Wild Oak Campground — Hotel in Story City

Good: -Reserved spot via text: kind of a neat/new aged way of reserving spots. Not sure if an online reservation program is on the radar for the future but I didn’t mind the texts.

-Pretty close to everything: grocery, golf, fishing, shopping, restaurants, etc.

-Lots of shade!

-New septic system/working towards improvements: understanding how running a business works, I saw how hard the new owners are working towards improving this campground and have already upgraded the septic system.

-Quiet: I’m an old man at heart, so I can appreciate the quiet sometimes! :)

-Full hookups: electric, water, dump station

-Firewood $1/Log: usually campgrounds will require you to pay $5-$10 for a bundle. I liked being able to grab a log or two for $1 each.

-They fill propane!: this is the first campground I’ve seen that does this. Pretty neat.

-Very engaged/approachable staff

-New owners seem to really care about improving this campground: As in any other new business ventures, it takes capital to invest capital. They seem to be putting profits back into the business. Kudos!

Work in progress:

-Roads through park are a little pitted- pretty big gravel and some pretty good sized ruts in the roads. Nothing too terrible, just more pitting and bigger gravel than I’m used to seeing in a campground.

-Dump station too high (for our camper): I had to get a little creative on how to manage dumping our tanks. Our camper sits pretty high and usually dont have a problem with this. Might just need another layer of rock or something and it’ll be just fine.

-Fire pits are a little small/can’t cook on them: some of our firewood couldn’t fit in the fire ring. Luckily we had some smaller logs to have a smaller fire. May take some time/investment to upgrade to bigger fire pits- they are still functional though!

A little spendy for what the park has to offer compared to other campgrounds but I see the work being put into it so I really cannot say anything “negative” about this place. I always enjoy seeing people working towards their goal/passion so I am not going to point out every little flaw, rather acknowledge that this investment/vision is going to take time and will require some patience and understanding from campers in the meantime! Keep it up guys, I’m optimistic to see how far it gets by the next...

Made reservations for one night for our roadtrip. Wasn't sure at first where to go for check in. As I was gathering myself and looking lost, two teenagers were outside and just looking at me and then one kind of ignored me and rode off. Finally one told me to go inside and check in. After a min or so, he came inside and quickly explained what to do (look for name on list, write down info on paper slip, put in payment, put inside envelope, and into slot). So I find my name and say what site I'm in, he says "yea I don't know if someone is in your site still". Found that odd and I was like "well I hope not". Went back outside, he rode off. Then I went back inside to fill out stuff. Went back outside and then here comes this car pulling through all quick and the teenager driving is driving from the passenger seat and parks by office. I'm like "what in the heck". We go to our site, set up, and head out to do some things. The back sites look better than the front. They have a playground area in back for kids but old and worn down. It was good for a one night.

To edit: I'm sorry, didn't realize the teenager looking person driving on the opposite side in the car was actually the mailman. However, there were two teenagers in front of the house building so that's why I was unsure of where to go check in. It was around 2pm and I didn't want to just walk into someone's house. One stared and drove off on 4 Wheeler, the other helped me with where to go check in. I had no problems inside, was pretty self explanatory...was just explaining in review of the steps. Then he left and drove off on his scooter. Had no problem finding our site because there is a map inside that...

I had trouble making the reservation (the phone was not reliably answered) which should have told me something. Finally I made a reservation (50 amp, pull-through, water sewer, and clear sight-line to the southern sky for our satellite dish). The person making the reservation did not ask for a deposit, but assured me that the office would be open each evening until 10PM.

We arrived at the campground at 4:45 PM and there were three RV's in front of the office with their owners standing around looking at the office. The sign on the office door said "closed"; there were no packets acknowledging our reservation; no one answered the "night bell" or the telephone; and we were advised to fill out a "late arrival" registration and stuff it into an envelop. We three RV operators looked at each other and shrugged, so my wife and I drove our motor home through the location to try to find a site.

There were zero open sites that came even remotely close to our requirements, and it was not clear that there were any sites available at all. The sites are not marked (or marked where we could not see them), the sites were often grass not pads, and we could not see the hookups. Keep in mind that we did not try very hard to see the hookups -- since we could not find anything looking like a site to work with. We left.

I recommend avoiding this RV park at all costs. They are hard to get a hold of, they are apparently unreliable as campground owners/managers, and the place is not up to the standards of anyone familiar with quality RV locations. We have no idea how they retain their Good Sam status. ...