Kellen Ponderosa LLC - Swimming lake in Le Mars - 20386 7th Ave SE, USA

Always a fun place to go! Kids love rhe slides and floating tower dive. Perfect summer afternoons!

First time going! And even with the slide and high jump not being open, we had a blast! Can't wait to go again!

What a great time there. The beach is well maintained and the water is very clean.

This place is sooo much fun! My kids loved it!

We heard about the Ponderosa many times since it opened, but this particular day in June was our first visit. We have a family of 10 (8 kids ranging from age 6 to 16), but went with a group of 18 people total. We got good use out of the slides, and also the island in the middle (I'm not sure what the technical name for it is). I like that the island had three different levels that you could jump from. The sand and other areas were fairly clean that I saw. We really liked the fact that you can basically bring whatever water toys, tubes, etc. that you want. We also really appreciated the fact that we were able to bring in food and coolers. That can be a decision-maker when deciding where to take our family of 10 out somewhere for the day. Another good thing was that they have life jackets for for kids to use if they didn't bring one. Now, for the not so positives/recommendations... 1. There is a concrete slab on the west side of the pond. It goes out roughly 10 feet into the pond from the sand/water line. Our group sat not far from it, so we found ourselves near it a lot. And when I say "found", I mean toes were stubbed, etc. while walking or playing in the water. It's quite dangerous in my opinion. I'm really quite surprised it's even there. 2. There were no garbage cans except for outside when you are leaving (a dumpster in the parking lot). This was surprising, as they preach on Facebook about picking up your garbage. I can't imagine it would be that difficult to add some cardboard garbage containers around the place. 3. They only have a handful of picnic tables and lounge chairs. They're kind of sporadically placed around the place. It would be nice to add more, to accommodate more guests. Being all sand, it's hard to keep your belongings and food out of the sand. 4. I was really shocked when we were packing up to leave, that there was nowhere to rinse your feet off on the way out. Even public beaches and lakes normally have a shower-type setup on the way out. They did have a roughly 12 inch diameter bucket, that was about 6 inches tall, with what appeared to be water in it. Maybe to rinse your feet? There were no signs or anyone around to even ask. Not really sure, but by the time we were walking by it to leave, it was disgustingly brown...I wouldn't put mine or my kids' feet in it, and we didn't. 5. The bathrooms were closed when we left, and closed I'd say about 30 to 45 minutes (if not more) before the doors closed. We even asked about it, and the kid working just replied that they were closed already. Is it not some sort of requirement to have restrooms available to even be open to the public? Let me tell you, having 8 kids and being in the middle of nowhere, 40 miles from home, we were a bit annoyed that there were no restrooms open, especially after finding that there was also nowhere to rinse your feet. What it seemed to me is that they closed them early so they could get them clean for the night and not have to deal with it after closing time. 6. We had two kids slip and fall down the stairs on the island platform. There is no tread on the wooden stairs for some reason, and they get really slippery when wet. Nobody was seriously hurt, but it seems like another easy fix. All in all, we liked the place, and plan to be back for our second trip. I will say that, for the amount of money it costs to get into Kellen Ponderosa, I expect more quality. It's a really cool place, but needs a bit of work and upkeep.

Reasonably priced and a great time! We loved that we could bring floats, our own chairs, and food & drinks. Even when it seems like a lot of people are there you aren't on top of one another. Definitely plenty of room!

Loved it. At $10 a person can not beat the price. My kids had so much fun. If you take blow ups just know you probally wont go home with them but it was so worth it. Wish they opened earlier in the day like 11 or so but hey beggerz cant be choosers.

My favorite swimming spot in the siouxland area. It's always super clean and tidy. Water is amazing. The slides are so much fun. You can byob and bring your own food and cooler. I love it.