Downstream Point
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 15 of the next 15 nights read 16:19 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Downstream Point is located on the crystal clear Big Hill Lake in southeast Kansas. The lake boasts three campgrounds, three equestrian trails and four day-use areas for the public to enjoy. Picnicking, horseback riding, hiking, swimming, fishing and other outdoor activities abound. Keep reading
Recreation
Downstream Point is mostly used as a group picnic area. The facility has basketball courts and is located by the outlet channel. After picnicking, visitors can venture onto several hiking and equestrian trails nearby including Big Hill Lake Horse Trail, a 17-mile trail with a variety of terrain for all ages to explore, and the Ruth Nixon Trail, named after an early supporter of the lake, which is @ 1 mile long and winds along the western side of the lake. Big Hill Lake is known for being a trophy lake for fishing. Principal species of sport fish include largemouth bass, crappie, channel and flathead catfish, bluegill, walleye and smallmouth bass. The lake is also popular for fishing tournaments. Almost all of the land around the lake is open to public hunting, except for parks and areas around the dam and control structures. Principal species hunted are whitetail deer, turkey and squirrel. Families with kids can cool off during summer heat at a sand-covered beach at nearby Mound Valley Park.
Facilities
This facility provides a reservable group picnic shelter that can accommodate up to 100 people. The shelter is within walking distance of the lake and provides shade in an otherwise sunny area.
Natural Features
The park is nestled in the rolling, wooded countryside that is referred to as the Little Ozarks. With thick oak-hickory forests surrounded by prairie and farmland, the lake shore supplies a variety of habitats for birds and mammals. Contact Info This location has limited staffing. Please call (620) 336-2741 for general information.
What the agency tells you
Day-use only
Park is open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Facilities
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Fishing
- Hunting
- Swimming
1 of 1 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:19 UTC
The agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
OpenBooked
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:19 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records · the site map
All 1 records
| DPOI | DSP-S | day use | yes | 379 ftBig Hill Creek | $30 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cherryvale Park0.0 mi
Mound Valley0.0 mi
Timber Hill Park1.9 mi
Outlet Channel18 mi
Card Creek22 mi
Washington Cove36 miTake U.S. Highway 169 to Cherryvale, Kansas, and turn east onto Main Street. Continue through the town and turn right at the end of Main Street onto Olive Street. Go 1/2 a block and turn left onto County Route 5000. Proceed 4.5 miles to Big Hill Lake and follow signs to the park.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Parsons, KS
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°F, day 70°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 23°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Downstream Point is in Kansas’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Derek Schmidt (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- The member who votes the moneyDerek SchmidtU.S. Representative · Kansas’s 2nd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJerry MoranU.S. Senator · Kansas
- Your senator, on the same appropriationRoger MarshallU.S. Senator · Kansas
Read the draft, or change the wording
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Downstream Point has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Derek Schmidt, I’m a constituent in Kansas’s 2nd district. Downstream Point, Kansas carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Downstream Point (Kansas) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Downstream Point has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Jerry Moran, I’m a constituent in Kansas. Downstream Point, Kansas carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Downstream Point (Kansas) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Downstream Point has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Roger Marshall, I’m a constituent in Kansas. Downstream Point, Kansas carries 1 record on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Downstream Point (Kansas) via campanac.com