Marble Beach State Recreation Area — Attraction in Orleans

We arrived yesterday, Friday, May 16. Site #52. Modern bathrooms were absolutely disgusting. Toilets were nasty as were the floors. Not a fan of unisex bathrooms as a female. Iykyk. Pee and p&^p on toilet seats. They seemed to have been lightly cleaned by 11ish today but still fecal matter present on rims and ?front? Of toilets. Our campsite has trash, many, many new metal beer bottle caps everywhere. Obviously from recent guests. I've been picking them up for 24 hours as well as other garbage. Add to it the bags of dog @#it on wooded edge of our campsite. At least, what we've found, has been in grocery sacks. Our site is lovely. It is level and roomy. It easily accommodates our tent, kitchen with canopy, boat and truck without being right on top of park road and it does not back the busy county road. Between the 2 of us, we have 93 YEARS of camping experience. By far this is one of the worst experiences. Noise ordinances were not enforced last night (not "strictly enforced" as proclaimed). Can't wait to see what the next 6 nights brings us. For once, I'm glad it's cold and windy while camping and have a lot of hand sanitizer...

The campground has a newly paved drive throughout and there is plenty of room between sites. That is about the only two positives I can share. I did not use the restroom/shower facilities so I cannot comment on them. I was disappointed in that camping by Iowa's largest natural lake, I could not see the lake. In only a very few spots in all of the campgrounds can you actually see the lake. Even if you are in a spot that is only a few feet from the lake, you will not be able to see it because of all the undergrowth. If you are in a spot along the lakes edge, you will get shade for about half the day. If you are in a pull-through, there is no shade. Be careful when reserving a spot for your RV as the pad lengths vary greatly. I saw many RV's barely fit into the reserved spot then no place to park their tow vehicle. The camphost will ask you to move your tow vehicle if you park on the grass. Most of the RV sites are really unlevel so be prepared with plenty of blocking. As for coming back, we're not...

Marble Beach Recreation Area Campground is our favorite of all of the campgrounds in the county. Campsite 27 is extra spacious and we liked its location along Big Spirit Lake.

Marble Beach Recreation Area had some improvements a few years ago, but our picnic table this week was in serious need of paint. Well worn picnic tables seem to be normal in all state parks, as well as very unlevel campsite pads. Marble Beach has a modern shower house with private shower rooms, but many other state campgrounds still have the old style male and female shower rooms which offer much less privacy.

I have visited over 20 Iowa State Parks over the past five years and many have become an embarrassment. Gull Point State Park campground is scheduled to be closed for a long delayed renovation.

The state government should speed up the renovation of more state parks using a small portion of the state’s 2.4 Billion dollar surplus. That is not a typo - the 2024 surplus is 2.4...