Peace and Quiet Camping Kansas City State Park
Updated: Mar 12
Hello Readers! Welcome back to my blog or if you are new here, thanks for visiting. Some say Kansas is dreadful to drive through, but as a Kansas girl by heart it is home. Crawford State Park in Farlington Kansas is worth the drive to visit. Crawford is a well-maintained park with beautiful lake views.
A little background before we dive into the campground review, my family and I are full time RV’ers that have been traveling the U.S. for over a year now. We started our journey right in the middle of the pandemic, crazy but the perfect time for us to take the plunge. I want to share my opinions about the places we stay in our travel trailer in hopes to give you more ideas of places to visit. I will be talking about its location, amenities, safety, cleanliness, cost, length of stay, and ease of access this state park provides. Always read Google reviews and look up their website too. I hope you enjoy, as always travel long, travel happy!
Crawford state park is located southeast of Kansas City near the Missouri border. Upon arrival there is a $5 parking pass that needs to be purchased before entering the campground. Be prepared and bring cash to avoid penalty fees and quickly get the pass and be on your way. The state park offers two campgrounds called the Rocky Cove and Oak Point campgrounds. They offer 28 primitive sites, 38 electric only sites, 25/ 50amp / water sites, and 20 /30amp/ water sites available to book. The cost to stay here is $21/night with a limited stay of 15 days or less. If you are looking to stay longer, call the office for more information.
We stayed at the Rocky Cove across from the lake front sites. All the sites are back in sites. We had extreme difficulty parking our travel trailer here. We have a 38ft travel trailer and the sites are spread out, but the trees are so close and the incline in our site particularly made it a big challenge. The lakeside sites were pretty flat compared to the other side. Don’t be deceived by the pictures online during your reservation process. We were in site 105 and the picture online does not show the huge incline driveway we had to get up first before officially parking. I share this bit of information to help you not be so surprised like we were driving in.
Now don’t leave just yet, although we had some trouble parking our travel trailer, big rigs can park here it will just be a challenge to park it. Whether you are up for that challenge is all on your skill level. I would highly suggest calling the park office and ask for a flat site and tell them how big the rig is to be able to put you in a good spot. There are plenty of RV sites that are flat and will be a lot easier to park.
Crawford offers two boat ramps, bathhouses, a dump station, hiking & biking trails, swimming beach, fishing and boating for your convenience. There are two kid’s playgrounds, one by the beach and the other near the oak point campground. My kids had a blast on the one by the beach. While we were wondering the state park, we noticed it is very well maintained and clean. It also felt really safe sleeping here, and very quiet and peaceful to enjoy being with nature.
This park offered a beautiful scenery to relax and watch the sunset above the water. We sat in our camp chairs and let the kids play around our site in a quite peaceful setting.
If you are wanting to explore more of the area, the heart of Kansas City is about 100 miles from the park. It would be a great day trip to go explore what Kansas City offers. Feel free to comment below if you would like me to write another article about all the activities and things to see in Kansas City. I would be more than happy to share that for you. More attractions near the campground is the Erie Dinosaur Park, Route 66 Mural Park and the city of Joplin, MO.
Finally, the Crawford State Park is a great stop along your travel journey. Enjoy the peace and quiet this campground offers. I want to rate Crawford a 6/10. As always travel long, travel happy!
Written by Shelby Long
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