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Big Lake State Park & Lone Peak Inaugural Camping

Big Lake State Park is in Holt County, Missouri. We stayed here two nights on December 18 and 19, 2024, as our inaugural camping trip in our new Lone Peak Camper. We were the only campers there and for good reason! Because I wanted to time seeing the migrating birds at Loess Bluff just right, we ended up at this nearby campground testing out our new diesel heater and camper in extreme weather. It was all worth it as during the day of December 19 it warmed up to about 55 degrees and was sunny during the day, encouraging the eagles to leave their nests and to be very active. The day before and the day after were not such good days, so the timing was right.

Kyle at Lone Peak in one of his videos put down "concrete princess" campers, but I thought it was funny. Here we are being a concrete princes in his Lone Peak creation and I can only imagine him rolling his eyes, but until we can afford a portable power source, we will need to park where there is shore power to run our diesel heater.

I almost forgot to get the classic camper-open shot on location and was freezing when I took a moment to snap this photo.

This was our first trip with our new Wolfbox and I absolutely love it. I can get video snippets for my videos, as well as still photos, from the Wolfbox. Our first trip with the camper was intimidating, however. The wind gusts were high during our 7 hour drive, already pushing my small Nissan Frontier truck around, but with the extra added weight of the camper and the way the wind blew around the front corners, it was even more tense when I passed semi-truck after semi-truck.

This is a shot of us arrive just after dark the first night, although it says 5:23 p.m. which is not all that late. December 20 is the Winter solstice which marks the shortest daylight day of the year. Each day after that it will gain about one minute of daylight a day and I am always happy to be on the upswing on daylight hours.

We toasted our first night in the camper with hot chocolate and Bailey's toddies.

Here you see we were starting out the night at 30 degrees (below 32 degree freezing mark), with a feels like temperature of 22 degrees. It was difficult to even be outside. Hubby did brave the cold and boiled some water and made some noodles and meat for dinner while he was setting up the diesel heater.

The night was a rough one as the diesel heater tube kept falling apart and we were heating the great outdoors. I do get frustrated at hubby for not listening to me, but I have to routinely play along and let him learn the hard way. I have to suffer along when I know I could jump in and make things better. He would not cut the tube shorter until the next morning when we took time to play with it and make it better in preparation for the second night. (On the third night camping I discovered he still had not cut it short enough.) It is common sense to me that the tube cannot have any bends in it. We also cut a slit in the end of the tube so it could be folded over itself to be made smaller to be shoved into the diesel heater port. At least that way we could see from the inside that this part of the tube was still intact. Also, I finally got him to use a metal clamp to join the two tubes, as previously he insisted on only using duct tape. Duct tape does not really fix everything.

In the morning after we shut down and I was warming up the truck, the foggy mist in the distance was a lovely scene.

Then we took a tour around the camping area. The construction crew showed up early in the morning and made a lot of noise. I believe this is a primitive camping spot along the lake. There were several of them.

To the left are the primitive spots and to the right are the electric spots. We were the only campers.

Then we drove around and explored the rest of the park.

 

There is a fun scout area that is on a peninsula.

As we left, I spiked an Eagles next across the field (just above this sign in the photo).

Just as I spied it, an eagle flew out of the nest, but one remained. It was fun to get to see the first eagle as that is what I came here to do.

After visiting Loess Bluff and having an enjoyable day, we went back to the highway where there is a motel, gas station, and restaurant. They also had showers and we took our first public showers at a gas station. Then we ate at the restaurant and the food and service were good. We were clean and happy and filled up in more ways than one.

As we returned to camp, we witnessed a beautiful sunset.

The sun was setting over the lake and there were Christmas lights on the homes or buildings across the lake which was fun.

The second night turned out to be all about the high winds of about 37 miles per hour all night. I was afraid the entire truck was going to tip over on its side with us up top, but stayed brave sleeping in the tent rather than sleeping in the truck cab. Here at 6:38 p.m., you can see it was 39 degrees, with a feels like of 28 degrees, and gusts of wind at 37 miles per hour. It was a true test on the new camper and we survived!

Here it is 8:57 p.m. and you can see the temps were dropping fast and it was 27 degrees, with a feels like of 13 degrees, and gusts of wind at 33 miles per hour.

Here it is 10:49 p.m. and you can see the temp was 25 degrees, with a feels like of 11 degrees, and gusts of wind at 29 miles per hour.

Here it is 2 a.m. and you can see the temp was 23 degrees, with a feels like of 8 degrees, and gusts of wind at 29 miles per hour.

Finally, at 5:13 a.m. you can see the temp was 17 degrees, with a feels like of 2 degrees, and gusts of wind at 24 miles per hour. It was brutally cold! The strap on the back of the camper, that is used to close it, was flapping and hitting the top of the tent all night. It seemed to be frozen on top and we could not get the camper closed. We kept jumping back into the cab of the truck to warm up and then going out in the cold to try again, before returning to the cab of the truck again. Finally we risked pulling on the fabric (which is not recommended) and was able to get the tent closed up.

There was no sense in us sitting in a cold tent when we were wide awake, so even though sunrise was not for a while yet, we left in the dark towards our first location for the day.