If you’re looking for a weekend getaway close to Indianapolis, Natural Springs Resort in New Paris, Ohio is just about 90 minutes from downtown Indy. There’s so much to do at Natural Springs, you’ll want to make this an annual trip. Located near kid-friendly Richmond, Indiana, home of Thistlethwaite Falls, you’ll want to stay for a few nights!
Natural Springs Resort
The beautiful grounds at Natural Springs Resort are the perfect setting for tent camping and RV and camper camping. Natural Springs also offers rent of cabins and an RV for visitors. Many families choose to spend the entire season at the camp grounds, parking their RV and creating a fun summer living space. Residents and visitors zip around the grounds in golf carts (a limited number of carts are available for rental), enjoy a pizza from the Grill and just enjoy the camping life at the lake.
While the canoeing, paddle boating, fishing, swimming pool, craft cabin and other activities are wonderful attractions, the shining star of Natural Springs is the spring fed, swimming lake in the quarry.
Camping at Natural Springs Resort
The Natural Springs Resort campground is a popular destination for visitors who stay for the whole season and short term guests. Bring your own RV/camper or stay in a rental camper. You can also bring a tent for tent camping or rent one of the cabins if you’d like to have more of a “glamping” experience.
Our family stayed in the Upcountry Premium Cabin and we were just spoiled by the full kitchen, bathroom and two queen sized bedrooms plus sofa bed. Bring your own linens or rent linens through the linen rental service.
Natural Springs Resort Lake
Beautiful rock formations create the perfect setting for a day at the lake. The former rock quarry is full of fresh spring water, giving guests a gorgeous backdrop, incredibly clear water, interesting underwater views and a full schedule of recreational options.
If your children are like mine, they’ll be begging to visit the lake from the moment you arrive through the gate and first thing every morning. Our morning was spent fishing in the pond nearest our cabin and our daytime hours flew by when we were building sandcastles on the coarse sand beach, swimming, snorkeling and playing on the Wibits obstacle course.
The spring fed lake is perfect for families with children because the rock formations allow for different depths of water throughout, with some spots near the shore very shallow and some spaces very deep. There are plenty of spaces to explore in the roped off swimming areas. Skilled swimmers will love swimming out to the floating dock or water pad and jumping into the water. We brought our snorkel and mask sets and had incredible views of fish large and small. You’ll see bass, catfish, bluegill and grass carp that are more than 4 feet long!
If you’re a licensed scuba driver, you’re welcome to dive the lake with a scuba day pass.
Inflatable Obstacle Course
Natural Springs Resort has a floating obstacle course system called Wibits. Visitors age seven and older can purchase one hour passes to spend time trying out the climbing obstacle course or being launched into the lake with the Wibits pillow. My husband and daughters, age 8 and 10, spent their hour sliding in to the lake, climbing over obstacles and launching one another.
Boating at Natural Springs Lake
Canoeing, kayaking & paddle boating are all popular lake activities at Natural Springs Resort. Canoes, kayaks and paddle boats are all available for rental or you can bring your own.
Other Amenities You’ll Love
During the evening, enjoy a bonfire or rent a golf cart and cruise around the campground. Our family brought our bikes along to ride around on the roads, it was a great way to meet other campers. There are playgrounds and sport courts for active family fun. Guests can also enjoy the large heated pool with deck chairs and tables.
Coming soon, a splash pad! During normal seasons (closed until further notice due to COVID restrictions) there are daily events and activities like family BINGO, visiting entertainers and a popular craft cabin.
The Grill offers affordable options to feed your family; pizza, hot dogs, nachos, french fries, mini corn dogs and ice cream. The store has many things that you might need to make your stay even better.
I hope you all can take a day to head out to Natural Springs Resort on a day pass (available weekdays only) or spend a few nights. We can’t wait to return!
9 thoughts on “Natural Springs Resort | Lake Swimming, Fishing & Camping”
This sounds incredible! I’m adding it to my camping journal for future trips! Thanks for sharing!
You’ll LOVE it Shelly. It’s just “camping” enough. The swimming…that’s the best!
Are your cabins air conditioned?
Hi Beth, these are not our cabins but we have stayed in them and the ones we stayed in were air conditioned! Hope this helps.
Rodger Straszheim. My son and his family are camping there now. Is an awesome place to visit.
I’m so glad we discovered it, I wish I had known about it before now. Enjoy!
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