Paynetown State Recreation Area

This is a rather large campground with multiple restroom and shower buildings. Both electric sites for RVs and non-electric sites for tent camping are available. There is a large beach here plus boat rentals. The kids enjoyed the General Store and the Activity Center.Our tent camping site was number four of six in the "B" area. It was located in the back and had two mini trails that led down to the lake's edge. So we had our own mini beach for skipping rocks and wading.Only con is there is no direct route to Fourwinds Marina. You have to backtrack to South Bloomington. It takes about 30 mins.Bathrooms and showers are clean. There is electric in them for hair dryers and razors. We brought bicycles for the kids which really entertained them.

A very well-kept campground. The family activities they hosted in the evenings were great to keep the little ones entertained and educated. The bathrooms were fairly clean, the playgrounds were well-maintained, and the camp suite store had some key items, rounding it the nice amenities offered. They don't really enforce the quiet hours (or didn't when we went), so be prepared for that.

Yelper Katy E. and I came for a quick fall weekend getaway to escape the city life in Indy. Given that it was fall time, most state park campgrounds were completely booked. Neither of us had been here, so we decided to give it a shot. Getting here is super easy - it's basically right by Bloomington. So don't fret if you forget something as you're a quick 10 min drive from all the mall/shops in Btown. We stayed in the primitive area (P45). There aren't clear instructions sadly, so we had to go to the check-in station, then we ventured through the electric sites to find site 45, but it was definitely taken, so we went back to the gatehouse to find that the primitive area is actually located OUTSIDE of the campground area, so you have to do a U-turn, which was silly to me. Electric sites are very, very small and crammed, as a heads up. Our site was in the middle of a circular road. It had great views of the lake and was a short 1 minute walk to the restrooms/shower house. It was surrounded by campsites, so be aware that it did get noisy at times due to the loud radio/music playing by a nearby campsite. That being said, it was great to get away and explore this year. The hiking trails here are a bit slim and I wouldn't recommend coming here just for the hiking. We ventured over to Brown County to hike instead.

Lake Monroe is a beautiful get away located 10 miles southeast of Bloomington Indiana. 10,500 acres of water fill reservoir. We grew up going on Sunday's with the family. Good times had by all. 7$ gets you thru the gate 9$ for out of town guests. A Paynetown has a convenience store, boat rental, camping and a sand beach. I have rented boats there many times to host parties and family get a ways. The prices are a bit expensive however creating great memories sometimes have a price. The beach is a perfect spot for a quick cool down from the heat we have been having. Enjoy!

Don't ever rent a boat from Paynetown. Rented a lily pad already was damaged and then charged us. Manager tried to tell us it was brand new. Complete bullshit. So from now on rent from Fairfax are go to Patoka or lake lemon. Make sure you inspect the boat yourself before you leave the dock. Make sure you open up the lily pad in front of one of the workers and anything else that you rent from Paynetown. The managers name is Damon terrible.

Really pleasant and relaxing area right along Lake Monroe! The sunsets are amazing! And some of the camping spots are on the water which is really nice. Many ppl fish along the banks and there are walk in tent camp spots as well as electric back in spots. The have restrooms & shower houses but unfortunately none were open when we went yet but still charged the same for camping there. We took a van to camp in so the set up and clean up was really easy and having the back doors open to the lake sunset was really fun! Definitely a cool camping area and would return, with everything up and running would be a great spot for family and friends to hangout and have a fun nature adventure together.

We ventured down to Paynetown for a fall weekend get away and it was most everything we had hoped for! We camped in the primitive area which had large spacious spots and ours (P45) had nice view of the lake! Unfortunately, we weren't given good directions upon checking in and didn't realize that we actually had to turn around from the check in to get to the primitive area- clearer instructions would have been nice. As we drove through all the electric spots I began to feel claustrophobic, so many RVs next to each other and so little nature. If you want to bump up against your neighbors, consider electric. If not, maybe go primitive or somewhere else. It looks like you can rent pontoon boats during the summer season which would be convenient! Bath houses were clean and conveniently located. There was not a dish washing area near us. There were a few short hiking trails, but we drove a bit to get to longer ones.

This was my second time camping and I had a lot of fun! We got a campsite that was just off of the water in hopes of having a great view of the lake. The campground was clean for the most part and beautiful with all of the fall colors coming out! The bathrooms seemed like average campsite bathrooms (nothing different than the last camping trip). It is a pretty large campground so you can wander quite a ways while looking at campers you might want in your future. The biggest let downs of our stay at Paynetown were:1: the attendant at the park admission gate wasn't very friendly and inviting (which is a large part of the camping attitude, being friendly and inviting to others).2: the campsite we had was very small. It didn't provide much room for privacy. Other campsites around us were larger or plotted out better. The inconsistency is what bothered me. 3: we didn't know about any trails to hike or walk due to not getting a map at the park admission gate. So all of our activities took us out of the park.I would recommend spending a weekend here! After all, camping is what you make of it!

It's always a wonderful time! Great body of water plus family and friends makes for a perfect day or weekend etc.Been going since I was a child, whether it be camping or just boating. Both or either are great.

Great place to camp! Very friendly staff meet you at the gate. Extremely relaxing atmosphere. And so close to things going on in Bloomington also!In the area that we were camping, the bathrooms could use some updating. All in all a great experience.