Kanza View
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 15 of the next 15 nights read 16:45 UTC
- A night
- $12From, per site
- Sites
- 4All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Kanza View Picnic Shelter is located at the east end of Council Grove Dam just off Kansas Highway 177. It offers some of the most scenic views of the lake. Keep reading
Recreation
Although Council Grove Lake has excellent fishing and boating opportunities, access to the water limits these activities at Kanza View. Picnicking and tent camping at Kanza View's primitive sites are this location's primary activities.
Facilities
Kanza View offers five undeveloped campsites most suitable for tent camping. The roofed day-use picnic pavilion has six picnic tables seating 40 people. The picnic pavillion is the only facility that may be reserved in advance. There is no electricity. A single water hydrant for shared use is located near the pavillion. Bathroom facilities are masonary vault toilets.
Natural Features
The park sits on top of a hill adjacent to the lake offering breathtaking lake views. Although the park has many open grassy areas interspersed with large Cottonwood and Oak trees, access to the lake is limited due to the steep, rocky terrain.
Nearby Attractions
Multiple developed campgrounds surround Council Grove Lake in the near vicinity. The town of Council Grove affords an array of historic sites and the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is 18 miles south on Highway 177.
What the agency tells you
Use of the picnic pavillion is limited to day-use (6 a.m. to 10 p.m.).
Capacity of the picnic pavillion is limited to 40 people.
Parking at the pavillion is limited to 10 vehicles, but a parking area is located nearby.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 4 · 4 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Bathroom facilities are masonary vault toilets. Natural Features The park sits on top of a hill…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…There is no electricity. A single water hydrant for shared use is located near the pavillion.…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Historic site
7 of 10 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:45 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $12 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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 16:45 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
5 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 5 mapped sitesAll 5 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 4 of the 5 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| KV | 01 | tent only nonelectric | 518 ft | 122 ft | $12 | |
| KV | 02 | tent only nonelectric | 214 ft | 132 ft | $12 | |
| KV | 03 | tent only nonelectric | 108 ft | 130 ft | $12 | |
| KV | 04 | tent only nonelectric | 108 ft | 132 ft | $12 | |
| KV | Kanza Day Use Shelter | day use | yes | 214 ft | 158 ft | $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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Kit Carson0.6 mi
Richey Cove1.1 mi
Neosho Park1.3 miNorth Richey Cove1.5 mi
Santa Fe Trail1.8 mi
Canning Creek2.5 mi1 mile north of Council Grove, Kansas on Highway 177. Then west 200 yards on Lake Road (goes across dam).
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Council Grove, KS
Typical weather
Typical October night 45°F, day 69°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 20°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
Who answers for this land
Kanza View 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 →