Lake Chippewa Campground

Our RV GPS wanted to take us through Hayward city central to the campground (CG), which was fine. However, as this was our fourth time staying at Lake Chippewa Campground, we stayed on Hwy 77 past the Walmart to hook up on Hwy 63 at the casino to avoid traffic and stoplights in Hayward. We arrived with no issues and during check-in we were delighted to find out we had other site options than the pull throughs for our 12 night stay. We had changed our reservations to an earlier date, and the only open sites at the time were pull throughs, which are not bad. However, there are much better sites in this CG. We were provided a map of available sites and a golf cart to check out sites. As we know this CG well, it was a no brainer for us to chose back-in site 460 with FHUs. The regulars who normally stay in this site had gotten an opening in one of the CG's permanent site areas. We happily proceeded to our site and had no problems backing in. The hook ups are in the middle of this long pad. Water pressure was good at about 50 psi. We did not opt for their Wifi, which you have pay for and later found out it doesn't work in this area anyway. We got 1 bar on Verizon and the signal was basically useless. There are a lot of mature trees in this CG and in this site in particular. We put our Starlink on the roof and we were able to get a usable signal. We would rather have a nice site with privacy than wifi or a phone signal. This site sits well off the road and has a large back yard area. Lake Chip is a large private CG but has a state park feel. They have lots of amenities such site side trash pickup, laundry, boat/kayak rentals, golf cart rentals, propane, and the list goes on. Eat at Powell’s on Round Lake about 15 minutes away on Co Hwy C towards Hayward. Good food and service.

As we arrived on a Saturday around 1:45 PM, there was quite the line of RVs checking in as most people come in for a week on Saturdays. As we have been here multiple times, we knew not to line up down the narrow road shoot that’s adjacent to the lodge where you check in but stay on the main road. They had plenty of staff on duty, so check-in was fairly quick, and we headed to site 457, which was an easy back-in with FHUs. We were pleasantly surprised we didn’t get site 456 right on the road. When we make a reservation for this campground(CG), you can only pick an area, not a specific site, for most of the sites. This was the first time we’d stayed in this area of mixed short-term and seasonal sites. The FHU facilities were placed in the middle of the gravel-grass site with a picnic table and fire pit. We were able to put out our back patio and have plenty of space to park our F450. There are a lot of mature trees in this park, so satellite is going to be iffy depending on the site. We were able to get an okay shot to the north for Starlink but no chance for the southern sky. You can opt to pay for the park Wi-Fi. The water pressure is good, and we had two bars on Verizon. The staff at the lodge/office is top-notch. We found out that this year’s“watch out” was kids riding electric bikes full out versus underage golf cart drivers of last year, so“watch out” in either case. The CG has been trying to police the lack of parental oversight, but this first-rate CG attacks a lot of families. Though there’s no formal dog park, there are plenty of areas to walk your dog, including the trail up and around the newer primitive camping area. Lake Chip is one of our favs, and we will continue to return.

We arrived on a Saturday at about 1:00 PM and there were already quite a few rigs checking in as this campground(CG) focuses on Saturday to Saturday stays. However, our check in was quick due to them having enough competent staff. We were due to stay in the group/overflow(470-478 area) for a week, then move to the 456-460 area for 3 weeks as that was where we requested a site. We were asked to come back mid-week to get our new site assignment and pay for our stay. We headed to back-in site 477 with FHUs. However, when we arrived we found a trailer in the site and our 39’ 5th wheel would be tight in the spot due to the vegetation and trees on both sides. We tried to call the office, but we could not get enough of a Verizon signal. Site 478 was empty so we backed in and disconnected to head to the office. About that time, one of the CG workers came to get the rig in 477 as it was a CG rental. The CG worker had a radio and called the office to get approval for us to switch to site 478. Site 478 was wider plus on the end with some lake view. We did not back in as far into the site as we would have liked due to overhead tree branches. Due to the rig’s position on the site, we needed about 20’ of sewer hose plus the connection is not threaded and sits up about 6 inches making it tough to dump. I used sewer weights to keep my connector in the sewer hole. The 50/30/20 AMP box was not a problem nor was the water spigot that has 2 spigots, which was handy. We were here 2 years ago and stayed in site 452, and got a usable Verizon signal with our WeBoost and MiFi. This was not the case in the 470 area. We did get some random Verizon connectivity as it showed 2 bars but no internet. We decided to try their$2.95 internet connectivity for 24 hours on 2 devices. We connected a cell phone and our Weingard 2.0 and were pleased with the service, so we decided to pay for the monthly service. However, the monthly internet was not nearly as fast as the 24-hour service. We were not sure if this was a coincidence or not. Since our last stay, they had added a primitive/dry camping area and cut down on underaged golf cart driving. The multiple sites that are right on the lake are weekly site rentals with water and electric only but the CG does have a blackwater pump out service, and a dump station. We rented a pontoon boat at a reasonable price compared to other places we’ve visited. Hats off to the great lady(Cathy) in the office who worked hard and kept us in site 478 for our entire stay. This kept us from having to pack up and move, but also kept us closer to friends traveling with us. Overall, this is a well-run CG with a state park feel.