Bloomington East - Clinton Lake, near Lawrence, Kansas, is a solid choice for campers looking to enjoy a peaceful lakeside experience. With spacious sites that allow for both tent and RV camping, it’s a great spot to kick back and soak in the natural beauty.

The campground boasts amenities like drinking water, electric hookups, and picnic tables, making it convenient for families and groups. Visitors have noted the clean facilities, including restrooms, and many appreciate the quiet atmosphere, especially during the weekdays. One camper mentioned, “It was beautiful and clean, open, quiet.”

For those who enjoy outdoor activities, the nearby Clinton Lake offers opportunities for kayaking and fishing, while the beach is just a short drive away. The area is also home to well-maintained disc golf courses, perfect for some friendly competition. Campers have enjoyed the wildlife, with sightings of deer and various butterflies adding to the charm of the surroundings.

While some have pointed out that the campground can get busy during peak times, the overall vibe remains friendly and welcoming. Whether you're planning a quick overnight stop or a longer stay, Bloomington East provides a comfortable base for your adventures.

## Overview

 Bloomington East Park includes Cedar Ridge, Hickory/Walnut, and Oak Campgrounds, Ash and Elm Group Camps, and Bloomington Beach Picnic Shelters. The park is located just west of Clinton Lake, between the Rock Creek and Wakarusa River arms of the lake, and offers several different recreational options. Within Bloomington East Park, visitors have the opportunity to reserve picnic shelters and campsites, both for group camping and individual family camping. 
## Recreation

 Bloomington Beach has a large sandy beach for swimming. Bloomington Beach requires a day use fee, for non-campers, between May 1 and September 30. Bloomington East offers 4 sets of boat ramps with courtesy docks. Launching a Boat requires a day use fee, for non-campers, between April 1 and November 30. Bloomington East offers over 300 campsites ranging from primitive to full hook-up to group camps 4 group shelters and dozens of picnic tables throughout the park make Bloomington East the perfect spot for vistitors just wanting to visit or the day. There are horseshoe pits, sand volleyball courts and playgrounds located several places in Bloomington East Park, making it the perfect spot for families. A full 18-hole professional disc golf course is also available free to all visitors (sets of disc can be borrowed from the camp host stations). Clinton Lake offers opportunities for boating, fishing, canoeing, jet skiing, swimming and countless other water sports, making it the main attraction in Bloomington East Park.The lake's fish and wildlife resources provide sightseers, fishermen, and hunters, ample opportunities for their sports, and Clinton Lake is well-stocked with crappie, walleye, channel catfish and white bass. Bloomington East Park has three boat ramps within a short driving distance of the campgrounds. These boat ramps (#5, 6 and 7) do require a day use fee, for non-campers, between April 1 and October 31.Visitors enjoy viewing bald eagles, white-tailed deer, Canada geese, wild turkey and other wildlife in abundance at Clinton Lake. Bloomington East offers the Smokehouse Trail, while three other trail systems are located around Clinton Lake, including the North Shore, South Shore and the George Latham Trails. All offer hiking, biking and equestrian opportunities within a 20 minute drive. 
## Facilities

 The Bloomington Beach Day Use area has four picnic shelters. This spacious day use picnic area is located adjacent to Bloomington Beach providing an ideal location for large group or family gatherings. The picnic shelters are reservable, for a fee, or free to use on a first-come, first-serve basis, if not already reserved, and have electrical outlets. There are several single picnic tables for use by smaller groups. Cedar Ridge and Hickory Walnut Campgrounds are the two main campgrounds, comprised of individual family sites. Many of these campsites have electrical or electrical and water hookups. Somewhat removed from the larger Hickory Walnut Campground, are Oak Campground, Elm Group Camp and Ash Group Camp. Oak Campground is a loop of Hickory Walnut Campground, with individual family campsites. Elm Group Camp and Ash Group Camp are larger, grassy areas, available for reservation, by larger groups, accommodating up to 75 people. Elm and Ash Group Camps are intended for tent camping groups, but can handle a limited number of small trailers, such as tent campers, as long as they remain on the gravel circle drive. There is no electricity provided in Elm or Ash Group Camps. Cedar Ridge, Hickory Walnut and Bloomington Beach Day Use area provide amenities like flush toilets, drinking water, showers and a nearby dump station for a comfortable camping experience. There is a covered, accessible fishing dock a short drive or walk from the campgrounds and picnic shelters.
## Natural Features

 Congress authorized Clinton Lake in 1962, and the finished reservoir was filled in 1980. While the Dam and Reservoir were originally built for flood control, the area has now become a recreational oasis for millions of visitors to enjoy the beautiful green Kansas backdrop. Clinton Lake's beautiful setting of steep bluffs, wooded shoreline and clean water is unequaled among Kansas lakes. Shoreline development has been limited in an effort to preserve as much of the natural setting as possible. Clinton Lake spans 8 miles up the Wakarusa Valley and covers 7,000 surface acres. If the lake ever approaches the top of its flood pool, an additional 5,800 acres will be covered, extending the area to 13 miles along the valley floor. 
## Nearby Attractions

 The Visitor Center, located on the northwest side of the dam, has several informative displays covering topics such as the history of the area, reasons for the dam and the wildlife in the area. The Clinton Lake Museum, located within Bloomington East Park, has several informative displays covering topics like the history of the region and the Underground Railroad. The cities of Lawrence and Topeka are within a 30 minute drive.

Bloomington East - Clinton Lake

Join the fun near Lawrence. With tons of outdoor activities and scenic camping, this is an excellent vacation spot for all kinds of travelers. Enjoy the scenic camping, fun activities, and sights and sounds of Lawrence. You're sure to find the perfect spot for your Kansas camping adventure.

Lawrence

The Best Camping Near Lawrence, Kansas

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

Stopping in for a concert

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.

A great place to relax

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. 

Quite and relaxing 

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!

Great hiking trails nearby.

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. 

Bloomington East - Hickory Campground

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

Too many families for me!

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.

Great area in the middle of nowhere

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.

Great campsite with minimal amenities

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.

Corp of Engineers Campground

great Kansas lake

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. 

Big and dense 

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...

Nice campground

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. 

Awesome

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.  

Great for family and group trips 

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

Kansas gem

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

Great overnight stop and more

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. 

No rules campground at the lake

**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.

Prairie Lake Campground - not bad, not great

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!!!

Cedar Ridge #47 For A Lakeside View!

Wonderful

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. 

Great spot- Quiet and not busy

Stayed one night on a roadtrip out to RMNP. Site 246 was at the bottom of the hill, right on the lake. Looks like there had been heavy rains, so evidence of a lot of run-off through these lake-front sites- but we were in a a teardrop and no rain on our one night. Bathrooms were clean- note, there are several bathrooms in the loops, but showers are located in a central bathroom nearer the entrance; still not a long walk. While lots of big RVs, it was not crowded down by the lakefront sites. Pretty quiet, except for the one camper who had his music elevated while setting up camp. But certainly quiet after dark.

Photos of Bloomington East - Clinton Lake

Real photos from real campers