Cox Hollow Campground — Governor Dodge State Park

The campsites here are deep with lots of greenery. However we chose this site thinking that it was on the end. The loops curl around so there were campers around us. On the other side was a playground that had children enjoying it all day. While this is great for some, our reactive dog was quite distracted.

Upon arriving at the check in, there is still a couple miles to wind around until the campground, longer to get to twin lakes campground. The road is hilly too. It’s not a problem in our vehicle but it would be tiring on a bicycle. There are showers in the center of our loop. It could be expanded a bit - we had short lines for the restrooms. Water , garbage and recycling are available as well as a dump station.

It was raining when we arrived but we drove around to see the park. We hiked the short distance to Stephen’s Falls and was not impressed. Maybe they need more rain this year but all we saw was a splatter.

We saw folks who kept their kayaks and canoes locked up by the lake. The beach looked nice too. The other end of the park has an equestrian campground. We did see some horses riding the trail around the park.

The vibe here wasn’t for us. Various sites had music playing loud enough for us to hear. Trails from camp would be great. We ended up walking along the narrow road.

This was my first and probably last time camping at Cox Hollow. Let’s start with positive: easy access to the campsite I was able to park my car right by the tent. Bathrooms and showers seemed clean enough, but I would recommend wearing some sort of footwear while you shower. Now the negatives: loud and obnoxious families with screaming bratty kids, people leave food scraps so raccoons are not scared and come right up to you sniffing for food, people have zero courtesy and slam bathroom door non stop, not to mention slamming down dumpster lids literally all day and late into the evening. Oh and did I mention screaming kids? Apparently “quiet hours” are from 11pm-8am, well the noise continued almost into midnight hours and as early as 6:30am. Thumping stereos with loud music, also can’t blame dogs for barking, but we had a howler and it kept going all the time. Forget about sleeping in or enjoying the sounds of nature. I’d like try different campsite at this park, but won’t be returning to Cox Hollow.

I stayed at this campground when I was a kid and only recently revisited it. The state park has two very large lakes with nice pan fishing and modest but well-groomed (daily?) swimming beaches. The lakes are a definite drive from the campgrounds, however, which makes it hard for "the kids" to simply amble down for a swim. This is important, in Sept. 2020 (COVID-19 times) 1/3 of the parking lot was closed off. Not sure why, but I speculate this is to regulate the number of beach dwellers and swimmers. Regardless, it's a very large and lovely park. Here's my review of the campsites.

I am a car camper with no interest in (E) electric sites, so I did not pay attention nor note good ones. I prefer the silence and relative darkness that non-E sites provide.

Campsite - Cox Hollow

45/47 would be a nice couple of sites for a family/friends (wouldn't want this if you only needed one of them!)

The sites on the "inside" of the loop are rather close to one another.

21 has a nice view of the lake, and you can walk back to the fence to look over the bluff 24 is quite private and very large 26, 27 and 29 are all large, near the bluff

34 is interesting, it's divided into three "terraces" Kind of fun, like a campsite divided into rooms

44 right next to the water, BIG site, right near the bathroom and playground. This would be great if you have kids.

The second campground is Twin Valley - though it is NO WHERE NEAR the Twin Valley lake. Lots of driving to get to the lake from here.

221 is large with nice surrounding trees

285 is really big

This campground has walk in sites - these are sites with car parking on the road and you have to walk a minute or two to get to the site. Downside? Carrying all your gear and firewood. Upside? You can genuinely pretend that you've got the place to yourself, can't see a tent or an RV from any of these sites.

262 is 40 steps in, right on the edge of the valley with it's own personal bluff.

263 is a longer walk of 75 steps, a little less shaded than others, but PRIVATE

264 is about 45 steps off the parking lot, right against the bluff edge.

269 is 50 steps in, but it's just off the path, not as nice as others

270 is a long 120 steps walking past 269, this is the site for you if you're looking for seclusion

271 is 110 steps in, flat, really secluded

Decided to go camping with my friends for the weekend to catch up. The beauty/nature of the park is breathtaking. The camping experience was fun, except for the warden at the park. The wardens there are very rude and demeaning. The warden came to our territory around 11pm demanding us to quiet down when we weren’t even load. We started whispering, the warden came again to tell us that he will throw us out if we don’t quit down. He said,“he was standing by our territory for 15min.” There were other people talking and playing games, but he did not say anything. It felt like we were discriminated against because we spoke foreign language. I have stayed at many different state parks and have never had a problem. Will NOT recommend this camping site if you are someone who stays late by the fire to enjoy time with your friends& family. Very rude and slightly aggressive staff. Sad to see such a beautiful area poorly managed. Also, there is a change for each vehicle entering the park$38 and ONLY 2 vehicle on one territory.

