Recently, Steve and I stayed at El Dorado State Park – Big Oak campground on the Walnut river.

The walnut river, feeding into El Dorado Lake has several camping areas. Very wooded, and shade. We were parked close enough to access a swimming beach is just over a bridge. It was heavily used, even with the water higher than normal.

Camping spaces hosted a variety of types of campers from big rigs down to tents. It seems a bit crowded as close as we were to each other, but doable. The deal breaker was the bathroom. I’m going to harp hard on this. I have never seen a more dirty, muddy, gross bathroom than this. Two of the three stalls didn’t have doors that shut properly. The garbage wasn’t emptied during the weekend. Also, puddles of mud and water permeated the place. It was steamy and smelly.

The showers are communal and not private at all. I felt like I was back in high school. What was funny in the early morning Sunday, someone actually took their dog in there to wash it off. Jeeze.

The state of the bathroom was a deal breaker for me. It was worse than a vault toilet. We will not be going back there. There is hope, though, for this state park. We will be visiting in a few weeks again, but on the lake side. We’ll see if this is a bit better.

Off to another adventure,

Deana

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