Branched Oak Lake State Rec Area

20 minutes from downtown Lincoln! We camped here with friends on a Saturday night in early October, and had primitive campsite Area 3 almost to ourselves, maybe four other parties total? It was so nice, we heard owls all night, saw a zillion white pelicans, and a beautiful moon rise and later sunrise. Primitive sites have vault toilets available, a fire ring, and a picnic table. There are one or two spigots per campground (area), and ours was a long walk. We filled up our truck camper water tank at the developed campground (Areas 7/8) down the road before settling in - note that the water available at the dump station there is NOT potable, we hooked up to a spigot close to one of the empty sites to fill.

The only downside was the $12 charge for being out of state + the campground fee. My home state charges $5 for non-annual passholders, in or out of state, and my prior home state didn't charge anything in addition to the camping fee. It just seems excessive for a primitive site, which came out to to $27 total. Other than that, no complaints at all, it was a lovely time.

Branched Oak offers a few full hook up sites and hundreds of electric only sites. We have stayed here several time in spring, summer, and fall. During peak seasons it’s full on weekends and busy. But, we love it. The sites in Middle Oak have a lot of space, trees, a playground, and access to the lake for swimming, fishing, or boating. We love the restaurant located by the marina. The smoked chicken sandwich is delicious! Big rigs can fit, sites are tight to get into, but we haven’t found one yet that we couldn’t make work.

We checked this campground out prior to staying here. We drove down and looked at likely sites, and chose several we'd like. We didn't make a reservation, instead planning to get to one that isn't available to reserve. We spoke with a host and were advised to get there early if planning to do so. We didn't get out as early as hoped and made it at 11 AM. The sites we wanted were all one night only. We opted for a nearby one and were quite pleased. Since we recently bought our travel trailer We had hoped to get a full service site, but ended up with a 30A site, no water hookup.

We stayed here in October. Campground was mostly empty on the weekday. There are two separate camping locations in Area One. 1-70 and 71-121. 71-121 sit higher up on a hill with most of the sites on the outside of the loop having good views. When we were there the trees in needed trimming desperately. We would not have been able to navigate 1-70 with the coach without scraping the sides and roof, and had to be careful when at the dump station. Sites in the upper campground are fairly long and level. Best ones are 75-80 for views of the lake.
Wonderful views from our site of sunrise and sunset. We could hear the highway during drive times. I did not use the restroom/bath houses so cannot comment on the condition.

We stayed here in our 36' Alpine Coach but our 44' Blue Bird would have easily fit.