Stone State Park Campground

Stone State Park, Sioux City, Iowa

End of a not to long day driving across Iowa......corn, lotsa corn! We stopped at Dolliver Memorial State Park for a hike about midday, it looked a bit better taken care of then Stone SP.

This is basically a small primitive campground with electric added to some sites. Not horrible for an overnight....

First impression.....I considered getting back on the road. The people that I saw in the meager campground looked somewhat homeless. No offense and they do need to stay somewhere however they could also keep their areas decluttered and detrashed. There was a family staying on the far side of the ditch that seemed to be camping.

There was constant vehicle traffic around the small loop my site was on, they seemed to have no purpose other then to stare. The campground shower house was used by whomever felt like using it which also added to the traffic.

After Maquoketa Cave SP this is a disappointment. The trails were overgrown and the map was not easy to orient. I only explored so far so I may have missed the cool stuff that signifies this park. There was sketchy coverage for your phone so I couldn’t pull up Alltrails, make sure to download before You drive in.

This is a large state park in the northwest corner of Iowa, surprisingly wooded considering how close to Sioux City it is located. Touted as a year-round park, there is a large network of trails, some of which can be used as equestrian. HOWEVER, the trails are not labeled and there is no (or very fleeting) cell service so that even after looking at the map (located on a board in the park, not a paper one), I wandered aimlessly around the park getting lost. One of the trailheads requires that you tramp directly through Site 12 to access! I explored this trail for approximately a quarter of a mile, but it became very overgrown and because I was not sure where I was going, I ended up turning around.

The campground is divided into three sections

• Sites 1-11 are located on either side of the access road are a bit too close together for our preference and despite the park being so wooded, have no foliage or other visible separation between the sites. These sites all have electric hookups

• Sites 12-14 are at the top of the hill and have the easiest access to the restrooms; they also have electric hookups. In my opinion, Site 14 would be the most desirable. Given that there are only three sites here, there was a surprising number of cars driving past these sites.

• Sites 15-30 are primitive tent sites and located near Cabin#3 (a CCC cabin). 

The bathrooms were clean and (don’t laugh at me), the toilets had lids! Given the current virus situation, this was a nice and welcome surprise! 

There was no camp host and we only saw one ranger during our stay. There is a nice playground, but it is not located anywhere near the campground (it is located closer to two of the cabins). If you are camping with children, please note this. There are three cabins, one that was built by the CCC and a lodge which also looked to be a CCC product, although it did not appear to be open when we were there.