On-Ur-Wa Campground, Onawa Iowa
Date of Visit: Friday, May 26, 2017
This was a one night stay on our way to Wyoming for our summer vacation. We had hoped to avoid staying at the casino parking lot in Council Bluffs, Iowa when we found On-Ur-Wa RV Park. Located at the intersection of Interstate 29 and Iowa 175, at a cost of $35 a night ($38 for 50 amp) with a Good Sam’s Discount, we quickly selected this park as our first pit-stop. Our sites had water, electricity and sewer connections as well as excellent wifi. Our sites were gravel with a grass side yard and level, or really close to being level.
The owners of the RV park are the on-sight managers. They shared with us how they went full time in their Class A and then became a little less active than they planned so they purchased an RV park. They run the park from spring to fall and then head to warmer weather during the winter. The common areas of the park are very well maintained: the office/store (they even sell local Iowa wine), the bathrooms/shower houses are very clean. Oh and they have pets; lovable cuddly cats all around. I told one of the kitty’s I would leave by door open so he could come crawl into bed with me. Without missing a beat the owner told me in fact if I did that, the cat would indeed visit.
Check in was quick and simple. We were escorted to our sites under large beautiful shade trees. The RV park is just a few blocks off I-29 making it easy to access and maneuver. The road the campground is on turns to gravel but after the entrance to the park. We found the gravel road to be less traveled than the other roads, which made it good for getting a daily walk in.
We walked to dinner during our stay. Dairy Queen was a block away (Subway and McDonald’s were another block away but across a busy highway). After dinner, after our walk, we simply sat around and enjoyed the cool weather. The kids had a great time playing in the open space at the back of the campground. There was a wooden swing back there and the four of them sat in it just happy to be finished with school and finally on summer vacation. When The Short Chick came to for the night she asked if we could spend the next night there as well because she was not ready to say good bye.
If there is a .downside to this park, the impact of traffic would be it. I think the campground has done what it can to minimize the noise of traffic; tall trees and a large wooden fence, but it is there. When we were out walking the gravel road, that paralleled I-29, the noise was immense but once we entered the campground that noise did not penetrate into the campground. The noise that does penetrate into the campground does not come from the interstate but rather Highway 179 as people come/go from the town of Onawa. The speed limit must change further east on 179 but in front of the campground, you can hear those cars passing by. I think one other factor helped contribute to the vehicle traffic having an impact; the weather. Normally we would have the furnace on or the air conditioner running which would have drowned out the noise. But as it happened, we were there on a perfectly cool night, so we slept with the windows open. And unfortunately, I am a light sleeper.
In case you have more time to spend in Onawa, I should let you know that the area does seem to have enough activity to support a longer stay. The town of Onawa, Iowa claims to have the widest main street in the USA, is also the gateway to the Loess Hills. A full-sized replica of a keel-boat can be seen at nearby Blue Lake and a few miles north is the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Sioux City. If you are willing to drive south an hour, you can visit the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska.
The best thing about this campground for us, is literally it was right on our way! So if you find yourself traveling north and are looking for a comfortable, friendly stop, give Un-Ur-Wa RV Park a shout out.
Maybe I should pause here and explain who all is involved in this haunted camping trip. The Taylor’s and The Todd’s have been at every single Halloween Camp-Out at Watkins Mill. Last year we extended an invitation to The Merriman’s because they are fun and love Halloween as much as we do. This year, the Todd’s had to cancel due to a conflict with Z’s sports schedule. So, I invited my friend Meg and her family. (Do you remember Meg? She wrote a blog post for us called Growing Up Camping.) Then we have my dear Mother who comes to help and participate the day of the Halloween party. We also have other friends who attend the same camp-out so it is nice to spend time with so many great camping friends!
We settled on our theme for the year: Zombie Prom. We decided a prom had three main elements we needed to create in our campsite. First we needed a DJ. You can’t have a school dance without someone playing music. Second we needed a photo attraction. I am sure all of you out there have a “memorable prom photo” from back in the day. And finally, we needed a refreshment table with cake and punch.
We used two easy up tents as our frame. We covered the tents with inexpensive black dollar store plastic table cloths to create walls. Not only did the walls give us an area to transform, it also kept us hidden from the watchful eye sight of other campers. I think this helped create an excitement around our campsite as everyone’s anticipation kept building about what was inside that tent. On top of the black walls, we hung up some red plastic table cloths that we unevenly cut into strips. I remember back to my high school days and we used rolls of crepe paper to create the walls of our dances. Hours were spent hanging the crepe paper and twisting it in the same direction and taping it to the floor. We wanted our Zombie Prom to look like it had been pretty at one point but had been discarded and forgotten until this one night.
