marksalansky

Passed through this park for one night on a week long road trip. It is only 5 or 6 miles from I-70 at the Dorrance exit.

We stayed on a Wednesday night in mid-September and there were maybe a dozen sites occupied in the whole facility, which made for a nice quiet stay.

We stayed in Eagle Loop at site 16 (E16) which is right on the water and provides beatiful views. The pad is loose gravel and moderately level. We did need to use the "lego" pads to get the coach level, so be prepared.

Water spigots were available throughout the campground and we could drive up to one at an unoccupied electric & water site to fill our fresh tank. If the campground was at capacity, you would have had to use a spigot in the common/shared space and I don't think you be able to drive close enough to hook a hose up unless you have 50' or more of hose.

Dump station is available, although we did not use it. In the Eagle Loop, the public restrooms and showers were clean, modern and all appeared to be in working order, although we did not use the showers.

Our OTA TV antenna had 3 of its 5 bars lit up, but we did not watch any TV and cannot confirm which stations are available in the area.

We had strong and reliable unboosted signal for both Verizon and AT&T. I was able to create a hotspot for my laptop and get some work done in the evening.

It got a bit buggy at dusk, but hey, you are camping near water so there will be bugs.

All in all, very enjoyable experience at a well maintained USACE facility.

There were some campsites designated as "Walk Up Only", meaning "First Come First Served", but I would recommend making your reservations in advance on www.recreation.gov to ensure you have a site when you arrive.

We stayed here on two consecutive weekends, for a total of 6 nights, in mid-late October of 2018, and I really have some mixed feelings about the place.

The reason we chose to camp at Paynetown is simply that it is the closest public campground to Indiana University, and never having been to Bloomington before, we really had no idea what this campground is all about. Since we had tickets for Hoosier football games on both weekends, being as close as possible to campus was our main priority. We made our reservations for the ‘modern’ campground 6 months ago when we bought the football tickets, and it was a good move because because the ‘modern’ campground was occupied to 100% of capacity both weekends.

The campground is divided into ‘modern’ campsites with electric hookups, and ‘primitive’ campgrounds that offer no electric hookups. Both the ‘primitive’ and ‘modern’ campgrounds offer centralized shared potable water spigots and relatively easy access to flush toilet and shower facilities with hot water.

Across both weekends we stayed at site 89 and 106 in the ‘modern’ area and site 60 in the ‘primitive’ area.

You may wonder why we stayed at three sites over only two weekends ... well, the ‘modern’ campground has this vibe that is a cross between keg party and an unsupervised daycare. And, yes .... that is absolutely as unenjoyable as it sounds.

The first three nights we were in site 89 which is an electric site that is the last RV site located on a dead end road spur adjacent to a dedicated ‘tent only’ area. While we definitely picked up on the keg party / unsupervised daycare vibe this first weekend, we were isolated from it by distance and a fairly heavy band of trees which made it tolerable. The site offered easy and direct lakeshore access along with a fairly level gravel pad. The road to this site dead ended in what appeared to be a Parking area for those campers occupying the dedicated ‘tent only’ area. The keg party / daycare crowd obviously travels with many many more vehicles than their individual campsites would hold, because by early Friday evening this parking area was packed completely full of cars even though there was only 1 two person tent in the ‘tent only’ area. So as long as we kept our focus toward the lake, it was beautiful; as soon as we turned around though, it looked like a Walmart parking lot.

And despite the distance and the trees, we could hear music, shouted obscenities and kids screaming well past midnight. Park staff did not seem to care and made no effort to enforce the 11:00 PM start of quiet hours. Very disappointing.

We had site 106 reserved for the second weekend, and unfortunately for us, 106 is right in the middle of party central. Just like the previous weekend, the party raged for what seemed like 20 hours a day, but this time we were not isolated from it and quite frankly, we couldn’t stand it. At 2 AM, unsupervised pre-teens were pounding on RVs and running to hide .... essentially the campground version of ‘ring and run’. All while their disinterested parents were focusing on being as loud, and getting as drunk, as possible. Site 106 itself offers electric hookups and a gravel pad that is on a severe grade. Campsites are super compact and very tightly spaced, so there is no getting away from the neighbors no matter how obnoxious and inconsiderate they may be.

