lake manawa beach

Stayed just one night before running the Omaha Marathon the next morning thinking that a 'State Park' would be a nice, peaceful, scenic, economical experience. At least it was economical. But...as mentioned it is in and around a bit of a tough looking neighborhood and for a tent camper it was very loud on a Saturday night. There must be a bar somewhere on the lake with live poorly sung rock music until Midnight that carries across the water. And of course the occasional police siren. But the trump card is the constant blowing of train whistles at least every 15 minutes throughout the night. The facilities are on the run down side. If you are planning a quiet getaway weekend to a 'State Park' destination (especially for families with kids of any age) this is absolutely one place to avoid.

I arrived on Thursday before most of the crowd. One surprising fact is that you need soap for the bathrooms. Most places provide soap to use, strange. The campsites we had were on the dirty side as of small trash being left on them like dental floss, cigarette lighters, plastic caps from drinks, and pop/beer top tabs. When we arrived on Thursday the bathrooms were very clean. As more campers came in the bathrooms became trashed. This should suggest the campground attendants should have checked the bathrooms more often since it was a very busy weekend. All in all we had a very quiet camping environment. I was surprised that the houses were so close to the campsites (62 & 63) we had separated by a chain link fence. We did not use the play area or the beach area so I can not comment on them. The trail that we used was a real nice trail and it connected to the Wabash trail. The fire pits were nice to use. They had two shelves to cook on. Great for putting longer cooking items on and then put up on the top shelf to keep warm and cook the rest of your meal.

You can camp here, fish, swim, jet ski. Its a pretty clean, has a little fishy smell to the water but, its a lake! The scene is beautiful while we were there we saw lots of deer running around the park. I love that there is a playground to for the kids to play and picnic!

Nice place to relax. Beautiful beach and views. Lots of lily pads. Not too crowded. Lots of friendly people to visit with.

they have some great bike trails, but the picnic ground area near the "Dream playground" was so littered with trash & the Shelter House restrooms near it were absolutely discusting!We picked up a lot of the trash around our picnic area, but it seems like people just leave their trash from their picnics at the site!This year seems so much worse that I have ever seen it.I had to take my Grandchild to the restroom , the stall doors & toilet areas were filthy!There was running water but no soap or dryer to wash up properly.Please clean up our beautiful park so we can be proud of it again.I have been to many state parks & this is no where near as nice as it should & could be!

Sites are minimum gravel, fairly close together and overall appearance of the park is dismal. Had we known it looked like this we never would have come here. But traveling across the country and looking for a place to settle for several nights, we chose this park, thinking that as a State Park it would represent Iowa in a good light. Not to be the case. We would NEVER come back to a park as dismal as this. Perhaps the daily rate represents the clientele that frequent here. We had no interest in taking advantage of the lake or its amenities but were only looking for a nice campground to spend 3 nights in and visit nearby sites. Friends of ours who live nearby said 'oh man, that's a nasty place' . . . .We didn't have need to use the 'restroom' and I say that lightly - - it was AWFUL and thankfully we didn't need to use it as we have a self-contained RV.

I had to wait until June 6th to go in, but it was worth it, the staff is very friendly and the beach is very well kept. The whole park is beautiful surrounding Lake Manawa. There are lots of wild turkeys throughout the park.

I highly recommend not staying at this campground especially with young children. The facilities are disgusting with dirty diapers, women's feminine products and other trash on the floors. The people at this campground were scary and looked strung out on drugs. Homeless people digging through dumpsters. Neighborhood behind campground looked pretty rough, constant traffic. We saw one person get arrested by DNR. DNR presence was high. Nice fire rings but no wood available to purchase. You couldn't pay me to stay here again. We cut our trip short.

Lake Manawa state park was really like no other! It really had everything we wanted for a relaxing family weekend. It had people constantly cruising through with their stereos cranked revving their engines, and they didn't let a little fact like it being 4 in the morning stop them from disturbing everyone. It also had a steady stream of people digging through the trash, tied-up dogs barking, and trashy bathrooms with no soap or temperature controls in the shower. The most amazing thing at Lake Manawa was the constant DNR presence arresting people. What a treat! It provided some great entertainment and provided a learning opportunity for our small children to see first-hand the role law enforcement plays in the community. So as you can see, Lake Manawa really has everything-except my family. We will NEVER camp at Lake Manawa State Park again!

