Pawnee

The timed entry system is a needless complication for visitors. It only views the park from the administration side. With a permit, a parking space is reserved all day. So there is absolutely no reason to have to go back down the road to the entrance station within a particular time frame to get another copy of your permit every morning. If you purchased a parking permit, it should be valid all day. It's a simple and rather obvious solution. You should get the permit when you first enter the area. If you'll be there multiple days, you should get permits for each day. In addition, it's another frustrating complication that you need both a camping permit and a parking permit for the trailheads. If you're able to find a camping spot on a cancelation, you're not guaranteed that you can park your vehicle anywhere except 1.5 miles away in the campground. They say it's 0.8 miles, but that is not accurate. I understand and support efforts to protect the area. But all of the logistics for IPW (and most other parks now) are being devised with only the administration side in mind. No effort is being put into how the system works for the visitor. It is ruining the experience of using our National Parks and Wilderness Areas and I strongly oppose the system if they can't adjust their perspective and tailor it for the visitor instead.

Pleasant camping area, not too close to each other. Clean and well laid out. Plenty of bathrooms.

We were in the Walk-in Tent Only section of the campground. It was very nice, clean and quiet. The bathrooms were extremely clean (campground host does a good job), parking was super easy. These sites have access to the river / stream that comes out of Brainard. It is beautiful and worth the walk down a hill to it. It is so pleasant to hear the water from your site.

Beautiful camp group, well maintained and clean facilities. The host couples do a great job! Plus, you can't beat the views and hiking!

We really liked the area at Brainard Lake. The toilets were clean, and the staff seemed active and friendly trying to make a good experience. The one problem we had was that the staff seemed to disappear after 5:00pm or so. They drive around in carts all day and they are visible all the time making sure the sites are safe, clean, and compliant with rules. After 5:00pm - no one. We had a group of about 12 college kids move in for one night of partying (limit 6 per site). They had three cars (2 limit) in the site, several more cars of people arrived and left (felt very unsafe). I asked them at 12:30am to turn off their music. They did for 20 minutes, then started again. They played music until 2:00am when another camper drove their truck over and shined their very bright lights on the site. No one slept and it felt unsafe with people coming and going, walking around, opening car doors, and closing them. Where were all the staff who were so active during the day? Where was the campground host? This can always be a problem with a camp less than an hour away from an urban area. When I asked the host what happened, they said it was highly unusual. Not an answer. The hosts need to patrol in the evening and keep their ears open. If they can’t deal with it, they should get the ranger to come and evict campers who are clearly making for an unsafe environment, breaking rules (many) and probably some laws (smoking pot on federal land and underage drinking). I recommend asking the host when you arrive how to report problems after hours (no cell reception in the area).

Super nice campground. Well maintained. Bathrooms are very clean. Had a great time. Quiet and awesome views and hikes nearby

Great campground at high elevation. Lots of privacy.

When getting camping reservations the site needs to tell one to get parking permit on last day if one wants to hike past 11am.

Prior to departing, I was told by the person who rides the golf cart on the campground that I was not permitted to use my popup shower to bathe because the gallon of water which I was using wasn't permitted to be in my site. We were asked NOT to use water. There were no signs of this "policy" nor was it written anywhere on the brochure. It had rained during the night and therefore, the found was wet. My partner and I thought it very cruel that we were not allowed to clean ourselves after a long, hot hike. Fortunately, we were only there for 1.5 days. What about the people who stayed several days? We're they permitted to pour a gallon of water over themselves to get clean? Utter garbage and very inhumane.

Otherwise, the park itself was lovely. VERY upset by the experience. That staff member should be corrected and we should be compensated for poor treatment. He was patrolling on golf cart.

Perfect place to get away!