Sand Hills State Park

Sand Hills State Park. Oh dear. What to say. It's one of the newest Kansas state parks. They've planted trees but they are still tiny. No shade anywhere. The park is a big circle arranged around a man-made pond, or perhaps an old oxbow. I anticipate a lot of flying insects tonight. No swimming. No privacy. I can see the entire park and see each and every site. The hookups are fine. Unfortunately my site #44 is the furthest from the shower house. I don't mind the walk but I will get blasted by the sun. And everyone here will see my progress. There is a ditch with stagnant water on the other side of my site. It's hard to know why the park is here. There seems to be no relationship to sand hills, although I can see a few in the distance outside the park. There are a number of livestock pens so they must be thinking of visitors and displayers at the Kansas State Fair, which is held nearby. There are no trails adjacent to the campground. I don't know where horses would go, for equestrian campers. Everything is white gravel, bare, just exposed bright space. AND there is a white line on the drive which indicates "ATV lane." Oh my god. Luckily there are only a few people here. Imagine drunk ATV riders, or dumb little kids zamming around. I would have gone somewhere else but a quick check of RV parks nearby showed only one promising park but as the owners say on their website "we are new." Codeword: No trees. A photo of the campground confirmed it. So here I sit, sitting in an exposed, bleached lunar landscape of a park.