Mikesell-Potts Recreation Area

This is a heads-up review... I want to warn others (especially full-timers) about a truly messed-up situation at Mikesell-Potts. I do a ton of research before I go to a spot on holiday weekends, in this case Memorial Day. (Other full-timers...you get it).
After reading the good reviews, checking out the aerial view, etc., I decided this would be a good spot to plunk down for the week/end. However, when I arrived on the TUESDAY before the weekend, I found that any even slightly desirable site was taken. After driving throughout the RV areas (and having to back down an unmarked dead end curved road), I noticed something. There were NO PEOPLE. No trucks with the trailers! Btw, there are 80ish sites here. Because it was late, I squoze my rig into a patch of grass they called a site. I was NOT a happy camper. Of course I was not going to stay any longer, so before I left the next morning, finally someone shows up, to get my money. I admit, I wasn't going to pay (which I NEVER do), but this was truly a ridiculous scenario. After an encounter with (I think) the camp host, I did pay. But I wanted to know why all these people could come in essentially a WEEK before the holiday, and just leave their rigs. I boondock A LOT, and even BLM and USFS dispersed camping prohibits leaving your rig unattended overnight. I was informed that this was a County Park, people can come whenever they want, as long as they pay. I've been a full-timer for 4+ years, and I've never seen anything like it!

Maybe I'm naive, but with all the recent challenges to full-timers (shrinking first-come/first-serve availability, newbies with no experience or etiquette, gas prices, etc.), this just made me furious.

Yep, I get it, I'm venting, but mainly I just want to warn people of this scenario. It's pretty enough, and seemed well-kept, but for dry-camping on an unlevel patch of grass, with no view of any water, and essentially no signage or people to help, it's simply a money-grab. It looks as though they are adding even more "sites".

If I had come on any other random Tuesday, it probably would have been fine, even great (for $15/night), but this was a very bad situation. I couldn't even rate noise, because there were no people! Heavy sigh...and lesson learned.

While traveling through the area we were caught in a high winds warning with gusts of 60 mph so we needed to get off the road and ride out the storm. With it being March, there was no one here and we didn’t use any facilities so I can’t fully rate the park. For us, it was the right place at the right time. We parked down by the edge of the ice covered lake and were able to nose into the wind while getting pretty level. We spent the day hunkered down and didn’t see many others in the area. Looks like it would be a nice place to come back to in nicer weather. And it had good cell service, enough to catch up on work and stream movies.

Pulled in there after dark last night (11/8/21) and there was no power at any of the 8 sites that had hookups. There was nothing on any of the signs about power being off at any time of year. The exterior lights on all the bathrooms were working, but the bathrooms were closed. Perhaps I just missed it somewhere online, but I don’t know. Either way, our generator decided not to work either, so we backtracked to Sheridan and stayed at the Fairgrounds. Beautiful site though, would like to actually stay sometime, but with better planning. :-)
If you need power, make sure to give yourself a good backup option.

Camped here last night. FCFS campground. Only a few other campers here. Sites 1-8 have electric hookups. They have privacy shrubs around the sites, but definitely not the beautiful views of the lake. Sign at entrance says electrical sites available May 1- October 31. While people were camped in 2 of those spots, I’m not sure if the power was turned off. Stayed in site 23 right near the lake shore. Easy to level, large enough for 37 foot Class A motorhome with toad. Views of sunset an sunrise were amazing. Weather warning for high winds was issued around 2:20 in the morning. They got pretty bad and we chose to bring our slides in. Not sure if this is normal for the area. Would definitely stay here again if I’m the area.

We stayed here for 5 nights in mid-September, 2021 and had a great lakeside site for $15. We had large RVs to our South - one ran his genset a lot - we were fine with our solar panels. We had one RV to the North of us for 2 nights, but barely saw them. The water was nice enough to swim - our Labrador loved it! Decent cell, easy run into Buffalo for grocery shopping. Great kayaking and floating around with the dog. Would definitely stay here again!

Even though we are originally from the geart lake area, this has a decent little lake that provides a nice camping feel! Not far off the interstate and easy to get to. First come first serve basis but with so many spots, it should be pretty easy to find a spot though the sites with electric are limited. Site#2 we choose because the day was warm and this spot had a few trees to shade our rig to help keep it cool but there are nice spots around the lake.
Bathrooms close by as well! Small store on the way in had ice.