Tipsaw Lake
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 9 of the next 9 nights read 15:51 UTC
- A night
- $24–$49Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 48All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Tipsaw Lake Recreation Area is located on the shores of its namesake lake in south-central Indiana's Hoosier National Forest. It offers camping, picnic areas, boating, swimming, hiking, biking and educational programs. Visitors enjoy the scenic views of the forest and all it has to offer. Keep reading
Recreation
Boating, fishing and swimming in the lake are popular activities. Electric motors are allowed, and fishing for pan fish is considered excellent. The boat ramp and parking area is open year-round. A beautiful swimming beach with playground equipment and a modern bathhouse is also available. The beach offers a combination of sand and sun or a shady, grass-covered hillside. A 5.9-mile trail for hiking and mountain biking runs from the day-use area around the lake. The trail includes scenic overlooks of the lake and valley and traverses a variety of forest types. A trail permit is available for purchase and is required for mountain bikers age 17 and older.
Facilities
The area offers dozens of individual, double and group campsites, available for tent and RV camping. Group sites can accommodate up to 65 people. Each site is equipped with tables and campfire rings with grills. Accessible flush toilets, showers and drinking water are provided. A beach area is fully accessible and is equipped with washing stations and changing rooms. Electric and water hookups are available at some sites and parking surfaces are paved. A day-use area is also available and provides access to the beach and picnic areas and shelters, as well as the boat ramp. Horseshoe pits and and open areas for games are nearby.
Natural Features
The campground is adjacent to 131-acre Tipsaw Lake, in a hardwood and pine forest. Situated at an elevation of 380 feet, the campground is composed of five loops that offer dozens of campsites. Some sites are shaded and the roads are paved.
Nearby Attractions
Special Places on the Hoosier National Forest Brooks Cabin Buffalo Trace Carnes Mill Site Clover Lick Barrens Hickory Ridge Lookout Tower Initial Point Lick Creek African American Settlement The Jacob Rickenbaugh Homestead Wesley Chapel Gulf
What the agency tells you
First-come, first-served sites may be available
$8 fee will be charged to vehicles using the day use area
Only electric motors are allowed on the lake
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Each campsite fee includes a camping unit (tent,camper) & one vehicle (single sites) and two vehicles (double sites). There is a $8.00 charge per day for the second vehicle, and $8.00 charge per day for any additional vehicle (must be paid at time of check-in). Maximum two vehicles per single site, and four vehicles per double site. There is a surcharge for the site with electric and water.
Click here for more information on the Hoosier National Forest
Don't move firewood: To limit the spread of invasive tree-killing pests, firewood from outside the area is not permitted. Some states have quarantines and may confiscate your firewood. Please help protect our forests from invasive species by obtaining your firewood at or near your camping destination and burning it on-site. Visit dontmovefirewood.org for more information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 48 · 4 walk-in, 2 group
- Hookups
- 33 electric, 14 water, 2 sewer
- Longest rig
- 102 ft
- Paved pads
- 22 of 48
- Accessible sites
- 4
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…campfire rings with grills. Accessible flush toilets, showers and drinking water are provided. A beach…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER (SEASONAL) on 2 of 50 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Night sky · 9th darkest of 23 in IN
- Bortle 4
19 of 72 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:51 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 23
What you actually pay
“There is a $8.00 charge per day for the second vehicle, and $8.00 charge per day for any additional vehicle (must be paid at time of check-in).” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $24–$49 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 15:51 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
50 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 34 mapped sitesAll 50 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 47 of the 50 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| CATB | 001 | rv electric | 44 ft | 50 amp | 138 ft | 1,099 ft | $38 | |
| CATB | 002 | rv electric | 53 ft | 50 amp | $38 | |||
