Roy Lake East — Roy Lake State Park

Located in the picturesque Coteau Des Prairies, Roy Lake State Park consists of two small units nestled on the northeast and northwest shores of Roy Lake.

95% of the state park is campground. There are a few tent sites, many RV sites, cabins, and a lodge suite (not sure on quantity) above the campground store/commons area. The store has some Roy Lake State Park branded items and some random foods, drinks, and camping tools. I wouldn’t put stock in them having exactly what you need/want — it’s very small. The commons area has giant picture windows overlooking the lake, a TV, comfy furniture, board games, a rotating pizza cooker, and a few other random things. There is also an outside seating area that overlooks the lake.

I stayed in the east unit, which is smaller and slightly calmer than the west unit. Each side has boat ramps, beaches (smaller on the east side), cabins, and playground.

Monday through Thursday morning in June, it was very quiet, with very few other campers. It was amazing. On Thursday, people started rushing in like a flash flood. It filled up almost completely and things got a bit noisier, but it was still quiet during quiet hours. I left on Friday, so I can’t attest to weekend behavior.

The bathhouse was nice and pretty clean. Heated with free, untimed showers. Very nice, but a long walk from our site.

We stayed in tent site T6, which shares a space with T7. T7 has a nice lake access spot that we used (before campers came on Thursday) to put in our kayak, swim, and fish. T7 is a lot smaller than T6, but T6 doesn’t have its own beach access. For these sites you must park in the parking area, and walk to the site. For some extra steps, you are afforded some privacy and a more natury feel. The cattail-filled field in front of our site lit up with lightning bugs at dusk.

The campground has tons of mature native trees. There is a lot of lawn, but they don’t spray it with chemicals, which I appreciate. Be warned that this means this park (and others nearby, like Sica Hollow) will have thistles, so bring closed shoes for hikes. We saw turtles, snakes, squirrels, ground squirrels, deer, rabbits, pelicans, ducks, geese, seagulls, tons of other birds, fish, and more — just in this park.

Roy Lake was clear in June, though I didn’t get to paddle as much as I had planned due to wind. It’s a pretty decent size (3 sq miles) and just one of hundreds of lakes in the glacial lakes area. The whole coteau area was so beautiful. Definitely worth reading up on the geology of the area before coming.

There is a bit more hiking in the area than is listed on AllTrails. I’ll include a picture of the trail map for Roy Lake State Park, which you can find at the campground store (outside on the wall) and also in the SD GFP app. There is also some hiking at Sica Hollow SP, Pickerel Lake Rec Area, and Waubay National Wildlife Refuge (these trails are also not on AllTrails, a few miles and a pretty tall and scary observation tower).

Closest decent sized grocery store and other needs are in Sisseton, a half hour drive through very picturesque countryside.

Though surrounded by water, the mosquitoes were never bad. Look at weather for Lake City, not Sisseton, as the elevation and wind over the lake (on the east side) mean cooler weather. We experienced severe enough storm during our stay that we sheltered in our car. We felt safe that the bathhouse would be a sufficient tornado shelter in that event. After the storm there were straight line winds attempting to flatten our tent, but there were no limbs down in the park, which means they watch for, and clear, deadfall risks.

The cell service was as good as it can get. We were actually able to stream videos on it. Don’t count on getting firewood from the host at the east unit. Get it from a nearby town or possibly the store in the west unit (though I don’t know its hours).

We stayed at this park while my son was attending a day camp in Sisseton. I will pick this campground again if he chooses to attend the camp in the future.