Sylvan Park Campground

There are three COE parks on Lake Wilson and if we weren’t given bad info at recreation.com when we called, we definitely would have stayed at Sylvan Park. I was told they were closed - off season on 10/01. Actually, they are open off season and have self pay box. $10 for electric, water available, and dump station available. The park was really nice and quite a few people were there. I don’t know how the bathrooms or showers are - we don’t use them anyway. Great roads to park, easy access, less than 10 miles off the 70. We were already set up at Lake Wilson SP ($30/day) when we saw this place open on our way to the town of Lucas (interesting place).

This campground is downstream of the dam which was great with all the recent flooding. Wilson Lake is still very high. The state park only has a few sections opened but we wanted an ACE campground. They have yet to disappoint. The close nature walk was good but I wish I had bug spray. Bathhouse was excellent. Private, enough room but not too much and the water stayed contained in the shower area. We will use this site again. I wasn’t able to upload my online paper or listen to any YouTube videos on my iPad.

We discovered Sylvan Park campground while driving across Kansas, en-route to Colorado. There aren’t a ton of options in the late-fall/early-winter and this Army Corps of Engineers campground fit the bill nicely. It’s a bit of a hike (9-miles) off I-70, but completely worth it based on how nice the campsites were and how quiet the campground was. After dark, besides the occasional vehicle crossing the dam, the only sounds you could hear were the wind in the trees, a pack of Coyotes howling, and the hoots of a couple of owls. There were several LARGE and level pull-through sites that enabled us to stay hooked-up for our one night stay. In fact, our site was so big that we could have fit another 50+foot rig in it. We stayed in mid-November and the water and 50-amp site was $5 with our Access Pass ($10 normally during off-season). There were a few primitive sites (no water or electric) that were free (off-season). The bathhouse and showers were clean and well maintained. There is a very convenient dump station located near the entrance. We could only get 4G with AT&T. Verizon we had 2 bars of LTE. We will definitely stay here again next time we pass through the area.

We found this gem of a COE park on previous trips across the country and always plan to stay here when we're in the area. Wilson Lake is a large recreation area with 3 COE parks and a state park. We like the Sylvan Park COE campground that sits below the dam in a shady grove of trees. There are long, level pull-throughs with electric and water as well as back-in sites, some with full hookups. Site 13 is a back-in site with full hookups. The restrooms are clean with showers and the park is quiet. We paid $11 for the site with a senior park pass with no reservation fee through Recreation.gov. If you are there for more than one night, the eccentric town of Lucas to the north is a great place to visit. There you will find the "Garden of Eden" and "Bowl Plaza"!