Paynetown Campground

 This is a SRA on the shores of Lake Monroe by Bloomington Indiana. This is a boating/fishing park. We went on a hot weekend the 4rth weekend in June & it was completely full. 

There's only 3 short trails. The longest is 1.25 miles. Not a hiking park. 

There's a visitor center off State Road 446. This is NOT a nature center! Just a place to pick up some information. 

The marina & boat launch get the most use. There's also a beach. 

There's a large Class B campground closer to the marina. There's some pit toilets & one flush toilet building. No showers. No electricity.

 There's a large dump station. 

The electric campground has 227 sites. 3 are handicap accessible. There's also 27 pull throughs. Many have lake access due to camper made trails to the lake.

We had site 137 which was a good site due to the fact we had no one on the left. There was a woods view.

Many of these sites have a bad incline & people were putting their rigs sideways on the site close to the road. Our site was no exception, but we were able to make it work. This site also had afternoon sun.

 Restrooms/showers were state park clean. I was impressed with the hard working staff trying their best to give us a clean bathroom!

 The best sites in the campground are 171/172& 153/154. These have a lot of sun, but a stellar view of the lake. 

132-137 have a trail to the lake. Very bad inclines though. 

120-124 have trails to the lake & are in the woods. 

103 is a large site& fairly even with lots of shade. 

The sites from 180-227 are asphalt with concrete pads. The rest of the campground is gravel. 

There's 4 carry in campsites for tents that looked very nice. Campsites in the E area have access to a sandy peninsula that was very popular for swimmers. 

This is known in Indiana as a party park. There's some truth to that. It's VERY noisy & busy on a summer weekend. If you like a quieter experience come Monday through Wed. or wait until the off season.

My sister and I booked 2 nights and left after 1. Campsites are crammed together and packed too hard for stakes. Campground was very full, mostly RV/Camper. Kept waking up to headlights shining in the tent. There are some sites where you park and then walk in 100’ to camp. Facilities clean and staff helpful. Great for lively RV camping. Bad for tents & quiet

Quiet spots. Facilities are clean. Verizon is one bar

This campground is by far cheaper than the other dnr sites and way better. Need I say more.

We've tent camped here several times over the years. This was the first time in our new 30ft travel trailer. It's always been a busy place. The sites on the outer areas are not very level. Sites on the inner loops appear fairly level. Sites are packed in fairly tight. Not very difficult to get parked, however. Over the years the campers have always been very diverse. Typically lots of families with young kids, young adults acting like kids and older travelers. Families are pretty respectful. Lots to do, hike, fish, boat and hit the beach.

This campground offers just about everything. Great area for tent campers and RV campers. Marina on property, general store, beach. Clean bathrooms. Quiet for the most part! Had a great time!

Stopped for a few weeks before settling down for the holidays. Love the rolling hills. All bathrooms were closed. Had winter water to fill tank. Level gravel pad with views of the sunrise and sunset over the lake. One hiking trail, nice walk in the woods with a wee bit of a hill. Easy hike. Close to Bloomington for supplies. DNR drove by every morning. Felt very safe. Winter at its best

Absolutely LOVED our site! It was big and had amazing access to the forest for the kids to run and a little beach area too! Pay close attention to site descriptions because there are definite slopes to the sites!

Only stayed one night. Few campers, site and facility clean

This year we stayed at spot 169 over looking the lake and it is everything you look for in a camp site..lots of room, a short walk to the water and a nice patch of woods behind the site! The site also is shaded most of the day making it very comfortable!!! Short walk to the bathrooms and showers which are hot water!! Caught some fish off the shore behind our site!!!

Very nice campground. We stayed here for several nights in August and October 2020 in site 14, which was beautiful in the trees and level for our camper van. Good shade at many of the sites, but some are more open and less private. We stayed both times during the week, leaving on Fridays. Looks like it fills up on weekends and could get crowded. Beautiful fall colors in October. We will return.

With COVID, it seems that everyone...and then more people are going camping. It's a bittersweet type of situation. Nevertheless, it's been very hard to find decent camping in Indiana that isn't packed in like sardines, while also trying to escape the city and get into nature - not around more people.

Luckily, a friend and I came here last October and this place was great. We got a non electric site and were in the middle of the sites. We had a great lake view and were very happy with our setup. It was a pull-through site, although not all are like that. We were able to set up in no time. 

We had lots of space, away from our neighbors. The campstore had wood and random items that you might need should you forget. We were just steps away from the lake and enjoyed walking down there every morning. There aren't the best hiking trails around, so you'll need to drive to the nearby Brown County or National Forest to hike on trails that are actually worth the time. 

I will add that the setup is a bit odd for non-electric. You basically had to pull up to the gatehouse, get your reservation info, then do a U-turn and go back out past the campstore in order to get to your campground. Very odd setup to say the least.

This was our first camp experience in our new travel trailer. We had plenty of room at our site (site #18), and enjoyed the beauty of nature.

Our stay was for 5 nights, and even though we had some rain, we were able to still enjoy the fire pit most of the time due to the trees overhead.

