Chase State Fishing Lake, Cottonwood Falls

This place is gorgeous and tranquil. There are several man-made jetties for water access, unused one to set up my tent on. I would not recommend doing this as the jerries are quite narrow and sides are steep and rocky. I loved camping on it though! The place is beautiful offering fishing, boating, camping, hiking, and sky gazing. The sky. Wow. It's easy to forget how beautiful our sky is when we live around so much light pollution. This camp site is just out of major light pollution so I was able to clearly see our arm of the Milky Way, truly spectacular. If you have never seen the Milky Way or didn't even know you could view it with your naked eye, I would highly recommend Googling Light Pollution Map and head to the dark areas and look up. Will definitely return.

Great little Kansas escape. Short hike to a decent sized tiered waterfall. It had just rained the morning of our 1st visit which added to flow of the falls.. Very peaceful spot to hang out and reflect.

If you’re wanting to hike, drive about 0.3 miles up the rock road and park along the tree line where the reservoir starts. Go under the car blockade and walk along the path that crosses the reservoir edge. It’s well marked and very safe for kids of any age to walk by themselves. You could either turn right to go down to a beach area or go left to walk down to a small waterfall area. If you go to the falls, try to time if after a storm so it’s more than a trickle. Even if you don’t, though, there will be some small water areas that make it the perfect place to hunt for turtles, small snakes, and crayfish! It’s not too steep or hard, so it’s a good hike for any age. Great place to take the kids for a day outside! There’s fishing, hiking, a small waterfall that’s easily accessible, small beach areas for skipping rocks and finding shells, and endless wildlife to find. We’ve found turtles, crayfish, snakes, and tons of cool butterflies, dragonflies, and dandelions as big as our hands.

So I'm of the opinion that KS state fishing lakes are the ultimate for car campers/boondockers like myself. Chase was kind of underwhelming for me. You only get ground access on one side and the fishing was meh. Not a bad spot by any means but this is in the B tier of state fishing lakes. You'll see in the photo they were doing a controlled burn, doesn't affect my star level, they were quick and effective.

I had a ball here. Fishing was good. Caught large mouth bass, walleye, small mouth bass and one croppy. Not a lot of people. Camping was pleasant especially cause I stayed on a 65 deg night in July. Boat ramp and dock situated very nice. The road to the lake was a little rough but I wasn't in a hurry and hopefully it keeps some people away. I didnt get a chance to hike to the water fall but I will be back to do that.