Easy access from Highway 71 about 1 mile south of Highway 9. Interior roads are gravel with gravel site. Each site has concrete patio with grass between neighbors. Each site has fire ring and picnic table. Wi-Fi worked very well. Satellite TV worked well on sites east of the office even though there are some trees. Smaller sites south of the office might have trouble because of more trees. Verizon cell phone and air card worked well. Office staff was very friendly and helpful. West Lake Okoboji is nearby. It is a very clear, spring-fed lake with beautiful blue color. It is also highly developed. Much to do in the Iowa Great Lakes Region. Wal-Mart is about 1 mile from the park. We camped here in a Motorhome.
A beautiful park. I fished on lake, kayaked, fell in and loved every minute of it. Staff was very busy but helpful and friendly. We have stayed several times in past years and always look forward to our visits. Kids don't run wild but always seem to be having fun. Ours, when not on the lake, are enjoying the campsite with occasional family drop ins and swimming at the pool. My son and I are novice power kiters and there is a huge field in the front of the campground for that. It does get quiet about 11ish and most campsites have fires and stories are being told and I enjoy the laughter only campgrounds bring. I mostly love the rest and relaxation. Oh yes: they have very clean restrooms. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
Review Rating
[ 10 / 10 ]
April 2009
$25
I stayed here in my fifth wheel for the entire 08 season and will be here again for the 09 season. Very clean and quiet place. The staff is very friendly and willing to help with whatever is needed. If I have mail arrive, they call me to let me know or even bring it to me sometimes. Great cable TV and excellent wireless internet, which is important to people like me who work on the road. I would gladly recommend this campground to anyone. Again, very nice, clean and quiet camping. I have never had one night where the neighbors have kept me awake. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
Our site was level, near the lake, on gravel and shaded. The overall campground is just average, nothing really great, nothing really bad. While we were there the cable was very, very poor quality. We wouldn't stay here again. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
Nice campground. Large, level concrete pads. Very limited store. Did not use restrooms or showers. Beautiful lake and dock. We camped here in a Motorhome.
We spent 4 days here while visiting family nearby and had a wonderful experience. Site #10 at the end of the row overlooking the lake - level pull thru FHU, Wifi available, nice fire pit with grate, large shade tree. Easy access to walk down to the dock to watch sunset each day. Bugs were a bit bothersome, but just part of the package of being lakeside. They have other sites that were closer to the main road, but these did not offer charm of lake and shade for us. Store not particularly well stocked, obviously a number of permanent sites, but we were there during the week and the park was quiet and enjoyable. Kids enjoyed both the playground and the pool. Main shower facilities nice, second shower facilities had timed water where you had to keep pushing button to keep shower going.....at least there was no charge for it. Laundry facilities were adequate. Plenty to see in the area - a visit to Arnolds Park amusement park was a treat, a day trip to the "End of the Line" Railroad Museum in Currie, MN (pop. 250) was a treasure we discovered by accident - if you are in the area, go see it! Overall, we had a positive experience at Cenla and would stay there again. We camped here in a Motorhome.
I was a bit concerned about this campground prior to arriving. The website listed no prices and showed no pictures of the campground. The lady staffing the store was VERY pleasant. The store is basic...a couple basic items on the few shelves. A television on display which showed weather radar was handy (for rain). A small arcade room with some video games and skeet ball. I did not check out the laundry room. The bathrooms/showers at the store were VERY clean, wonderful showers with a mat to step onto after your shower (always a PLUS). Shower water temp is pre-regulated but was always very warm to near hot. The adjacent pool looked very well kept up and nice. The other bathhouse on the grounds were nearly as nice as the main but without the shower mats. Much of the campgrounds are seasonals. Most of the available camping sites are generally sites 3-17 as well as the "front" of the campgrounds in sites 93-120 (which faces Hwy 71). Most of these sites (93-120) are pull-through with full hookups, and sites 105-112 or so have one shade tree on each site. Sites 3-10 have more shade (50/50). Sites 11-14 are shorter sites which work good for just popups and shorter trailors and, along with site 15, sit atop the short bluff above the lake which can be seen between the trees. There is also a dock just off the driveway of site 15 with seating at the end if you want to watch the stars at night or throw a line in. Site 15 is a bit lower in elevation as the grade drops slightly toward the edge of the short bluff to the lake, but no problem for our popup. Most of the sites are "average" but do have a bit more gravel/dirt than grass. The front sites toward the higway are a bit more grassier, and some also have large concrete patios. The trade off is a bit more highway noise and less shade. The view of the splatball course (tall black net fencing) between the camp and the highway is a bit of an eyesore, but we digressed a bit due to the interesting splatball competition happening while we where there on the weekend. Sites 121-133 are closest to the highway and have no shade...just wide open. I give this an 8 out of 10 due to the more-gravel-than-grass spots and proximity to highway noise and ugly splatball fence view, but I would certainly go there again, and plan to if I ever get back there. There is a Wal-Mart a mile to the north, and a nice Phillips-66 station (ice, beer, etc) and a movie theater a meer mile to the south. Arnolds Park is just a short drive to the south. Check out the little stores at the amusement park, especially the maritime museum in the yellow building facing the parking lot. Also check out the Emporium just up over the grassy area about a block away. Among several little stores in this old wooden building, there's a nice candy store inside. We camped here in a Tent Trailer.
This campground was very very nice. It was exceptionally clean. It is close to Okoboji area and offers many recreational things to do around the grounds. The campground itself is on a lake and has a fishing pier. Nearby is both Spirit Lake and Okoboji. There was a general store on site that had reasonable prices and was open late. We had a huge pull-thru site that was rock and gravel and grass. The older sites had a poured cement patio at each site. We had a huge field in front of our RV which made it very nice for the kids to run around. The pool was small, but clean. I would definitely go back as this was a lovely campground with a very friendly staff. The only negatives to it were a bit excessive rules such as not being allowed out of your campsite after dark, no in and out of the campground after 10PM (which was ridiculous) and no driving in the campground after dark. We camped here in a Motorhome.
This is a membership park with all the amenities you could want. The sites are level, shaded and plenty wide. We really enjoyed our week here. The only drawback is that the water is VERY hard. They even put a warning on the park map that it has high mineral content and you may need to change your filter frequently. They were telling the truth. We would still stay there again. We camped here in a Motorhome.