Ivans
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20–$24Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 2120 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Ivans sits just below the Red Rock Dam and Lake on the south side of the Des Moines River, across the river from Howell Station Campground. Lake Red Rock is Iowa's largest lake, located just 10 minutes from Pella, known for its Dutch heritage and 15 minutes from Knoxville, the Sprint car capital of the world. Visitors enjoy boating, fishing, hiking, biking and viewing wildlife. For more information regarding the Army Corps of Engineers and the Lake Red Rock Project, click here: Lake Red Rock Website Recreation Lake Red Rock offers excellent boating, water skiing, wakeboarding and swimming opportunities. Keep reading
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 the the Corova Recreation Area.
Facilities
Ivans offers 21 campsites with 50-amp electric hookups. Amenities include flush toilets, showers and drinking water. Anglers enjoy the great river fishing access.
Natural Features
Hardwood forests cover the riverbanks at Ivans, offering shade and scenic views. Wildlife is abundant around the lake. A wide variety of waterfowl, including the American White Pelican, migrates through the area in the spring and fall. Bald eagles can be observed from November through March. White-tailed 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. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (641) 828-7522.
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
Ivans does not have a reservation window. You MUST have a reservation prior to occupying a site.
Check-in time is 3:00 p.m. and check-out time is 2:00 p.m.
There is no water fill-up or dump station located at Ivans. Visitors may use any of the other Army Corps of Engineers facilities located at Lake Red Rock.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
We offer a limited supply of firewood at the campground. If you want to ensure you have firewood for your stay, please plan on bringing your own supply. Travelers entering Iowa are strongly encouraged to leave out-of-state firewood behind.
Camping units are restricted to one wheeled unit and two tents, or three tents per site. A maximum of eight persons per campsite is allowed.
Parking or driving on the grass is not allowed. Boat trailers may be parked on the grass.
Golf carts, UTVs, and ATVs are not permitted.
Kiddie pools, slip-and-slides, and similar water-based play equipment are not permitted.
Bounce houses and similar inflatable play equipment are not permitted.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 21
- Hookups
- 20 electric
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…electric hookups. Amenities include flush toilets, showers and drinking water. Anglers enjoy the…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Amenities include flush toilets, showers and drinking water.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…include flush toilets, showers and drinking water. Anglers enjoy the great river fishing access.…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Biking
- Birding
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Water access
- Night sky · 10th darkest of 32 in IA
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 4 days ago, 33 km away
- Patchy color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 20 of the 21 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.
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, $20–$24 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.
“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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
21 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 20 mapped sitesAll 21 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 17 of the 21 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. 20 of the 21 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.
| 1 | type not stated | 55 ft | 50 amp | ||||
| 10 | rv electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 43 ft | 67 ft | 3,143 ft | $20–$24 |
| 11 | rv electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 49 ft | under 10 ft | 3,081 ft | $20–$24 |
| 12 | rv electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 78 ft | 3,100 ft | $20–$24 |
| 13 | rv electric | 47 ft | 50 amp | 40 ft | under 10 ft | 3,037 ft | $20–$24 |
| 14 | rv electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | 40 ft | 18 ft | 3,006 ft | $20–$24 |
| 15 | rv electric | 53 ft | 50 amp | 59 ft | 89 ft | 3,048 ft | $20–$24 |
| 16 | rv electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 56 ft | 20 ft | 2,942 ft | $20–$24 |
| 17 | rv electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 52 ft | 16 ft | 2,889 ft | $20–$24 |
| 18 | rv electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 52 ft | under 10 ft | 2,837 ft | $20–$24 |
| 19 | rv electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 148 ft | 3,057 ft | $20–$24 |
| 2 | rv electric | 47 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 125 ft | $20–$24 | |
| 20 | rv electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 178 ft | 3,108 ft | $20–$24 |
| 21 | rv electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 226 ft | 3,186 ft | $20–$24 |
| 3 | rv electric | 46 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 82 ft | 3,241 ft | $20–$24 |
| 4 | rv electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 53 ft | 70 ft | $20–$24 | |
| 5 | rv electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 49 ft | 17 ft | $20–$24 | |
| 6 | rv electric | 49 ft | 50 amp | 40 ft | under 10 ft | 3,245 ft | $20–$24 |
| 7 | rv electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 40 ft | under 10 ft | 3,205 ft | $20–$24 |
| 8 | rv electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 45 ft | under 10 ft | 3,164 ft | $20–$24 |
| 9 | rv electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 43 ft | 60 ft | 3,181 ft | $20–$24 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Howell Station0.3 mi
North Overlook Camp1.4 mi
Whitebreast Camp2.7 mi
Wallashuck2.9 mi
Fifield (IA)4.9 miRoberts Creek East Campground5.5 mi1125 198th Place
Knoxville, IA 50138
The campground is accessed off of Highway T15 by turning east onto Jewell Drive and then turning north on 198th Place.
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
Who answers for this land
Ivans 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 →