Dolliver Memorial State Park — Attraction in Iowa

Pros: GORGEOUS park. The trails were absolutely wonderful. There is a small park near the campground and right by the park is a little swimming hole that's perfect for kids to play in. If you've ever been to Ledges, the scenery is similar. The river boat ramp is right across from the campground which was handy, we went kayaking from the campground drop-off to Lehigh and it was a nice short (about two hours) float with beautiful scenery. If I was basing my review simply off of how well taken care of the park was, and how nice the trails were, it'd be a five star review! Unfortunately we had a terrible experience in the campground.

Cons: This campground is 'meant' for only small families (like two adults and one, quiet child), or quiet retired individuals who spend most of the time in their camper. Our group took up three campsites (a total of 12 people and 6 dogs). When we first arrived at the campsite we let our dogs out of our car and tied them to a tree with a rope while we set everything up. Before we even had our tent up the DNR ranger came by to tell us they don't allow dogs tied to trees and we needed to move them. There was someone in the campsite right behind us who had a dog tied to a tree literally the entire weekend. On the morning we left, we mentioned this to the DNR ranger, who said he would go talk to them, then drove by them without saying a word to them about it. We were told several times (like every 2 hours) by the DNR ranger that we needed to keep our dogs quiet. They were only barking if someone slowed down near our campsite, or a little yippy dog walked by snarling at them. Me and my fiance took our kids out on the river on Sat afternoon and were gone for about two hours. We left our dogs at the campsite WITH THE REST OF OUR FAMILY (8 people). When we returned the DNR ranger stopped again to tell us that he's "never had to tell campers to leave because their dogs were too loud, but if you can't keep them quiet you'll have to get them out of here." And told us that he had received calls that we left our dogs unattended for the day.They were not unattended and my family said they spent most of the time sleeping. After that, we could do nothing but sit, holding our dogs leashes so that if they even looked around we would shush them so they wouldn't make a peep, like walking on freakin egg shells. The DNR continued to drive by at least every hour the entire time we were there. Saturday night we were walking to our tent and noticed the DNR truck parked by the bathrooms. Then we saw the ranger walking by our campsite, no flashlight or anything, but doing a FOOT PATROL like we were in jail!! I could not believe it. A million other small things (like the women's bathroom showers were covered in mildew and black mold) but the main thing is that we felt like they just didn't like the look of us from the moment we showed up. From other reviews I can tell that they apparently just don't like groups of people or big dogs. There was a smaller dog next to us that barked incessantly the whole weekend. We also told the ranger about them and he said "well I think their dog was just barking because I was over there changing the garbage". Yeah, whatever. Then as he drove away he ran over one of our dog bowls and squished it flat.

Oh, also Saturday night people were flying through the park and the campground, well over the speed limit. Including one car that was going at least 60 through the park at around 10:30 pm (speed limit 20). And while we were walking from the playground back to the campsites Saturday afternoon, the DNR truck went whizzing by us driving down the center of the road, and then went off the road and flung rocks at my fiance and 5 year old son.

I have never felt so unwelcome in a campground before, and I will never stay there again. Possibly come back to use the trails occasionally, but they will not get my money. I've never had to deal with such a suffocating DNR presence, and have never had issues with my dogs at any other campground, and I've been camping with dogs for the...

Had a horrible time camping in our vintage busses here we were basically profiled the second we showed up the camp host was the last straw for us we actually left and went elsewhere. In all my years of camping I have never been treated like this at a campground..... first of all I talked to officer days ahead of our stay and told him we had 8 busses on 4 spots to which he said "sounds like a fun time" then I asked him about where to secure firewood as they don't sell it in the park I was told he didn't know he didn't know the laws with emerald ash borer anything like that. We showed up there and the very same guy said we had to have each a spot for each bus so we paid for 4 more spots then at 945 pm park quiet time is 10. he showed up and told us turn off our radio and be quiet we complied, then not even 45 mins later he showed up to tell us to be quiet again.... mind you we were using well under indoor voices at this point.... then he went about 80 foot up the road and stood there just watching us. This whole time there was about 4 other groups drinking, being loud and playing music... he never said a word to them finally we gave up and went to bed at 12. In the am we set up a hammock and 10 mins later the camp host came and told us to take it down that was the final straw for us we really tried to make this work but in all my years of camping I've never experienced anything like this very very disappointed is a gross...

The campsite we had was subpar but the experience was even worse. Brought 6 VW Vanagons and a Beetle to camp only to get profiled and checked on every 30 minutes. The DNR "guard" stayed watch to us all night and told us we were being intrusive and disruptive when we weren't even making noise. Got told to turn our music off at 10:00 when the noise ordinance was 10:30. We turned it off but were somehow making too much noise despite the fact that we were quieter than 3 or 4 sites near us. Even after we turned the music off and decided to just NOT even talk to each other a baby nearby started crying. Children everywhere running through our area, playing with our cars and trying to open doors. The dnr ranger sat at the bathrooms and watched us all night. Kept coming up to us saying that he could hear us and that was a violation of the campsite rules. Then the next day we got confronted again about a hammock that was up. In the 15 years I've had camping I have never experienced something like this. And out of 20 sites near us doing the same thing, we were confronted as many times as it took to make us want to leave. With two days still paid for, we did not get a refund. As we were leaving everyone around us made a point to tell us they couldn't hear us AT ALL, all night. None of us will ever come back to this campsite. Which is a shame considering that's over $150 in revenue for...