Fifield (IA)
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 · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Fifield is located on Lake Red Rock, Iowa's largest lake. It is just 10 miles from Pella, known for its Dutch heritage, and 15 miles from Knoxville, the Sprint car capital of the world. Keep reading
For more information regarding the Army Corps of Engineers and the Lake Red Rock Project, click here: Lake Red Rock Website Features Shelter #1 8 - Picnic tables 3 - Standard electrical outlets 1 - 28” x 36” outdoor grill 1 - 40” diameter fire ring 9 - Paved parking stalls 30 - Gravel parking stalls Water fountain Close to playground Shelter #2 6 - Picnic tables 2 - Standard electrical outlets 1 - 37” x 30” outdoor grill 1 - 40” diameter fire ring 10 - Paved parking stalls Water fountain Close to restroom Shelter #3 6 - Picnic tables 2 - Standard electrical outlets 1 - 36” x 29” outdoor grill 1 - 40” diameter fire ring 11 - Paved parking stalls Water fountain Lake view Spacious grassy area Shelter #4 6 - Picnic tables 3 - Standard electrical outlets 1 - 36” x 28” outdoor grill 1 - 49” x 41” fire ring 7 - Paved parking stalls Water fountain Lake view Close to restroom Recreation Lake Red Rock offers excellent boating, water skiing and swimming opportunities. Miles of water trails for kayakers and canoeists are designated along the shoreline. Anglers will find crappie, walleye, largemouth and striped bass, channel and flathead catfish, northern pike and bluegill. Several miles of trails for hiking and biking are in the area. The 15 mile paved Volksweg Trail stretches west from Pella to the Des Moines River and to the Cordova Recreation Area.
Facilities
Fifield offers four reservable picnic shelters with 20 amp electrical outlets. Flush toilets are located nearby. Each shelter has a fire ring and an outdoor grill. If your event is open to the public, greater than 100 people, involves live or amplified music, or if alcohol will be available to attendees, you may need a special event permit. Click the link below to apply for an event permit: Special Event Permit If shelters are not reserved, they are available free of charge on a first-come, first served basis. Shelter occupancy is permitted until dusk.
Natural Features
Lake Red Rock is situated on the Des Moines River. Hardwood forests cover the lake shore at Fifield, offering shade and scenic views. Wildlife is abundant around the lake. A wide variety of waterfowl, including the American White Pelican, migrate through the area in spring and fall. Bald eagles can be observed from November through March. Whitetailed deer, turkeys and other small animals are commonly viewed around the lake.
Nearby Attractions
Des Moines, Iowa's capital, is an hour away, with numerous shopping and dining opportunities, museums and the Blank Park Zoo.
Charges & Cancellations
A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation. The $10.00 service fee will be deducted from the refund amount. Cancel or change reservations through recreation.gov or by calling 1-877-444-6777. Late cancellations are subject to additional fees.
What the agency tells you
This is a Day-Use area. There is no overnight camping allowed.
Shelter occupancy is permitted until dusk.
Golf carts, UTVs, and ATVs are not permitted.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Inflatable play equipment (i.e. bounce houses and similar equipment) is not permitted without a Special Event Permit. Please contact the Lake Red Rock Project Office at 641-828-7522 with questions or to inquire about the process for obtaining a permit.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…shelters with 20 amp electrical outlets. Flush toilets are located nearby. Each shelter has a fire ring…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…stalls 30 - Gravel parking stalls Water fountain Close to playground Shelter #2 6 - Picnic tables 2…”
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Biking
- Birding
- Picnicking
- Wildlife viewing
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 25 km away
- Patchy color
Nothing here to sleep in
The agency files 4 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
“A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation. The $10.00 service fee will be deducted from the refund amount.” · 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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
4 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 4 mapped sitesAll 4 records
| FIFIELD (IA) | Fifield Shelter #1 | day use | 20 amp | yes | 371 ft | 690 ft | $50 |
| FIFIELD (IA) | Fifield Shelter #2 | day use | 20 amp | 371 ft | 927 ft | $50 | |
| FIFIELD (IA) | Fifield Shelter #3 | day use | 20 amp | 429 ft | 625 ft | $50 | |
| FIFIELD (IA) | Fifield Shelter #4 | day use | 20 amp | 1059 ft | 412 ft | $50 |
The agency files 4 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
Wallashuck2.2 miElk Rock Campground and Boat Ramp3.4 mi
Whitebreast Camp3.6 mi
North Overlook Camp4.0 mi1672 HWY G28 Pella, Iowa 50219
From Pella, Iowa, follow county road G28 west for 6 miles, then follow signs to Fifield.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pella, IA
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 63°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 13°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
Fifield (IA) 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 →
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 moneyMariannette Miller-MeeksU.S. Representative · Iowa’s 1st 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 Fifield (IA) has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Mariannette Miller-Meeks, I’m a constituent in Iowa’s 1st district. Fifield (IA), Iowa carries 4 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 Fifield (IA) (Iowa) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Fifield (IA) has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Chuck Grassley, I’m a constituent in Iowa. Fifield (IA), Iowa carries 4 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 Fifield (IA) (Iowa) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Fifield (IA) has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Joni Ernst, I’m a constituent in Iowa. Fifield (IA), Iowa carries 4 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 Fifield (IA) (Iowa) via campanac.com