep slopes and over slippery rocks. The fun beach along the creek on the trail between the campground and the Inn has a small beach suitable for small children and a place on a rock to jump in -- being careful to know where the rocks are! Lots of folks canoe, kayak, or tube down the creek.

The campground itself is crowded and pretty dense. It got pretty wild on a Saturday night, with hooting and hollering well past midnight, only stopping when it started raining about 1pm. By Sunday night, however, the party weekend crowd headed home, and the campground was much better. If you don’t like the partying, come on a weekday. If you do like partying, this is your place. But for us it was just a pain.

The campground is crowded to be sure, with RVs one against the other, but if you look carefully, and book early, you can find some gems. For example, our site has great canopy and a place to put a tent well into the forest. There was no neighbor behind and the neighbors to the side were well screened. This was perfect for tent camping, but was small and sloped thus not good for RVs. Lots of sites are RV friendly, however, with pull-troughs. But these sites are out in the open and crowded. If you are coming with a group, this has an advantage, as you can all be together. But otherwise, it doesn't seem very comfortable.

Both Verizon and AT&T have solid service, with good Internet. (Last time we were here, this was not the case, so they've been busily improving things. :-) )

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.