Bowdish Lake Camping Area

Camped here for one season and it's absolute trash. Don't waste your time. Other people will tell you different but it's a bunch of older people that drive recklessly on golf carts. Dumpsters are constantly overflowing with garbage everywhere outside of them. Owners could care less about anybody camping there. You can tell they're just there for the money. Dump stations were a horrific problem because they weren't open for the last year and a half. After enough people complain they finally open them. (Look up why the DEM fined the campground) Lastly to mention, The power goes out constant over the summer and no one is ever in the office to help with anything. Sometimes power off for days and you can get stuck with the gates down. There's no other way to get in the campground when gates are down. I definitely do not recommend this campground. Stay far away.

On August 9th we came looking for a seasonal site. We were given a list of seasonal sites that would be available for the 2026 season. We picked 2 sites in case the one we really wanted fell through. We went back to the front desk and met the owners wife Carrie. She was very nice this day! Basically said we had to put our deposit down that day and would call us the next day to let us know if the site would be available as they had been having trouble with the current people there letting us know they had bounced several checks and they were waiting on the one to clear from the current season. Charged us for using our card as we didn’t have cash on us but said she wouldn’t hold if we didn’t pay that day! Next day Carrie calls and says we are all set and would have the site we wanted we were so excited! A few weeks later the beginning of sept. We were cleaning off our site that we had given notice for to get this new site at a campground closer to home that was 3x more expensive. Sold all our outdoor equipment and were ready to move the camper. We stopped by to pay the remainder of the season for 2026 and this is where things get hairy. Carrie told us that they had been given a bad review on us (we don’t know anyone there) and they described us as having 5 dogs which is accurate but had only just gotten the 5th dog who was only 8 weeks old. Refused to tell us what the review was other than apparently we jump campgrounds which is not accurate at all. We have been with the last 2 campgrounds for around 3 years. As this is all information she knew when we came to look and knew we would only be bringing 2 dogs at a time. Refused to take our money and told us she would be refunding our deposit as they were no longer allowing us to have our seasonal site anymore. No phone calls, no questions nothing. Never asked for references which we easily could have provided by a least a dozen people from our last campground (which we hardly went to last year). Took 3 weeks to receive our deposit and Carrie grew increasingly rude. Basically blaming her husband for not sending the check when she asked him to. Very poor communication and very poor business. Very disappointed in how things were handled by her! We are quiet and respectful people and get along with just about everyone! Curious to where the bad reviews came from when we don’t know anyone there or why we weren’t given the opportunity to fix or answer to accusations against us that were not true. We obviously realized this was a blessing in disguise but still our kids disappointment was gut wrenching. Curious to know if they send an email to current seasonal letting them know someone is coming in or something because none of what she said made sense at all. Sounds very discriminating if you ask me.

Came here on 6-30-2023 to visit friends. We had our 3 kids in the car with us. We pulled into the entrance to register as a guest and upon arriving we were greeted by a dead sheep sitting in the middle of the road from their petting zoo. Our kids started crying and we turned around. Not sure what’s going on with this place. Before we saw the dead sheep we drove by loads of broken down old trucks. Very consistent with the other reviews……… Odd place!

It could be so much more. The land itself is gorgeous, natural woods, with access to two beautiful lakes and has big private sites. There are flush toilets and pay showers but they are not cleaned or supplied regularly (We ran out of TP in every stall during the 3 days 2 nights we were there) and there's no soap supplied at the sinks. The entrance is a dumping ground for old decaying trucks and power equipment. Some of the playgrounds are old and in derelict condition. There is no camp store. The pros: lots of playgrounds for the kids, big clean sites in a spralling park. The cons: no beach lake access unless you want to walk a 1/2 mi with your cooler and gear or you score a site near the beach with no bathroom access (There's no parking lot dedicated to their lake beaches). This campground is definitely geared towards RVs not so much tents.

What a great family camping experience! My family has been camping here for over 20 years and I love coming up with my own children now. There are tons of activities, great beaches and awesome fishing! If you are looking for a weekend getaway or some summer long fun this is the place to be!