Bloomington East - Clinton Lake

Stayed one night in Walnut at site 286. $20 a night. Clean showers and bathrooms. Plenty of hot water. Plenty of spaces in walnut, hickory was busier. Beautiful lake.

Clean, open, quiet.  It was beautiful!

Would have given a 5 Star; but we had no interaction with the Camp Hosts. The Host Shack was closed four of the five days we stayed. Saw only a Host drive by to add a tag to a campsite. Other than that, GREAT STAY! We checked out all the other campsites in Bloomington East and ours was without a doubt the best. Perfect lake view that filled our large rear window. The site is perfectly shaded by large trees. There is a Maintenance Building to the right, but we only heard workers access the building one day. We camped Sunday thru Thursday. Less than 25% capacity filled so it was always quite. The various types and colors of Butterflys were amazing!!! We even had a few migrating Summer Tangers visit and sing directly above our heads in the shade trees. We also had night visits from the masked bandit raccoons, but they did no harm. There are a couple close Geocaches for those who dare. We brought kayaks and paddled a few miles across the lake, water temp was warm… I know because I fell in! The beach trash on the first couple days was outrageous… flowing out of cans and dumpsters! Which was puzzling because the grassy areas were manicured. We saw teams spaying weeds in the parking lot cracks, but no one tending to trash patrol. By Weds the trash was gone and the beach was raked and clean. Our site provided 30A and Water Hook ups. Wife said showers were fine except for the massive swarms of gnats attracted to water and light. Keep your camp lights to a minimum during summer due to gnats. However, we had no mosquitoes to speak of and a few black flies. Deer are all about the area, sneaking drinks from the lake. Unfortunately, there is no good path to the lake directly from site. But a 15 minute walk will get you to the boat landing. Beach is a 5 minute drive. Several Frisbee Golf courses well manicured and kept up nicely. The Clinton Store is a joke unfortunately. Such GREAT potential lost on the owners. Hours of operation are on a day to day basis, no packs of soda pop only singles. Shelves were pretty bare, personally I only saw it opened once. Stopped by on way out and said OPEN, but note on door said they’d be back at 5:30p. The Dump Station was fine. Two dump hook-ups, potable and non-potable water available and clearly marked. We had fine T-Mobile service, 3 out of 4 bars on a new iPhone. TV antenna brought in enough channels to watch and used HotSpot WiFi for the ROKU.

• Don’t make the mistake of using a mister on your fan outside. The water brought in SWARMS of gnats. Our bug zapper sounded like a Independence Day Fireworks Finale! The three citronella candles only enticed the gnats to hari-kari to a hot wax death. Even the camp fire became a crash landing site for the obsessive gnats.

But hey, can’t camp with having a few pests right?

We will be back again for sure!!!

Vibe: Mix of family summer camping and older camping clubs. Rows of sites. More utilitarian than nature. 

Cleanliness: Average 

Facilities: Average 

General spots: Good size, ok spacing, not private, shade varies from none to moderate. 

Our site: 13. Close to bathrooms and playground. Very minimal shade. 

Noise: Rambunctious fun in the evening when it cools off. Quite hours were respected. 

Cell signal: Good 

Other: Beach is a short drive down and its very popular on the weekends. Lawrence is about a 12-15 minute drive away and has lots of food options and a cool college town vibe.

Spent one night here. Great place to hang out at the lake. Sites are good size and sufficiently far apart. Easy to move around in, even with a big rig. One problem though, rules are not being enforced and people take advantage of it. We were three spots away from a larger group of people partying with loud music until late at night. We got tired of their total disregard and moved sites. Lucky for us, in our RV that is easy. Others with tents around that place were not so lucky and ended up arguing with them. Others are driving their big loud trucks through the campground late at night. Oh, and one more fun fact - in the afternoon when we arrived, some guy had to relieve himself on a tree with a restroom only two sites away. Just standing there with it all hanging out. Not a pleasant picture, especially with our kids walking past as well.

Very quiet (except the weird noisy, swarming insect noise early evening !?!) and uncrowded.

Awesome location and beautiful surroundings. Loved our site - lots of shade, big picnic table, & right next to playground. Beach was in great condition. The whole family had a great time.

Had a hard time finding any place open for memorial weekend. We settled on Bloomington East. Most lakes in the area were flooded. And Clinton was no exception. My site was a muddy mess but I just joined up with a friend and we used a his single site for both our teardrops. Not quite as quiet as I like, but very family oriented and close to the water.

