Paynetown State Rec Area

Non-electric site, Friday night stay (6/9/17). Note: Paynetown park personnel refer to non-electric sites as "primitive" even though Indiana's Recreation Guide lists them as 2 different classifications and price rates (primitive being lower priced).

The non-electric campground is BEFORE the registration booth here. We were surprised not only by the the amount of traffic, but the amount of speeding vehicles on the main road through the campground. Being that it's a recreation area, mainly for boating on Monroe Lake, it was not surprising this was a busy campground.

The non-electric campground was park-like, with open grassy areas and a good amount of space between sites; most had a tree for some shade. The electric campground had open areas and also wooded sites, but sites were much more packed in. It was definitely a family setting, with noise, kids, people prepping boats for water activities.

Shower house was large & clean with more shower stalls, flush toilet stalls & sinks than normal. We didn't shower there, but I checked them out, and shower heads looked pretty low down on the wall (in the women's anyway). Vault toilet house was open-air type, with screen at the top, two stalls with no doors. Only 1 water spigot for the whole one side of the non-electric campground, so it's a distance away from most campsites.

Areas were clean and grass was nicely mowed, but poison ivy lined the edge of the woods behind campsites in our area. We chose a spot as close to the lake as possible and were able to put our kayaks in right near our site, walking a short trail through the woods (and watching out for the poison ivy).

Facilities: beach, pontoon rental (they come with slides!), boat ramps, 4 hiking trails, fishing pier, playgrounds, picnic areas/shelters, basketball hoop, nature center, camp store, marina.

We would camp there again, but only at a much less busy time like early spring or fall.