When we travel to see our son in college it is so nice to bring our 4 legged family members to run and have fun. We love going to Lake Manawa!

The price is right based upon what you get. Not a great beach surrounded by a not very well taken care of State Park. In the past, we have had our car broken into at the walking trail not far from the beach. The porta-potties have been removed due to vandalism like exploding fireworks in that small contained area. Overgrowth, garbage, and safety issues in this area. I used to bike on the trail there also, but don't feel safe in any of the areas now at Lake Manawa, including the beach. What happened to all of the park rangers? What happened to taking care of the beach and park? Anything goes......including me, away from this state park that has really gone downhill within the last three years. Better and safer places to go, in my opinion.

We went camping here over Memorial Day weekend and also went to the beach just recently in early July. We had fun camping (who doesn't) but it was probably the worst campsite we had ever stayed at. Lots of shall we say interesting folks there. Day 2 of our camping trip and the people across the way (family members) while drinking, got into a fistfight/pushing match with threats of murdering each other and curse words being shouted like you wouldn't believe. DNR came out and I had to write a statement up so they could arrest the individuals. Not how I wanted to spend my evening and definitely something I didn't want my kids to see. Lots of locals came out for the night just to drink it up and party hard until early in the morning. Really crowded and cramped spaces with a bunch of homes backing up to the camp grounds. Also were assured (when we gave our statement) we would be alerted if there were any weather warnings that came out. 2:30 in he morning huge wind (60 mph plus) and storm swept through, wiped out all kinds of tents including ours, no warning was given to us but I know there were weather warnings all through the area that night. Went to the beach recently and that wasn't too bad. Still plenty of drinking going on but during the day it is much quieter and the atmosphere more enjoyable. Lake is extremely shallow though where you can swim, you do have to pay to get in, and on a nice day like when we were out there there were all kinds of boats flying around the lake coming extremely close to the swimming are which makes it very wavy. I might go back to the lake again, definitely would not go camping there if you paid us to do it. I'll go somewhere farther away to avoid the one night drinkers.

Lake Manawa is pretty and good for a swim, however the campsite should not be listed as a State Park. We came down from Wisconsin for a baseball tournament at the Council Bluffs Recreation Complex which was about 3 minutes away. All of the campsites were grouped together in a small circle, sites were about 20 feet from the next camper. Our site had trash left over from previous occupants. Showers were very dirty and I am an outdoor girl! About 1/3 of the campers were living there as their residence however DNR was very present. When we camp in Wisconsin, we have privacy in the State Parks and are not used to camping right next to another site. Lake Manawa had plenty of space to spread the sites apart throughout the park. On the upswing, wildlife was present and the trails were nice, but I would not recommend for camping.

Yup, we call it mana-swamp. we do go boating there, since the next closest boating lake is an hour away. We have fun there, but there are homeless people, and every year there is a least one murder\hidden corpse. I have never felt unsafe, but that is all relative. The lake is not dirty, it just has poor clarity due to being only 6 ft deep, and warm.(lots of algea) I wouldnt camp there tho. Manawa could be a great lake and park with a little tlc. But that probably wont happen since its in council bluffs, also known as "the dirty armpit of Iowa". Pros- Its close, its cheap, its easycons- Dirty, not patrolled, low-rent. Power plant sky line.

We planned to camp at this state park on our way to Alaska. As we drove through looking for a spot to put our tent, we saw nothing but white trash and people who looked like they were on drugs. Our children asked if they would be raped in the restrooms. The whole campground was filthy! It backs up to a crack infested neighborhood with a beautiful scenic view of a power plant. The state of Iowa should be ashamed to have ownership of this campground!! Maybe the state should make a trip to Georgia to see what a state park should look like! I'm embarrassed to even say we drove through this ghetto place!