Kalona City Park Campground

Jump to:
Our Review – Photo Gallery

We camped at two different sites in the Kalona City Park Campground, originally we were going to be in the area for three weeks but decided to stay an extra ten days when we found out that the Kalona Days celebration was the weekend after we were originally planning to leave. Gesen spent over fourteen years of her childhood living in Kalona and still has a lot of friends and relatives in the area.

In the past, we have mooch docked at a relatives property but we wanted to run both ACs in the Iowa heat (90º plus with high humidity) and felt 50 amp service was well worth the campground fees of $20/night. The boys were happy with our decision because we could walk to the fun playgrounds. There was also an area of dirt piles which they had so much fun climbing and digging in.

Kalona Day’s was a blast! Both boys loved getting to ride the ponies from Windy Acres Stables and were total naturals, even the owners kept commenting about how great they were. They also had a lot of fun in the corn bin and Keahi enjoyed the barrel train rides. The parade was not as exciting float wise as Gesen remembered as a child, there were no horses or mini cars, but the candy overload stayed true to form. Keahi and Gesen ended up walking to a section of the street where there were no other kids and the bag got so full of candy that Keahi could barely carry it! Keahi loved seeing all of the tractors and trucks drive by.

But did She LIKE it?

Absolutely. I am so grateful we changed our travel plans to stay through Kalona Days, it was extra special to get to share such a fun childhood memory with my boys. We got to celebrate Isaiah’s first birthday with family and friends and we got to have a very enjoyable time in the town where I spent most of my childhood.

But did He LIKE it?

Yes, but there were definitely negatives which were outweighed by all the positives during our stay. The campground is next to the Kalona Sales Barn, which meant that we constantly had to deal with flies. But being closer to town meant that we were able to take the bikes when we needed to run into town for something. My cell service was pretty much non-existent, but having Starlink made up for this one rather easily! I was grateful for the time that we got to spend with friends and Gesen’s family during our time. Plus, being in the area for Isaiah’s first birthday made it extra special. The best part was seeing how much joy this campground brought to both the boys and Gesen. The campground is at the city park, which meant lots of playgrounds where the boys could play all the time.

Activities we enjoyed outside the park:

Dinner out at Kalona Brewing Company and Tuscan Moon – fun fact, Gesen’s first official job was at Tuscan Moon as a busser when she was in high school and she babysat for the owners of KBC.
Kalona Farmers Market – This was a very unusual farmers market experience, instead of the vendors being together in the street, they were all spread out along the sidewalks. It was fun to walk around the town looking at what the different vendors had to offer and also stepping inside some of the shops along the route. We ended up buying some fresh spinach and Amish noodles.
Community event: Kalona Days – very fun family oriented festival with live music, pony rides and a parade.
Goat and Sheep Auction at the Kalona Sales Barn – Keahi was enthralled getting to see so many sheep and goats and a couple of cows. He probably would have been happy hanging out around the animals all day.
Other local stores we enjoyed visiting: Kalona Creamery, Stringtown Grocery and Central Discount

Our Review:

Amenities We Used: