South Bend/Elkhart North KOA

We left Ohio on July 15th and drove into the South Bend, Indiana area where we had reservations in Granger at the South Bend/Elkhart North KOA there just off I-90.  We decided to come to Indiana to get my desk repaired from the Amish man, Gene Miller who built our desks.  Mine arrived damaged back in El Centro over the winter and he was going to fix it for us.  We were also taking out the trash bins under the island and converting the island to a shelf instead. The two trash bins we had were so small you'd have to empty the trash all the time, so I bought a larger one for the next to the island where the flip up counter is.  It's just a much better use of space for us.

The weather in Indiana was hot and muggy at 88-90 degrees...we're getting into the Midwest now and we could definitely tell the difference from Lake Erie.  We arrived at the KOA in the mid-afternoon and this was a good and bad experience for us here but more on that later.  The campground does have a gated system and they give you a key card to enter the grounds.  The campground is owned by a German man and his wife and the staff is quite friendly.

When we arrived, we were given a fresh cookie each and they had dog biscuits ready for Roxy, Coco and Chanel.  That was a first and a nice touch!

The first night, we were assigned site 24.  The problem was that there was no grass for the dogs.  But, this is a fun story, so let's just introduce you to the KOA first and it's amenities.  We did get our 10% KOA discount here, which was plus.  We paid $240 for 4 nights.

Amenities included:

• Pull Thru Sites
• Back In Sites
• Tent Sites
• Cabins: 16 regular, 2 two-room w/ TV/Fridge, 5 Deluxe
• Vintage RV rental
• Full Hook Ups w/ 30 or 50 amp depending on site
• Wifi
• Free Wireless Internet
• Dump Station
• Shade Trees
• Some Grass
• Picnic Tables
• Pet Areas
• Fire Pit
• Pool
• Bath House
• Gelato Shack
• Pizza House
• Walking Distance to Shops and Restaurants
• Petting Zoo
• National Monument Close by
• Nature Trail
• Bike Rentals
• Kids Playground
• Camp Store
• Horseshoes
• Basketball Court
• Tetherball
• Gem Mine
• Day Camps for kids

Here's what the campground looked like.

We LOVED the dog play area.  No grass but it's no wonder with all the shade trees.  Right next to it is the hiking trails as well.

Something unique they have is a petting zoo with Jenny the mule.

Amenities for the kids was plentiful with the nicest playground I've ever seen as well as bikes to rent, basketball, a small arcade, gem mine and a pool.

Another interesting thing here is that they have a gelato bar and pizza house.

The main house is the registration, but the bathrooms and laundry is also located in the building.

Next to the main house and pool is a rec building.

We really enjoyed the park and gave it a 4 star on our scale.  It would have been a 5 except that the trees in such a bad location on a few of the pull through sites that I ripped a chunk of the top of the rig on a tree which required extensive restoration when we moved from site 24 to site 35.  The KOA associate placed us in the site but it was too far to the left we scraped a tree.  We finally ended up in site 36...but more on that later...also, the roads were somewhat of large puddles of standing water during rains.