Fall, winter a ‘second season’ at lake

TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Often full to overflowing during the summer, there is currently plenty of RV camping space available at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park. Both RV slots and the lake’s seven furnished, heated cabins are available to patrons at discounted prices through late fall and winter.

As the November sunset moves farther south and temperatures drop, most camping and boating enthusiasts, including those who patronize Mozingo Lake Recreation Park, begin garaging their RVs and heading indoors.

Most but not all.

The construction in recent years of heated cabins at the 3,000-acre city-owned lake and park has led to what amounts to a second season at Mozingo, which is attracting hunters, hikers, holiday vacationers, and those who simply enjoy the rugged, sparse beauty of north Missouri in late fall and early winter.

To accommodate such hardy folk, Assistant City Manager Ryan Hyland, the administrator assigned overall responsibility for Mozingo operations, said the park is offering discounts designed to make camping at the lake more attractive once cool — and even cold — weather arrives.

In addition to decreased user fees charged for cabins and RV spots, Heiland said, another autumn/winter draw is simple availability, especially with regard to cabins, whose growing popularity with vacationers makes reservations hard to come by during the peak season.

“It’s not as busy as during the summer months,” Heiland said, “We are getting a lot of hunters who come in and use the cabins during the week, and people are starting to use them during the holidays — Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Still, the cabins are a lot more available during the off-season.”

Renting one of the furnished Mozingo cabins, even when it’s cold out, isn’t exactly roughing it, since the structures are equipped with both furnaces and fireplaces with wood available for purchase at the park’s maintenance facility.

As far as rental prices go, Heiland said, cabin renters save about 20 percent between Dec. 1 and March 31 over peak-season prices.

Depending on the size of the lodge, discounted winter fees range from $65 to $128 a night, Sunday through Thursday, for one of seven cabins designed to accommodate groups of between four and 12 people. Winter weekend and holiday rates range between $80 and $145.

Those prices compare to warm-weather rentals priced at $88 to $154 Sunday through Thursday and $110 to $176 on weekends and holidays.

Heiland said the discounted fees, along with the availability of shotgun and bow hunting in the largely undeveloped north end of the park, are proving increasingly popular with professional guides, who rent cabins for extended periods in order to use them as a base camp for clients.

“There is kind of a trend with guides who will book the cabins for a week or two at a time,” he said. “Those groups don’t necessarily hunt at Mozingo, but they use it as kind of a base while going to other areas to hunt.”

Heiland said one such guide has already booked five of the lake’s seven cabins for the entire month of February.

In addition to cabin fees, the city also discounts RV site rentals during an off-season that began Nov. 1

Daily tent-camping fees remain the same during the late fall and winter at $10.

While some campers do indeed set up their RVs in the park during the late fall, Heiland said vacancies are currently plentiful. He added that such vehicles virtually disappear at Mozingo once winter truly arrives — which doesn’t mean those willing to brave the cold wouldn’t be welcome.

“(Winter) really kind of puts an end to the RVs,” he said. “But if they want to come and stay out there we’ll plow them out if it snows.”