Lakeside Marina Campground, Jamestown, ND

I liked the Woodsy feeling at Lakeside Marina and campground especially since some of the trees were turning golden with the approach of autumn.

CAMPGROUND NAME: Lakeside Marina Campground, A.K.A Lakeside Campground, A.K.A Lakeside Marina & Campground
LOCATION: Just a smidge north of Jamestown, ND, adjacent to Jamestown Reservoir; coordinates below
KIND: Municipal: Stutsman County
SEASONAL: Yes, roughly Memorial Day through Labor Day according to one web site, but I was there Sept. 21.
FEES: $25 for campers; $15 for tents. It’s unusual for a non-federal government to do so but this campground gives a 50% discount for holders of the Senior Pass and other interagency passes
RESERVATIONS: Yes
CAMPGROUND WEB SITE
CAMPGROUND MAP
PHONE: 701-252-1183
GPS:
Campground: N 46.94994 W 098.69720
Office: The office is not located at the campground but rather up the road a few tenths of a mile. N 46.94551 W 098.70166 marks an entrance to the parking lot you probably DO NOT want to take. It is steep. In fact, you can self-pay at the campground and don’t really need to go to the office.

The central area at Lakeside Marina campground contains a volleyball court, monkey bars, and other things for kids to play on and in.

ACCESS: Roads to the campground are paved. The road within the campground is dirt and gravel, well maintained
SITES: 48, all back-ins. Two had concrete pads and paths to the restroom so I’m assuming these were wheelchair accessible
LEVELNESS: Many are very good
SHADE: This is a shady campground
SPACING: Sites are not crowded on top of one another for the most part
TENT PADS: None that I noticed but there is a lot of grassy area
FIRE GRILLS: Waist high BBQ type
PICNIC TABLES: Yes
PETS: I did not come across any regulations regarding pets. Check with the office.

HOOKUPS: water and electric although the water pressure seemed low
ELECTRICAL QUALITY: as measured by my Progressive Industries power management system, 122 volts, 60 Hz, no errors
DUMP STATION: Yes

CELLULAR: I had two bars and LTE on my AT&T iPhone 5s, download speed 4.84 Mbps, upload .06 Mbps; one bar and LTE on my Verizon iPad Air. download speed 2.78 Mbps, upload 1.20 Mbps

TV
Over-the-air: I didn’t check
Cable: None
WiFi: None

Lakeside Marina and Campground in Jamestown had one of the nicest play areas for kids that I’ve seen in campgrounds. They also had a decent volleyball court.

RESTROOMS:
SOAP: Hand soap
SHOWERS: Included; $5 for non-campers.
TRASH:
WATER: Hot and cold

LAUNDRY: No
RECYCLING: No

BUGS: there were a few mosquitoes and flies when I was there in late September

OTHER: There are several small cabins for rent in the campground. I didn’t see snide any of them but spoke to someone who was renting one. Except for a number of beds there was no furniture and no other facilities. They were paying $45 per night. There is a large sheltered picnic with quite a few tables area next to the restroom. There is a soda vending machine outside restroom building.

NEAREST FACILITIES: Jamestown
Gas: Jamestown a few miles away has a number of stations
Dump: At the campground
Propane: Jamestown a few miles away has a number of stations. There’s a Cenex station at N 46.92021 W 098.69695 and I believe I recall driving past a Shell station somewhere in town that had a propane filling station
Groceries: There’s at least one market in Jamestown a few miles away. Hugo’s I think and there may be others. There’s also a Walmart Supercenter and those usually have grocery sections.

I liked this campground. I liked all the greenery, from the trees to the lawn which was well maintained. Even though I have no children of my own, or perhaps because of that, I liked the play sets on the central lawn and enjoyed watching the children at play. I don’t recall every seeing such an elaborate play set and monkey bars, etc., at another campground. In stark contrast I recalled another play set I’d seen elsewhere that seemed to be cobbled together from old worn out tires and rusty discards.

This campground is laid out in an oval around a central grassy area which is well maintained (see map). The area was fairly level and most of the campsites seemed fairly level as well. I didn’t do anything to level my rig as the site was close enough to level for my tastes. I’m uncertain of the maximum size rig that can be accommodated here and recommend a phone call to the office to inquire. I did see some pretty good size 5th wheels and trailers here.

Charlene my RV at Lakeside Marina and Campground, Jamestown, North Dakota

It can be a long distance to electricity and water. I had to back my RV into the site about as far as I could without running up on the lawn (photos at left and above)  so my electrical cord could reach the pedestal and I had to use my longest hose to reach the water supply which was located right beside the electrical pedestal.  While we’re covering things electric, an electric space heater was positioned in the restroom/shower building (men’s room) next to the shower stalls, apparently intended for campers to use when they shower as the building itself appears unheated. I could not make this heater function, however.

There were quite a few picking areas in the Jamestown Reservoir park. This one was sheltered,

The campground is adjacent to the Jamestown reservoir and recreation area. At the campground entrance are signs saying the reservoir is public land, United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation and that it is cooperatively managed by the Stutsman County Park Board. From the campground link page I provided above: “Jamestown Reservoir is Stutsman County’s largest public use area. It encompasses 2,095 surface acres and has 45 miles of shoreline. Jamestown Reservoir provides sweeping views of undeveloped prairie and wooded draws. The prairie areas feature grasses that cover the North American Plains and can be viewed from various points within the park. The wooded draws provide habitat for birds and other species of wildlife.”

This is part of the play area at Jamestown Reservoir.

Adjacent to the campground are some absolutely lovely grassy fields with a number of picnic areas, a playground, baseball field, even a disk “golf course” which, I take it, is a game played with Frisbees. Bring your insect repellant. The mosquitos meant business.

I stopped at this campground as a layover place on my way from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota to Minnesota where I was heading to do some leaf peeping.

 

Here’s a Google Earth view of lakeside campground

 

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