Loved our weekend here at this campsite. Like another review said, there are no check in/check out process- check in times are late 5PM and check out is 6PM. Our site was spacious and not too close to our neighbors. It had a few trees perfect for our hammocks and provided ample shade. The firepit had an attached grill but it was too dirty for us to use. There was also a large hook to hang lanterns/garbage. You can find little playgrounds through the campsite. We did see A few rangers patrolling in the late evening.

The bathrooms were a short walk away and were not the cleanest I’ve seen but clean. Shower pressure varies with each stall and does have hot water. There is no hand soap in the restrooms but hand-dryers. dumpsters are a close walk by.

We drove to the loading dock to catch a sweet sunrise - also stopped by the beach but it was too dirty for our liking us to swim.

It was mostly family RV camping, but a quiet weekend overall. The only complaint I have is that there are lots of bugs/spiders. Overall, i would definitely come back again and hopefully snag a site by the waters.

I was here on 4th of July weekend and it was crowded, but cleared out after that. Most sites had lots of occupants and it was loud, but that’s probably related to the holiday weekend. Check-in isn’t until 6 (check out at 5), which is ridiculous. There’s no check in process, just show up and hope your site is available early. There’s a nice beach and boat launch on site. I had site 7 in the Cedar Ridge Campground, which was on the end of the row so it had a nice view of the lake. Cell service was good with Verizon. There is a major bug problem here, thousands of little gnats that swarmed the inside of my camper and car whenever I opened the door, even during the day. They don’t seem to bite, but still...

This campground has wonderful amenities - a big shower house, a nice playground, boat launch and lake access, and full RV hookups. Sites are very close together and there is little privacy for most sites, but not all! Sites along the edge are more likely to have more space and be a little more protected. It’s in a gorgeous area, some sites have fire pits and others have pits and charcoal grills for use. I would say it’s great for RV camping, but tent campers could choose their site wisely.

great campgrounds with great fishing.

This campground is on the south side of the lake and a little harder to get to than the State Parks. We do prefer it. It is right on the lake, offers tent and RV camping. Great access to boat ramps, fishing dock, and a large sandy beach. Restrooms are on par with most public campgrounds.There is a small country store nearby.

Camped at the Oak Campsite with some friends. Great place for those looking for a site away from the crowds with minimal amenities. Fresh water supply and clean bathrooms as well as a fire pit w/grill, charcoal grill and lantern pole made for a comfortable night. Careful around this site though, as most of the trees are black locust. I had to spend half an hour making the bottom 6 feet of the trees child proof for my friends 3 year old.

This campground is on the northwest side of Clinton Lake.  All the activities one would associate with a lake like boat ramps, beach, hiking/biking trails, full hook-up sites, tent camping, playgrounds, etc.  The small town of Clinton is nearby and has a small store for items you may forget.  It's our go to when we go to Clinton Lake.

Really nice campground, but more for family camping than loners. Lots of shade. Picnic tables at each site. Toilet and shower facilities.

Made reservations online using photos of the campsites. Chose site 166 with is a great site with lots of afternoon shade. Campground and facilities are well maintained and clean. The only problem is the bathrooms get hot and stuffy in the afternoon. That may be because the heat index was 110 degrees.

I live in Lawrence so this campground isn't a vacation spot for me but rather a "get some alone time" spot. Clean, safe and well maintained. Other campers are respectful and the camp hosts are always friendly.

The draw for me is the many hiking trails accessible from the campsite. Great place to spend a nice Kansas weekend!

I love this place. It's been a place that my family took me as a child time and again and somewhere I still take my family as an adult. We take our dogs and our kayakes and we are set for the weekend. The campsites are clean and a nice private distance from each other for the most part. Some sites seem a little more popular and packed in. The bathrooms where clean and the water was hot! Would recommend to anyone, and there is always a friendly face who knows the area.

Paved roads are great for taking a walk or riding bikes and make it easy to move from one place to another withi the campground. Our camping spot offered significant shade and a large grassy area for setting up chairs, cooking equipment, and outdoor games. We appreciate that the layout made it easy for children to move freely and safely among campsites and to restroom facilities and the playground.

Spent the night here while in town for a concert. The park was very clean and beautiful and the staff was great.