Nine Eagles State Park, Lamoni

Great Beach and swimming area. Some of the campsites are really good some others are a little rough. Nice shower house. Quiet

Not a bad weekend camping trip. But could have been a bit better. Well we stayed at the non electric camp sites. We had made reservations online. The sites were very narrow and about 50% gravel. This meant I slept on gravel under my tent. There were deep tire ruts in the non graveled areas that kept me putting a tent over the softer earth. They are also under going a water pipe replacement project which meant the poorly maintained shower was locked and we had to drive to the RV area to get water. There was a permanent outhouse. Very interesting as it was a concrete structure like storm proof. Hopefully they will replace the shower house too. The trees were very nice, a lot of oak. Over where I parked however was widow-maker. In general it looked as thought most folk never ventured into the underbrush. There was almost no naturally available firewood unless you had the tools and time to take dead standing trees. Fire pits were nice a few of the sites have little pointless ones. The nice ones however were not set into the ground so one have to build tall fires to cook on. Leaves...leaves...leaves. the ranger needs to come out with a rake or blower and clean out the leaves. Out picnic table alone have about 14" of leaves under it. The trails were covered with them. Which when wet make them slippery and hard to go up and down. Especially since they had no steps or gravel on them. I used my canoe paddle to clean the leaves out a bit from the camp site. Wildlife was fun. We saw deer, vultures and eagles, and raccoons. The raccoons were overly friendly and had no problem with people. The dumpster needs barred metal to keep them out as they make a hell of a racket all night. I know this has been very wet and the nats and mosquitos intense. I would think they could fog or spray to help reduce. I was very surprised with all the leaves that we didn't have a substantial tic problem. The lake was very nice. Need some grass carp to keep the water brush in check. We paddled the lake and getting into the bays was tough as the water vegetation just wanted grab the paddles. We tried fishing but no luck. Now in fairness 4 kids fishing off the dock mid day isn't going to get much. The beach was nice. I did not go in the swim area. But the other visitors seemed to be having a good time. Overall the park can just needs a little TLC and it would raise my opinion of it. Improving and maintaining the tent sites would go a long way. Same with trails. The bones of a great state park are they they just need to make some small improvements.