Summer at Starve Hollow starts on the sand and drifts out onto a 145-acre lake where the only boats under power run on trolling motors. Behind the beach, Jackson-Washington State Forest climbs into wooded hills, and the trails east of the lake are the afternoon plan once everyone has had enough sun. At night the family walks back to a site under the trees, and because the motorhome never leaves its pad, the week settles into that loop by the second day.
The full-hookup loop is the one to book. Indiana DNR lists 53 full-hookup sites with water, sewer and electric at a parking spur. They sit back in the canopy with no lake view, a fair trade in August when shade beats scenery. Another 87 sites have electric only, and the dump station on the property handles those rigs on the way out.
Book that pad before you book the rig. DNR posts no pad length for the campground as of October 2026, so check the individual site when you reserve and size the motorhome to it. If the site runs tight, or it's only two of you, Indiana campervan rentals reach the same beach in something shorter.
The gates are open daily from May through October, and the swimming beach runs from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, per the park page. That page also posts blue-green algae advisories for the lake, and a yellow one was up as of October 2026, so look before a swim day. Opening weekend at the beach lands on race weekend in Indianapolis, when the Speedway infield fills with rigs for the 500 and the listings around Greenwood go fast. A beach-opening trip means booking the motorhome as early as the pad, and the race and state fair weeks themselves are on the Indianapolis RV page.
Columbus is on the way down I-65, close enough for the day the kids are sunburned and the adults want to see what a small Indiana town did with modern architecture.
Columbus architecture and the Bartholomew County Fairgrounds
Columbus puts Eero Saarinen and I.M. Pei concrete and glass on an ordinary small-town grid, a few blocks from where you'd expect a brick storefront and a diner. The visitor bureau counts more than 70 buildings by Saarinen, Pei, Kevin Roche and others, and cites an AIA ranking that puts the town sixth in the nation. The Architecture Tours are the easy way to see it with kids along, and the Miller House and Garden is the stop to save for the grown-ups.
Families who'd rather give Columbus a few nights of its own can base at the Bartholomew County Fairgrounds, which rents full-hookup sites with 30 and 50 amp service, each at least 80 feet long and 50 feet wide. That's more pad than most motorhomes need, slides and awning out included. The sites are open year-round except fair week in late June and early July, which is also the stretch when Starve Hollow and every other southern Indiana lake campground fills, so a Columbus night that week has nowhere at the fairgrounds to land.
West of Columbus, Brown County State Park and Monroe Lake are their own trip of ridge roads and fall color, written up on the Bloomington page.
Versailles State Park in the southeastern ridges
Southeastern Indiana folds into long wooded ridges around Versailles, the state's second-largest state park, and the steps up to the overlook at the dam are the walk everyone ends up doing. It suits a family that has already done Starve Hollow and wants different woods, or a week when the southern lake is booked solid.
Indiana DNR lists 226 electric sites at Versailles with a dumping station and a camp store, and reservations go through camp.in.gov. There's no sewer at the site, so roll in with empty tanks and dump on the way out. No pad length is posted here either, so the site goes on the calendar before the rig does.