Hillsdale State Park on Labor Day 2020

When the weather turns cold, it must mean that it’s time to catch up on blog posts!  On Labor Day weekend this year, we went to Hillsdale State Park in Kansas.  Hillsdale State Park is just south of the Kansas City, KS area.

Arrival and Set up – 03 September 2020

Erin and I had Maddie all packed up on Wednesday evening so when I was done with work we were ready to roll.  Hillsdale State Park is about an hour drive from our house.  We had to contend with a little bit of rush hour traffic, but nothing too bad.

We arrived to the state park and there was a line at the entry gate several cars deep.  Thankfully we have a Kansas State Park pass and just skipped on by the line and straight to our reserved site.  Wow, was the place full.  There were so many families there to enjoy the park and lake for the weekend.

The kids made friends with the scrum of kids and sped off into the evening.  The kids played until dinner.  They scarfed down their food and tore back out into the night.  They came back well after dark and were pooped.

A Quick Run to Town and More Hillsdale SP  – 04 September 2020

We slept in and enjoyed the calm of the campground.  Of course, the kid swarm started up shortly after breakfast time.  The kids played a bit and then we ran to town to pick up a few food items.  After we finished our Wally World trip, we set out for some lunch

In COVID-19 times, there weren’t too many non-chain restaurants that were allowing dine-in.  We found Spudley’s Family Restaurant and it looked like our kind of place.  It was perfect.  The owner was sweet and worked very hard to serve everyone.  The food was some good down-home cooking.  I especially like my pork tenderloin sandwich and hand cut curly fries.

Back at Hillsdale State Park, we enjoyed a slow day in the camper and the kids played.  After dinner, we walked down to the lake shore to get some fishing in.  There is several trails from the loop down to the lake.  The lake levels were pretty low, so it made for a lot of snags.  We fished for about 30 minutes before giving up.  We still had fun, but didn’t catch anything.

We walked back to the campground and the kids played with the other kids into the night.  Many of the kids had glow sticks and lights on their bikes, roller blades, hover boards, etc it looked like an alien roller rink party.  They had so much fun.  We had to walk two or three laps to find the kids to tell them it was bed time.

Hitting the Beach, in Kansas?! – 05 September 2020

We enjoyed another slow morning waking up.  After breakfast and more of the kids biking and playing (catching a theme yet?) we biked down to the Hillsdale Lake Beach.  The beach is about 300 yards of shoreline with sand and a roped off area for swimming.  Being Labor Day, it was quite busy, but we still had plenty of room to find a spot to set up on the beach and for the kids to swim.  We stayed at the beach for a few hours and biked back to Maddie for lunch.

The kids got all cleaned up and we had dinner.  They begged us to go back after dinner, so we went back for more in the evening.  Again, they swam and played for a few more hours and we biked back to the campground just as the sun was setting.  Of course, the kids tore off into the night again.  After another relaxing night in the loop, we all got inside cleaned up and off to bed.

More Relaxing – 06 September 2020

We spent another nice slow day in the campground.  A few family bike rides and then in the evening, we head back to the beach.  The kids swam and built a sand castle.  The beach was more crowded than Saturday.  It was a bit of a shame for how some of the other beach goers treated our shared treasure.  Littering, driving through the grass, and other behavior that isn’t sharing the land with the rest of us.  Despite that, our day wasn’t dampened too much.

We got back to the campground and started a fire.  The kids made s’mores in their swimsuits.  Of course, they went back out and played.  After a few more hours running around the fun had to end.

Packing up and Heading Home – 07 September 2020

All good things come to an end.  We packed up in the morning and headed back home.  We decided to take back roads home to avoid the traffic and it was a fun and relaxing drive through small towns and farm fields.

This wasn’t the most exciting chapter in our travels, but it was a much needed escape from the grind of pandemic life.  I appreciate that camping gives us an opportunity to stay in our bubble and still get out into the world during this difficult time.  Thanks for reading.

-See you out there,

Part-Time Paradise