Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Oakley, KS

Context:  I would not rate this campground 4 stars for destination camping, but I would like folks to know it is a great stop-over.  Typical trusted KOA cleanliness and quality.  Full hookups, some shade and nice grounds for kids and pets.  Friendly staff, wifi was good enough for online school; 4g cell coverage, cable too if you are set up in your rig.  Good health protocols during CV19.  Clean bathrooms and sites.  Camp grills, but no fire pits (it can be windy, but this campground's layout offers some blocking particularly to the south end).  After crossing Kansas from east to west, this is a great stop-over.  Also, if leaving Colorado late traveling west to east, same benefit.

This KOA has full hookups and nice level sites. The park is also super conveniently located to the interstate, so it’s the perfect place to pull off for the night.

The park does have a cute playground complete with old farm equipment and a small pool. The grass is all well kept and the bathrooms were very clean.

The town of Goodland is not known as a tourist attraction by any means but they are hiding a secret there, and it resides within walking distance of the KOA. Take your camera and venture around the block from the campground to a quaint park with giant ( over 20 foot tall) easel. Atop that easel sits an equally oversized rendition of the Vangogh sunflower painting- fitting for Kansas.

So, if you missed the giant ball of twine further up the highway- be sure you check out what has to be the largest art piece in the lower 48!

We were on our way to Colorado, and since we were KOA Rewards members, we decided to stop at this KOA. As the proprietor told us, this campground was just a stopover for those passing through, and that is exactly how it felt. By the next morning, just about all of the other campers were gone. When we first got there, we went to our campsite which was supposed to have electricity and be close to water. It had neither. However, the guy we talked to was kind enough to let us move to a site with both since there weren’t that many other campers. One thing that I discovered about Kansas is that there aren’t many trees as the campgrounds, including this one. Fortunately, the night was cold and breezy, so the sun wasn’t uncomfortable. We built a fire in our little Solo stove to cook hot dogs, and the owner came over to ask if we had a fire. I showed him that it was in our portable Solo stove so it wouldn’t damage the ground. Apparently, ground fires are forbidden in the area, especially since Kansas gets very little rain. There are recreational opportunities, whether or not they get used. There is a swimming pool(which was closed), a basketball goal, and a playground. There is an interesting old house with a windmill next door, but it is on private property. It is, however, great for a photograph. Overall, it’s not too bad of a campground, but there’s not much to do. It is best for those who are passing through to other destinations.

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.