Well when you think about it if you don't need - if you have
solar and everything you don't need power, you could live here
for $150 a month during the time you're open.
Yeah. Yeah. . Yup.
My name is Barbara. This is my husband Lucas. We are the camp
hosts at Arkalon Park in Liberal Kansas.
That's where I am - Liberal Kansas. Who knew I would find
love in a place like this, but I love this campground! It was not
very easy to find, but I'm gonna give you the info you need at
the end. And as far as the rest of it goes, I'm just gonna let
Barb and Luke tell you all about it.
We love it here.
This is actually owned by the city of Liberal. It was donated
to Parks and Rec. The reason why they call this Arkalon Park,
there used to be a town over here called Arkalon. The
railroad train track where you come in, up on the hill, that
used to, there used to be a switch back there. And the train
used to run back, back three mile back behind us. They had a
big flood back in 19- 1911, I think. The train bridge got
washed out. I think they built this bridge back in the 30s. I
It's called the Mighty Samson up the Cimarron.
That's actually a freestanding bridge. The concrete pads are
like 60 foot in the ground.
Right now it's kind of brown because we're just coming into
summer but it's a beautiful place to be in the midst of
summer, even when it's hot. And we water night and day out here
because we don't get a lot of rain, a lot of moisture in
summer or winter. But it gets really really pretty. And a lot
of grass. It's all the trees are green and budded out. The grass
is beautiful. It's just a quiet, nice, comfortable place to be.
A lot of wildlife. Deer. You can see the turkey come through here
of a morning and evening. A whole bunch of them usually.
Every day?
About every day. Depends on how many people we have in the park.
Sometimes they'll skirt around because, you know, they're a
little shy. But if it's pretty quiet, they'll show up in the
mornings and the evenings.
And we got lots of nature trails here too, that you can go walk.
The river walk - there ain't much water, no river
anymore. It kind of dried up with the sands of time. There's
about seven different trails out in the back, just where you can
split off and see the different parts of the landscape. We've
got a bird sanctuary down here too.
Yeah. True.
for bird watchers and stuff.
How many spots do you have here?
We have 13 I believe camping spots and an undetermined amount of
tent spots, which people can park on even if they're not in
tents, as long as they don't want or need any electricity or
water.
So what they're calling a tent site is basically what some
other campgrounds would call rough camping or just a non
electric site. You know, you don't need hookups but you don't
have to be in a tent. I'm not in a tent.
We have free firewood. Yeah, that doesn't happen a lot. I
know. People have been surprised
Nice bath house. Clean, good hot water. We clean them every day,
sometimes two or three times a day.
I'm gonna interject here about the showers. They are
beautifully hot with good strong pressure, but they stay on for
only four seconds. Like literally, I counted: four
seconds. It's not a huge problem. You just have to keep
pushing the button, you know and every time you push it, it goes
for four seconds. You can get plenty clean and warm with the
showers but it's just a little weird. Hey, it's free.
We got a nice pavilion for like recreational gatherings
We have a nice play area for kids and during the summer,
people will bring their kids out, even during the weekdays
and but mostly on the weekends.
As soon as I saw this place I thought what a perfect place for
like a Skoolie family!
kids love Come out here and play.
I have to say something about these, too: tornado shelters.
Everyone I talked to who lives here tells me that they've never
even seen a tornado. You know, Kansas - I actually looked it up
and Kansas is only number 13 on the tornado prone states list
which was a surprise to me I guess because of Wizard of Oz.
So far this year, Alabama and Georgia have been the hardest
hit. Texas gets a lot of twisters too. But I think being
down here in the river bottom it seems like that would make this
park a pretty unlikely target but Barbara says they have the
they have the shelters, mainly because visitors want them
because they've seen the Wizard of Oz too.
Is there a limit to how long someone can stay?
No, not really. We've we've had people stay all summer long. So
- And were upset when they had to leave...
Yeah.
... When we closed last winter.
we're trying to talk them into opening it up year round.
Their main concern right now is figuring out the water. Because
they don't want it freezing up during the winter and people
being stranded down here. If If and when it ever snows here
again. You know, it's quite a climb to get out of here. And
they, they were just afraid that people couldn't come and go, as
they needed. And as well as the water.
Right now the park is open from April 1 to October 15.
If they were open year round, would you just live here year
round?
Absolutely. Absolutely. I love it here. You get to meet people
from all over the United States.
Yeah. We get a lot of travelers, overnight travelers. We've had
some, we've had four or five different couples from Canada.
This year, so far, we've had more from Canada than we had all
last of year. It's really been awesome to meet the people. A
lot of them will say, next time we go on a trip we'll try to
plan to come through here again, you know, looking forward to
some of them that we met last year.
We open our gates at seven o'clock of a morning, and we
close it, lock the gates at 10 o'clock at night. But if you
need out, you can let us know. And we will go open the gates.
We can make arrangements for people who like to work and stay
out here. And if you're, if you need to go to work or come in
after 10, we work with you and try to make, make arrangements
for you to come and go as you need.
Well we had some last year that were building some kind of a
building and they were, they came out and stayed most of the
summer with us.
They was building a biodiesel plant. Over off of Meade Lake Road.
Speaking of plants, what's that plant that's over there?
That is a natural gas plant.
It looks like the Emerald City.
It does! I like to think of that when we come in, especially at
night, when it's all lit up back there.
Which is especially interesting because Dorothy's house is right
up the road here in Liberal.
There are several ponds up there. Two main ones. This year,
we did the deck on the first pond and it's beautiful. And
they did a great job, the city workers. We went out on it the
other night and just stood there and looked at the ponds and it
was really neat. There was a show On Golden Pond?
That's kind of what it reminds me of.
That's kind of what it looked like. Sitting there when the sun
was going down, the glistening of the sunset on the water, and
the ducks in the back. The only thing we were didn't have was
the loons.
Okay, now here's the part you've been waiting for. How much does
it cost?
We charge $15 a night for 30 amp and $20 a night for 50 amp. Tent
sites is $5 a night.
Remember, a tent site just means you don't need hookups. It
doesn't mean you're a tent. You can put a vehicle there like I
did. And it's five bucks.
Well, when you think about it if you don't need, if you have
solar and everything, you don't need power, you could live here
for $150 a month for the time you're open.
Yup. Yeah. Yeah.
There isn't any kind of a discount for staying the whole
season but - it's five bucks a day. Do you really need a
discount? And even if you need hookups, 15 bucks a day. What's
that? 450 bucks a month? That - that is reasonable.
I'd love to do this forever. I mean it's, it's -
As long as they'll keep us.
Yeah. Long as they want us here, we'll be here, for sure. I feel
like this is my destiny. I love - I love doing this, you know?
She's got the gift of gab.
I do.
It makes it easier for her.
Beautiful, calming, green...
This is what we call our little oasis in the desert. You come
off a big sandy hill, down - down into the river bottom. And
there's beautiful green trees down in there in summer time.
It's our oasis for sure.
Yeah.
It's my Oasis, too. Anytime I come through Kansas now I'm
going to be staying at Arkalon campground. I don't even want to
leave but I have to leave. If you do decide you want to come
here, don't use Google Maps. Don't use Apple Maps. It's all
going to steer you wrong. I'm going to put the directions that
worked for me in the description along with a link you can use to
reserve your spot at Arkalon online. I know Barb and Luke are
gonna make you feel right at home when you get here.
Meanwhile, the trek continues for me. I'm still a long way
from Boston. I'm going to keep looking for more cool places as
I go across the country. Places just like this. Or like this.
Have you seen this one? I'm gonna go watch it again. See you
over there.