This is the best campground I have been to! We have about a 30 foot Ice Castle so we stayed in the Sunrise campground with full hookups. We also did a week day camp so it wasn’t too crowded. When we arrived there was a ranger walking around and helped us back into our site. There are a lot of “extra” poles to maneuver around. Crews were out emptying fire pits, mowing and spraying for mosquitoes on Monday. I don’t think any of us got bit by a mosquito our whole trip, however we did see them. There were biting black flies that got us near the lake. All of the trails were EXTREMELY well taken care of. The actual swimming beach gets flooded out easily, however there are secret beaches all over! The lake is only about 10 feet deep at its deepest point so lots of kayaking and canoeing. On the north end of the lake there is more boating and water sport activity so kayaking on that side can get a bit choppy. Shower house is very nice with good water pressure. Good cell phone coverage (Verizon) Lots of deer, raccoons and turtles roam through campground often.

Most of the campground is permanent campers. Many have added porches and landscaping to sites. Most of the permanent people are friendly and welcoming to overnight visitors. The feel of the campground is it centralized around the bar and the kids entertainment was just to babysit. The pool was overrun by kids so adults weren’t swimming. The campground hires immigrants to run all of the activities so because of the COVID-19 they were short staffed. Laser tag, zip line and the crafts were all closed. The zip line area and beach were not taken care of at all! Very over grown with weeds. We tried hiking around the river shore to find the beach but never found it. That area probably hasn’t been cared for in 5-10 years. The mosquitos were bad, they would come out in huge waves and sometimes we couldn’t stand being out of the camper. The roads were very dusty and since they rent out golf carts there is always traffic. It would’ve been nice for them to wet down roads occasionally to limit dust in the air. Many of the staff was friendly and frequently drove thru asking how the weekend was going which was nice. However one morning the owner drove thru and was very rude and strict. She threatened to take away our rented golf cart because our licensed 17 year old driver looked to young to drive. She was listed as a driver on all of the rental paperwork.

Overall it wasn’t a horrible weekend. The kids had fun swimming, we got out as a family to enjoy a weekend away from home. It just won’t be a campground that we return to.

Campsites are beautiful, each one seems to have unique qualities. We stayed in site 42, it didn’t seem to have very much privacy. I was also hoping for a view of the river but I couldn’t see it from the site. We found a dream catcher in the trees, so we made another one to leave. The tent sites along the river are amazing! Each one has a path down to the river. Site 69 has a private beach and it’s deep enough to swim in. For being a stocked river, we didn’t get a single bite all weekend. I only saw 1 person actually catch a single fish. We did a couple trails while we were there. It says Chimney Rock has “over 100 step” I think it’s 199 each way! We tried using the campground’s GPS units but couldn’t figure them out. Others said the same thing. We drove through the newer campground Minneiska, the pictures online made it look bare, but it was beautiful! It was a prairie full of wild flowers! The trees were newer but old enough to still create shade. There was an abundance of staff always driving around yet there was a bathhouse that had clogged up toilets all weekend long. There is also ZERO cell phone reception. Whether that is a plus or a minus, that’s up to you.

We stayed at site 21 in late August of 2019. It’s obvious that the park had some heavy flooding earlier in the year. A lot of the waterfront sites became sandy. The sites are close together and not very many mature trees between sites. There isn’t any cell phone coverage at the campground but there is service around the historical site. Only restrooms are single stall vault toilets. No showers. However I think the horse campground has upgraded restrooms and showers but I never checked it out because it was so far away. Mosquitoes were bad, everyone came home covered in bites. Kids had a blast playing in the creek. There was also people out on their horses offering rides to kids and educating about horse ownership.

Fun tubing! Campers are able to sit in the river and “help” tubers along :)

We didn’t camp at this campground but we visited for the lazy river tubing. The staff was very friendly and helpful. We arrived just before the last lazy river trip started, the staff was clear that we would only get one trip down the river and we were fine with that. The tubes were in great shape, river was a little high but clear of fallen limbs ( for the most part) the woman who drove the bus to pick us up was amazingly friendly, you could tell she loved her job and it made you feel happy to be around her! Everyone had a blast, we will definitely go back!