Hardin Ridge in IN -- Campground & RV Camping
Hardin Ridge in IN
CampgroundUSFS
5.6 mi from Smithville-Sanders
Official campground & reservations ↗
Road Access
- Road difficulty 1 of 5: an easy drive in.
- Recorded as maintained for passenger-car comfort, paved, pitching to 2%.
Rig fit
- Maximum published vehicle length: 60 ft.
- Longest published RV site: 60 ft.
- Longest published trailer site: 60 ft.
- 3 pull-through sites.
- Driveway grade: moderate.
Campground details
Setting
Hardin Ridge Recreation Area is a 1,200-acre complex on Monroe Reservoir in Hoosier National Forest, featuring 197 campsites (including 36 walk-in tent sites and electric hookups at roughly half the drive-in sites), flush toilets, showers, two rental cabins, and three picnic shelters. Visitors use the year-round 3-lane boat ramp, fish for bass and crappie in lake inlets, hike the 2-mile Hardin Ridge Trail or the 1.2-mile Ted T. Turtle interpretive path, and use a 300-foot sandy swimming beach backed by a grassy hillside.
Getting there: From Bedford, go 7 miles east on US 50. Go north on SR 446 for 12 miles and turn west on Chapel Hill Road and travel 2 miles to the Hardin Ridge Recreation Area. From Bloomington, 46 and 446 intersection, go 14 miles south on SR 446. Turn west on Chapel Hill Road and travel 2 miles to the Hardin Ridge Recreation Area.
- Little separation from through roads or other sites here, a 208-site campground with the nearest through road 0.1 miles off.
- Open country, with nothing named rising within 30 miles.
- 2 on the water, with most of them shaded.
- A pond lies 0.4 mi off.
- Estimated night sky: Bortle 3, a dark rural sky.
Climate averages
October normals 44–67°F, 3.6″ precipitation. Monthly averages, PRISM 1991–2020.
Starlink Radar
Open sky · Terrain & buildings · Tree canopy
Estimated horizon in eight compass directions, using 10 m USGS elevation. Sky clearance 83 of 100.