We drove 137 miles from Hillsdale State Park, KS to El Dorado State Park, KS. El Dorado is located about 30 miles from Wichita, KS. At first, I thought El Dorado was a small town. In actuality, it is larger than Sparta with a population of 12,870 per the 2020 consensus.

A few interesting facts about El Dorado

• Home to Butler Community College
• El Dorado in Spanish stands for “the golden land”. The town was names El Dorado because of the golden look of the areas tallgrass prairie at sunset
• In 1915, oil was discovered
• El Dorado oil fields played a crucial role in the WW1 resulting in the towns nick name “the oil field that won WW1”
• Kansas Oil Museum located in town
• Has a really nice YMCA

Since we just arrived, I can’t provide a lot of details about the park. Here’s what I do know.

• Has a laundry facility that only charges $1.50 per wash and $1.50 per dry. The machines are older. Hopefully they function well. I will let you know at a later date.
• Bathhouses are scarce and unique. Example: Our loop has 1 unisex shower, for about 50 campsite. Another loop does have multiple showers but no curtains (peep show) and the other loop does have 4 unisex shower rooms.
• A very active railroad runs beside the campground.
• The trees appear to be cut back enough not to brush the trailer.
• Most sites are very shaded
• The land is very flat.

This morning I took a picture where you can better see my mum. After 2 months, the mum is in full bloom and beautiful.

Cleo has a morning ritual of requiring me to sit on the recliner so that she can lay on my lapboard. This morning was petting and then a nice long cat nap.