There are great walking trails with lots of dogs. There is a huge children's playground located at…read morethe park. Depending on the day and time it can either be super crowded and over run with cursing children without adults. We almost witnessed 9 years olds getting into a physical fight. The park is so large and has so much potential it is just not well kept or monitored.

Wonderful break for my kiddos as we were driving cross country! 20 minutes off my route I- 64 BUT…read morethis place was quite AMAZING!!! I have never seen a park quite like it! And free!!! Kudos!!!!

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.

Awesome park I took my family too while we were in Owensboro. Great family fun park with many…read moreslides and swings for kids. They also have a wonderful walking trail on the river and many sites to see and enjoy. Excellent much recommend place

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.

Cave-In-Rock is probably worth a stop if you happen to be not too far away…read more Tip: If you decide to visit this place, I suggest that you drive around and park near the exit if there's room there. It'll make leaving when that time comes easier. My two biggest complaints about this venue: On the weekends, you'll find so many other people visiting that it's hard to get decent pictures There's virtually no signage that explains what's what here Additionally, the venue has been defaced by various visitors over time, which makes things less pleasant for future visitors.

Cave in Rock SP is a unique laid back place. On the Ohio River, a visit to the cave namesake is a…read moremust, where pirates nicknamed River Rats would strike out or lure boats in to pilfer. We tent camped here in late July, and camping I would give 3 stars. Reserving a site would be nice since I was traveling over 7 hours to the area, and peace of mind is nice. Camp Host was fairly curt, which I've never seen. Also, no firewood to buy on site. They have a garage for wood but don't sell it and recommended the one redneck in town who sells it at a skyhigh rate. We were lucky he was at home. Bathrooms and showers at the park were impeccably clean. The park restaurant was not bad, we loved the fried catfish and acoustic guitar duo. There are rentable cabins here right by the restaurant, RV and tent camping, and plenty of hiking. Not far from Garden of the Gods!

Wonderful camp sites with some near the water. Clean…read morerestrooms and good water pressure and hot water. Important to know, take an early potty visit in the am according to house keeping that comes in at 8am. Luckily they have one other. Plenty of trails. An amphitheater on site that is so much fun and not a bad seat in the house. Southern Indiana gem indeed! Look for the Lincoln bust tucked around the backside of the history timeline monument.

Great state park. Good variety of hiking trails, a lake with swimming beach, boats you can rent,…read morecamping. Lots to see and do. They even have a moon tree!

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.

My favorite park. Beautiful and peaceful. Great place to take a walk or take dog on a walk.read more

This is a beautiful, relatively new addition to the area. Great little walking trails -- 3 small…read moreloops that can combine to a 1.25 mile large loop -- with some minor elevation changes but nothing major. A nice outdoor amphitheater for summer events, plus an indoor event center on the grounds. On my last visit, they were setting up for an outdoor wedding behind the event center - couldn't go inside to see that of course, but looked very nice. Playground is in the center of the middle trail, if you just want to drop off the kids you'll want to hang a left and go up the hill to park. Wasn't very crowded on my Saturday morning walk either, which is a great perk. Close to civilization, but tucked away behind a neighborhood so a nice little escape. Highly recommended if you're in the area and need a place to walk or take the kids to play. Also - the bathrooms here are PRISTINE for being outdoor park bathrooms. Seriously impressed.

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.

Stayed at the RV park and Wandie was great. The bathroom was very clean. Park in general was very…read morenice and so were the trails

There's a bike/walk trail that runs from Burdette to USI. 6 miles round trip. It's an easy ride…read morethrough the woods. It's a lovely ride. Burdette has trails, camping, and a water park. Lot's of good outdoor fun

What a beautiful place. We were here for the races and I his lodge is so convenient. Lovely…read moreproperty, friendly staff, clean rooms. Comfortable beds and pillows and cold air. Great after a hot day outside. We enjoyed the breakfast buffet each day. Restrauant staff were very friendly. Good service and food. Beautiful place to stay

