We spent some time in the Oklahoma City area visiting family and fell in love with this area. Oklahoma City is such a clean, quaint, charming city with a small town feel. Edmond is just as lovely.
Arcadia Lake sits in Edmond on the east side and has a variety of campgrounds. The campground system for getting a site seems rather complicated and it took us quite a while to figure out which sites were really available. It seems that sites can be reserved yet left vacant. The only way to tell if a site is available is to check the reservation board. THEN you find out some of the reservation tags are stuck to the top of the box and are not visible. That really confused us until we learned to get on our hands and knees and look at the top of every box to see if there was a reservation tag in it. Confusing? Yes!!! Then you need to figure out the type of site you are reserving, a preferred or non-preferred site (color coded on map as yellow or white). Next is whether the site is primitive, regular hookups, or full hookups. Then the last item is whether it is Mon-Thur, a weekend, or a holiday. Next you have to determine if you are paying a standard rate, a senior rate, or an access rate (with no definitions of any of them). With all those factors you can then determine the price. It was workout for the brain and we did the best we could. It would sure help if the entrance booth was manned OR if they defined everything but it seems to be a place for locals who all know!
Campground: Central State Park
Location: Arcadia Lake
Site: 123 (back in)
Cost: $10 (with Interagency Access Pass – weekday – serviced site)
Services: E (30 AMP)
Comments: A quirky (read: aging and in need of a lot of maintenance) yet lovely situated campground which sits along the shores of a small lake called Arcadia Lake. Sites seem to be seasonally reserved so it may be a good idea to call ahead to get a site especially for a weekend.
There are a full row of full hookup pull thru sites that seem to be reserved for the season. The other sites are electric without water. So, there are some water hydrants throughout the park that sites seem to hook up to and then run their hoses across the road, through other sites to hook up to their RV. The hydrants do not have a normal lever but need a “special” tool to operate – Interesting, and annoying, concept. Here’s our neighbor running his hose through our site and over to a hydrant in another site.
And one final word of warning – unless it is a *real* emergency don’t even consider using the toilets!
The best sites are along the water but they are all reserved for the season yet many were unoccupied. They are lovely sites with a picnic area along the waters edge. There are several other very nice back-in sites with good privacy and several which back onto the lake.
A must see in Oklahoma City is the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum which is a very well done, moving, yet terrifying remembrance of the Federal Building bombing which occurred on 19 April 1995. As difficult as it is to relive it is certainly a lovely tribute to those who passed, those who survived, those who aided and helped, and those whose lives were so greatly impacted on this terrible, terrible day.
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