Spring Mill State Park

When we visited Spring Mill State Park today we didn’t know what to expect. But once we drove in, it was quite amazing. The park upkeep is outstanding. There is a lot of options when choosing what you want to do. We walked to the village inside the park that was an old mill in the 1800’s. The building are kept up as a living monument to the happenings of the period. The my also have days the buildings are open for different functions as well, including civil war reenactments.
They also have the Spring Mill Inn at the park wishing was built around the 1930’s. We had dinner there and it didn’t disappoint. Down home cooking at its best. The dinner buffet was $ 12.50 and the offerings included, fried chicken, meat loaf, mashed potatoes, salad bar, veggies, a fish dish and an rad dessert bar that had cornmeal pie and peanut butter cake! So good!
We will be back to camp once the weather isn’t freezing our butts off.

This is one of my favorite State Parks. I love the Pioneer Village and the hiking trails are great. Not much else to review. Just a great State Park that’s very clean.

Went here specifically for the Pioneer Town. The town was very interesting and had everything you would expect a town like this to have. I was glad to see a Tavern as some places ignore this aspect of a Pioneer Town. There was adequate actors but I think they could use more to bring more life to the venue.

This seemed like an amazing place to take children (we don’t have any, but just using my imagination). We visited the Pioneer Park, and it was cool. They had a number of different buildings with displays and history write-​ups. The best part though were what they called «interpreters» which would help the display come alive making candles, grinding corn, etc. There were other aspects to the park, but that’s all we had time for. It was only $ 9 per car for out of staters and $ 7 per car for in staters. Again, I think if we had kids we would have enjoyed it even more than we did.

One of my favorite Indiana state parks! Nothing at all negative comes to mind to say about it.
So much to do here from hiking the great trails which range from very easy to more rugged but still do-​able for the average person. The day we were there some of the trails were a bit difficult to navigate due to mud from the rainy summer we have had but when dry would be no problem at all. There is beautiful scenery and even caves on some of the trails. The Twin Caves boat tour was closed, also due to high and swift water but from a previous trip there about 25 years prior I can remember that it was pretty fascinating and should not be missed.
There is a pioneer village with restored log buildings surrounding an 1817 3 story working grist mill that is also very interesting. While there take the very easy and short walk to Hamer Cave which is the source of the water that turns the mill wheel.
I don’t remember much about the campground from my previous visit and this time, due to the large number of campers (holiday weekend), we were not allowed to do a drive through to check it out.
There is a large pool and a beautiful Inn but my very favorite part of the park is the Gus Grissom memorial at the front gate. I have always been fascinated by the early years of space exploration so this memorial is quite special. Among the items on display are the Gemini III space capsule and the space suit worn by Grissom.

Out of all the state parks in Indiana, Spring Mill State Park is by far my most favorite. We would have family picnics here quite often when I was a child. My boyfriend and I love to hike and always bring our dog. We know all the trails by heart. There is even a paved trail that is handicapped accessible. The park has an inn complete with dining room and swimming pool. The village itself is an awesome sight to see and should not be missed when visiting. Be sure to pay a visit in late September when the Candle Light Tour is in full swing. Those who enjoy learning about space should stop in the Grissom Memorial for a bit of history. All in all you can’t go wrong with this park.

I hate to say it, but this might just be my new favorite state park. (Sorry Brown county). There is just a ton to do here.
Firstly, they have caves! There are several in the park, but the bigger two are twin caves and Donaldson caves. Twin caves offers boat tours for three dollars a person. We found out the hard way that tours fill up quickly. We didn’t get to go, but I got a tip from an elderly Dnr employee that I’ll pass on. You can go as early as 9am and pay for your tour. Then you get to pick your time and go back when you want. So hopefully that’ll work for us next time. Donaldson cave really impressed me. You can really only safely go into the mouth of the cave, which is a hike down about two hundred steps. If you are the brave kind, you can climb up the rock into the upper caves, but it’s quite hard. (Full disclosure-I’m not entirely sure you are supposed to go into the upper cave, so proceed with caution) The cave on the right can be accessed with a little help. I had a boost up and used a dead log leaned over for balance. Once up there I ventured to the end of the first corridor. Only having my
Phone for a flashlight I didn’t want to venture too far inside. The upper cave on the right can be accessed by following a long rock access that starts about twenty feet outside of the cave. I didn’t do this myself, but I saw two teenage boys do it with relative ease. Even if you don’t climb into the upper caves, it’s still quite a sight. Beware though, we did spot a baby copperhead on the path just before the mouth of the cave. This is fairly rare, but it seemed worth mentioning since the mama snake probably lives nearby.
The pioneer village is another gem. It has about fifteen pioneer era buildings, the most impressive being a working grist mill. They also have a leather shop, a tavern, and an apothecary. There are characters there that play the role of pioneer folk quite well. They have a concession stand that is a nice stop on the way out. No food or drink allowed in the village. And make sure you use the restroom on the way in as there are none in the actual village.
The lake and nature center are also very nice. The nature center is larger than others in the state parks, and they have quite a collection of taxidermy animals as well as several live snakes.
We camped here on two separate occasions this summer and had a great time both times. The modern restrooms/​showers are nice. And even though it’s a fairly busy park, everyone seems pretty respectful.
I hope this shed some light on my
Designation as my new favorite park. Go check it out. See you there.

