Pine Lake State Park

This state park surrounds pretty little Pine Lake just outside a Eldora Iowa. The campground is 6 miles south of US Hwy 20. It's on County Hwy S56 which skirts the western edge of the park. The lake has 2 sections, an upper and lower section connected by a channel.

The campground is on a slope above the upper lake with 124 campsites. Campsites are in several loops to the left and right of the entrance. Most sites are reservable but there are about 31 first-come, first-served sites. You can select an empty reservation site on a night by night basis. Most sites are electric only, some 50 amp and some 30 amp. There are some tent/dry camping sites as well as one full hookup site near the dump station. We paid $16 a night for an electric only site. Since the campground is set on a slope the sites tend to slope as well and many will require some amount of leveling. The sites are grassy, small and set close together with no underbrush for privacy however in the off season and during the week there's plenty of space for everyone. Large oaks and black walnut trees provide shade in the summer. There are 2 bathrooms with flush toilets, one bathroom has a separate shower area as well. There's a dump station at the entrance. Water faucets are scattered throughout the camping loops and are threaded if you need to fill tanks. There are no signs but I'd guess the water is shut off in the winter months. There's a vault toilet in the adjacent picnic and boat launch area. There's also a children's play area in the area above the boat launch.

The primary access to the water is from the boat launch immediately south of the campground. There's a maintained beach area at the lower lake accessible from the campground via a paved walking & bike trail that runs through much of the park. Most of the shoreline has been left natural and is not easily accessible. A boat launch is located at the extreme southern end of the lake by a spillway as well as the one next to the campground. At the north end of the lake, there's a golf course.

Nearby Eldora has several restaurants, 2 grocery stores and a couple of gas stations. It's the Hardin County seat so there's a large courthouse with a clock tower in the center of town.

Verizon service is a steady 3 bars. Speedtest shows 9.8 Mbps up and 4.9 down.

The renovations didn’t look major, and this place will probably reopen at the start of the next season. Kind host. Nice little campground and a level dump station.

Pulled in on Monday with no reservation. Got a great spot with good showers nearby. Plenty to do in the area. Golf course1/2 mile away. Great bike trail.

Have camped here several times alone and with family. During the week it is quiet and beautiful. Weekends can get pretty busy but all in all not crazy noisy. They keep place mowed and bathrooms and showers are clean.

My wife and I met some friends here for a 10 day get away the campground was clean and quiet... the site Super from the park stopped to tell us about bad weather headed are way not the host, which was nice that the park fokes care abiut the visitors in the campground. There is a txt line you can txt to ger on a 7-day alert system for emergency as well. The 4 of us stayed in sites 64 and 65 facing each other as both pull through sites... the park has had and appears it's still getting some update... there used to be 120ish sites, now it's around 75, but this still feels like too many in the area. Very few sites are level.

TACO LIFE in eldora is incredible
If you need firewood less than a mile away, it is a firewood sign under the camp quaker heights sign wood at this time is 15 large prices for $10 cash or venmo, the money goes to camp quaker heights