Our original plan was to have red and white plastic tablecloths cut to look like crepe paper streamers but when we got to the campground I realized I had picked up round tablecloths and not rectangle ones. Meg was quick on her feet and suggested using the rounds as valances on top of the red and it worked out well!
For our photo attraction, The Merriman’s and I made a giant 6 foot 3 inch coffin out of cardboard. We were gifted the shipping box of a whiteboard and set about measuring and cutting. Once cut, we painted it black and duck taped it all together. Our original thought was to have someone “pop” out of the coffin and provide a timely and funny photobomb but in the end, we left the coffin closed because it felt stronger. We added chains and a “beware of zombie’s” styrofoam sign to the coffin. Around the coffin we had a candelabra with zombie candle’s, skulls, and a flower arrangement of dead flowers. The Merriman’s and I also made a sign to sit in front of the photo attraction that said “Zombie Prom “#3rdAnnualHalloweenCampout #WatkinsMillStatePark.
The DJ was the easiest and maybe the funniest part to set up. We have access to a life-size medical skeleton that we like to call Bob. Bob was always going to be the DJ for the prom. We were going to call him “Bob Bones” and use bone lettering to make him a DJ sign for his booth. However, the presidential debates happened and Ken Bone made himself an internet sensation. So, we changed Bob’s name to Ken, gave him a mustache, put a red sweater on him, and called him Ken Bone, DJ 4 Hire. We put Beat headphones on him, rested his hands on a turntable and a laptop. I even found a brand new mirrored disco ball on Craigslist and hung it from the roof of the tent. We used our red/green garden lasers to caste light onto the disco ball so the entire prom spun with light.
We always knew we wanted cake and punch at the refreshment table but really debated over fake cake vs real cake. A month or so ago, I stumbled onto a tutorial from another RV blogger, Gretchen about a 
Outside the tent we created a grave yard with styrofoam headstones and compost dirt. We put strobe lights and warning tape up. We also lit the pathway from the road to the tent with solar lights and we ran floral wire between three trees and taped red glow sticks to the wire to give the effect of floating red candles.
Reflections from the night:
We ended up taking first place again! It was a shared victory with all the kids and all the adults who helped plan. We all went to bed with big smiles and maybe some sore muscles from all the dancing we did. People greeted us with their hopes of seeing us next year and looking forward to our site. It seems we have a reputation to uphold.
A trio of witches brewing up some special potion just for Halloween. They had motion sensors and startled me when I got close enough to activate them.
This camper has been pickin his banjo a long ole time.
This group skeletons look like they are enjoying camp life.
1. Select a Setting:
2. Select a Date and Invite Some Friends
Once you have a date set, start inviting friends. I did not look for friends who liked to camp, I started with friends who had children. My goal was to create a weekend of camping that my kids would enjoy and playmates were central to that. One friend I invited was so shocked she literally asked if I had sent the invitation to the wrong person as she had never been camping in her life. As she laughed about it, she actually let the idea sink in and she decided to join us. My dear friend Deanna has been at every single camp out and tells me every year that without this opportunity her two kids would never experience camping. So, when looking for guest, don’t limit yourself by looking for campers instead open the opportunity to others and they might surprise you and themselves!
3. Activities
4. Food:
A few years ago, we found ourselves with some old florescent light fixtures and we decided to recycle and reuse them by hosting a glow party every Saturday night of the camp out. We fix the lights to our awning, open a few bottles of glow-in-the-dark body paint, add a few glow sticks, create a play list, and we have ourselves an instant child friendly dance party at the campground. Young and old guest alike will enjoy watching their clothing change appearances under the black lights. Seeing parents and kids dance together for a few hours is just another memory that makes me happy.
Dancing and glowing the night away is one option for using night time but there are other ideas worthy of consideration. Night hikes are awesome and with limited sight other senses increase creating a whole new learning experience. If you plan a night hike, I strongly recommend introducing a whole new crop of campers to the sparks Wintergreen Lifesavers make. Star gazing is another fun activity if your camping setting is dark enough.
Just south of where Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska meet right on The Missouri River near mile marker 486, is a small campground called Camp Katmandu. You won’t find this campground in any Good Sam directory or even with a Google search. Camp Katmandu is a private campground and so are the invitations to visit. We recently accepted our second invitation to camp at what is affectionately called “The River” by our good friends Meg and Jeremy.
For the past two decades members of Jeremy’s extended family have worked hard to evolve Camp Katmandu from farm land to a weekend fishing spot to a family campground. Fishing was and remains central to this camp. Several members of the extended family have belonged or do belong to fishing clubs and participate in catfish tournaments. The weekend of our visit the family was getting ready for their annual community fish fry and Wayne volunteered his extra two hands to help skin the Buffalo and Catfish they had caught.
