Lake Sakakawea State Park

When we got to Lake Sakakawea, intending to stay just overnight, we just couldn’t move another mile. And what a great place to plop down and recharge. We stayed four nights here, and lucky us, we pulled into the very first spot we came upon and it happened to have a lovely panoramic water view – and be one of the first come first serve spots. We renewed for a few days, and took some much needed down days. Lovely hiking, lovely views and great LTE signal. And did we mention, North Dakota?

Lake Sakakawea State Park is located on the southeastern side of Lake Sakakawea near Pick City, North Dakota. This campground has 249 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. All sites, as we understand it, are first-come first-served. We visited on what ended up to be a very stormy Labor Day weekend, and all of the electric/water sites filled up quickly. But we ended up in a non-hookup site and that was perfectly okay with us.

The staff is very friendly at the visitor’s center. They checked us in quickly, told us all about the various things to do, and suggested some excellent spots based on our rig and solar power set up. The good news for you solar-centric gypsies out there is that the non-hookup sites are almost all pure sunlight. There are two non-hookup loops; we ended up in Fishing Point in the northern section of the park. This loop has almost all sunny spots available and grassy pads—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. It wasn’t a chlorination flavor as much as a slightly swampy after taste that sometimes comes from unprocessed water that is pumped too close to a natural lake or stream—of course, the heavy storms may have had something to do with that. It probably won’t make you sick, but it’s good to know if you live off your fresh water tank like we do. We double-filter, and it still came through a little bit.

The on-premises dump station is very large and surprisingly clean with four lanes for your dumping pleasure. At first I thought that was excessive, but I was wrong. With every site in the hookup section filled for a holiday weekend, by checkout time (1pm) every one of the lanes is packed with people wanting to dump their tanks. Our line was so long that the wait was at least 4 RVs deep before it trickled into a single-file line that then backed up onto the street. Be warned if you stay here on a holiday weekend and need to dump—leave early or be prepared to wait.

There is a marina on premises, which is great if you have a boat or are just in the mood for a couple of quick snacks or drinks. They sell sodas, chips, candy, ice cream, and will heat up frozen pizzas on request. We ended up wandering down there the second day. The items were a little overpriced, but nothing compared to some of the other park stores we’ve visited elsewhere.

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 did not try our AT&T connection here. There was no need for a range extender. We were able to stream videos and run updates the entire time we were there and had no interruption in service. This was particularly great given that it rained for half of our stay.

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, but probably not on a holiday weekend.

I was here in May 2016, with unusually great weather for North Dakota. I had the entire campground (like all 232 sites) to myself except for a few campers on the weekend. I took a dry camp site at the end of the peninsula (site #232). Solitude and great place for solar. Also, right next to the water so Q-dog could go swimming every day. The water won't be warm enough for most people to swim in May, but Q-dog didn't mind. My rate reflects the winter rate as there was no water (except at some point they did turn on one potable water faucet near the dump station). As far as I could tell, the electric sites all have water at site during the season. The Far Loop which is where site #232 has only spigots at various areas around the campground loop. If you are going to dry camp in an RV, fill your FW before parking in your site.

If you need electric and can get a reservation, Elbow Woods area has some nicely spaced sites including my favorite #109 or #110, but it seemed most of them were well spaced.

There is a national fish hatchery just up the road, very informative tour.

Cell service on Verizon worked great.

Stayed here two nights. The loop we were in had several group sites and was mostly open field with some trees. There were several groups staying here but it was very quiet. Very nice bathrooms. One private bathroom with a shower. There were also showers in the other bathroom area. The place was well patrolled by park officials. Go to the marina for delicious ice cream! Just a beautiful park! Would definitely come back here again.

We stayed here based upon the other five star reviews. We were not disappointed.

The price I posted reflects the $25 per night plus the $7 per day entrance fee. If you are going to be in North Dakota state parks for more than 5 nights, get the annual pass.

Our site had water views on all sides since we were out on a point. It was gorgeous. We could see the sunrise in the morning and the sunset in the evening.

We were there in last September. We had one nice sunny day and then a few days of cold wind. The wind kicking up off the lake can make taller RVs rock, but nothing horrible. Just be aware. We were thankful for 50 amps as we ran our space heaters for heat.

While in the area, go do the free self guided tour of the fish hatchery. It's worth a visit.

This state park was a great place to recharge our batteries. It had great Verizon service, the full compliment of over the air TV channels, and a great view. We will come back.

The campsites were all very open and there wasn't any privacy between them. However the sites were the biggest campsites that I have ever seen which made up some for the lack of privacy between the sites. Our site was fairly level with just a slight slope to the back and left. The site had 20/30/50 amp service which worked well. The water hookup was had solid pressure and no noticeable smell or taste. We had 20 television stations over the air. The cell signal for Verizon was solid and reliable which was good for working remotely. We were there during the week and the campground was maybe 10% full. It started filling up Thursday but we left around noon Friday so I cannot say how it was over the weekend. The campground was pretty quiet for the bulk of our stay. The park has a swim beach which was decent but the water was cold when we were there. We had some difficulty getting firewood and ended up getting it at the gas station in Pick City. My biggest complaint was the wind. It was windy pretty much all the time. We ended up taking our awning down the first day after the wind tried blowing it away. The sunsets across the lake were very pretty. If you're a ham the noise on HF was quite high. I do not believe it was anything in our trailer. It may have been a neighbors trailer but I'm inclined to think that the large hydroelectric power plant a mile or so away was the root of the issue. Overall our stay here was good and we'd likely come back.

We were driving through and needed a place for the night - stopped at a nearby ACE campground that was nice but HOT and BUGGY so were so happy to keep going and find this campground, high on a point overlooking the lake. It was windy - which picked up quite a lot with an incoming storm and had me worried about the stability of our small van! - but that kept the bugs away! We enjoyed wandering down on the beach and watching the beautiful sunset and approaching storm. These are wide open campsites, so the complaints I see of no privacy is accurate but the campground was not crowded when we were there - and I thought the openness was part of it's charm as the views were so lovely.

We booked at the last minute for a M-W stay, and enjoyed this spot very much. Bath houses were clean and fairly close by, and the Elbowoods loop worked well for us. We wished it had sewer, but it was easy enough to dump on the way out. Our kids loved riding bikes around the loop and to the small playground, and we also enjoyed the swim beach. We wanted to rent jet skis, but the only place nearby was closed due to a COVID encounter, so we stayed on the land. It was very windy the first night, but not so bad the next two. Sites are level and the park crew maintains them meticulously. The sites are pretty open, but we had plenty of space and didn’t feel crowded.

A little windy but spacious spots. Love no wait to dump with 4 stations. Good cell signal.

Had heard that North Dakota SP’s were good parks and now having stayed at one personally, I would have to agree. Large spacious sites, clean well maintained bathhouses, park like street lights in our loop, and 4 well appointed dump stations. Impressed and would definitely be our first pick to stay at. Very nice grassy walking path along the lake. Only negative is the $7 daily entrance fee if you don’t opt to buy a sticker....being this is our only stay in ND we opted for the $14 for the 2 nights we stayed, which brought our nightly fee to $32/night for W&E.