Lake Sakakawea State Park

This campground is first-come first-served sites and offers both electric/water hookups for $25 per night and non-hookup sites for $17 per night. Every site has a picnic table and a fire ring. This campground is pet-friendly.

The pads in the non-hookup loop (we were in Fishing Point) are grassy and not entirely level, but easily workable with a few blocks. The non-hookup loops and dump station area have potable water and threaded faucets. The water itself tasted a little funky during our stay, but it wasn't bad. The on-premises dump station is very large and surprisingly clean with four lanes for your dumping pleasure. Be warned if you stay here on a holiday weekend and need to dump-leave early or be prepared to wait.

During our stay the grounds were clean and well maintained. The grass was cut and the roads were free of major pot holes. The rangers came by every few hours to make sure everything was okay. Unfortunately, they didn't seem intent on enforcing the rules, as a quite a few of them drove by our neighbors who had all three of their dogs (and all four of their toddlers) off-leash and mostly unsupervised for the entire weekend.

We had excellent cell and data reception with 4 solid bars of Verizon LTE and 5 bars of Verizon 3G. We were able to stream videos and run updates the entire time we were there and had no interruption in service.

We often avoid state parks because they sometimes charge extra fees in addition to their camping fees. This place is no exception. Non-hookup sites are listed at $17, but you are also charged an additional $5 day-use pass per vehicle. But for a lakeside campground with amenities, the total nightly cost is still very reasonable. We'd easily stay there again the next time we are in the area.