Bulger's Hollow Recreation Area
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $14From, per site
- Sites
- 241 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Bulger's Hollow Recreation Area is a hidden gem located on the Mississippi River. Whether you like camping, fishing, boating, or just taking in nature, Bulger's Hollow Recreation Area is the perfect place. Keep reading
Recreation
If you are looking for a few nights of good old fashioned camping, then Bulger’s Hollow Recreation Area is your stop. With 23 non-reservable campsites, 17 RV sites and 9 tent camping sites, this park is small in size but offers one of the best views of the Mississippi. This campground offers primitive amenities, such as drinking water, vault toilets, and a dump station. As a reminder, campers have a 14-day camping limit, within a 30-day period. The camping area is open from May 15-October 15. The boat ramp and day use areas are open year-round. Camping is not the only attraction to the area. Bulger’s Hollow also offers a boat ramp, playground equipment and picnic sites for a great way to spend an afternoon with the family. Fishing Opportunities: Bulger’s Hollow offers a gravel boat launch for access to Pool 13 of the Mississippi River. A popular launching site for local fishermen, you can easily find a honey hole for an afternoon of fishing. Directly in front of the campground is a field of lily pads that are ideal for fishing. You can also take a short trip up or down river to a find a calm backwater slough for hours of casting.
Facilities
Bulger's Hollow Recreation Area offers 23 non-reservable campsites, 14 RV sites and 9 tent camping sites, primitive amenities, such as drinking water, vault toilets, and a dump station. Other facilities in the park include a boat ramp, playground, and picnic shelter.
Natural Features
Bulger's Hollow Recreation Area is a great place to view wildlife, boat, fish, and camp. It sits along the Mississippi River, 7.5 miles North of Clinton, IA off Highway 67. You'll have to travel about 1 mile on a gravel road to get here, but it's well worth it.
Nearby Attractions
Lock and Dam 13, Fulton, IL Eagle Point Park, Clinton, IA The Sawmill Museum, Clinton, IA Wide River Winery, Clinton, IA City of Clinton Showboat Clinton Lumberkings Baseball, Clinton, IA Bickelhaupt Arboretum, Clinton, IA Felix Adler Children's Discovery Center, Clinton, IA Windmill Culture Center, Fulton, IL Heritage Canyon, Fulton, IL Charges & Cancellations As in the past, no refunds will be given if you must leave the campground early.
What the agency tells you
The Mississippi River Project’s Thomson Ranger Station has gone to a new way to pay for First-Come First-Serve campsites at the Bulger's Hollow Recreation Area. Bulger's Hollow's open fee dates are May 15th through October 15th.
First, you’ll want to download the Recreation.gov mobile APP to your phone prior to coming to the park, then create an account if you don’t already have one, because some remote areas have limited or no cellular service.
Second, all campsites are on a First-Come First-Serve basis. Visitors are required to physically arrive at the campground to purchase and claim a site. (Cash will no longer be accepted for payment. Credit Card Only.)
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Third, all payments will be completed by the customer using their smartphone (Android and IOS) by scanning a QR Code on the site post using the Recreation.gov mobile APP.
Note: You cannot use Recreation.gov the website, to secure your site; you must use the Recreation.gov mobile APP and be at the campground. The Recreation.gov website, however; will have an information page for Bulger's Hollow and you can learn more about “Scan and Pay” by clicking the link on this information page.
All dogs must be on a 6 foot leash and not allowed to roam freely for the safety of other campers and the pet.
Quiet hours are from 10 pm to 7 am. Generators are not allowed during this time.
A maximum of 6 campers are allowed per site as well as 2 vehicles.
Practice Leave No Trace Principles
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 24
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER (SEASONAL) on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Kayaking
- Paddling
- Picnicking
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 1 of the 24 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $14 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.
“As in the past, no refunds will be given if you must leave the campground early.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
24 sites · the site map
All 24 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 24 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 24 of the 24 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| Campground | Campsite 1 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 10 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 11 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 12 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 13 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 14 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 15 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 16 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 17 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 18 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 19 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 2 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 20 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 21 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 22 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 23 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 3 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 4 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 5 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 6 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 7 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 8 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | Campsite 9 | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||
| Campground | standard nonelectric | 742 ft | 618 ft | $14 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Thomson CausewayUpper Mississippi River National Wildlife And Fish Refuge · 3.9 mi
Blanding Landing27 mi
Fishermans Corner27 mi
Clarks Ferry46 mi
Shady Creek49 mi
Grant River57 miThe address to Bulger's Hollow Recreation Area is 4686 170th Street, Clinton, IA 52732
From Clinton, IA:
- Take Highway 67 North for 6.5 miles
- Turn right onto 170th Street
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Clinton, IA
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 63°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 14°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
Bulger's Hollow Recreation Area is in Iowa’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →