The best part was the tree in our site!
And the chocolate chip bars…
As the main “planner” of the family my job is to research the different activities and locations we will be attending while on our camping trips. I tend to use Google as my all round go to site. I Google the campground on the Maps to see how far away the campground is located to the cities. If it isn’t out of reach I then compare any and all reviews of the camp. I did this for Kozy Oaks as well as any other place you will find us visiting.
As far as I could tell Kozy Oaks looked like a great place to camp. It was close to my Sister-in-Law’s farm making it really easy to have my niece stay with us and it had a lake with free canoes for campers to use, a game room, mini golf and a nice play set just off the lake.
A few days prior to leaving I called the campground to make sure they were ready for campers. I was told the pool wasn’t ready, but if we didn’t mind not having a pool for the weekend we were more than welcome to head on up to Kozy Oaks Kamp Campground. With such a chilly start to summer I didn’t plan on taking any dips in any unheated pools yet, so we packed the camper for the weekend.
Welcome to Kozy Oaks Campground!
I have to be honest, the campground itself could use a face lift. The owner (Suzy) and her staff are very kind, down to Earth, sweet people. I felt a bit mislead from the reviews of the campground because the lake was one I wouldn’t want to swim, canoe or anything in due to leeches/slim. The park that was off from the lake was small and it had a worn T-shirt, water bottle and cigarette butts on the ground. I didn’t really feel comfortable having my kids playing right there. The basketball/ volleyball area was more like a pasture and looked beat up from the years of being used. The pool is actually broken and won’t be usable at all right now and the game room (photo above) felt like it hadn’t been cleaned in awhile. I also wouldn’t dare you to use the restrooms. They are the worst I have seen, yet. However, our camping site was in a wide open spot where the kids could run without a care in the world (well, expect for the over-populated dragonflies scared a few of them). I was happy we were placed out of the seasonal campground section.
Our Camping Site…
The seasonal camping sites are in charge of mowing their own areas, but most of them don’t take care of their sites. The lawn is long and there are numerous seasonal campers who leave their camping sites run down with junk spread out around their campers.
Dragonflies Not Allowed!
The roads are paths throughout the campground of sandy dirt. Our site was next to the grave yard of old unused unclaimed campers. One of the campers even had a broken window. It just didn’t have a real “Kozy” feeling outside of our spot.
Keegan didn’t even bother going over to the basketball area. It wasn’t worth it, instead we all went over to the game room together.
Don’t forget to bring your change!
The games are owned by another company and they all work well. The space where they are is a p0le barn style building and the walls are unfinished with a cement floor. The benches you see above are old and as my Sister-in-law went to sit down on one she almost fell over because the bench almost broke. There is no special decor making you more relaxed. Instead I kinda wanted to go back to our camper and play games inside for the rest of the night. Jadis and Ruth were happy because they both won a ball from the claw game, which made it more fun.
Mikaela and her cousin took out the Bad Guys…
Afterwards, we made our way outside to the mini golf/pool area. Keegan asked the man behind the counter if he had to pay to play mini golf, but he was told no due to the condition of the course. Like I said earlier, it could use a face lift. The “hole” where Keegan started at was lacking a hole. The lady who was in charge of the office for the evening told us the mini golf was the next project on her list of things to do. The mini golf was one of the things I thought the kids would enjoy, but it isn’t even fair to call it mini golf or to list it as an activity for the campground.
The kids enjoyed playing back there with the little kids playhouse and they goofed off with the mini golf equipment even though it was missing holes and the green lining.
Let’s play house – you be Mom.
We had some fun giving Ryan his early Father’s Day gift we picked out from Cabela’s (you can read all about it Here).
While Ryan and Isaiah put together the new Camp Chef cooking stove I spent my time going around our camping site picking up trash that was left behind from previous campers (cigarette butts & broken water balloons). I didn’t think I should have to spend my vacation making sure my kids were in a safe zone, but this campground left me no choice.
Old cigarette butts and water balloons
don’t just go away.
I liked the tree on our site. It was easy for all the kids to climb and they all had fun playing on it throughout the stay.
We all enjoyed a great meal made by Ryan that evening (on his new Camp Chef). We also spent a great deal of time hanging out in our camper. I absolutely love our Coates RV camper! It was the most cozy spot of the whole campground.
It fit 9 just fine!
The next morning the kids played tag around the camper. While I looked into camping someplace else for the rest of the weekend.
Even though Kozy Oaks Kamp wasn’t the prettiest campground we had fun being together. Isaiah was so tired out from playing tag he fell asleep eating his granola bar snack!
It was a chocolate mess!
During his nap time Ryan and I decided we had about enough coziness at Kozy Oaks. We would have been fine staying another night, but there wasn’t really anything else to do there. Plus, I didn’t really want to stay another night there. The weather report showed a clearing in the afternoon which would be perfect for a camping hike. There was nowhere to hike at Kozy Oaks, but there was a ton to be had at Wild River State Park! Ryan and I made the decision to pack everything and everyone up and head out of Kozy Oaks.
Nope, sorry we can’t bring the climbing tree.
We were told Wild River State Park had 7 open sites with only one being electric. We made it out of Kozy Oaks in record time. It isn’t easy packing 9 campers and gear up super fast, but I was pleased with our results making it just over 20 minutes. Before we left I took a few more photos of the campground that I never saw during my research. I thought it would be helpful for you to see before making your camping plans.
The Basketball area…
A few nicer seasonal sites…
Personally, I think Kozy Oaks Kamp Campground would have more of a coziness to it if areas were maintained at a higher level. The seasonal campers have whatever they want laying around and there was a handful of trash that wasn’t picked up throughout the campground. The owners are busy in their personal lives as well as trying to run a campground, however I think it would be a great place to camp if a few upgrades/standards were applied to the campground.
Too many seasonal campsites that don’t look like this…
The first thing you see entering into the campground…
The Graveyard of campers…
(which was on the other side of our site)
Overall, Ryan and I gave Kozy Oaks a poor rating, but we thought the potential in the campground could bring it up someday. Someday meaning; if they got rid of the extra junk laying around, made the public areas inviting, fixed what is broken, cleaned/painted public areas and had a guideline for the seasonal campers to uphold.
The kids had fun playing around our trailer and it was sort of like camping at someone’s farm with all the yard like space. I was excited to go hiking along the St. Croix for the afternoon. We made a good choice to head over to the State Park for the rest of the weekend.
Entering into Wild River State Park…
Thanks for checking in with us today, our next campground review will be up in a couple of days. Until then –
Happy Camping, Kelly