Lafayette Park Campground

Great little RV park in a park-like setting. Gravel roads with relatively level gravel sites. Shared services. Lots of big trees. Long pull-through site to leave the truck and TT attached. Cross the little covered bridge into Lake Helen Rec Area for a good walkabout. Visit downtown Gothenburg to see the Pony Express station. We liked it and would stay here again.

The sites are very confusing. We had to move to a different site because we could not understand how/where to park or hook up to water and electricity. There was nobody around at all; just a phone number which we called and texted and got no response back. The bathrooms, while clean, were old and a bit worn. It’s not a great campground but it’s acceptable for overnight

The best thing about this campground is that it’s shady and a ways off of the interstate. Otherwise it’s old and tired, with small sites and odd shared hookups between spaces. (Eg. - our water hookup was Ammon a pole right next to our door and the picnic table. The bathrooms were old but clean. There was a cute covered bridge on a trail to the main park which was the best thing about it. There were only a few other campers there, but I cannot imagine what it would be like if it was full. We were there during a boil water order for the entire town, and we appreciated that they emailed us about it so we knew to bring our own water and not use the campground’s.

Clean sites with just a few quiet RVers. Clean bathrooms. Easy dump site. Worth the few miles to drive off 1-80. Beautiful big trees throughout the RV park and along the paved, 1-mile loop trail. Online reservations. Verizon = 2 bars.

Little ways off I 80, but worth the trip. Very well maintained , nice bathrooms and showers. A lot of space between sites, both pull thrus and back ins.

Great campsite, good facilities, plenty of space and shade. Not too noisy. Reasonable price. Definitely recommend

Our RV GPS took us right through the middle of Gothenberg where WAZE and Google Maps wanted to take us around on Avenue G to 11th St. Around to 11th would have cut out a lot of the stops going through town and the bumpy railroad tracks. But otherwise, it was not hard to find this campground(CG). The park office was not open this day at 3:00 PM as the person was out until the evening. We had reservations so we got a map and proceeded to pull-through site 23 with water(shared between two sites) and electric(50/30 AMP). The map didn’t help much but this was a small CG so we drove until we found the site and then maneuvered between the huge oak trees. We had to disconnect and park our F450 lateral to fit. Since the small back-in site 24 shares water with our site 23, and we were told the CG was going to be full, we put in enough water for our overnight stay instead of staying hooked up to water. Across from our site was a little covered bridge that took us to the main city park area, which was great to walk our dogs. We got a good variety of OTA channels. The satellite would be iffy from most sites due to the large oaks. This CG was okay for large rigs just be careful on site selection as some of the sites are short and back-ins were tight. There are sites like ours that will take bigger rigs but the easiest in/out site for larger rigs is pull through 28. There was a 40+ foot class A parked in 28 when we were there. The CG was okay for a short stay.

Convenient stopover driving through Nebraska. It's on the other side of town in a Park, away from the interstate. Traveling with a Labrador Retriever, the huge park was wonderful. Electric, water and a dump station met all my needs. Bathhouse needs some TLC, and was not clean. WiFi worked well! Cute little town with fastfood or other options to eat.

This park is water and electric only. Has a dump station at the entrance. All sites are on grass or gravel and very close together. The park is well kept with plenty of mature shade trees. Nice view of lake along the outskirts of park. We did not use facilities while there.

We stopped here, off I80, on our way east from California. It was convenient. We were the only campers, as it is off season. I used The online reservation system, but chose to stay in an alternate site, because ours wasn’t level. Our other site was listed as a pull-thru, but it’s good no one else was there, because it wasn’t long enough for our 45’ rig and our tow vehicle. So I’d caution other big rigs that they might have to unhook their tow vehicle at this park, depending on how full it is.

Quaint little city park with RV and tent camping. To occupy a tent site you MUST pitch a tent ( so no Van camping at those). Place is quiet and clean and nice peeps

Lafayette City Campground is a nice place with huge cottonwoods and larger spaces. Water, electric for $25 a night. Dump station.

We’re not golfers but apparently there is a world class golf course here.

Close by lake Helen which is a fishing lake. We were hoping to take a dunk but no luck, “No Swimming”

Very nice couple run the place and she volunteers at the Sod House Museum which was fun.

