Elkhart Campgrounds

We are sitting in the Elkhart Campground. We had our 45,000 mile Ford service done at Jordan Ford in Mishiwaka today and are having repairs done at the Phoenix USA factory on Monday.

We've camped at Shipshewanna North CG and liked it (custard stand on site, close to Amish restaurants & shops, nice pine trees, clip clip of horse hooves as buggies go by).

We've camped at KOA Middlebury and we're I'm with it (closer more-open sites but nice walking trail and pond).

We've camped at Potato Creek State Park and loved it (large sites, trees, trails and lake but long drive to factory).

We've NEVER camped at Shipshewanna South but friends have and loved it. It is right next to the big flea market and very close to all things Amish.

We were rolling back through Elkhart and figured it was time to try the closest one to our two service sites - Elkhart Campground. I've read comments about the metallic water taste here so I grabbed a glass before we hooked up. YUCK! Strong iron taste. We aren't putting that water in our tank. The campground has some open sunny sites and some shady sites. We got stuck in the back row in full sun with a view and noise of the highway... for five days... Bummer. We're filing it away as a "now we know". The campground is adding another 100 or so sites in the field between us and the highway so they will have plenty of space and the male owner was very nice and quick to fix a broken sewer pipe on our site. It isn't a bad campground, just not for us. Oh, we're in direct line with two of their Wi-Fi poles and it is so anemic we can't hold the connection of see can even get one (one pole is 30 feet away). The answer: "it SHOULD work... Unless you an IPhone or Ipad" - no clue why that is but all our devices are Android or DOS/Windows based and it doesn't work.

For light sleepers, ALL the campgrounds in the area are close enough to the toll road that you hear it at night. KOA probably has the best buffer for the toll road out of the others but gets traffic on its other side. Potato Creek is a good ways south so road noise doesn't apply for that one. Next trip - Potato Creek!

A great rundown of nearby camp sites to Elkhart by Holly!!

Only for the sake of completeness, let me add a note about the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds at Goshen, about 8 miles southeast of Elkhart.  One reason to be aware of this campground is that it is about the only one close to Elkhart that is open throughout the year--including winter months.

When I planned my trip to pickup my new RV in February 2019, I researched all the possibilities in the area for a couple night stay.  Phoenix policy at the time was for the new owner to be able to stay at the factory site the first night, tied in to their facility there; but I wanted to stay another day or two ensure (as a first-time RV owner) that I had a handle on all the proper functions of the RV before I started the long trip back to Oklahoma.  As I recall, Potato Creek also had some open sites in winter, but as Holly said it was a comparatively long drive back to the Elkhart area which I would be making each day.  Otherwise, all of the close campsites close for winter months, except for the County Fairgrounds.  As it turned out, the days I was in the area we got hit by a pretty good winter storm with quite a bit of snow and icing, so I was glad that my drives back and forth weren't any longer than necessary.

As I recall, the Fairground site had about 70 full hookups--and there were quite a few RV's in the location the nights I stayed.  Rates were pretty nominal--seems like about $30 or so.  I don't think there is anything in particular to recommend this campsite in terms of amenities, but if you happen to need something closer during the typical winter shut-down period, the County Fairgrounds offered that.