Hawker Point Campground - Stockton Lake, MO
Tent Camping on previous trip - Sites C17 & C18
Over the weekend of July 24-26, 2020, we took our grandson camping at Hawker Point Campground, on Stockton Lake. This is a Corps of Engineers campground that we have stayed at before, but it had been a couple years since we had. The last time we were there, we shared sites C17 & C18 with our daughter, and her family. I highly recommend these two sites together if you have a large group, and don’t need electricity.
I took a moment in the video to go over our routine for loading, and hooking up the trailer. I cannot stress enough to take your time, and have a routine when doing this. The only times that we have run into issues is when we either get out of our routine, or get in a hurry.
We arrived at the campground at a little after 3pm on Friday afternoon. When we arrived at the gate, we were informed that there were still people on our site, and that the check out time was not until 6pm. We later looked, and realized that this check out time applied to all of the Kansas City Region Corps of Engineers campgrounds. I will say that we were probably fortunate that this is the first time that we have had an issue, since we have spent many nights at Corps campgrounds over the years.
I do want to be clear that we realize that we should have known about the check out time prior to arriving at the campground. We also want it to be known that we were not upset with the people that were in the site before us, or the park staff. Neither of those are to blame for this rule. As a matter of fact, the park staff was very polite and helpful. They allowed us to use the park playground while we waited, and checked in with us several times throughout the weekend, to make sure we were enjoying our stay. We will say that we believe the 6pm checkout time needs to be changed. This is way too late for a campground.
We were in site 16B. It was a nice site across the road from the lake. There were no sites directly across from this one, so that area became our little private water access. The bathrooms were a short walk from the site. They did provide flush toilets, but that was it. To wash your hands, there was a spigot and a soap bottle on the outside of the building. When we were there, they were also having issues with the bathroom doors. The women’s side would not lock right, and Tammy said that she heard stories of people walking in on others. And, on the men’s side, I would occasionally have the door handle come off in my hand. We did see a maintenance person there as we were leaving, so hopefully they were getting these issues fixed. The only other thing I will say is that the shower is on the other side of the A loop, so it will either require a drive or a long walk from this site.
Once we got to our site, we did have an enjoyable weekend. We forgot how much energy is required to watch a three year old. The extra “help” occasionally made our typical tasks around the campsite a little more challenging. We found that we were all happier when we could go to the water, and could give him our full attention. Between that and the heat, we were in the lake the majority of the weekend.