I don't like writing reviews like this one, but I told a desk person, who asked how our stay was, I…read morewould write a review to state how my wife and I viewed our stay at the "Resort." Upon arriving, we were 30 minutes early, Central Time, so we didn't get to check in yet, though I think we still got checked in prior to 4pm. That was fine. We came from Eastern Time Zone, Sunnyside of Louisville. I had requested a view of lake when I made reservations. A view of the marina was the best they could do, I guess. Upon entering our smoke free room, I found an ashtray full of butts and a lighter on our balcony. I get the rooms are smoke free and perhaps balcony can be utilized for smoking, but why leave butts and lighter on balcony? I called the front desk regarding this and they said they would address it. I then found a credit card, gift card and a pill in one of the drawers. I gave those items to the young lady I met earlier at the front desk. My wife asked her where we could get ice and she said she didn't know. Back to that later. We ate dinner prior to arriving at the "Resort" since we had time to kill. We ate at Little Dave's which was fine. See my review on that establishment. The pool was open when we arrived but closed not long after. We drove around the "Resort" park and found the beach was closed with No Swimming signs posted. Hmm. There is a trend started here. Wifey and I like playing mini golf and sometimes disk golf when we visit State parks. It was quite hot during our stay so we went to play a relaxed game of mini golf our first night just after sunset. We could see during the first half of the course and saw a maintenance person drive up, get out of the cart and appear to go to a power box of some sort on the opposite side of the course we were at. Wifey asked me to ask him if he could put the lights on, but I didn't feel like yelling to him and told my wife he saw us and would surely put lights on if they worked. Nope. Wrong answer. We played the second half of game in the dark. The following day we learned the pool was closed for maintenance. The trend continues. We decided to get out of dodge and the "Resort" to find something to do. Apparently, there used to be a Nature Center on the "Resort," but no longer. No pool, no beach and the mini golf course needed cleanup from debris on it. I stopped by the front desk, told the young lady where guests could find ice and her mature co-worker agreed with my comment. I then asked if the mini golf course lights were inoperable. I was told they should work. I said we would play later on when we returned from a day out of the "Resort," if the lights were on. We visited Leitchfield and had a fair day shopping and dining at Bluegrass BBQ. You can read that review also. We didn't care to try the restaurant on the "Resort" since everything was trending negative, plus the Park's restaurant was voted last for dining in the area. Go figure. When we arrived back from our trip to Leitchfield, we saw the lights were already on, though it was still light out. I thought perhaps the trend is getting better, but wait for it. When we went to golf, my wife said it looks like they cut the grass around the mini golf course. She was correct. It was clear they cut the grass, because the grass was blown all over the debris that was still present from the day before. That course could be nice with a little TLC. I thought to ask the front desk for a blower to help out the maintenance people, but didn't. I figured the answer would be no. I had been told a work order needed to go in to get the lights on at the mini golf course. I'd like to say the AC worked fine in the room. The flashing lights also worked in the room all night. You may want to bring dark blinders when it is time to sleep. My wife said the flashing lights were like fireworks going off all night. If you are a tall person, be prepared to hunch down to get under the shower head and bend way over to use the sink. Who decides where to install things at this "Resort?" Our last item to mention before ending this review is on our way back from the mini golf course, the light for the walkway between parking lot and our room was out. My wife said, "It is aweful dark on this walkway." I told her the LED light on top of the pole is out. Perhaps they need some more maintenance people or a new supervisor. I wasn't even looking for things at this "Resort," but they stuck out like sore thumbs. My wife and I have visited every Indiana State Park with lodging and several Kentucky State Parks with lodging. This one is hands-down the worst. Calling it a "Resort," is laughable. I think if I came to go boating, it may be a bit of a different perspective, but I feel a little reluctant to rent a boat at the State Park due to the trend it displays. Hopefully, the Park superintendent, or whatever they are called, can address these issues so future visitors have a better stay.