What a fun weekend we had a Governor Dodge State Park! There were a total of 19 of us in our group, spread out over 8 sites in the Twin Valley Campground (240, 255, 256, 257, 261, 265, 266, & 267) We had a mixture of electric and non electric sites and all were very nice. The first weekend in October can sometimes be a little iffy weather wise, but we lucked out with pretty warm temperatures. We got quite a bit of rain on Saturday, but none of the sites had issues with flooding like we experienced in the spring at site 269. We walked down to that site and it looked like they had fixed the drainage pipe so the flooding there was not as bad as the previous trip. Bathrooms/showers were warm and clean, and the vault toilets were not bad although there were a few spiders. The Stevens Falls and Canyon Trails were the highlight of the trip- even in the rain! First you can explore the old spring house and read the informational signs about the family that used to farm there and other early settlers in the area. Once you continue down to the falls they have another informational plaque about the falls with old pictures, but unfortunately this plaque was not as well maintained so it’s difficult to see. The falls themselves are amazing. There is a slippery uneven staircase to go down, but there is a sturdy handrail. We spent quite a bit of time walking around and looking behind the falls, then continued down the canyon trail enjoying the beauty. Unfortunately the rain and wind picked up so we decided to turn around instead of completing the 3 mile loop. We also took a hike on the bluff trail that goes past campsite 271 that everyone enjoyed- awesome moss everywhere! Some members of our group took the trail to the amphitheater, but said while it was a pretty walk there wasn’t anything too special along the way. We went through a lot of firewood- the bags at the park office were $5 and were pretty decent. We also purchased wood from the trailer next to the Don Q inn for $5 an armful, but it was rather wet. We noticed when we drove past Jumping Jupiter General Store that they also had wood (covered by a tarp) but did not stop so I’m unsure of the prices. We stopped at Kate’s Bait and got a nice variety of worms for a reasonable price, although we never got out fishing! The ranger was very helpful in suggesting places to fish though. We had planned on doing a trail ride on horseback through the park at Doby Stables, but unfortunately it was cancelled by them due to the rain. As a ranger for The Dyrt, I sometimes receive products to test. This trip I had the Midland EX210VP E+Ready Bundle that includes 2 X-Talker two way radios and an Emergency Compact Crank Radio. https://midlandusa.com/product/ex210vp-eready-bundle/ I was impressed by both products right away. They are compact, yet sturdy- we’ve had them over a month now and my 4 year old and 6 year old have played with them a lot and they still look brand new! I’ve never really used a two way radio that wasn’t a toy, and the instructions from Midland were easy to understand. I appreciated that you could either use AAA batteries or the included USB rechargeable battery, which lasted the whole weekend. Midland states the range is 26 miles (obstruction free) but we didn’t try it that far- the farthest we tried was about a mile away through the trees but we were still able to hear each other clearly. There is also a weather radio feature that would come in handy if you didn’t have a separate weather radio. The emergency compact crank radio is a solid product as well. We used this all weekend, for weather alerts, listening to music, charging phones, and as a flashlight. It has a rechargeable 2000 mAh battery that can be charged via USB, solar, or hand crank. Battery seemed to last a long time, even when charging phones or playing the radio for a long stretch. The radio will not play when you are charging something, but that wasn’t a big deal to us. The weather alert was nice to have while in the woods during a storm- really reassured the less seasoned campers that we would be ok during the rainstorm. When there is severe weather the radio will make a noise and flash the light so you can be prepared. You can press any button on the radio to turn the noise off and turn on the radio to hear the weather. Overall we were very happy with this bundle.

Our group stayed at sites 268, 269, and 270 in the Twin Valley campground. Sites 268 and 270 were large, but our site on 269 was the smallest and half of it was unusable due to the river that flowed through it in the rain! Had to set our tent up right next to the fire ring, as that was the only spot that wasn’t muddy, so we couldn’t have a decent fire. During the rain the water was ankle deep under the picnic table. It appears that a water runoff pipe goes under the path that leads to 271 and flows into this site. 268 was electric, 269 and 270 were not and were walk to sites. Gravel trails leading from parking to the sites were well maintained. 270 also has a private trail leading out to a beautiful bluff area. We walked down and checked out 271, which is where we will stay next year! The park itself is huge. We walked to Steven’s Falls which is beautiful. There are a lot of slippery stone stairs up and down, but if you take your time it’s well worth the effort. We also took the Lakeview trail which was pretty. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate so we weren’t able to go out canoeing, but the lakes looked nice from the shore. Firewood is sold at the park for $5 a bundle, but there are also private sellers along the road who have better prices- we were very happy with the wood sold off the trailer next to the Don Q Inn.