Water access was plentiful, and easy and fast dump station. There is a playground that kids seemed to really enjoy. They also had a Trick or Treat night, and it was fun to see all of the creative costumes and kids (and adults) having fun. We will definitely return to enjoy more time there. Tony and Margo

Probably my favorite place to camp so far (newbie camper). We had a site within a short walk to the water. Our tent site was spacious. Vault toilets. Camp store. Playground, boating, fishing, and boat rentals. There is a lot to offer at the park itself and being a college town, quite a few great bars and restaurants.

This is our go to campground. We have stayed at several others in the area and by far Paynetown has the most to offer for families to have a great camping trip.

Best social camping for family

I have been camping here since I was a kid. Bathrooms and showers are nice. If you want electricity, get an electric site. If you want primitive, get a primitive site. Lots of things to do. Your kids have bo reason to be on electronics here. 😁

I was very pleased with our camping expierence at this wonderful campground. 2 days wasnt nearly enough. My kids enjoyed nature, had stick wars, and my daughter learned a few things about fishing. Shower houses were clean. There was an activity center and each day they would have some sort of informational class. Plus, there were some nice playgrounds. The best part. Our campground lot was right down the hill from the lake. Great spot to just sneak away.

We’ve been going here for adult weekend for a few years! Such a blast! Nice big camping spots and the lake is great!

Me and my wife came to Indiana to visit with family. We all met up at the campground there was 5 of us , the lot we got was small but still good size big enough to fit 2 tents and have plenty of room for our camp fire. I was most impressed with how clean the facilities was. There was someone cleaning the showers and bathrooms every few hours, everything was always fully stocked. There was also tons of stuff to do. We all went out on my brothers boat. The next day my wife and I rented kayaks, we had a blast. We will definitely be back.

My family and sister in laws family camp here every year. Our kids love it and we all have a great time. They always have something to do even if it's just going down to swim at the beach.

This is the campground we visit the most. There is always something to do. The beach, the trails, the geocaches on the trails, kayak and boat rentals, the activity center. There is something for everyone and enough to fill up your days. The activity center has programs all the time and there is always something going on there.

you have to reserve a spot early to get one with shade on busy weekends (we do non electric tent camping)

The older gentleman at check in is slow so expect to wait awhile to get in. They need more primitive sites.

It was quite small, but the hiking was amazing. We found so many geodes along the way. Lake Monroe is one of my favorite places to be, the sunsets are magical. Also there is a ton of things to do such as boating, canoeing, and swimming etc.

We live a couple of hours away from the lake but find it’s worth the drive for a day of boating. This is our first time at the campground. I love the convenience for boatIng and campIng. Our sites have some slope to them...I hate it when the camper wheels are off the ground. The sites are good sized for camping alone or with a group although the roads to get to the sites are tight (especially as it’s filled up heading into the weekend). If you don’t have a boat they offer pontoons, canoes and kayaks for rent. We’ll definitely be back!

This campground is busy as it's close to a college, but it has ample room to provide for everyone. Lots of water access near campsites so you can swim with pets in areas that aren' the designated beach. There is also the convenience of a camp store for firewood and forgotten items. Primitive spots are awesome and interspersed with the electric so bathrooms are close as well as showers.

This lake is huge and alot of fun. There are beaches everywhere besides the4 designated one so it's easy to swim with your dogs or find private spots. Alot of college kids and it is a very busy place, but they have plenty of space and there is a camp store to grab last minute items close to the beach which is convenient. Stores are very close too but it doesn' feel that way when you're out on the lake.

This is one of the largest campgrounds in all of Indiana. It includes hundreds of campsites. This includes RV hookups, standard campsites, and primitive campsites. There is running water and fully functional bathrooms with showers.

There are campsites on the lake, so you can easily go to a from your watercraft. There are only a few so reserve several months in advance.

If you are looking for a quiet campsite this may NOT be for you. With such large crowds (especially on holidays) it can be loud. Expect to see many families. Drunken behavior isn't uncommon but generally isn't a problem.

Paynetown boasts the second largest beach on Lake Monroe, and the primitive sites include a very nice shower house. If you are tent camping there aren't many places to tie a tarp, so bring a free standing tarp if you like to have some space out of the occasional rain. There is an interpretive Nature Center and another shower house by the beach, and ample parking for day use. Boat rentals are available as well. Expect to see Canadian geese as the resident scavenger here instead of the usual raccoons found at Indiana parks. Other notable birds to keep an eye out for include swifts, killdeers, turkey buzzards, bald eagles, golden eagles, and great blue herons. Fishing for small and largemouth bass, crappie, channel catfish, and an assortment of bream is successful near the boat slips and along the shore.

Paynetown SRA is right on Lake Monroe about 10 minutes from Bloomington, IN. Campsites have a gravel parking pad, picnic table, fire-ring, and electrical hookups. Restrooms & showers were about average... not great/not bad. A private company rents kayaks, jet skis, boats, and paddleboards from the camp-store in the SRA. There are beaches, a nature center, & playgrounds, so it seems very family friendly. There's a cool little pizza place right down the road too. This is the perfect place to camp for a weekend of fun on Lake Monroe. It's also only about 20 minutes from Lake Lemon.