Lucas Park Campground

Stumbled on the Wilson Lake COE Lucas Park campground while traveling north to south in Kansas. What a jewel! Campsites are well maintained gravel with electric and water nearby. Sites are large and can handle almost any sized unit. Views of the beautiful lake are outstanding. There is plenty of space between sites so you do not feel crowded. We camped here in October 2021 when the park was supposed to be closed for the season, however, we found it open with self registration and the honor system to deposit the correct camping fee. We were one of only three campers in the park. Make sure you bring all you need for your stay because the park is isolated and a long way from the nearest grocery store. Would definitely come back to this park!

We absolutely loved it here. It was so much more than I expected after reading the reviews. We came in September after their peak season. Arrived on a Thursday, the park was empty. We have solar so we were able to use the primitive sites with no hook ups which was free, though full hookup sites are still only $20 after Sept 15th.

We had our own private peninsula jetting out into the lake. Huge private campsite with the most amazing sunsets. We had planned on just resting our heads for a night on our way to Colorado, but we loved it so much we stayed longer. There is also a hiking trail from the campground that led down to a beautiful little private beach cove with stunning rock formations. Can't say enough good things about this place. Clean, well maintained, quiet, plenty of spaces to accommodate bigger rigs (we're in a 32ft 5th wheel). There are 103 sites and many are waterfront. Picnic tables, fire pits, hookups, electric, waste dump and water fill station, plenty of dumpsters. Really great spot. We would definitely stay again.

If you have dogs just use caution. There was some sort of very spikey bur that kept getting caught in their paws. But they were fine if they stayed on the road/paths. We also found what looked like a large, molted rattlesnake skin in our site so just be aware they're around! But don't let that scare you, this place was awesome! Would have stayed longer if bad weather wasn't rolling in.

Heading south on our way home to Texas, we discovered this gem. The official season is May 15-September 15. We arrived September 22. Campsite fees had dropped to $20/night. With our Senior Park Pass, we paid only $10. Sites are currently first come, first served. We had 50A and water at our site. Amazing! There were only 2 other RV's in our whole loop. What a great view of Wilson Lake, too! We would definitely stay here again, even during the season when sites have to be reserved.

Over a 2 week period, June 7-21, I stayed at Lucas Park Campground twice, during the week. On weekends, I was 'across the street' at Sylvan Campground. I wasn't planning on staying two weeks but after 4 days at Lucas, temperatures shot up into the 90s and 100s, so instead of leaving and driving in that, I opted to plug in and sit in air conditioning. The weather broke, briefly, for one day...in the 80s...so I explored the artsy/quirky town of Lucas and went right back to those two campgrounds until the Temps dropped. I reviewed Sylvan on their page. As for Lucas Park...
Check in and check out times at both parks is the same, weird. 6pm.
Some sites are big, others...not so much. Also too many rude people flaunting the rules by having too many vehicles on one site and parking on the grass. It makes for an overcrowded mess. Park Ranger comes in but just warns people. 3 strikes and you're out kinda thing.
The rule here seems to be, you either get a shaded site with no access to the water or you get access to the water but with zero shade. Only about six sites had direct access to the water in my loop. If no one was on those sites, no problem...anyone can use the access. But if those sites filled up, then you were out of luck as you can't just walk thru someone's site and use their access. It seemed like many of the sites were not level. Tree branches above site 37 scraped the top of my RV and AC covers, so I climbed on top my RV and trimmed em. Probably shouldn't have done that but I did.
LOTS of anthills and ants. At another campground I'd had a problem with ants crawling up my electrical cable and getting inside my RV. Not here. No ant issues.
The lake is MASSIVE. The park is massive. It's a great, calming experience just to be able to see and experience it.
The grass is only mowed...at both parks...once every two weeks. However, at Lucas, when I was there, they came to mow 2 weeks in a row, which I appreciated. High grass and weeds attract bugs. Don't leave your porch light on unless you want more.
Walking the dogs was a challenge. Bugs were always attracted to my flashlight at night, flying in my face, eyes, ears and mouth. Very small burrs in the grass would get caught in my socks and pinch my feet. I had to pull them out of the dogs paws with tweezers twice when they started limping. Some dog owners didn't pick up their dogs' doo, so watch where you step. And every time I walked the dogs, they would come back with fleas and ticks on them.
The bathrooms were remarkably clean and fairly bug free...unlike Sylvan. No cockroaches here...unlike Sylvan. The one thing about the bathrooms was that many of the shower handles were hard to turn on and off. And there were no heat controls. You got what they gave you, generally hot...maybe too hot for some.
Wifi on site 37 was iffy...1-2 bars. It was better on site 21, 2-3 bars.
The camp hosts were great, constantly driving around the park in their golf cart, checking people in. I saw them going around the park picking up trash. No complaints there.
At night, during the week, with fewer people there, less lights, you can see thousands of stars in the sky, satellites, airplanes and a space station if you're lucky. I just laid out on a picnic table one night for an hour with my binoculars star gazing.
Although there isn't a lot of privacy, foliage, separation at sites...and many have no shade at all...camping by the lake makes up for that.
There is a park for kids to play at.
During the 8 days I was there, no one came to clean out the fire pits, despite being told that they would.
Lucas is definitely the better of the two parks, with camp hosts that love what they do and care about the park.
But this every two weeks mowing thing...thats got to go. You need to mow every week, at all your parks.

I stumbled upon this hidden gem of a campground looking for a place to camp while travel wing through Kansas. Just 8 miles north of I-70 is Lucas park on Wilson Lake. I drove in and saw many open sites some right on the lake w full hookups. I found one I liked and went to the host to pay and check in. She said all sites need to be reserved on rec.gov because of Covid they couldn’t accept cash then she pointed out the Primitive sites out toward the point that were free Sun through Thur. It was Thursday and I had a generator and fresh water so off to the point I went. These primitive sites were wide open spaces out and had sweeping views of the lake. Honestly one of the most beautiful sites I ever stayed in with my RV and I had the whole area all to myself. Campsite 100 was at the tip of the peninsula and J had a lake view from every windy in my camper. Truly AMAZING!!!!

While we didn’t think we’d find anything as great as our Ft Benning stay, this one is! Different purpose - Ft Benning is for hiking, trail running. This one is for water. The sites in the 10s with water/electricity have water within close walking distance but no hookup. The water/electricity in the 40s have water hookup. the lake is gorgeous and since we are here on a Wednesday, it is super quiet. While there are others here, we are all so far apart it feels like we’ve got the lake to ourselves. #12 is flat, no leveling blocks required. It is fairly packed large gravel. Electricity has been steady/dependable. The bathhouse is a one stall/one shower deal for men and women.