Cecil M Harden Lake Raccoon State Recreation Area
Reviewed Sep. 15, 2022

Nice SRA

     We last visited in 2014 & not much has changed. This is a good base camp for visiting the covered bridges. The DNR office in the park has lots of area info, I got a map of where the bridges are & we were set! 

     The bathrooms are typical state park. They look like they were updated in the last 15 years, but are state park clean( which means surface it looks ok, but needs a deep clean). There are pit toilets scattered around the campground too, which were pretty good according to my husband. 

     The hikes are really run down. They need to start maintaining them better. Lots of erosion & broken slats on the bridges. Signage was ok, but I was let down a couple of times. Trail one has scenic overlooks & vistas, but none of them are signed if you're on trail.

    This campground has a reputation as being a big party place. That might be true, but we were on the far end of White tail loop & noise was moderate on Friday & Saturday. 

 There's plenty of sites that have a VERY bad incline. Bring extra levelers. People were complaining on Facebook that the site descriptions have the inclines wrong.

   White tail loop is where we camped the last time too. We looked at the other loops & I marked down a few I thought were pretty good. White tail: Site 130/145 are somewhat secluded & large. There's a bad incline on 145 though.

  Sites 135/136/137/138 are paved & relatively flat. 139 is paved. 140 has a nicer view of the lake, but to get to it you have to walk. There's a trail from the campsite.

 These sites are at the end of the loop & there's a walk to get to the bathrooms. There's also a large playground here, which gets loud during the day. 

   There's an overflow site 141 that's not marked on the reservation map. It stayed empty the whole weekend we were there. There's a trail from this site leading to the lake. Be prepared for the rest of White tail campers to use this site to access the lake & trail 4. There was a constant stream of people while we were there. They don't think anything about walking through site 140 either. Very annoying! 

Lakeview is the nonelectric side. The vegetation was covering the view of most sites. Sites 93/94/99/102 looked like sites with a view of the water. I only saw access to the lake from 102. 

 Songbird I only wrote down site 8 as being level& by the bathroom. 

 Hideaway looked nice & it's a small loop.

Site140
Month of VisitSeptember