Outlet Channel
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:22 UTC
- A night
- $10–$16Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 14All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Outlet Channel sits below the Elk City Dam and offers a quiet setting along the Elk River. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishing, Biking, Hiking, Basketball, Sand Volleyball court.
Facilities
Outlet channel has a group shelter and located near the mountain bike trails and the Elk River Hiking trail.
Natural Features
Located below the Table Mound with has natural rock formations.
Nearby Attractions
City of Independence is located 5 miles SE of park. Located near the Elk River Hiking Trail, for more information visit www.kansastrailscouncil.org.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 14
- Hookups
- 7 electric, 7 water
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Backpacking
- Biking
- Birding
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Mountain biking
- Picnicking
23 of 29 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:22 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $10–$16 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 15:22 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
15 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 15 mapped sitesAll 15 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 15 of the 15 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 14 of the 15 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| 1 | standard nonelectric | 72 ft | 172 ftElk River | 610 ft | $10 | |
| 10 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 79 ft | 1,401 ft | $10 | |
| 11 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 79 ft | 1,369 ft | $10 | |
| 12 | standard electric | 50 amp | 63 ft | 110 ft | 1,277 ft | $16 |
| 13 | standard electric | 50 amp | 63 ft | 133 ft | 1,225 ft | $16 |
| 14 | standard electric | 50 amp | 63 ft | 159 ft | 1,172 ft | $16 |
| 15 | standard electric | 50 amp | 71 ft | 211 ft | 1,110 ft | $16 |
| 2 | standard nonelectric | 72 ft | 181 ftElk River | 538 ft | $10 | |
| 3 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 233 ftElk River | 469 ft | $10 | |
| 4 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 307 ftElk River | 468 ft | $10 | |
| 6 | standard electric | 50 amp | 70 ft | 123 ftElk River | 1,110 ft | $16 |
| 7 | standard electric | 50 amp | 60 ft | 117 ftElk River | 1,179 ft | $16 |
| 8 | standard electric | 50 amp | 60 ft | 121 ftElk River | 1,239 ft | $16 |
| 9 | standard nonelectric | 127 ft | 136 ftElk River | 1,365 ft | $10 | |
| Outlet Channel Shelter | day use | 20 amp | 1406 ft | 500 ft | 105 ft |
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
Card Creek4.1 mi
Cherryvale Park18 mi
Downstream Point18 mi
Mound Valley18 mi
Timber Hill Park19 mi
Washington Cove27 miLocated approximately 5 miles NW of Independence, KS.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Independence, KS
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 72°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
Who answers for this land
Outlet Channel 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 →