Wagon Train Lake State Recreation Area — Attraction in Hickman

Loaded the kayaks up and headed to the lake, excited to try a new kayaking spot. Unloaded on the south side of the lake, which is the designated canoe/kayak launch.

Walking the kayaks down to the beach launch, we were hit with a pugnit smell, the trash was galore, and laying before us was a gnawed-clean deer skeleton. This area had not been tended by Game & Parks in awhile.

After maneuvering our way around the disappointment, we finally got to the waters edge, where we sunk a foot into the mud; not sure if it was actually mud or just layers and layers of goose droppings. The smell from the mud was atrocious, and we nearly puked up our lunch.

Nebraska Game and Parks should be absolutely embarrassed by the conditions of this launch site. To even require people to have a park permit to enter is a comedy. It's shameful how the agency has let this wonderful...

Well after spending time at numerous campsites throughout the state I never felt so uncomfortable as we did at wagon train. The campsite was great but at midnight in the first night we had county sheriff pull up and question our park sticker.. we were the only camper's in the whole park but they decided to wake up our tent at midnight WTF!! We had last year sticker but THEY DEMANDED that I put current sticker on car to avoid from getting a $76 ticket! Really? We had an expired but it was also January 27 on a off peak night. We already had a 2025 sticker but didn't put it on the car. We have a extremely clean campsite but Lancaster county sheriff decided to bother good citizens for camping in a off peak season campsite? We will never camp here again!! We already had a 2024 sticker but I guess that doesn't show enough love we have for Nebraska...

Edit as of 7/15/2018: Kayak, canoe and SUP put in area on south side of like is not well monitored and as a result is overrun with swimmers, people just using beach area, and boats docking. Even with a No Swimming sign it is ignored by virtually everyone taking up space here. No longer a good place to paddle. Super sad to see it slide because park staff aren’t making visits and enforcing areas. I’ve observed countless paddlers having to cart their boats from way up the drive because other people there aren’t using the put in correctly.

Respectful boaters and campers alike, best place to be in this area. Great swimming beach, good facilities, enough shoreline for a longer paddle on the kayak. The separate canoe/kayak put in makes my day!!!! Nothing but great experiences here for years, camping...