On Saturday morning, while walking back to our site, we passed a pair of guys changing the oil in their truck at one campsite and another guy with a yard sale table set up trying to sell a wide variety of used items from his campsite.

At that point we decided we were not going to spend another sleepless night in site 106 and asked the Ranger if we could move to a site in one of the ‘primitive’ campgrounds. The Ranger said we could have our pick of the ‘primitive’ sites so we chose site number 60 because it seemed the most level and it offered plenty of sun for our solar array.

This was literally the smartest move we made at Paynetown. The ‘primitive’ campgrounds were mostly vacant and are far enough away from the keg party / daycare crowd that you really couldn’t tell they were there. You do not get electric hookups here, but there are shared potable water spigots and you can run your generator up until 11 PM each night if needed.

The ‘primitive’ campsites almost all have a grass pad, picnic table and fire ring. Some are level, some are not. Some are pull through and some are back in.

Each of the three ‘primitive’ loops has its own vault toilets within the loop, and the three loops share a shower house with flush toilets and hot water showers.

Bottom line, if you need a place to camp that is close to Indiana University, this is the closest public campground. It is about a 10-mike bike ride to campus from here. But be forewarned ... the ‘modern’ campground here does not offer a restful or relaxing experience. The ‘primitive’ sites are dry camping only, and in my opinion, they offer a much better camping experience.

We had only one bar of Verizon LTE and one bar of AT&T LTE. Download speeds were in the neighborhood of 1 to 3 Mbps depending upon what time of day you are checking.

We spent one mid-September weeknight here as part of a 7-day road trip through the midwest. Being a weekday, there were plenty of open spaces and they seemed moderately well spaced.

Our site, B29 was very close to the lakefront beach and featured a moderately level gravel pad with 30-amp electrical hookup. There are sites available at Bucksaw with water and electric. Also, we noted some of the sites had nicely done concrete pads, but those were labeled as ADA accessible sites.

There were water spigots throughout the park in common areas where RV'ers could fill up their tanks. These were well spaced throughout the campground along roadways and near the restrooms / showers and also at the dump station.

We used the dump station, which is located near the campground entrance station, and it was clean and in good condition.

We did not see any shower facilities, but we may have just missed them if there are any. The bathrooms were clean and in good repair.

The only downside from our perspective was the lack of Verizon coverage .... but this is hardly the Army Corps' fault. We had 3 bars of unboosted ATT LTE service and all we could muster from Verizon was "NO SERVICE".

All-in-all, we would be happy to make a brief stay here again, but since I quite often have to work while on the road, chances are the lack of solid Verizon signal would keep us from staying more nights.

It seemed they were accepting guests on a first come first served basis for vacant and unreserved sites, but guests who want to ensure they have a spot waiting for them should use www.recreation.gov to make reservations up to 6 months prior to their arrival date.

We stayed at this Campground for 1 night as part of a 7 night trip through the Midwest. This very nice Army Corps' Campground is part of the Big Bend Project near Fort Thompson, South Dakota.

First off, the camp host at the entry station was an exceptionally friendly and helpful woman. They have definitely got their best foot forward with her working the entrance station.

Our site was #68 and consisted of a level blacktop pad, electrical hookup, fire ring, picnic table and wooden sun shade / wind break device. Tree coverage was minimal at the campsites, but there were some along the roadways and some had low hanging branches that could hit and possibly damage taller vehicles / trailers, so be careful when driving in and out of the campground.

The campsites closer to the dam structure, west end of the campground, appeared to be more generously spaced, while campsites at the east end appeared to be more tightly packed. Some campsites at the east end may initially appear to be pull through sites, but they are actually two sites sharing one pad such that the rigs would be parked "nose to tail". We saw a few of these occupied while we were at the campground and there seemed to literally be only inches between the front of one RV and the rear of the other.

As you might imagine, fishing is big here and several of our neighboring campers had boats and quite a large number of fish from their day's catch.

