Lake Maloney offers 56 Electric Plus and 200 Primitive campsites. Coin-operated showers, dump and fill station, drinking water, two boat ramps and primitive restrooms are on-site. Camping is all first-come, first-served and stays are limited to 14 consecutive days in a 30 day period.

Camping at Lake Maloney SRA is all first-come, first-served and campers register their nightly camping fees in a raised, locked box called an Iron Ranger. Self-service envelopes are provided at each Iron Ranger station. Check or cash only. Iron Rangers are generally located near the park entrance or in the campground area. On-site camping informational signs are provided to help guide campers with the self-registration process.

Lake Maloney State Recreation Area

Lake Maloney is on a big lake in North Platte, NE. We have stayed two or three times. Our first time staying put us in a bit of a pickle. We stayed the night at the campground and packed up to head out on our last leg of our trip only to find our truck was broken. We found a great shop only about 6 miles from the park and they let us use a car of theirs for the three days it took them to fix our truck.

The campground was very inexpensive, even for out of staters. It was $5 for the day and $8 for the overnight. This worked well for us. We were traveling cross country and being the last leg, we were nearing broke. The campground wasn't overly tidy. We also didn't see a camp host, at least one never checked on us to ensure we had paid and did what we were supposed to.

When you come in you can take the loop to the right, which is what we did to tent sites. It's all pretty much open and you pitch your tent where you please. If you want a picnic table and firepit, you have to be a bit more selective. If you were to go straight at entry, it loops around to the left where mostly RVers camp. Straight ahead is also the lake, it's a big lake and people get on it early when it's hot out. Everything to the left is a bit more modernized, flush toilets, pay showers, more developed. To the right there are old playground equipment (really old) and pit toilets, big grassy field and open space. There are a few shade trees to the right, more to the left.

Not all firepits have a cooking grate so you may want an alternative if this is how you cook. We use a camp tripod for cooking most frequently and did on this trip. Adding three days on to the end of our trip meant our food needed to be eaten as it was reaching the end of it's life. So we cooked it all up the last night we were there.

Our second trip over we utilized freeze dried food for travel to aid in keeping our food from spoiling. It worked well for us and we just made sure to find a picnic table to camp near. The weather did get really nasty this trip and with the lake, open fields and few trees, the lightening was pretty scary and we retreated to our truck to ride it out in the middle of the night. The sunsets are really nice over the lake.

This is a good spot to stop and we enjoyed our stay even though the length was not planned. It is for sure our go to when traveling east from Denver.

We revisit every time we drive through

very relaxing, near the water, friendly people. Needs more bathrooms is all it needs

A very nice and peaceful campground. Just need to update bathrooms 

This is one of many state recreation areas along I-80. I wouldn’t make a special trip here, but it’s fine for stopping over while driving cross country. There appears to be one central rest room with flush toilets and pay showers. Pretty rundown. Also vault toilets, which weren’t the dirtiest I’ve ever seen. Hot and dusty. You pay a fee for entry of $8 for out of state and then $15 per night. Fire rings in most sites. We pitched our tent right next to the lake. Looking forward to getting up into the Rockies from here. 

Hot and Dusty

Quiet and not too crowded campground with spots right on the water. We visited on a Monday night so it might pick up on the weekends. The lake is awesome and it is pet friendly. You pay at a Dropbox we believe as there were not clear instructions and no park rangers. Clean and functional bathrooms, lots of grass, trees, and of course a beautiful lake with lots of swimming area!

Awesome campground

The sites are packed in there if it had been full it probably would not have been as pleasant but out of 250 sites 10 were occupied.   It was a great night stop on the way thru Nebraska 