Best Tent Camping near Garden City, KS

There is not a lot to see on the flat western plains of Kansas and you would not see this state park either if you didn’t know it was there. This lake is like a sunken oasis of trees and water. The area itself was great! There’s even a few histoical sites to visit and it is close to Monument Rocks, which is what bought us to Kansas.

The campground, however, is just ok. Perhaps it would’ve been better if they had rain to green up the grass, but it was mostly brown in June when we camped there. They have a large selection of sites and on a Monday night in June, we had many choices available for tent camping. It appeared that most who camp here have an rv and those spaces looked about full. Thankfully, those are two different areas of the campground because they were packed into a parking lot style campground. The tent area probably would’ve looked packed in too since the sites are small, but with only a handful of tents, we had some space.

One thing that did limit our choice of sites was a LARGE herd of geese that covered all of the lakeside sites as well as the next row in. I didn’t want to set up in bird poop in the dry grass so the sites with a decent view were out. We did luck out and find site 2 of the Flatland area which was up above the water line so the geese couldn’t swim up and walk in. Site 2 had a great view of the lake and was set apart from the other sites along with site 1. Site 1 would’ve been the better site but it was occupied by a tent that appeared to have been abandoned. Site 2 was not level by any means, in fact it sloped quite a bit compared to the rest of the sites. There was no tent pads, which would’ve helped a lot for this site. We just set up so our heads would be at the high end and it worked. It was too nice of a view to let a bumpy sloping site stop us!

The campground has a host and everyone was quiet for the night. We slept pretty well, other than the high humidity of Kansas.

The bathhouse left a lot to be desired. A good cleaning to remove dead bugs would’ve went a long way. A fresh coat of paint would make it inviting. It looked like nobody had checked on its’ condition for many years. We were hoping to use the showers, but they were no cleaner and had an odd design with no doors or shower curtains. The lighting was very dim as well, making it all look a little too creepy for a shower there. A fresh coat of paint, brighter lighting, some shower curtains, and a good scrub down would make this facility SO much better! We also checked the other batthouse on the opposite side of the lake and it was the same way...only creepier because there was one lone rv camped near it.

Overall, I would not camp here again unless I read some reviews indicating the the bathhouse has been improved. It’s not a dealbreaker to not have a shower, but if this campground had been fuller, the geese all over the sites may have been. If you have an rv and pay for full hookups, you might like this campground. If you are tent camping, keep looking.

This was our last stop in our Tour de Kansas. The landscape felt more like the west than the flatlands of Kansas we had come to love. We pulled in on a Thurs. The campground was almost empty. Buy Friday afternoon, it was pretty full. By Sunday afternoon, we had it to our self again. We got a pull through site with 30 and 50 amp. Only 1 shower house was open in early April. But, it was 4 individual rooms, not common area setup.

The lake was small but very pretty, easy to kayak, SUP and fish. There are a few short trails to hike. As other have mentioned, there are amazing sites within 20 miles. The Little Jerusalem SP is a must. In the area, we saw turkey, owl, lots of buzzards, geese, albino buffelo and more cows than i have seen in one place. On Saturday, the local car club drove their vintage cars to the park for a pop up car show. The people were very nice. Garden City is about 40 miles away and offers everything you could want, brewery, good food, shopping galore, etc.

While traveling through Kansas we found a beautiful spot to camp that we would recommend to all campers whether beginning, tenting, RV or even to just stop and spend the day. There is plenty of camping sites, fishing areas, swimming beach, a beach/boat/market house, historical markers and dwellings along with beautiful rolling hills and bluffs. Camp hosts were pleasant and helpful and area was clean. Some areas are shaded better than others as seen on google maps. And not to forget that Monument rocks are about a 20 minute drive from there and a must see-amazing that they could be there.