Wildlife is plentiful and we saw several whitetail deer, three were waiting on our campsite for us when we pulled up, as well as some wild turkeys.

We were not able to get much of a television signal via our coach's OTA antenna. We could only pull in 4 stations and all of those were just different flavors of PBS.

We were able to receive 4 bars of Verizon LTE service and 1 bar of ATT 4G service throughout the campground.

The only source of potable water near the campground is at the dump station which is about a half to quarter mile outside of the campground entry station.

We were there on a weekday in late September, about 5 days before the campground closed for the season, and there were plenty of open campsites. They appeared willing to rent out these vacant sites on a first come first served basis, but travelers would be smart to make reservations up to 6 months prior to arrival by visiting www.recreation.gov ... especially during the busy summer season.

We spent one night here in Loop 4, Site 86 on a weeknight in mid-October.

We were very impressed with the campground. Generously sized campsites, plenty of access to the lake, facilities all appeared to be well maintained and very clean. There are plenty of campsites shaded by a thick deciduous canopy, and there are also plenty right up on the water with less shade.

Loop 4, where we stayed, offered electric-only sites, and we noticed that some of the other loops offered full-hookups if you prefer. Each loop offered a centralized latrine building with flush toilets, and there is at least one facility in the campground that offers free shower that operated with the ‘push button’ type water controls. The same building with the showers also offered coin operated laundry machines. We did not use either the showers or the laundry facilities but they both appeared to be clean and in good repair.

Site 86 was right on the water and offered beautiful views of the lake and sunset. The parking pad was asphalt and our 25 foot rig was perfectly level without any blocks.

The cell coverage here was solid with Verizon LTE service providing 21 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up.

When we stayed, the campground was only about 10-15% occupied, although from the reservation placards on the campsites, it looked like weekend occupancy was going to jump up to near 100%, so you would be very wise to make an advance reservation on the www.recreation.gov website. This is a US Army Corps of Engineers operated facility, so a valid America The Beautiful Annual Pass / Senior Pass / Access Pass will net you 50% off your camping fees.

We only stayed the one night because we were on a 21-day Midwest roadtrip and had tickets to attend an event in Indiana the next day, but we made a note to come back here again when we had time to stay a few nights.

We stayed here 10 - 12 June 2018 and the campsite rate was $24 per night, plus $8 per day daily access fee (unless you have a state parks pass) and a $10 advance reservation fee. All said, the total price for us came out to $37 per night which is kind of steep for an electric only spot.

We arrived around 3:00 PM on a Sunday afternoon and there was a double file line at least 10 cars deep waiting to get into the park. Kudos to the park staff because the line moved fairly rapidly, but the simple fact that there was such a long line on a Sunday afternoon should give you some idea of how heavily used this state park is during summer months.

After getting through the gate, we first attempted to stop by the dump station to fill our fresh water tank and there was, of course, a line. As we got closer to the dump station and could read the signage, we learned there was no potable water at the dump station but, according to the sign, there was potable water at the “comfort stations” which we took to mean the bathroom / shower facilities within the campground. So we got out of line and went to the “comfort station” in the B Loop only to find there were no spigots there for filling RVs. There actually weren’t any spigots visible at all at the “comfort station”, so we drove around the B Loop a bit and found one spigot between campsites 51 and 53. After walking around a bit, it seems each Loop has one potable water spigot for filling tanks but you will have to snuggle up into someone else’s campsite and likely block the road for a while to get to it.

All sites appear to be pull through and paved, but the pavement is pocked with holes and not even close to level. Also, the sites are super close together and offer just about zero privacy from your neighbors. The first night we were there, the neighbors on the service side of our RV set up a small campfire in the fire ring, but in order for them to circle their family around it, their lawn chairs were literally only about 5 inches from the side of our coach.

Despite the tight confines of the campground, we saw plenty of bIg rigs in the campground although several of them were parked with at least one wheel off the pad and in the grass because each of the pads is shaped in a rather tight arc.

Also, the campground is in a very developed area. You can see housing developments across the lake and the first night we were there we heard an awful lot of police sirens outside of the park boundaries.

