Favorite State Park Campgrounds

"Wooded" and "Level"??? Depends upon what you consider "Level"?? Bring something to put under your tires to level out wherever you go. State Parks in Indiana are all great. Lots of variety. Pick your spot and enjoy! But getting any of them "Level", is near impossible, as every site will require some adjustments.

We have not been to a bad campsite anywhere in any of the Indiana State Parks. check the DNR web site carefully for reservations and descriptions of the sites. There's variety for everyone, full sun to full shade, level to hilly. Been to a couple in Illinois over the years and found them to be equally as nice.

Unless you are looking to park on a concrete slab in a 5 star RV resort in Hollywood California or somewhere like that, make sure you bring your leveling blocks anywhere you go.

FYI, some 15 years ago when the price of gasoline skyrocketed and the USA was reeling from a horrid housing market and an economy that just fell apart, we also had some personal things that happened that swallowed up disposable money. We decided, since people travel all over the world to visit Indiana State Parks, maybe we should start looking at them through the eyes of a stranger to this state. We decided to travel much closer to home, easier on fuel and expenses that way. We decided to camp at ONLY the Indiana State Parks and State Recreation areas and look at our state through new eyes. And we did! Over the next 15 years, we ended up staying at every state DNR park that had a campground, and we discovered how great Indiana really is!

It's great to discover, or re-discover the precious jewels hidden in your own back yard! You don't have to travel far to see and experience some spectacular places!

It's not really nearby to Illinois, at least not for most normal people, but Letchworth State Park in western NY state is probably the nicest state park I've had the pleasure of camping in so far. The campground itself is good but not great, but the scenery throughout the park and general ambiance of the place is spectacular. Plenty of hiking to keep (most) busy for a week or two.

Not sure these meet your “not manicured” criterion. That’s kind of subjective.

That said Prophetstown State Park near West Lafayette, IN and Echo Bluff State Park near Eminence, MO. Both have FHU sites and interesting hiking trails. The free roaming (not very) wild horses at Echo Bluff are kind of neat too.

We find our favorite State Parks and COEs by doing day drives on weekends to check out the local campgrounds. When the sites are full it lets us see how much leveling the occupants needed to do.

Anything we can drive to within a day we would go and check it out first. That's where the Allstays.com campground website came in very handy because they have a map of all cgs in any given area that we could go do a drive by and check out first. We've found our favorite campgrounds that way.

We liked Rend Lake COE Peaceful and spacious and there was a good bike path through the park. The site was a little uneven front to back, but a little creativity with leveling blocks and 2X4s did the trick. I think we stayed for 5 days in April 2016.