There are approximately twelve full service hookups at Camp Katmandu; eleven of them are used by members of the extended family. They leave their campers there from spring to fall each year and visit “The River” every weekend they can during that time. Most of the “regulars” have built wooden decks/front porches for their campers. They have also built themselves some “extra’s” that make camp life a little sweeter: a boat ramp, a large boat dock with fish cleaning stations and a live well, a community bathroom, an outdoor shower, an octagon shaped porch swing with a campfire ring in the center, as well as a community food shack.
Food is central to so many family gatherings and at Camp Katmandu it doesn’t seem to be any exception. The family shares at least one meal a day but often multiple meals. They select a main dish and each family adds to the community meal. My friend Megs joked that as one meal finishes they immediately begin talking about and planning the next! Moments are made as members sit around and cook, eat, and even clean together sharing stories and laughing as new moments unfold right before their eyes.
Located south of Salem, north of Eminence on Highway 19, Echo Bluff State Park is less than three hours from St. Louis, a little over two hours from Springfield, easily accessible from Highway 60 and Interstate 44. For us Kansas Citians, it is a jaunt (five and a half hours) but worth every minute!
The towering limestone bluff along Sinking Creek, that is the parks namesake, is absolutely impressive but it is Echo Bluffs State Park lodging options that will draw all of you to the park. Campers are going to find a pretty impressive campground that offers 62 sites; 43 of those are full service with water, electric and sewer! While shade in the campground is sparse right now, you will find level concrete pads, large modern shower facilities, bathrooms, and a dump station all easily accessible. Campers looking for something a little less populated and rustic will find 12 primitive walk-in camping sites hidden among the tall mature trees.
For the non-campers in your life who like to tag along on your adventures, Echo Bluff has lodging for them as well. The Betty Lea Lodge (named after Missouri Governor Nixon’s mother) has 16 standard rooms and 4 suites for rent as well as a gift shop and market, a full service restaurant, a great room and a lodge deck making this lodge the center-point of the park. For families who need a little more space than a hotel room, Echo Bluff State Park has modern 2 and 4 bedroom cabins as well as 4 stacked duplex cabins that can be rented individually or for extra large groups. While the water at the campground may not be on all year long, the lodging at Echo Bluff is available year round so guest can enjoy the Ozarks through the spring bloom, the summer sunshine, the fall leaves and even the frozen winter.
Long before construction began on this new park the property was home to generations of campers and Echo Bluff State Park has honored some of that history. From 1929 to 1986 the land was home to a youth summer camp called Camp Zoe where youth from St. Louis spent several weeks each summer enjoying the great outdoors. Missouri State Parks has left the original Camp Zoe Lodge in place as well as the original horse barn. They have also named one of the hiking trails after a former staff member, Painter. On the contrary, from 1986 to 2014 this property was home to a different Camp Zoe but still an important piece of this lands history. During this time the land was owned by a Grateful Dead tribute band frontman who held music festivals commonly known as Schwagstock. In 2014 he was arrested and subsequently imprisoned for “maintaining a drug environment” after the government raided and subsequently seized the property. Missouri State Park acquired the property through auction. In talking to locals during our visit, this more recent colorful chapter lingers and lives in hushed whispers.
The park has a day use area that will keep either the leisure traveler or the experienced outdoorsman busy. Sinking Creek runs throughout the park and brings swimming, wading, floating, and fishing. Wayne spent several hours in the rain fishing and was happy to have caught five or so small mouth and rock bass. Children of all ages will enjoy a splash park as well as a playground. There were no activities scheduled during our visit but the park also has a beautiful amphitheater.
If bigger water activities are your desire, Sinking Creek is a tributary to the Current River and is near the intersection with another river, The Jacks Fork. Within a few short miles of the state park you will find several outfitters to help you spend a day floating down the Ozark Scenic Riverway. One outfitter, 
On our second day at the state park, we enjoyed a float trip down the Current River. We used 
We barely made it back to the park by the time the rain clouds opened. The rest of the weekend was wet. Wayne and I got up super early Saturday morning to roam the park in between downpours. I am so glad we did because it was the last moments of non-rain we had. We decided to take a road trip to enjoy the local area as a way of dealing with the rain. We visited Current River State Park (almost across the highway from Echo Bluff). Wayne brought along his fishing pole and within three cast caught a beast of a large mouth. I think he would have stayed there all day if we would have let him. Instead, we had him drive us over to Johnson Shutins, Elephant Rock State Park, and The Battle of Pilot Knob State Historic Site. It was a long day of driving but everyone had a really fun time visiting some of our favorite places.
