Patios that put out a water bowl without being asked. Trails that don't require leashes when nobody's looking. Breweries with a yard. Beaches off-season.
A U.S. Forest Service recreation area on the lake's Hoosier National Forest shoreline — a campground, boat launch, swim beach with playground, and the Hardin Ridge and Ted T. Turtle interpretive trails, part of a 36-mile trail network (Pate Hollow, Peninsula, Grubb Ridge, and more) that makes Monroe as much a hiking lake as a boating one.