This past weekend, we visited and camped at Spring Mill State Park. This was our first time camping here. It is a remarkable place. Even better than advertised. Spring Mill is a beautiful park.
The pioneer village is as beautiful a setting as you will ever see and all the workers there are very helpful and knowledgeable about their crafts. I especially enjoyed the conversations I had with the blacksmith. Knowledgeable folks in the village brought the history back to life and the trails were great!
Hard to beat for the price. Definitely a great place for family time. My family loved every thing about it and can’t wait to go back. I would definitely recommend this place. We are planning on a repeat trip next year and would recommend the park to all.

The Inn is nice andI’ve stayed at the Spring Mill Inn for an overnight stop on a wine trail for the last 5 years. I go in March, and the weather (and wine) typically limits our park activity to just the Inn. This time; however, we had a chance to explore the Grissom museum located just inside the front gate of the park. This review is about the awesomeness of the museum. I knew Gus Grissom was from Indiana, but didn’t realize he was from Mitchell, which is just a few miles away from Spring Mill State Park.
The museum is open daily and contains a lot of memorabilia donated by Mr. Grissom’s family as well as educational exhibits about flying and NASA. The capsule, nicknamed the Molly Brown, is also located here, and visitors can see just how uncomfortable of a ride it must have been as they re-​entered the earth’s atmosphere. As a side note: There certainly seemed to be a lot of buttons and dials for something you really didn’t have much control over.
At the end, there is a small auditorium with a 10 minute video that gives people a look into the life of one of Indiana’s own who helped shape the Apollo space program. Definitely worth the visit!

We loved our last camping trip at Spring Mill State Park. We went very early in spring, March 29 – 31 (it was COLD at night!) There were only two other groups in primitive, where we camped, and a few RVs in the electric sites.
The water wasn’t yet turned on, and they lock the electric site bathrooms/​shower areas. I’m not sure if this was because the water wasn’t turned on yet, or if we only paid for primitive sites and they issued the electric site campers a key.
We had a beautiful site, wooded in the very back, number 425 in the the primitive campground. The sites are very spacious, however, there are not a lot of trees or bushes between sites. This could be a problem when the campground is fully booked (which is pretty much all season, so I am glad we went very early, when it was too cold for most people.) The only big drawback, besides the privacy issue, is that it seems the primitive camp area is right next to the highway. The only thing that stands between the sites and the road is a small wooded area. You can hear cars from your site. I’ve experienced this with other Indiana campgrounds and it’s always a little annoying. Fortunately, the highway stretch that borders the campground is not very busy.
Firewood is purchased via the front gate or the camp office, and security brings the firewood to your site later that day or evening. You must specify if you need the firewood right away, or they will bring it when they get to it. I liked having it delivered.
The trails are gorgeous. We hiked trail 5, around the lake, and had a small picnic along the way. There weren’t many other hikers, but, as I said before with the sites, you can tell it would get awfully crowded with a full camp ground. There was a lot of natural beauty to be seen, including ducks, blue jays, turtles and beavers. The dam was spectacular, and the bridges over the dam and small creeks were well maintained.
We weren’t able to visit the caves, because like all public and commercial caves around southern Indiana, they were closed due to white nose syndrome. Disappointing but expected.
The campground is about a 15 minute drive to any place to buy supplies, so be prepared. We dropped by the local gas station and liquor store on Saturday morning to pick up ice and beer. There are few stores or restaurants in the area.
I’d recommend Spring Mill State Park for Indiana campers and hikers. The best times to visit would be very early or late in the season, when you can have some privacy and there aren’t a lot of other visitors. Site 425 was great, and you must hike trail 5, if only for the dam.

A great place to take a youth group camping. So much to do! The caves (which technically are closed but hey are cool to look in, the Twin Caves tour in a boat, hiking, and the Pioneer Village, swimming pool. The problem we had: there are a lot of raccoons and campers make it worse by indulging the deliberately or unintentionally. The park needs to provide containers for trash and warnings to the campers to not feed the rodents and to put away their food at night. If there were warnings they were too subtle. The only trash bins we could find were all the way at the entrance to the campground.
Also, there was a dead raccoon in the pipes at the pool and the smell was terrible!