After our long road trip and the fact that it was still raining, we opted to forgo our campfire meal and eat dinner at the full service restaurant at The Betty Lea called Creekside Grill. The restaurant is actually pretty small so they sat us and two other large groups in some conference space used as overflow seating. Our experience with Creekside Grill started off pretty rocky. As soon as we were seated, one of the other large group , who were obviously from St. Louis, ramped up their conversation about who to root for this football season now that they are without a team. The gist of this conversation was that they had two choices; the Arizona Cardinals (formerly from St. Louis) or the Kansas City Chiefs. Well let’s just say it was not a pleasant experience when foul language coupled with bashing of our side of the state welcomed us as we were settling into our seats. I did enjoy their looks of horror as my husband introduced ourselves and proudly let them know where we were from. Jerks.
The dinner menu at Creekside Grill is a little upscale: Mushroom Studel, Catfish, Buffalo Meatloaf, Smoked Chicken, BBQ Ribs to name a few of the option available. Prices run between $15 to $20. (The kids meals were $5.00.) We started with slow service; the table seated after us got their drinks and salads before we even got our drinks. Overall, the food was consumed but it was not anything so fantastic that I have to tell you about it nor am I rushing back to have something again.
On our last morning there, the “old folks” invited us to breakfast at the Creekside Grill so we would not have to make a mess before tearing down. Our experience with them the night before was so mediocre I thought it was a good thing to give them a second try. As we approached the restaurant we were not greeted, we watched staff clear and set up tables without once speaking to us. There was no sign telling us to “seat ourselves” so we just stood watching the waitresses work until we finally asked if we could be seated.
The buffet consisted of coffee, orange juice, fresh fruit, muffins, biscuits, gravy, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, and potatoes. When we arrived, it was obvious the buffet table was wrecked: food spilled all over and the food supply was depleted. The waitresses never once showed any action to attend to the buffet table until we specifically asked. Unfortunately, the quality of food was not any better. The coffee was weak, the biscuits were hard and overcooked, and I am sure the eggs were powdered eggs made to serve the masses. I have had better quality food at hotels that offer a free breakfast with your stay and this was a $9.99 per person breakfast. I think I expected more from this Lodge who is clearly trying to portray a more upscale experience. I do believe the workforce in the restaurant are young and inexperienced. I just hope someone with experience steps up and provides some training so the quality of service can match the experience before our next visit.
While I would say we were less than impressed with the restaurant, we were very impressed with the overall park. From the impressive limestone bluff to the natural iron guard rails that run throughout the park, from the beautiful Wheeler Bridge (named after the Governor’s Father-in-Law) to The Betty Lea Lodge, from the splash park to the original Camp Zoe Lodge the park is beautiful! It is a place we will plan to return to time and again.
We selected to stay at Hillman Ferry Campground as they have full service sites. We used the online reservation system to reserve our sites as we were traveling near a federal holiday and wanted no surprises. The online reservations were easy to make and eased our concern of finding a full campground. In hindsight, we did not need advanced reservations. We pulled in to find a huge campground with many different loops and lots of vacancies. We learned from talking to locals that the majority of sites are first come first serve and that a small percentage of their campgrounds are reserve-able. We also learned that each year they hold a lottery to give some people long term access.
The morning after we arrived we met a local man who gave me a tour of the park in his golf cart. He told us about some activities to think about participating in during our short time in this area. After breakfast, we loaded up and headed to the visitor center. The staff at the center were helpful in giving us options. Land Between The Lakes has an Elk and Bison Prairie that is a 700 acre prairie restoration project that visitors can drive through and watch out for elk and bison. We were advised to do this activity early in the morning or late in the evening for the best chances of seeing the animals.
We selected to visit Golden Pond Planetarium and catch a Night Sky show. While we waited for the show to begin we wondered through the museum of how Land Between The Lakes came to be. The government used imminent domain to claim this land from the people who lived there (not once or twice but actually four different times) until the families who had lived in this area were all removed.
A short drive from Land Between The Lakes national recreational area is a small town of Grand River, which is home to Patti’s 1880 Settlement Restaurant. We were able to get late reservations for dinner. While we wondered if our electricity was back on we dined on fried catfish, 2 inch thick pork chops, pasta, bread cooked in a flower pot, and some of the most amazing pie!
We thought our luck had turned with this storm, by the time we got back from dinner the power was on. We went to bed happy to be on vacation and thankful we survived the days storms without any incident. An hour or so after we turned the lights out, Wayne woke me and announced that the power was out again. We went the entire night, temperatures in the high 80’s, oppressive humidity, in a tin can (you may call it a camper) with no air conditioning.
Roam With Friends 