U.S. Forest Service · Hoosier National Forest · IN

Youngs Creek Campground

ReservableBooking 6 months out; today unlocks April 16. Season not published.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
A night
FreeNo camping fee
Sites
14All of them booked ahead
840 ftElevation
501 ftWater · an unnamed pond
2.5 miS of Paoli, IN
0%Tree cover
Bortle 4Night sky · 14th darkest of 23 in IN

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices

In the agency’s own words

A primitive campground with vault toilets, hitching racks, and a picnic shelter is available. Around 12 and half miles of trails are available for hiking, mountain biking and horse riding. Keep reading

Recreation

The Youngs Creek Campground provides access to the 12.7-mile Youngs Creek multiple use trail for horseback riding, mountain biking, and hiking.

Facilities

A picnic shelter with picnic tables is located across from the vault toilet. High line posts, picnic tables and fire rings are located at designated campsites 1-7 on the south end of the campground. Sites 8-14 are located in a open grassy area with high line posts available. There are 2 frost-free hydrants to provide non-potable water.

Natural Features

Shady trails, scenic hardwood forests and a variety of terrain

What the agency tells you

Rule

All camping is free of charge

Rule

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
14
Hookups
None
Accessible sites
None listed
Pets
Allowed
Campfires
Allowed, barring fire bans
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Vault Toilets
VAULT TOILETS on 14 of 14 campsite records
Stay limit
28 nights
recreation.gov facility rule maxStay

Around the campground

On the water
Creek
Backpacking
Hiking
Horse Camping
Horseback riding
Mountain biking
Picnicking
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026

Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:34 UTC

Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.

Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.

Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
Max stay28 nightsthe facility record
A nightFreeplus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s fee record
A weekend$8DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 12

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
Camping feeFree
Rates for the season the campground is in now, Jan 1, 2026 to Dec 31, 2026.
All camping is free of charge.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
One nightDerived$8
A weekend, Friday and SaturdayDerived$8

Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s own record says there’s no camping fee, 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.

If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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 · 5

recreation.gov availability, read 15:34 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

14 sites · which ones have room · the site map

The sites, ranked

from 14 mapped sites
61 ftbetween you and the next site, typically
Least room10 34 ft9 34 ft13 52 ft

All 14 sites

14 of 14 sites located
Standard14
Aerial · Esri World Imagery
SleepsTakes a

Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 14 of the 14 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.

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.

Youngs Creek Campground1standard nonelectric95 ft512 ft533 ft
Youngs Creek Campground10standard nonelectric34 ft641 ft135 ft
Youngs Creek Campground11standard nonelectric54 ft541 ft133 ft
Youngs Creek Campground12standard nonelectric54 ft579 ft177 ft
Youngs Creek Campground13standard nonelectric52 ft614 ft231 ft
Youngs Creek Campground14standard nonelectric52 ft662 ft271 ft
Youngs Creek Campground2standard nonelectric68 ft455 ft442 ft
Youngs Creek Campground3standard nonelectric68 ft396 ft402 ft
Youngs Creek Campground4standard nonelectric64 ft385 ft311 ft
Youngs Creek Campground5standard nonelectric64 ft385 ft252 ft
Youngs Creek Campground6standard nonelectric81 ft380 ft193 ft
Youngs Creek Campground7standard nonelectric82 ft516 ft40 ft
Youngs Creek Campground8standard nonelectric58 ft569 ft42 ft
Youngs Creek Campground9standard nonelectric34 ft615 ft101 ft

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the phone number

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Today56°Sunny
Tonight33°Clear then Areas Of Frost
Sunday64°Widespread Frost then Sunny
Sunday Night36°Clear

NWS forecast for Paoli, IN

Typical weather

Typical October night 42°F, day 68°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 21°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

100°32°10°

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.

Measured at: PAOLI, IN (USC00126705), 4 miles away and 280 ft lower

The land, and who answers for it

who answers for it

Who answers for this land

Mark Messmer, official portrait

Youngs Creek Campground 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate: the number below is the only way to be sure.
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.