Sunday, May 27, 2018

Staying at Chautauqua Park

We stayed at Chautauqua Park for a week. The city of Beloit allows campers to stay for 10 days, and camping is free. Chautauqua Park sits on the Solomon River, and you can see the Beloit Falls from the pedestrian bridge that goes from the park to downtown Beloit. 

The park's name comes from Chautauqua assemblies, started at Chautauqua Lake in New York in the nineteenth century. While initially religious in nature, these assemblies encourage adults from different denominations to meet for several days and improve themselves, learning about a variety of things, from political to history. These assemblies were very popular in Kansas, and are credited with the continued importance in many Kansas towns of adult education, community spaces, and reading clubs. 

Address: Chautauqua Park Drive, Beloit KS

Dog Friendly: The park does not have any designated dog areas. Other campers did see snakes at this park, so you should use caution when walking your dog and we would suggest not allowing your dog in the water. There is also a disc golf course, which can make finding space to walk a dog a bit more interesting.
Motorcycle Friendly: This park's roads are all paved and well-maintained.

Cell Service/Wifi: Verizon was 3-4 bars.
 Amenities: The park has electric hookups. Water is also available, but you will need an extra long house. There are two campsites to each concrete pads, with a shared pavilion and picnic tables. There are bathrooms in the white maintenance shed, but no showers. There was a dump station in front of the shed, marked with a faded yellow square.  The dump is still there, but no longer has threads for connecting a hose, or available water. 
This is a very kid-friendly park. There is a small water park and a large playscape near the park's entrance. There are also pages from kid's books placed every 25 yards or so, to encourage parents to engage with their children while walking and exercising.
Getting There: The park is just off Highway 14, but be aware there are several railroad tracks if you go through town - go slow!
Know Before You Go: The camping sites are very spread out in this park, and only one of them is a pull through. We found it easiest to park, and walk through the sites first, before selecting a campsite.

Local Stuff: We've put links to local attractions we visited on the RV Park Review page (at the top of the blog).  There is also a small museum for Mitchell County which we didn't find time to visit.  If you need a  laundromat , there is one downtown.  The nearest grocery story is Ray's Apple Market and there is also a local farmer's market on Wednesdays in the summer, from 4-6pm.

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