Hopefully I have painted a picture that this park is not the place to go if you are looking for seclusion and the majesty of nature. However, if you are into boating, waterskiing, jet skiing or sitting on a swim beach, this place might be for you. The swim beach on a Sunday afternoon was packed and almost every day use picnic table and shelter were occupied. The boat ramp had a pretty huge line of people waiting to put their boats in, or pull them out.

There is a concession operation near the swim beach that sold snacks, and another small shop in the marina just north of the swim beach where you can grab sodas, beer and fishing bait.

We did a little fishing from the shoreline and caught a couple small bass, but nothing large enough to legally keep.

The bathrooms between the A and B loops were clean and offered coin operated showers. $.75 to start and $.25 to add additional minutes. There were change machines in the bathroom in case you don’t have a bunch of quarters on hand. We did not use the showers so do not know how much time you get for you money.

We pulled in OTA television channels for both Denver and the Fort Collins markets and all major non-cable television networks were represented.

We bounced between 2 & 3 bars of Verizon LTE Service, but that is misleading because upload & download speeks were pretty slow, my Speedtest.net results are posted in the photos. Despite the slowness, I was able to get some work done during the day, checked emails, made phone calls and also participated in several zoom videoconference meetings.

All-in-all, is give Boyd Lake a very mediocre rating due to the crowds, tight campsites and lack of privacy. Again, if you are going to spend your days on or in the water, and only be at you campsite while sleeping, then this may be a good place for you.

We may try it again in the fall when there would hopefully be much fewer guests.

We usually boondock or stay in campgrounds on public lands, so this was our very first experience at a privately owned campground in over five years of camping with our small RV. And the only reason we stayed here was that the couple we were travelling with had dogs and needed a place with electric hookups to run their Air Conditioning for the dogs while we were out exploring the area.

Everything the other reviewers say is all true. Very tight campsites, no privacy between sites, sketchy yet expensive shower facilities, sketchy yet expensive laundry facilities, and at least one of the staff is a total jerk.

We found the ladies in the office to be very friendly, helpful and professional. When one of the washing machines in the laundry 'ate' $2.00 worth of our quarters and refused to operate, the lady in the campground office gave us 8 quarters no questions asked.

About 10 minutes after connecting our rig to the 30 amp shore power, our surge protector began reporting a low voltage condition with voltage coming from the voltage coming from the pedestal rating less than 104 Volts. We disconnected right away and went to the office to report the unsatisfactory voltage and they sent their handyman over to check it out. He initially spent about 45 minutes taking the pedestal apart changing some of the hardware in the pedestal and pronounced it 'fixed'. We connected again and began getting the same low voltage message from our surge protector.

The first handy man's shift was over so his replacement Ron, a.k.a 'the Jerk', came over to the site and began to berate us for using a surge protector and proclaimed that he has been fighting for years with guests whose surge protectors report low voltage or other electrical faults. Ron went on to say, that as soon as these people bypass their surge protectors, the problems go away. Kind of like taking your rig into the shop to get a 'Check Engine Light' evaluated and having the technician say, "Just put a piece of tape over the light and everything will be fine!"

We just disconnected our rig from Ron's faulty electrical service, but our travelling companions bypassed their surge protector like Ron suggested so they could run the AC while we were out exploring, and their Air Conditioning unit was damaged and completely stopped working by the end of the first day. Coincidence? I think not. The mobile RV technician who came out to check the AC unit said the damage to their AC was indeed a possible result of inadequate voltage. $1,800 to replace the entire AC unit due to the inadequate and faulty electrical service at Kaibab Camper Village.

In walking around the campground, we noticed that about 75% of the surge protectors campers were using at the pedestals reported the 'PE04' error code for incoming voltage below 104 Volts.

Anyway ... long story short ... the electrical system at this park is completely inadequate and will cause damage to your rig if you do not use a surge protector! If you use a surge protector, you will not get any electricity due to the faults within the campground's electrical service.

Oh, the Jacobs Lake Inn, just a mile walk from the campground advertises "World Famous Cookies" ... and the cookies are indeed exceptional! Get some!