Pawnee State Recreation Area — Hotel in Lincoln

Travis was our camp host. He was fantastic! He made sure people observed quiet time, speeding and generally tenters being respectful of other tenters sites! We rented during the heat dome. Travis checked on us daily to make sure as an older couple, not RV but old school campers, were okay. He brought fire wood by and it was needed to keep some bugs away at night. Considering the heat and Travis I would have rated this place five stars if it weren't for Jay.

We were camping while our house was having work done. We talked to two different sources to make sure if our home wasn't ready in 14 days if we needed to leave Pawnee or switch camp sites. We were used to BLM's where you tent 14 days and had to move 25 miles away to let the land rest. We were assured we could move sites, not leave Pawnee. When our 14 days were done in came Jay! He said he didn't care if we were told wrong. We had already moved sites and paid for an additional 5 days.

We are both disabled and I have a service animal. So, I asked Jay for my check back because we were going to stay in a hotel the last five days. When I got out of the car and he saw my animal in her service animal garb and looked shocked. My husband is also a retired veteran. Jay was rude and very impolite. He refused to return our money and did let us stay the five days.

My problem with Jay is this: he only observed one rule letting the ground rest! Which we are in complete agreement with! However he let people on sites that needed to rest, no one came around to make sure quiet time was being observed, nor did he care that up to thirty people with ten tents were on two sites and left it filthy with trash.

It is a beautiful place. I met two different families who used to own the land. It's ashame that Jay was more concerned with money than taking care of the land.

We are grateful for our camp host who volunteered and took care of the land more than Jay the head park ranger!

I would recommend this place for a night or two, for family get togethers or just to get away Monday through Thursday. They did not pump the bathrooms and only spruced it up on Thursday for the week end visitors.

You also have to watch the weekenders letting their dogs off lead and running, doing their business...

This park is super. Our campsite was in area 4. We had a very level pad and a wonderful lot. We really liked the concrete path from our site pad to the picnic table. The view of the lake is nice and can be seen from most places in the park. The area behind the campsites is grass and very well tended. All sites are well spaced, too. We easily walked all the roads in area 4. It’s a total of about 2 miles. The staff at the check in station were super friendly and helpful. We did not have occasion to speak to other park employees, so I cannot comment on them. The showers and bathrooms were clean and always had toilet paper. I do want to say that I wish bathroom stalls had a shelf in them for my phone. I don’t carry a purse, but carry my phone everywhere in my pocket. It’d be nice to have somewhere to put it so I don’t accidentally drop it in the toilet. We thought the trails in the our area were well maintained and had some really beautiful meadows with lots of wildflowers. We had no WiFi. Phone service was good. We got 44 free TV channels, but about half of them were unclear and the others blipped in & out repeatedly. We were very pleased to find horseshoe pits and a disc golf course in this park. We had fun playing golf, but you need to get a map from the check in station. The baskets DO NOT have numbers, so it’s somewhat difficult to match tees to baskets without the map. Things you need to know:

1. There is a restriction on wading or swimming in the lake due to water contamination. I’ve posted a picture of the sign in the park.
2. You need to have a park pass in addition to your camping fees in Nebraska State Parks. It’s $8/day or $35/year for residents and $45/year for non residents.
3. There are water spigots through out the park, but not at individual campsites. Fill before you park at your site.
4. The dump station is quite a distance from all campground areas, so if you plan to use your portable tank be prepared to travel a little to dump.
5. The showers are pay showers. It’s $1.25 for 7 & half minutes. There is a change machine right at the shower house though. Overall we really liked this park and were disappointed we didn’t make our reservation...

If I could give it a ZERO +, I would! We tried to make a reservation, and it said that we had to make the reservation 3 days in advance, but we could show up any time before 10 pm, and there would be a kiosk to reserve a spot for the night. After driving for 12 hours over multiple states, we showed up there to find the place vacant, no camp host anywhere to be found, and the kiosk they mentioned was a cash only deposit box, which had no clear instructions, not that we brought cash anyhow. The guide on the phone never mentioned anything like that. She told us that there would be people there until 10 if we needed assistance. We are now sitting in our camper at a rest area, to at least try to get some sleep before another long drive tomorrow. I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone outside of Nebraska, since they clearly don't...