Camping With Our Dog at Wapsipinicon State Park, Iowa

Curtis and I love nothing more in this world than our little (10 lbs) mutt, Gus. Leaving him behind (with family, of course!) while we traipsed around Europe this summer broke our hearts, so we promised Gus that the next time we travel we would take him with us. We’re hoping to do a camping road-trip with him next summer — so stay tuned for lot’s of adventures as #GusSeesTheWorld. But we thought we would warm him up a little and do some low-key, local camping to cap off the end of summer. We woke up on Saturday morning and made the 40 minute drive from our house up to Wapsipinicon State Park. This is a small campsite on the southwest side of Anamosa, Iowa, with 26 well-shaded lots for tents, car-camping, or motor-homes.

The campsite is not remote, which makes it a good car camping location. You don’t have to worry about what you bring with you because you won’t be hauling it back and forth from your parked vehicle. Our trusty Subaru Forester holds everything we need for car camping, our tent, lawn chairs, cooking supplies and packs. It doesn’t take long to set up camp for a short trip like this. We have a Kelty Outback 4 and it comfortably fits me, Curtis (who is 6’4”), Gus, and our backpacks.

Likewise, you don’t need a lot to make camping work with a dog. We have a 20 ft. leash for Gus because he needed to be on leash within the campsite. We brought a few comforts from home for him: blankets and a chewing bone, but otherwise all he really needs are his food and water dish. This time we just brought his regular dishes from home, but in the future we might get a collapsible one to make it easier for him to eat and drink on the trails.

Wapsipinicon State Park has 3.5 miles of hiking trails and all the hiking is very easy for any skill-level. The trails have a good variety of atmospheres for such a small park. In just a few hours of hiking, you can explore caves, limestone bluffs, wooded areas, and wild open prairie. These photos were taken in mid-September, right before the foliage turned autumnal.

We got our fill of hiking in the afternoon, and hoofed it back to the campsite hungry and ready to make dinner. We just spent the evening lounging at the campsite. One of my favorite things to do while camping is sit around a fire, eat a hearty meal, have a few beers and read a book. On this camping trip, I tore through Sweetbitter by: Stephanie Danler.

Just before this camping trip, Curtis found a 40-year-old Coleman gas camping stove at the Salvation Army. It’s in near perfect condition, it still had gas in the tank, and it’s a Coleman so it will probably last us another 40 years. We were pretty excited to try it out on this trip. Curtis cooked both our dinner (chili) and our breakfast (eggs and bacon) in his cast iron pan on this stove top. When camping, we make coffee in a percolator and we used this stove to heat that up, too.

There is little better when camping than a simple stove-top chili. Curtis did some of the food prep at home, like cutting green peppers and onions from our garden, and adding chili powder to the beans and stewed tomatoes, for example. He also pre-grated the cheese that we put on top of the chili. Essentially all that’s left to do is dump in the ingredients let everything simmer over the fire until done. We fell asleep full and happy.

The next morning, we took our merry time getting up, popped the percolator on the camp stove and had our coffee and breakfast. I took Gus for a quick walk so he could stretch his legs while Curtis swiftly cleaned up our campsite. We were back on the road for home by mid-morning.

Are there local campsites in your area like this that you keep meaning to get to but haven’t visited yet? I recommend checking them out for a relaxing getaway. Camping doesn’t have to be a big production. You can just duck out one night, spend a few hours soaking up nature and pop back home the next.

Hope you enjoyed this quick guide to camping Wapsipinicon State Park with a small pup. Until next time! -Em

Quick Review:

Pros: The campsites are well-shaded and well-kept. The hiking trails had a lot of variety and were very easy for beginning hikers and a tiny dog!

Cons: The campsites are all pretty exposed and there aren’t any more ‘off-the-beaten-path’ options. This is a great thing for car-camping, so for the most part we didn’t mind, but since this is a dog-friendly campsite we ran into issues with big dogs barking pretty much all the time. Gus was a little spooked by it at first and I think it could have been more peaceful for him if we were more secluded.

This campsite is best for: Family camping! This is such a convenient campsite with all the amenities very close by. The campsites themselves are large and you can fit a lot of people and whatever gear you might have. You can bring the family dog as well!