Lake Anita State Park

We were making our way across Iowa and needed a place for the night. This state park is not too far from main highway 80. Reservation here are two days out but you can chance it as a walk-in. Since it was a Sunday night and early in the season were pretty certain we could find something. The no hookup loop was completely open and we are self contained so we chose a spot level and a lake view. Lots of non electric sites were not level and looked cramped but bathrooms were clean and only $15 for the night.

Anita Lake is beautiful and the full-service RV sites are positioned to give great views, but we were disappointed by our stay. The RV pads (on crushed stone) are fairly level, but are among the most tightly-packed we have encountered. The facilities are adequate but tired, including the showers. There was no camp store (except for firewood). Navigating the park also isn't transparent, including check-in procedures and trash removal. That said, the campsites were quiet and without any light pollution at night, allowing clear views of the stars.

As others have said, the sites are quite close together, in this case I didn't mind as I met up with friends on a weeknight, so our sites were close together and our cluster of sites had a buffer on either side. We were on the outer loop which put us closest to the lake and offered electrical hook-up. The shower house was pretty nice, clean and pretty centrally located.

The staff was very friendly, campground was quiet, clouds kept us from seeing the stars, and they lost quite a few trees in a storm a few years back, so little shade.

It would be a nice convenient stop off I-80, reasonably priced.

This area is stunningly beautiful. Surprisingly interesting topography with rolling hills and so many different shades of green in the landscape!

The sites themselves are a bit tight together here in the full hookups section and elsewhere doesn't look much better. My picnic table sits nearly touching my neighbor's water connection and their sewer hookup is just a little behind my fire ring. Not ideal spacing for sure. The upside is most, if not all, sites appear to be water view which is especially nice.

The lake is amazing, especially on a clear day or at sunset. Sunrise walks are peaceful with cool crisp air. While the days get hot,, overnight the Temps are down into the 50s, making for a lovely morning walk at or after sunrise. Birds start up pretty early around here in June, 4am or so. That's the most noise we have heard and easily corrected with earplugs.

The lake is often so still it reflects the surrounding trees and sky on its mirrored surface. There is little to no shade at this campsite, nor at many other campsites. In the summer it gets remarkably hot in this area, so keep that in mind. About half of the fhu sites are only 30A/20A and about half have 50A available. We booked late and have 30A which makes it tricky to run two AC units.

AT&T service is good here, we saw up to 55/10 with AT&T. Sprint (3/1) and Tmobile (10/.5) were less but better than nothing and would have been usable for basics if needed. Verizon has been in the 15-25 down and 25 up range consistently. We've been able to work, do zoom calls and stream (at the same time as needed) with no problem here. For as remote as this is, that is surprising to me. On the weekend it was a little harder with so many people who showed up for the weekend, the cell towers slowed down a bit. Verizon dropped to between 5-10 but was still usable, AT&T to 20 or so.

There is a town named Atlantic 11 miles or 20 minutes away through rolling hills of farmland where there are grocery stores and other places to shop. We did not find much by the way of good food there, although they have a Chinese place, a Subway and some fast food in Atlantic. There are two gas stations in anita but not many other things - a few bars, one steakhouse that doesn't get good reviews, a sweet shop for desserts but it has limited hours so check before you go.

There's a Hyvee in Atlantic that does a grocery pickup service and a Walmart, that does not do grocery pickup and has the strangest layout of a Walmart I have ever seen. Even their own interior signs are incorrect and confusing. Soft drinks are on the aisle with laundry detergent. Bottled water sits next to dairy in the cold section. Spices next to boxed macaroni and cheese. Many other oddities at Walmart, we won't visit there again.

The closest laundromat is 20 minutes away in Atlantic and extremely small, with poor reviews. Omaha is an hour away, we will do laundry there when we visit there on some business. Des Moines is also an hour away in the other direction. This is a good spot to stay if you wish to see both Des Moines and Omaha on different days as you are halfway between them.

In a small town named Wiota about 15 minutes from the park, between Anita and Atlantic there is a small steakhouse that was remarkably good. You turn off the main road and go through a neighborhood towards the town park. The steaks were some of the best we have had, ever. Good service, highly recommend you go try out the Wiota steakhouse. It's a pretty drive to get there and a really sweet small town atmosphere with really good food. We stumbled upon it and were very pleased that we did.

This site is huge, and just past the sweet town of Anita (whose welcome sign boasts a bear holding a whale bearing the words “a whale of a town,” which is confusing because there are neither whales nor bears here), off I-80. There are tons of sites with lakefront or golffront views, depending on if you’re a hook-hound or an 18-hole-head. Campfires, water taps, clean bathrooms and showers—win all around if you’ve been on the road for a while and maybe have some Iowa corn on the cob to toss on the ol campfire. Despite your being in a park, do not count on firewood lying around, because this place looks like an anal suburban dad’s backyard. However, some people considerately may have left chunks of mostly burned wood in their fires that you can glean for your dinner of roasted beans and corn (we are foodies).

The bugs are BAD at night, and their whine may make you go a little cuckoo. Nothing much to do about this except try to get them all out of your camper pre sleep or you will be up in a manic sweat flailing your arms around your ears for hours while panting out the hole between your camper and cab. And while this can be a fun activity it can also...ultimately not be..

This is Iowa and the rumors are true: it’s tornado szn !!! The utility repair man clad in this season’s hottest “bone collector” tee suggested we park behind the bathrooms, and a park ranger suggested we shelter in them if it got “really bad.” Though the winds got strong and the storm rolled in QUICK, and the whole thing generally seemed pretty “bad,” bone collector was sauntering around throughout the downpour in just his T-shirt and jeans and a drill, and truth be told his amateur archaeological presence was arguably hard core calming.

Here’s the thing: if you’re not weathering a tornado in your hot boyfriend’s homemade camper that has totally hundred percent completely not been weatherproofed in the slightest, and that according to everyone is “so light,” but miraculously maintains dry and upright position in wind speeds up to 60+ mph and torrential downpour, I can’t really “get” your experience and though I wish you a lovely stay at lake Anita, I don’t know how much I can help you. Consider trying it this way next time. Or grab your fishing pole or golf club (lightning rod of choice), and get to sinking balls, lining sinkers, casting putts, or your golf/fish activity of choice. Or maybe grill up some local corn on the campfire, if you, too, feel passion for local produce :).