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Listen to our full interview with Brian from Woodbury County Conservation as he discusses Snyder’s Bend Campground here:
Videos by Outdoors with Bear Grylls
Snyder Bend Campground Iowa
Camp Iowa: We are talking with Brian from Woodbury County Conservation about Snyder’s Bend Campground. How are you doing today, Brian?
Brian: Very good.
Camp Iowa: Perfect. You certainly run the Snyder’s Bend Park, and how long has the park been there?
Brian: Our lake was formed in the early ’60s. The park was kind of formed right after that lake showed up from the Missouri River. It’s an oxbow lake.
Camp Iowa: Great, so it’s been around.
Brian: Yep.
Camp Iowa: What are the most popular activities at Snyder’s Bend?
Brian: Fishing is one of our biggest ones. We have a handicap accessible trail and handicap accessible fishing access with that trail, handicap dock. It draws quite a few people down. We have a campground, of course, with cabins. Four luxury cabins available. We have a refuge down here and an overlook deck that you can go out and watch the ducks and geese come in, in the spring and in the fall. We have a nice spot to watch the birds migrate through.
Camp Iowa: Absolutely. Where is Snyder’s Bend located?
Brian: It is on I-29 at the Salix exit, just south of Sioux City. If you take the Salix exit, take a right, and continue down the road, you’ll hit one curve and then you’ll curve back. Just past Bigelow Park Road, there will be a sign on both sides of the road that says Snyder Bend Park and you take a left and you continue on down the long paved road down there to our park.
Camp Iowa: What are some of the other attractions in the area other than the park?
Brian: Like I said, same as the Bigelow Park, we have some wildlife areas that attract people for hunting and just hiking and stuff like that. Morel mushrooms are good as well, people like to go out there and hunt those. Just different sightseeing opportunities like that, going out and looking for wildlife, stuff like that.
Camp Iowa: At the campground at Snyder’s Bend, do you guys sell ice or food, firewood, anything like that?
Brian: We do have a host here that sells firewood for the park; that’s available. We can sell fishing or hunting licenses. Between Snyder Bend and Brown’s Lake we have a machine that would sell hunting and fishing licenses. That’s about it for our vending stuff. We have [inaudible 00:03:24], stuff like that, but other than that, no.
Camp Iowa: That’s really cool that you’re able to get the hunting and fishing licenses at the park. In terms of the camping, do you have any group sites available?
Brian: We do not have any group sites, but there is one section of the park that’s very popular along the lake. There’s five spots that are together that a lot of groups will use when they have a bigger group, and it’s usually our first ones that are taken for the weekend.
Camp Iowa: With the campground, are the sites secluded, are they more open?
Brian: They’re pretty open and they have a lot of room in between each campsite area. A lot of people do come down here because of the room that we have in between different camping paths, and there’s a variety of different areas, along the lake or more towards our playground or more towards an open field. Everybody has their favorite spot, they come down here, and we kind of see trends that way.
Camp Iowa: Since you’re in the park quite often, if you could spend an hour in the Snyder’s Bend Park, what would you do?
Brian: It would probably be either fishing or walking our trail along the lake there, and going down to our observation deck. It’s really neat to see all the waterfowl. There’s usually hundreds of thousands of geese and ducks that migrate through the area. It’s kind of neat to see them come through.
Camp Iowa: Yeah, absolutely. Along those same lines, if you were just spending one night in the campground, which campsite would you choose and why?
Brian: I like Campsite 22. It’s on a hill; it’s in the back, along the lake, and you get a good overview of the lake, and you’re very secluded on top of that spot. Like I said, you get plenty of room and there isn’t hardly any neighbors that are really close to you.
Camp Iowa: Perfect. We’ll have to check that one out the next time we’re there.
Brian: Yep.
Camp Iowa: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. We really appreciate it.
Brian: Yep, no problem.
