Blue Camp Trail is a 3.7 mile moderately trafficked loop trail located near Hillsdale, Kansas that features a lake and is rated as moderate. The trail offers a number of activity options and is accessible year-round. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash.
While I definitely got a good workout, the trail often times was very difficult to follow. Most of the time I was on blue, but sometimes white or red. I had to rely on the map to keep me in the right direction.
Well marked trail. Unfortunately massive trail damage due to heavy horseback traffic + wet conditions. Heavy tick pressure. Great summer trail run if you're glutton for punishment, BUT the sights are minimal and with the abuse this trail has seen - there are better options in the region. If you must try, save it for fall or winter.
Frequent commercial trail riding on this trail. When we walked it there had been some rain and the trail was severely beat up, slick, water filled hoof holes, too much poison ivy on sides of the trail so we turned around in a half mile. Might try later when it isn’t muddy.
Well marked with nice views of the lake. But definitely a horse trail. It was very difficult to traverse. We didn’t even last a mile before we stopped.
I had stayed away from the trails in Hillsdale since I had always read they were not very good but today I decided that since it was close to the house I would give it a go and I'm glad I did. The trail follows along the lake for a while which with most of the leaves on the trees gives you some pretty good views. The trail is also used by horses which makes it well defined and some of the headaches that come with horses using a trail, most notably poop and spots where the horse's shoe sunk into the mud. For the most part it was very manageable. Other than that the trial is fairly easy to follow as it's well marked and a blue tag was never too far away. The yellow markers make it a tad bit confusing but nothing too bad. Other than the lake there are some other notable sites. The two wrecked cars was a highlight to me since there is a tree growing out of the Volkswagon Bug. The interesting part is seeing how the tree gripped the tree. I'm sure there's also some story on how the cars got there too which might be interesting. There are bullet holes in them as well but I'm not sure if that happening on their way to crashing or after the fact. Beyond the cars, you do cross a creek a couple of times which also has some nice rock shelves to them. Overall quite a bit to see, more so than I expected in Kansas. I will also say the record I was following is not entirely accurate as the Blue loop continues on for another 4 miles. This recording is basically the NE loop for the Blue and there is another Loop to the West. My recording has the extra steps since my phone decided to loose all it's power at once so I started to rely on the blue markers and didn't realize we had veered off the recording which added another 1 or so to my recording.
Did this trail with a fresh layer of snow, was an amazing day hike and quite the butt kicker. Had an amazing day, only issue we had was when the trail crosses Orleans road, the blue markers continue south without letting you know that it also goes north and we went just over a mile before I pulled out alltrails and figured we were off a little.
The only thing hard about this Trail, is trying to stay on it. I'm guessing you follow the blue markers, but they cross a bunch of yellow markers. It seems to be a little confusing. But as far as the trail, it's well-defined. The weeds are kind of tall, 3 to 4 feet in some spots, but the trail is still very visible. Nice area. Couple a really nice views by Hillsdale Lake. I'm interested to walk this Trail in the winter, so we will definitely be back. Also, there is a self paid $5 charge to park in their parking lot. There's a little stand to the right, before you come into the parking lot, that you pay $5 for a permit you stick on your windshield. So if you're going to park there, bring five bucks cash and be prepared for that. This is also very much used as a horse trail, as there are horse stables nearby, so be prepared for lots of horse poop and some deep ruts if it's muddy.