You have to drive three miles into Lake Manawa State Park before you find the camping area. The camping slots are all on gravel. The sites with the best lake access are all “dry camping” sites, and will hold tents or small trailers and campers. The bigger rigs will need to be in the pull-throughs in the center.

The sites with the best access to the lake are sites 1-5; and sites 7-17 odd. Sites 19, 20, and 22 also give you lake access, but down a longer path. If you decide you really, really, REALLY want an electric site, you may need an extension cord. Two sites share one pole between them. Depending on whether you are on the “correct” side, or the “wrong” side, you may, or may not, need the extension cord. I was glad I happened to have one.

Each site has a picnic table and fire ring. The sites do not have water, you need to fill up at one of the water faucets in the park before you park. The sites do not have sewer, you use the community sewer dump. At this time, you are not allowed to bring in wood from out of state due to a certain bug problem.

The campground host was friendly and helpful. The bathrooms weren’t the greatest, but at least the showers were free. However, you had to keep pressing the button, as you only get 20 seconds of lukewarm water (I timed it…). Recommend wearing shower shoes.

I stayed two nights. Verizon Air Card worked just fine. Park was ok for the price, but nothing spectacular.

This park apparently has separate sections for overnighters and longer stays. The overnight area is close to the interstate. The other area is closer to the river.

The park charges (as of this writing) $3 more for FULL hookup (W/E/S) than for just water and electric. The current price was $26 for full hookups (without taxes). These days, finding a campground under $30 is a miracle! Wi-Fi is accessible with an assigned code. Wi-Fi is easy to access, but was extremely slow when I used it.

Sites are all grass, not necessarily level. Some of the sites are front and back “twosies,” you will get a pull through if you are lucky and no one is in the back spot. Otherwise, you will back in to the front spot. Each spot has a fire ring and picnic table. TV reception via antenna is ok, some of the channels will “pixelate.”

At the time I was there, the overnight area was wide open, but I can tell it would be “crowded” if it were full. The longer stay area looked pretty crowded. One good thing, if you use one of those expensive “surge protector” plug ins, the posts are long enough for you to use one.

The Laundry room is a bit of a hike from the camping area. Laundry room only has two washers and two dryers for the entire camp. However, the washers are those great front loaders that can handle larger loads. Prices are about average, $1.25 wash, $1.00 dry.

There is a pool and mini-golf, but both appeared to be closed during my stay.