Thomas Mitchell County Park

We camped three nights while visiting family in Des Moines. Thomas Mitchell Park is one of several really well maintained Polk County parks. The campground is clean and the campground host was very friendly & attentive. There was a nice mix of young families with children and older campers like ourselves enjoying the park. There is easy access from the campground to a very pleasant trail that winds through woods to the lake and back.

Thomas Mitchell County Park is a fairly large park with a number of recreational activities including a small campground. The small campground has well kept grass and many mature shade trees, so it is nice and shady on a summer day. It also borders a small stream that the kids can play in safely. The sites themselves consist of a gravel pad with electric. Water is from a central spigot so fill up your tanks before setting up. The sites are somewhat compact but not too bad. There is no landscaping between sites so you should expect to have kids running through at any time.

The remainder of the park has a number of hiking trails, through and around grasslands as well as through the forest. The trails can be accessed at the campground and are well maintained though not always well marked. There is a lake with fishing docks around it and the area does seem to see quite a bit of day use. However, I did not see much traffic through the campground.

Because there are so few sites here, there is a high demand in the summer. We rolled in on a Tuesday at noon and got the last site. Most of the other campers were locals. What they do is come out early in the week and put up a small dog-sized tent on the site and pay the overnight rate. Then they show up for the weekend with their camper. I spoke with the ranger and he said it is a problem and some of the people don't even pay the campground fee, but just put up the tent to discourage others. I saw him haul away three empty tents while I was there. My advice would be to show up on a Sunday afternoon to get a spot. The tenting area does not seem to be as popular and it was never full while we were there.

The dump station may be an issue, so you should be prepared. It had rained about an inch the day before we left. When we pulled out and went over to the dump station, it was flooded and unusable. Fortunately many rest stops on I-80 have free dump stations.