New Lake Campground

We stayed here a month while visiting family, friends and taking care of some medical issues near our hometown of Evansville, Indiana. The campsite is about 40 minutes from Evansville which was a downer, but none of the campgrounds closer to Evansville had availability for a full month. The campground has an area for short-term stays and long-term and we were in the long-term area. Most of the RVs here were full-time residents. We were on site #30. It was relatively level and we had no problems accessing the spot. The camp host and workers were nice and accommodating. The downside is no sewer hookups, but there is a gentleman with a tote that will dump your tanks. The cost is $10 for the first load and $5 for each remaining load. The dump station was full several times while we were there. Apparently, it is a small tank and the city does not do a good job of making sure it is dumped regularly. Thankfully, when we left it was not full and we were able to dump on the way out. The campsite is about 3.5 miles from I-69. The road coming in is gravel but very compacted so almost like a paved road. It is very narrow and having the trailer was a little nerve-wracking when people were passing on the other side. They have a nice beach with a sand volleyball court next to the lake. It was nice, but we never visited the lake. They have a nice walking/biking trail around the campsites and lake. We did walk that several times when the weather wasn’t awful. We were there in the month of August which is about the worst time to be in that part of the country because of the heat and humidity. We would normally not want to be there during that time of the year, but we had little choice. There are a few restaurants in Oakland City (would recommend Taylor’s 2, great steak!) and a small grocery store. There is a Walmart in nearby Princeton about 30 minutes away and of course there are several options in Evansville. Cell phone reception was good, and we had access to the internet with our hotspot. AT&T is our carrier and we got 4-5 bars of 4G LTE. Overall it was a good place to stay and you cannot beat the price at all. We would likely stay again, but want to be closer to Evansville so will probably try the camping there first.

Camped 10/14/20 (Wed). You can call and reserve RV sites, but tent sites are first come, first served. I was glad I reserved - the camp host assigned us a site at the end facing the water. Tent/primitive sites are $10. RV sites have water and electric only, plus picnic table, fire ring, grill. Primitive sites only have a picnic table & fire ring, but some have grills. RVs can park in the primitive sites and often do when the short-term sites are full. Facilities are vault toilets only, one for RVers and day-use visitors over by the beach (not in the campground), and one in the primitive area. Check-out time is 12 Noon. Firewood is available at the camp office.

The park and lake are very pretty, with small rolling hills and paved walking trails. RV sites have gravel pads (back-in), and tent sites are in the grass. RV sites were pretty level; a lot of tent sites were on hill slopes. I was surprised how many permanent/seasonal RVs took up spots. Being there in October mid-week, the campground was very quiet, but in warmer months and weekends, I'm sure it gets pretty noisy. I gave a lower noise rating because about 5 am, a train came through and laid on the horn for what seemed like the whole trip through town.

Park is well kept, and the camp hosts are super friendly & helpful. Sites don't have privacy. There are trees in the campground giving shade for some sites; others have full sun. Trash cans are in various places, plus there's a dumpster by the dump station on the way in. VTs didn't smell, had TP and hand sanitizer. There are two playgrounds, a beach, volleyball court, fishing docks, and a small boat launch.

As an FYI, there are racoons here, so trash and food should be put away at night.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. We were here in February so of course the park was pretty empty but still, the views of the lake were wonderful and the park was excellent. Staff could not have been any nicer or willing to help. The sites were level and they had everything we needed. Great stay and we will be back.

Stayed here Oct 2023 and couldn't have been happier with it. Huge area with a fishing lake, disc golf course, hiking trails and close to town.

Generally pleasant municipally owned campground. $30 a night with electricity, dump station available. In mid-February we were the only campers. There is a small playground and a sandy beach on a generous size man-made lake. The staff was friendly. Five dollars for a load of wood delivered to us. The campground loses a star due to the cleanliness of the pit toilets.