Very hot and humid in July! Not used to that as we live in the mountains of northern NM.

We only spent one night, but wish we had time to stay longer! This is a lovely campground under the shade of huge old cottonwood trees on the edge of town. Downtown Gothenburg is an easy, very enjoyable bike ride away. The staff are extremely friendly and accommodating, showing us the easiest way to get to downtown and recommending a local restaurant. Tons of space for dog walking and nice playgrounds too!

Very friendly host. Made sure my site was what I needed. Gave me recommendations for businesses
In town. Park was peaceful and clean…

The park is a quick hop off I80! Quiet, scenic and spacious! Camp Hosts are SUPER HELPFUL & kind! The shower/bathhouse is older but well kept. $25 for RV parking and showers are free! I would stay here again & I would recommend this park for families/hikers/nature lovers.

This large city park on the edge of town has a variety of great sites. Easy for large RVs that I saw to pull through. The park itself is nice enough and has a river running through it. The showers are old but clean. There are lots of things to do in town and out. ASn old pony express depot has been restored and is a visitor's center.

Campsite Review

I was looking for a place to stay close to I-80 as I made a drive from Chicago back home to Boulder. This place seemed close enough to the highway to give a look, and I was not disappointed. I rolled in to the campgrounds around sunset and saw some people using the nearby lake to do some fishing.

I woke up, and there was a horse grazing across the road, and I discovered this really large, open space park next to the grounds also had a disc golf course. My campsite had a fire pit and a picnic table, there were others with electrical hookups, and sites that could easily accommodate RVs. There was a dump station and dumpsters for waste.

There were some playground areas, a place for firewood purchase, and a horse shoe play area adjacent to a rec building.

Product Review (update)

A few weeks ago I was awarded the Saris Freedom Superclamp 2-Bike bike rack from a contest run through TheDyrt's Facebook page. I have been able to use the bike rack for about 2 months, and taken it through a lot of different road conditions. You can read about the initial review here.

My overall impressions now that I've had the rack for a while longer is that it's a winner. You can watch a video of my overall impressions. While I still wish the rack offered some kind of way to get into my trunk without having to take the bike(s) off, it's just hard to argue it's a nuisance since it doesn't take that long to take the bike(s) on and off the rack. I've also changed my mind about the built-in bike locks. While I initially thought longer bike cable locks could be useful to lock up your bikes frame and front wheel (since most bikes have a front wheel quick-release option), I realized I had my own bike lock for my bike already that I just used, and I imagine most - if not all - people who will buy a bike rack for their bikes have locks for them too. A longer cable lock would require a larger place for it to be stored when not in use, which adds to the weight of the rack, which in the end isn't necessary.

In the city of Chicago, when I took the bike off during city commuting, I noticed it would have been nice to have the ability to fold the rack up closer to the end of my car, since there's so much city parking that's parallel parking, and the space added to the end of the car no longer made me a candidate for some spots.

Overall, this Saris bike rack is so easy to use, is super secure for my bikes, and was very durable - holding up to all kinds of 4WD-only roads. Definitely recommend.

The Sun Sets on Another Road Trip

Well, this 2,900 mile round trip Colorado-Toronto road trip has finally come to a close, and it's been a lot of fun. It certainly couldn't compete with my Rocky Mountain trip in late June up to Jasper National Park in Alberta on a scenery scale, but it had it's moments of solitude and a lot more lake time. To have been able to use TheDyrt to help plan out a few days on the road like my time in Land Between the Lakes, using info to figure out things like which campgrounds would be good for biking and canoeing, was a real plus.

I tried to avoid the corn fields of Iowa and Nebraska both directions, and don't regret doing the eastbound portion along I-70 and through Kansas and Missouri, but it was more of the same when it came to fields and fields of crops and prairies. My bigger regret is not giving myself enough time to explore more parts of Tennesse and Kentucky like the fun city of Nashville or the distilleries. Then again, I loved every minute of my time spent in Toronto up north in cottage country with my family, and would've regretted skimming days off that experience. With only so many days off, it's pretty easy to prioritize family. It just means I'll be back to Kentucky, derby time or camping season.