Cottonwood Recreation Area
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cottonwood Recreation Area is a day-use facility located in the tailwater area below Saylorville Dam. The 26,000-acre Saylorville Lake Project stretches over 50 miles up the Des Moines River Valley. The lake provides a wide variety of recreational activities, including boating, swimming, fishing, hiking and hunting. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors come to Saylorville Lake for its great boating, sailing, water skiing, windsurfing and swimming opportunities. Anglers fish for walleye, wiper, largemouth bass, catfish, crappie and northern pike. The paved Neal Smith Trail winds 24 miles from Des Moines to Big Creek State Park and connects the campgrounds on the east side of the lake. It is designated as a National Recreation Trail and is used for biking, hiking, jogging, walking and in-line skating.
Facilities
The day-use area offers nine group picnic areas with water and electric hookups. Amenities include flush toilets, a volleyball court, playground and hiking trails.
Natural Features
Cottonwood covers a large open and flat lowland area bordering the east side of the Des Moines River. Wildlife is abundant throughout the project. White-tailed deer, turkeys, pheasants, waterfowl, and other small game animals roam the lands around the lake.
What the agency tells you
Special Event Permits are required for inflatable bounce houses and water features. Special Event Permits may be required for events that may impact nearby shelters, are open to the public, wedding events, company picnics etc. Please contact the Saylorville Lake Administration Office at 515-276-4656 to inquire.
Shelters may be reserved up to 4 days in advance. If shelters are not reserved, they are available free of charge on a first come, first served basis
Playgrounds and restrooms near shelters are open to the public. Reservations apply only to picnic shelters not other amenities.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Click here for more information
Click here for a virtual tour of the Saylorville Lake area.
GUIDELINES FOR SAYLORVILLE LAKE PICNIC AREAS The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers welcomes you to Saylorville Lake. Our goal is to make your visit a safe and enjoyable experience. A complete list of rules, Title 36 “Rules and Regulations” and other helpful maps and brochures are available from the Visitor Center, Park Rangers, Park Attendants or Hosts. Please contact any member of our staff if you have questions or need assistance. Please help maintain and protect park facilities and natural resources by following these guidelines when picnicking at Saylorville Lake. PICNIC AREA HOURS: Month of April 7am to 8pm. May through Labor Day 7am to 9pm . The day after Labor Day through October 7am to 8pm. Rules: 1) Clean up is the responsibility of the picnic users. Please clean up all spills and dispose of litter. If you have more trash than the garbage cans hold, please use area dumpsters. Leave the area in the condition you would like to find it. 2) The Possession of Fireworks, explosives, firearms, ammunition, bows or other projectile firing devices is prohibited. 3) The operation and parking of vehicles off roadways is prohibited. 4) Only street legal vehicles are allowed. 5) Amplified sound systems are not allowed without a Special Event Permit. 6) Yard games such as water balloons and egg toss are prohibited. 7) Trailer Roasters are allowed only in parking areas. Do not place hot roasters, grills, skillets or grease pan directly on picnic tables. 8) Pets must be confined or on a leash less than 6 feet long. Pets are not allowed in the restrooms. Please pick up and properly dispose of all pet waste. To contact a Park Ranger during normal business hours Monday—Friday, 7:30am to 4:00pm, call (515) 276-4656. To contact a Park Ranger after normal business hours, call the Polk County Dispatch at (515) 286-3334 THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 9 of 9 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER SPIGOT on 9 of 9 campsite records
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Fall color · reported 4 days ago, 37 km away
- Patchy color
Nothing here to sleep in
The agency files 9 records here and marks every one of them day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
9 records · the site map
All 9 records
| COTTONWOOD RECREATION AREA | 001 | day use | 526 ftDes Moines River | $50 |
| COTTONWOOD RECREATION AREA | 002 | day use | 447 ftDes Moines River | $50 |
| COTTONWOOD RECREATION AREA | 003 | day use | 534 ft | $50 |
| COTTONWOOD RECREATION AREA | 004 | day use | 137 ftDes Moines River | $50 |
| COTTONWOOD RECREATION AREA | 005 | day use | 248 ft | $50 |
| COTTONWOOD RECREATION AREA | 006 | day use | 485 ft | $50 |
| COTTONWOOD RECREATION AREA | 007 | day use | 887 ft | $50 |
| COTTONWOOD RECREATION AREA | 008 | day use | 545 ftDes Moines River | $50 |
| COTTONWOOD RECREATION AREA | 009 | day use | 151 ftDes Moines River | $50 |
The agency files 9 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Bob Shetler Recreation Area0.9 mi
Lake View Recreation Area (Saylorville)1.9 mi
Cherry Glen Campground2.8 mi
Cherry Glen Picnic2.9 mi
Walnut Ridge Recreation Area3.6 mi
Prairie Flower Recreation Area4.0 miUtilize address 7400 NW 37th Street Ankeny IA 50023 (Not a valid mailing address). From I-35, take Exit 90 in Ankeny and head approxmately 3.5 miles west to NW 84th Ave. Turn Left on 84th Ave and head south apprximately 1.5 miles to Cottonwood Recreation Area on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Johnston, 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 · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Cottonwood Recreation Area 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 →
Who can change it · 3
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- The member who votes the moneyZachary NunnU.S. Representative · Iowa’s 3rd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationChuck GrassleyU.S. Senator · Iowa
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJoni ErnstU.S. Senator · Iowa
Read the draft, or change the wording
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Cottonwood Recreation Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Zachary Nunn, I’m a constituent in Iowa’s 3rd district. Cottonwood Recreation Area, Iowa carries 9 records on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Cottonwood Recreation Area (Iowa) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Cottonwood Recreation Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Chuck Grassley, I’m a constituent in Iowa. Cottonwood Recreation Area, Iowa carries 9 records on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Cottonwood Recreation Area (Iowa) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Cottonwood Recreation Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Joni Ernst, I’m a constituent in Iowa. Cottonwood Recreation Area, Iowa carries 9 records on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Cottonwood Recreation Area (Iowa) via campanac.com