| CATB | 003 | rv electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | yes | 138 ft | 1,019 ft | $38 |
| CATB | 004 | rv electric | 102 ft | 50 amp | $38 | |||
| CATB | 005 | rv electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 875 ft | $38 | |
| CATB | 006 | rv electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | yes | $38 | ||
| CATB | 007 | rv electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | yes | 61 ft | 915 ft | $38 |
| CATB | 008 | rv electric | 54 ft | 15 amp | $38 | |||
| CATB | 009 | rv electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 32 ft | 965 ft | $38 | |
| CATB | 010 | rv electric | 49 ft | 50 amp | $38 | |||
| CATB | 011 | rv electric | 70 ft | 15 amp | yes | $38 | ||
| Dogwood | 024 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 75 ft | 1,017 ft | $33–$49 | |
| Dogwood | 025 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 1,102 ft | $33–$49 | |
| Dogwood | 026 | walk to | 35 ft | 65 ft | 1,166 ft | $24 | ||
| Dogwood | 027 | walk to | 35 ft | 65 ft | 1,162 ft | $24 | ||
| Dogwood | 028 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 75 ft | 1,087 ft | $24–$37 | ||
| Dogwood | 029 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 143 ft | 924 ft | $24–$37 | ||
| Dogwood | 030 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 143 ft | 1,031 ft | $24–$37 | ||
| Dogwood | 031 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 75 ft | 941 ft | $24–$37 | ||
| Dogwood | 032 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 75 ft | 987 ft | $24–$37 | ||
| Dogwood | 033 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 95 ft | 914 ft | $24–$37 | ||
| Dogwood | 034 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 95 ft | 861 ft | $24–$37 | ||
| Dogwood | 035 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 75 ft | 991 ft | $24–$37 | ||
| Dogwood | 036 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 75 ft | 1,015 ft | $24–$37 | ||
| Dogwood | 037 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 152 ft | 885 ft | $24–$37 | ||
| ESHL | GS1 | day use | 30 amp | $59 | ||||
| GGRP | GS4 | group standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 300 ft | 956 ft | $80 | |
| JackPine | 001 | standard electric | 20 ft | 15 amp | 87 ft | 1,041 ft | $33–$49 | |
| JackPine | 002 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15 amp | $33–$49 | |||
| JackPine | 003 | standard electric | 20 ft | 15 amp | 87 ft | 1,120 ft | $33–$49 | |
| JackPine | 004 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15 amp | $33–$49 | |||
| JackPine | 005 | type not stated | 20 ft | 100 amp | 867 ft | |||
| JackPine | 006 | rv electric | 20 ft | 15 amp | $38 | |||
| JackPine | 007 | rv electric | 20 ft | 100 amp | 32 ft | 934 ft | $38 | |
| JackPine | 008 | rv electric | 35 ft | 15 amp | $38 | |||
| JackPine | 009 | standard electric | 20 ft | 15 amp | 126 ft | 1,123 ft | $33–$49 | |
| JackPine | 010 | standard electric | 20 ft | 15 amp | $33–$49 | |||
| JackPine | 011 | walk to | 10 ft | 15 amp | $24 | |||
| JackPine | 012 | walk to | 10 ft | 15 amp | $24 | |||
| JackPine | 015 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 147 ft | 880 ft | $33–$49 | |
| JackPine | 016 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 87 ft | 1,009 ft | $33–$49 | |
| JackPine | 017 | rv electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 83 ft | 1,078 ft | $38 | |
| JackPine | 018 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 83 ft | 1,155 ft | $33–$49 | |
| JackPine | 019 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 137 ft | 1,037 ft | $33–$49 | |
| JackPine | 020 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 91 ft | 1,208 ft | $33–$49 | |
| JackPine | 021 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 122 ft | 1,160 ft | $33–$49 | |
| JackPine | 022 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 111 ft | 1,203 ft | $33–$49 | |
| JackPine | 023 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 68 ft | 1,092 ft | $33–$49 | |
| PGRP | GS5 | group standard electric | 35 ft | 300 ft | 874 ft | $80 | ||
| WEST | GS2 | day use | $50 |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 50 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
From St. Croix, Indiana, travel south on State Route 37 about 5 miles to the Tipsaw Lake sign. Turn right and continue about 3 miles to the campground. Tipsaw Lake is only 3 miles from Interstate 64.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Leopold, IN
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 71°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 26°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Tipsaw Lake is in Indiana’s 8th congressional district. Its representative, Mark Messmer (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →