Love this place. Brings back alot of childhood memories. We went camping here alot and I loved the…read morebeach.

What a beautiful place to get away and enjoy what nature has to offer! This state park is pretty…read morewell maintained and a really great place to hike, bike, and camp! I also love that there are little pieces of history sprinkled in along the way. There are many hiking trails to choose from that are drawn out on pamphlet maps available to visitors. However, I will say that some of the trails can be a little rough. The terrain is also different among them; for instance, some are dirt while others are rock. The rock ones are by far more difficult to maneuver, but regardless of which path you are on, I encourage you to watch your step and where you are going at all times. If you find yourself close to the train tracks, I caution you to be aware of your surroundings! The train tracks are active, so definitely keep that in mind. To reinforce the idea of being aware of your surroundings, you should also be aware of the plant wildlife in the area. During my visit here, I must have gotten into some sort of poison ivy or something because I broke out in an awfully itchy rash. Just definitely rinse off after adventuring in the woods, if you have the option! If you can make it to the big lake, I highly encourage you to check it out. It is so pretty, especially during the sunset in the evening hours. All in all, I suggest adding this state park to your list to check out!

Completely free to visit! There is a large parking lot at the Memorial Hall and also some parking…read morecloser to the living history farm. The Memorial Hall is a good place to start with a short educational video, some small exhibits, and the gift shop. The Memorial Visitor Center closes from 12-1 pm for lunch, so plan accordingly if you need to use the nice clean bathrooms or fill your water bottle. The park includes a pioneer cemetery, a living history farm, a memorial to the Lincoln family cabin, and some short trails. When we visited (late May) on a weekday morning, there were no historical interpreters at the living history farm, and the buildings were all locked. I'm not sure when the living history farm is functional, but it looks like it would be fun. I highly recommend the Trail of Twelve Stones, which leads you through the peaceful woods along a path which houses 12 stones from significant locations in Lincoln's life.

Abraham Lincoln is great and almost universally identified as the greatest president ever. I've…read morebeen to his birth site in Kentucky, His tomb, Presidential Library and home in Illinois and his memorial and place of death in Washington DC. This was basically my last spot in my pilgrimage to all things Lincoln. This was probably the least interesting of all the sites that I listed above, The visitor's center has a small gift shop, the usual National Park rangers to give you maps and knowledge and a theatre to watch a little film about the Honest One himself. From there you walk up to the Pioneer Cemetery where there is a memorial for Abe's mother Nancy who is buried somewhere near that spot. She died of milk sickness all because a cow ate a snakeroot plant! Thank God for modern medicine! Anyway from there you walk up to replica of the cabin they would have lived in and an active farm that looks as it would have when Lincoln was there. The last spot is a spring that the Lincoln's would have carried water from. All in all it was a mile walk each way. You can drive closer to some of these spots as well if you lack feet. All in all I'm glad the place exists but it's not a must do spot for the casual history buff.

Yellig Park has an OK playground for young kids. The playground equipment skews a little young, and…read morethere aren't a whole bunch of things to play on, but we killed about 15 minutes here. I think this park mostly revolves around the baseball / softball field -- there's is a snack bar that wasn't open when we were there, but I'm sure it's open when there's a game. There's also a basketball court, soccer field, walking trails and a pavilion. The restrooms were open when we visited, and they were relatively clean.

This park would be a perfect place to add a disc golf course! Half the work is already done with…read morethe walking path. It would be another draw to the area and give campers in the area more to do as well. Let's go!!!

This is such a hidden gem! There are many photo opportunities in this beautiful Nature preserve…read more If you're having a picnic or want an areas you can rent for events! I this is the place! I highly recommend Saunders Springs! I recently took my sister's maternity photos there! Great photo opportunities.

We stopped here on our way through this area and discovered this hidden gem. We didn't have the…read moretime or energy to do much of the available hiking, but they have several trails with varying degrees of difficulty. It was a beautiful area, green and lush, with several areas for picnicking and wading into creeks. There was a lake that people were fishing in. Several old cabins were on the property that added a fun dimension to the area. If we're ever in the area again, we might stop and take advantage of more of the hiking trails.

I am so glad I made time to explore this park in Huntingburg at the end of my road trip. I had no…read moreidea that this park contained League Stadium, home of the Dubois County Bombers. The Bombers is a team of guys who had enough talent and enough love for the game to keep playing after their days/seasons of high school and college baseball were over. They are part of an eight team league in Indiana and Kentucky that have regularly scheduled games. And, because the stadium has a "throwback" look to it from the golden years of baseball, the stadium was used to film two movies! The most notable was "A League of Their Own" starring Tom Hanks as the manager who utters the memorable line "There's No Crying in Baseball!" But even if you aren't a baseball fan, there is so much to do here. There is a large swimming pool with an impressive water slide. There are basketball courts, tennis courts, horseshoe pits, shelters, a gazebo, and more playground equipment than the average adult can chase kids around. There is also centrally located parking (paved) that makes it nice for visitors regardless of game night or not. This was one of the gems of my southwest Indiana journey! Review #3188

Small yet relaxing state forest!…read more Found the forest while looking for a nice spot to have a picnic. It's small but never seems crowded. I've been on both weekdays and weekends, and most weekdays you'll only share the place with a handful of people. It's $7 to enter the park (if someone's at the gates), $13 / night to camp, and $5.35/hour to rent a small boat or canoe. The forest hosts a lake for swimming (sand beach) or boating, two playgrounds, a plethora of grills, and many covered pavilions with picnic tables. Things to know before you go: there is no running water that I could see, however the restrooms were kept well stocked. This is also a place where you leave with everything you came in with, including trash. There are no trash cans available. I usually make it a habit to stop at the gas station headed back into town. ALSO: bring bug spray!

Since COVID 19 is still an issue we were looking for local places to try while avoiding crowds so…read morewe spent a day here. If someone is on the gate the price is $7 to enter and despite the fact that its a smaller park it does have a lake that allows for kayaking, fishing & electric trolling motors only. Jon boats & canoes can be rented by the hour and the lake has a beach area where a handful of children were taking advantage of the good weather. A lifeguard isn't provided but there is a changing house. There are grills within the park and we had a small portion of the lake to ourselves while grilling. There are picnic tables & benches around one side of the lake and it made for a peaceful break during the normal work week. Camping is available for tents and other sections for campers & RVs. The hiking is limited but if you combine all the trails & fire lanes its about 10 miles. The city of Ferdinand is what I call a sleepy little city and I mean that in the best way, so on a Wednesday I saw only a dozen people on this day and relaxed, avoided COVID and look forward to a time when its safe to try the local brewery & restaurants.

What a great park! I'd never been to Owensboro before and just came to try Fetta Pizza which was…read morerecommended by locals. Kudos to Owensboro for creating such a nice area on the river. Fun shops and restaurants and the park is so creative. Awesome for families and everyone. Indy should steal this developments ideas for its White River.

Smothers Park is a beautiful and clean family park. There are activities for all ages of children,…read moreand plenty of places for parents to sit and enjoy the view. There are bridges, a hollow tree, a climbing wall, a large slide, and plenty of places to play hide and seek. This park and the Riverwalk are my favorite places in Owensboro.

This park is fantastic! It is well maintained and safe for kids. There are three playgrounds…read more The bike trails are the best around! If you are hiking on the trails don't go when it's damp because they are extremely slick. Some of the rv sites are small but workable. The staff is extremely friendly and helpful. My biggest concern is the front gate. It is locked with a chain and padlock so you have to get out of your vehicle to unlock it open the gate and drive through then get back out to close it and lock it. The lock numbers are 5 font so hard to see and it sticks sometimes which is so fun when raining. I felt so vulnerable doing this after coming back from visiting family. They really need an automated gate!

