Starve Hollow State Recreation Area Campground

Fantastic camping sites on the water and great hiking trails!

It's a nice campground. They also have some beautiful spots by the lake, but only have power. The beach it's not too great, lots of bike riding areas though!

This was a great camping experience, with one exception. Our site, #31, had quite a slope to it and it was a very tight fit for our small 20’ Winnebago Hike into the only available spot of the campsite.

After some help, since we are new to RV camping, our neighbor assisted us with getting the camper level.

One issue with the site is there is a dead tree in the middle of the site. If it were removed, we would have had more room to park the camper on level ground and would have been able to open the awning.

A great place to camp, the campground facilities and staff were excellent.

Starve Hollow State Recreation Area is 280 acres that are adjacent to Jackson-Washington State Forest (18,000 acres). Starve Hollow offers a great camping experience with accommodations ranging from primitive to full hook-ups and the park is impeccably maintained. The full hook-up sites are spacious with most offering a nice tree canopy. A large number of electric only sites are bordering the 145-acre Starve Hollow Lake with a large swimming beach, and picnic area. The park offers boat, canoe, and kayak rental plus an Education Center, fishing, hiking and mountain bike trails that extend into Jackson-Washington State Forest. The surrounding communities are full of interesting history; the longest existing (460') covered bridge built in 1875, classic round barns, original iron bridges, and the historic Medora Shale Brick Plant (1904) to name a few. Easy access from I-65 via US 50 W, then SR 135 S.

We never thought that we would find a campground with stunning views to camp right on a lake in Indiana.
This campground has a lot of lakeside camping that are very large and shaded. Even the sites that were not right on the lake were very spacious and shaded. The Full Hookup area does not have a view of the lake. We always will choose a view over convenience of the full hookup area.
The beach has a lot of trees for full shade and is a short walk from either the Electric or Full Hookup Sites.
The campground is very quiet and is great for kayaking.
Our site was the best over many great sites at Starve Hollow.

Nice park don’t get me wrong but, the facilities need some upgrades. The vaulted bathrooms, nope not doing it. The convenient centers where nicer which included showers and bathrooms but, could use an upgrade. Don’t trust the distances that it states on the web page. Site 69 stated that it was 20 yards from water, it was actually about 50 yard. I had enough hose on board to reach 20 yards so I set up my camper before I got water only to find out that I actually didn’t have enough hose because it was 50 yards away. Overall the park was nice. Trails were good. Lake was nice and had rv/camp sites on waters edge. I have one picked out for next time I come. One note of caution, do not get a site that is close to a dumpster. The smell was horrible.

Had great weather here all weekend

Lake was very overgrown/slimy and really hurt the Viewing experience. Tried to rent a row boat for a day and returned within 1 hour as paddling was impossible because of all the overgrown seaweeds and such in the water. This has a really nice sandy beach that has lot of room and many people just come for the day to use that.
We like to hike and main foot bridge is out to get from camp ground to most of trails which also hurt experience. We then drove to trail head outside the park. These trails were very rugged which was indicated on map, but very overgrown and not well maintained.

Campground location was good and many come here for water sites that go right up to water. Lots of noise and kids riding bikes/scooters etc. Full hookups have no view or sites by lake. Bathrooms were fine and we enjoyed our experience just some things dampened our time.

The lots were spacious. We had full hookup. There were lots of lakeside sites in the electric section, but most were too short for our camper. The camp store was nice. You could rent boats for 24 hours. We took ours out the first day and then went back out at sunrise the next morning. It was beautiful. Very clean. Nice environment.

We loved it! But we didn’t use the shower or bath houses. We had electricity by the lake and had several different trees over our head.
We enjoyed watching the people fishing from a couple different boats. The lily pads are amazing and HUGE!
We had a nice fire in the fire pit and sat around it until we got chilly. Beautiful having coffee by the lake this morning.
There was a lot of kids riding bikes on all the roads and playing with remote control cars. And a lot of people walking dogs.
Staff was very friendly and helpful.

PROS

Site 243 level asphalt parking pad surrounded by dirt
Site 243 shady
Two moveable wooden picnic tables in campsite as most campsites had 2
Metal campfire ring with cooking grate
Toilet/shower facility clean and well stocked
Numerous trash dumpsters throughout campground
Occasional campground drive thru by park rangers
Roadway easy to maneuver
Friendly check-in
No street lights in campground
Firewood for sale in park and also just a mile outside park
TMOBILE 2 bars

CONS

No senior or veteran discount
Paid $9 entrance fee in addition to campsite fee
Charged $6.50 to make my own online reservation
Dogs not kept on leashes. We would be sitting at our site and dogs just walked up to us
Not sufficient space to park tow vehicle on campsite asphalt so had to park on site dirt
No security gate closure overnight
Not dark sky friendly due to overuse of exterior lighting by campers
No Park WIFI