Buck Creek (Rathbun Lake)
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $22–$25Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 42All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Buck Creek Campground is located on beautiful Rathbun Lake, just 9 miles northwest of Centerville, Iowa. Camping, boating, swimming, fishing, and picnicking are popular activities at this lakefront campground. Keep reading
Recreation
The 11,000-acre lake provides a variety of fishing opportunities for any angler. Crappie, channel catfish, walleye, and largemouth bass are most common. Although power boating is also popular, the prevailing winds on Rathbun Lake, also known as Iowa's Ocean, make it one of the best sailing lakes in Iowa.
Facilities
This campground offers 42 sites with electric hookups. Amenities include flush and pit toilets, showers, drinking water, a dump station, boat ramp and playground. A marina and bait shop are located nearby.
Natural Features
Rathbun Lake is situated in the gently rolling hills of the Chariton River Valley in southeast Iowa. The campground consists of open grassy areas dotted with trees. Bald eagles, white-tailed deer, Canada geese, wild turkey, and other wildlife can be found at Rathbun Lake. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (641) 647-2464.
Nearby Attractions
The Rathbun Fish Hatchery is located near the main dam, and offers self-guided tours Monday through Friday year-round. Hundreds of thousands of catfish and walleye are produced here each year. Southern Iowa's only Off Highway Vehicle Park is nearby. It is located on the south bank of the South Fork Chariton River and encompasses nearly 125 acres of an abandoned rock quarry.
What the agency tells you
14 Day Policy on Rathbun Lake: Campers are only allowed to camp at the same camping loop a maximum of 14 nights within a 30 night period. After the 14th night, they will be required to move (physically move the camping unit) to a different camping loop, which can be in the same campground.
ALL campsites are 100% Reservable. Campsite ust be paid for prior to setting up a camping unit.
Swimming beach is located within the park, but not in the campground loops
Everything else this campground posts · 4
For more information, visit the Rathbun Lake website http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/Locations/District-Lakes/Rathbun-Lake/
Purchase firewood from a local source.
If you must bring your own firewood, don't leave any firewood behind at your campsite.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 42
- Hookups
- 42 electric
- Longest rig
- 96 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…hookups. Amenities include flush and pit toilets, showers, drinking water, a dump station, boat ramp…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Amenities include flush and pit toilets, showers, drinking water, a dump station, boat ramp and playground.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…include flush and pit toilets, showers, drinking water, a dump station, boat ramp and playground. A marina…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Coast
- Biking
- Canoeing
- Fish Hatchery
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Picnicking
- Sailing
- Swimming
- Water access
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 4th darkest of 32 in IA
- Bortle 4
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $22–$25 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
42 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 42 mapped sitesAll 42 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 42 of the 42 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| LOOP A | A01 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 72 ft | 480 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A02 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 66 ft | 421 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A03 | standard electric | 57 ft | 30 amp | 66 ft | 362 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A04 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 80 ft | 305 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A05 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 79 ft | 277 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A06 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 79 ft | 243 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A07 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | 87 ft | 197 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A08 | standard electric | 58 ft | 30 amp | 87 ft | 165 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A09 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 73 ft | 167 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A10 | standard electric | 51 ft | 30 amp | 66 ft | 205 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A11 | standard electric | 64 ft | 30 amp | 73 ft | 114 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A12 | standard electric | 69 ft | 30 amp | 66 ft | 160 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A13 | standard electric | 71 ft | 30 amp | 76 ft | 198 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A14 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | 89 ft | 163 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A15 | standard electric | 51 ft | 30 amp | 75 ft | 275 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A16 | standard electric | 38 ft | 30 amp | 75 ft | 217 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A17 | standard electric | 43 ft | 30 amp | 77 ft | 300 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A18 | standard electric | 51 ft | 30 amp | 67 ft | 293 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A19 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | 67 ft | 259 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A20 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 285 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A21 | standard electric | 68 ft | 30 amp | 70 ft | 304 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A22 | standard electric | 49 ft | 30 amp | 80 ft | 363 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A23 | standard electric | 58 ft | 30 amp | 80 ft | 396 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP A | A24 | standard electric | 64 ft | 30 amp | 81 ft | 453 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP B | B01 | standard electric | 65 ft | 30 amp | 56 ft | 513 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP B | B02 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 56 ft | 467 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP B | B03 | standard electric | 94 ft | 50 amp | 94 ft | 382 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP B | B04 | standard electric | 78 ft | 30 amp | 216 ft | 173 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP B | B05 | standard electric | 76 ft | 30 amp | 94 ft | 310 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP B | B06 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | 416 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP B | B07 | standard electric | 52 ft | 30 amp | 63 ft | 478 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP B | B08 | standard electric | 62 ft | 30 amp | 90 ft | 563 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP F | F01 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | 100 ft | 373 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP F | F02 | standard electric | 65 ft | 30 amp | 62 ft | 277 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP F | F03 | standard electric | 77 ft | 30 amp | 62 ft | 259 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP F | F04 | standard electric | 96 ft | 30 amp | 96 ft | 205 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP F | F05 | standard electric | 44 ft | 30 amp | 90 ft | 195 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP F | F06 | standard electric | 72 ft | 30 amp | 90 ft | 241 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP F | F07 | standard electric | 63 ft | 30 amp | 58 ft | 165 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP F | F08 | standard electric | 75 ft | 30 amp | 58 ft | 190 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP F | F09 | standard electric | 62 ft | 30 amp | 103 ft | 258 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
| LOOP F | F10 | standard electric | 68 ft | 50 amp | 99 ft | 326 ftRathbun Lake | $22–$25 |
25 of 42 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Prairie Ridge (Rathbun Lake)1.4 mi
Island View (Rathbun Lake)3.4 mi
Bridgeview (Rathbun Lake)8.4 mi
Ivans35 mi
Howell Station35 mi
Whitebreast Camp36 miFrom Centerville, IA, travel 5 miles north on HWY 5 to HWY J-29, then 4 miles northwest to HWY J5T. Travel 2 miles north and follow signs to campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Moravia, IA
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 64°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 12°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Buck Creek (Rathbun Lake) is in Iowa’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Zach Nunn (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →