Geode State Park — Attraction in West Burlington

Beautiful campground. Unfortunately, our visit was ruined by a rude, inconsiderate DNR. After visiting our friends at the Geode State Park campground this past weekend, we decided to head home. We drove past the DNR vehicle that had been making its rounds around the campground that night, and had just patrolled right before we left. Much to my disbelief, this DNR followed us out of the campground and proceeded to pull us over, enlightening me that the campground closes at 10:30 pm, and we were past the appropriate time to leave. He took my license and registration back to his truck, and came back with an unwanted $80 ticket. The DNR continued to tell us that he was giving us a break, and that he could write everybody in our vehicle a ticket if he wanted to, because technically we are all visitors breaking the rule.

The rule (which we were unaware of) is as follows:

Noise which can be heard at a distance of 120 feet or three campsites shall be considered unreasonable between the hours of 10:30 pm and 6:00 am.

This includes the operation or use of motorized equipment or machinery such as an electric generating plant, motor vehicle, motorized toy, or audio device such as a radio, television set, tape deck, public address system, musical instrument or other device causing unreasonable noise.

My point is that writing us a ticket was rude and unnecessary. He would have gotten his point across perfectly by letting us go with a warning. We did nothing wrong by leaving. We were making no more commotion in the campground by leaving, than he was by driving around and patrolling. Essentially, he was breaking his own rule. What if someone was sick, our house was burning down, or a friend had car trouble and needed assistance. We would not be able to leave without getting an expensive fine. Might I add that this was our first time visiting, and had no idea that there was the rule that we couldn’t leave after a certain time? Nor did anybody at our campsite. If I don’t have the freedom to leave a campground after 10:30 pm on a Saturday night, I will gladly camp elsewhere. So, if you enjoy heavy enforcement of ridiculous rules when you are camping and trying to have a good time, this is the campsite for you. We will definitely not be...

Great weekend tent camping here. Campground hosts were very nice, we had no problem getting our firewood with them or getting water as we were in a primitive site. The bathrooms were clean and well stocked with toilet paper. The beach to campground trail was the only trail we had time to hike but it was well taken care of and was an easy hike for our youngish family. (Kids aged 7 and 13) Beach was clean and freshly raked, the water was like about most lakes in Iowa, but it was refreshing and our kids loved it nonetheless. Our family loved all the wildlife we saw while at the park. Multiple separate sightings of deer with their fawns, a couple young bucks, and lots of squirrels. We'll definitely be back again...

Camped here twice since moving to Burlington from Illinois figured I'd try it out. There were two different DNR officers during the stays. First time was an older gentleman really nice guy gave me no problems and was very respectful and polite. Second time was a younger gentleman and upon meeting the officer he made me and my company feel severely unwelcome. The campers next to us that are regulars also didn't care for him too much and never had a problem with me or my company. This officer went completely out of his way to make things personal. He said no complaints were made the first time but still made it a personal vendetta to antagonize my friend all day...