I was down in Southern Indiana and took the opportunity to visit Scales Lake Park. Scales Lake Park…read morefalls under Warrick County Parks. The park offers a 66-acre lake with activities including boating (including boat rentals), camping, fishing, swimming, picnicking, and cabin rentals (both primitive and with utilities). The beach opens Memorial Day weekend and closes August 6th for this year. Admission is $3 per person on M-F and $4 on weekends. Children ages 5 and under are free. Hours are 11am-5pm weather permitting. It should be noted that flotation devices are not allowed. There are mountain biking trails. You can buy a daily pass ($3) or annual pass (General, $40), Warrick County residents ($35), Seniors ($30), and Warrick County Seniors ($25). Annual passes are good for the entire calendar year. Having checked out some of the mountain bike trails, they are generally not wheelchair friendly and since they are for mountain bikes that makes sense. Scales Lake also has a petting zoo that is included with your park admission. It's relatively small but kids will love it. Scales Lake offers events and even week-long summer camps that are surprisingly affordable. Scales Lake offers camping sites that are Class A sites with water, sewer, and electricity, Class B sites with water and electric, and Class C (primitive) sites for the more rugged outdoors person. The lake offers four two-bedroom cabins that can sleep eight persons each. One of the cabins is specifically wheelchair accessible. Pricing per night is $150 (Thursday-Saturday and holidays), $130 (Sunday-Wednesday), and there's a $65 deposit. Finally, Scales Lake also offers an event pavilion and outdoor shelter available for rentals. Scales Lake is particularly great for those who like to rough it a bit more in terms of camping, hiking, or biking. I wouldn't call it a particularly wheelchair friendly park, however, I enjoyed my visit and had no problem justifying park admission and making good use of it. As is true of many public parks, rules and policies can be fairly strict so before renting definitely review agreements. However, for Warrick Park residents in southeast Indiana this park is a definite gem.

This is a great asset to Evansville. This is one of the oldest old growth forests in an urban…read morecommunity. Great hiking trails along the Wabash and Erie Canal, a great nature center, and a maple syrup festival. I recommend getting the family membership.

There are two things we look for when we travel. 1) Brewhouses and 2) Parks. We found both in…read moreEvansville, and Wesselman Woods is an amazing place, even though our visit was cut short. It's a bit off the beaten path, as you have to go through a residential area and then past another park/sports complex, but it's worth the drive. The parking area is next to a community recycling center, which I think is appropriate because anything that's returned there isn't getting put in a landfill or thrown out into the wilderness. When you enter the park there is a heavily-treed path you follow to the Visitor's Center. For being located near a large city you'd think that the park would be pretty open...exposed....but that's not the case. This park is SO green and you can't even tell where the Visitor's Center is until you're almost directly in front of it. That Visitor's Center has quite a few displays (plant and animal) for you to peruse before you go out into the wilderness. The part I liked the best was the curved display that looked out onto an area that a variety of birds frequent, along with informational plaques. I could have spent hours in that room alone. The cost to walk the trails is $5 per person. We were advised that we should apply some mosquito repellent because it had rained pretty heavily during the previous couple of days and, as a result, the mosquitoes were pretty thick. Well, I'm here to tell you, "the mosquitoes were pretty thick" doesn't even come close to describing the density of the mosquito population that day. Nowhere Near. What started out as about a 1 1/2 to 2 mile walk turned into a quickly paced just-short-of-a-run 20 minute journey through what I'm going to call the Mosquito Jungle. These little buggers weren't just everywhere, they were EVERYWHERE, including places they shouldn't/didn't have the right /I never gave them permission for. It was crazy. We spent more time swatting these bastages than we did anything else. My wife and I took turns covering each other's back. While we DID apply more than enough repellent, these were the most defiant insects I'd ever seen. They were flocking to us like pre-pubescent teen to a Justin Bieber concert, and all we did was walk through the door. What we were able to see of the nature preserve was beautiful. The trails are very clearly marked and directional signs are never too far out of sight (which came in handy as we tried to frantically find out way back to non-mosquito-infected territory), and the trails themselves were very well maintained. The next time we're in Evansville we plan visiting again (hopefully NOT after a monsoon) so we can take our time to better enjoy the plant and wildlife without being attacked. It really is a beautiful place.