Palisades-Kepler State Park — Attraction in Mount Vernon

Camping stay review. Worst camping experience we have had. Not big camper friendly. We have a 43' fifth wheel. Online reservation says we can fit. We had a very hard time backing into the site. The roads are narrow. The site sign is less than a foot off the road so easy to fit.(If you hit one it's a citation of at least $135) We can in when it was raining and moved some road and grass because it was wet. We were told we had to fix the gravel and grass. The park gave us shovels and rakes to fix the camp site. The dump station is so small campers can't turn into the dump station so you have to run your sewer hose across the street to the dump station. The bath house had graffiti all over the walls. Mostly bad language so I wasn't able to take many photos of it. The showers were mostly clean but the shower curtains were ripped off. You can see in photos. Maintenance guys drive really fast in there UTV's all day. DNR drives around in a truck fast too so watch your children if they are outside. They are ready to write tickets or arrest. They stopped and talked to me and other campers and they were bragging about arresting people. My family won't be coming back here. Disappointing as state parks are usually nice. I read other reviews and they are good but camping here is a different experience. Trail reviews are highly rated on Google but in trail apps the reviews are poor. We didn't get a chance to...

If you like being chased around by raccoons, coyotes and DNR you’ll have an amazing time. Almost immediately when we arrived DNR came down and practically harassed our friend (the only black guy there) and stated “it’s my goal to arrest him” then told us “if you take him home I will leave you alone” which we did but thought it was pretty ridiculous. We continue our camping trip in what we thought was going to be peace and quite, we were very wrong DNR constantly came down to scold us for something (being loud, leaving the park, being gone for long periods of time) like we did not have lives, houses and pets to take care of outside of camping and the park. Our neighbor constantly complained about us being “loud” when that was not the case DNR even came down and stated himself “i drove down here and you guys were being quite”. Our last night camping we started getting our fire ready and a coyote ran onto our campsite and would not leave us alone, after it came only 2 feet away from me we grabbed what we could and left immediately. So, if you are trying to have a good time with some friends, camping with family and small children or anything other than white I would 100% recommend choosing another...

I love this park. It is huge! When the temp got up to 50 degrees F, last week, I went for a hike near the cabins. I guess that you can rent cabins, there! Iowa state parks are free, which I am still getting used to. It is incredible! The paths were well constructed with fossil rocks that have textures on them that make for good grip. The view of the Cedar river from the lookout point is breathtaking! I saw a bald eagle down on the river. Later on, I saw a handful of bald eagles flying above. What a pleasant surprise! The bald eagle populations are incredible in Iowa. The only other place I've witnessed these types of bald eagle populations was in the UP of Michigan. Such a treat to see so many of them, here! Palisades-Kepler state park was a hotspot for them, seemingly!

Walking the beach was a pleasant experience. It was a foggy day, when I went, which made the atmosphere look incredible.

There were benches in many places, along the paths, which was fantastic. It was very muddy after the snowmelt, which made for a much more difficult hiking experience, so I'd suggest bringing a walking stick. Also know that your shoes are going...