raccoon lake state recreation area

I like you going to the lake. we go every year. I like to go fishing and boating. and we have a cook out too.

I have grown up around Raccoon Lake, at local campgrounds, for the summers. The beach and clubhouse are nice. There is nothing like Indiana Lakes. Camping on the primitive sites are nicely placed in the woods. And plenty of Raccoons to see , appropriately named Park.

Visted family who were staying here for the weekend. What a great place. the park staff had planned kids activities (Scavenger hunt, Movie and free smore's), which I've not seen at many RV parks. The site they were at was nice and big with a big grassy area nearby that allowed the kids to run and play freely. Small playground with swings, teeter totter, and climbing equipment and a few small trails. Saw lots and lots of big boats and people so I'm guessing the lake is big and great, but we didn't go in the lake. Nice campground, would recommend.

Raccoon Lake State Recreation Area is nice and provides necessary amenities. We greatly enjoyed our visit there.

This was our first trip to Raccoon SRA. We are seasoned campers/boaters and we found both the lake and campgrounds very nice. The boat ramps and parking were excellent. My only complaint is that we camped in a nonelectric campground (Lakeside) and as the weekend rolled around, 2 travel trailer campers came in, set up and proceeded to start up their extremely loud generators. Everyone in the campground was upset by this annoying disruption to the peace and quite we'd been experiencing up to that point. We complained to the management but I guess there isn't any regulation against generators. Other parts of the park have electric sites so we couldn't figure why these campers didn't go there? Only at 11 pm did the park ranger come around and make them shut the generators off....7 am they fired them back up! I'd say the park should review their policies on allowing generators in what's supposed to be a peaceful place to relax!

We did tent camping here and had a great time. The campsites are small and ours had a bit of a slope. We had a raccoon family visit our site every night looking for food/trash. My kids loved it.My young kids loved the beach. The swimming area was shallow and calm. We hiked one of the longer trails and it was rugged and pretty. Many people come here with boats. There were a lot of boats in the lake the entire weekend. If you don't like crowds, the trails are probably your best option.

was small but kids still had fun u still can view the lake and see your child from anywhere on the beach

This is also known as Cecil M Hardin Lake SRA. This is mainly a boating/fishing/camping destination, but there's also picnic areas & hiking. It's very beautiful. There are 6 hikes. hike 4 is the only one rated as rugged, but hikes 1-4 have stairs & hills. Definitely rugged in my book. Our favorite was hike 1, which starts by the boat ramp. 1.5 miles. goes by an old cemetery. Hikes 1-4 all have nice views of the lake, if not go right up to the shoreline. My husband was the most impressed with trail 6, which is an archery trail. We just walked it, but it has several 3 D targets, set up in a safe manner. We've never seen anything like it in the many years we've hiked in state parks around the country. There's boat rentals, a swimming beach that looked algae free. Numerous fish cleaning stations (all closed. Don't know why). We camped on the Whitetail loop in the campground. Site 140 is the best site there. A view of the lake, but through the trees. Lakeview loop had the best sites for a clear view. 93 & 102 IMO are the best sites. While looking at the mill, a local told us a short cut to get to the dam site. Take Mill Road, which is a gravel road from Mansfield to get to Ferndale road & turn right. Then turn left at Dam Road.You can cross the dam in your car to get to a picnic area that's a favorite of Amish teenagers. Apparently they take their buggies there at night & "park". Sure enough, when we visited it there was horse dung in some of the parking spaces! We didn't visit at night, so I can't tell you if the necking part was true ;)

If you ever get the chance to visit in July they have a wonderful fireworks show. They also offer boat rental to explore the lake! If camping don't leave any food out because the raccoons are abundant. They will not leave you alone if you feed them :)

Loved this place! There are Raccoons that come up to your campfire after dark, but everything is well maintained. We had a dead battery to our vehicle and they immediately came and gave us a jump for free. The shower houses were up dated. Lots of paths and trails to explore.

We enjoyed our weekend visit very much! We went down on a Friday and left Sunday early afternoon. They named it Raccoon park for a reason....there are tons of them everywhere! We made sure our food was in coolers and stored in our vehicles during the night. We will definitely visit again!