North Overlook Camp
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $14–$24Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 5249 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
North Overlook Campground is located on Lake Red Rock, Iowa's largest lake. It is 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 and swimming opportunities. Miles of water trails for kayakers and canoeists are designated along the shoreline. Keep reading
Anglers will find crappie, largemouth and striped bass, walleye, 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 North Overlook offers 46 shady campsites with 50-amp electric hookups, along with 6 primitive tent sites without electricity. Amenities include flush toilets, showers, drinking water and a dump station. Younger campers love the park's playground, and the North Overlook Beach is located within 1/4 mile from the campground.
Natural Features
Lake Red Rock is situated on the Des Moines River. Hardwood forests cover the lake shore at North Overlook, 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 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. Contact Info For local information, please call (641) 628-1701 or call (641) 828-7522 for general information.
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
Tent sites are walk-up only. Vehicles must be parked in designated parking area approximately 50 feet from campsite.
North Overlook 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.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
The fee booth is open 7 days per week: Monday through Thursday: 3:00 - 7:00 pm. Friday through Sunday: 9:00 - 11:00 am & 3:00 - 7:00 pm. Fee Booth phone number: (641) 628-1701.
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 motor vehicles 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
- 52 · 6 tent-only
- Hookups
- 43 electric
- Longest rig
- 90 ft
- Paved pads
- 1 of 52
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 50 of 52 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…without electricity. Amenities include flush toilets, showers, drinking water and a dump station.…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Amenities include flush toilets, showers, drinking water and a dump station.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…include flush toilets, showers, drinking water and a dump station. Younger campers love the park's…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Visitor center
- Night sky · 13th darkest of 32 in IA
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 32 km away
- Patchy color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 49 of the 52 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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $14–$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
52 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 49 mapped sitesAll 52 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 52 of the 52 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. 49 of the 52 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 01 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 1,133 ftLake Red Rock | 568 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 02 | standard electric | 47 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 1,240 ftLake Red Rock | 622 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 03 | standard electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 1,190 ftLake Red Rock | 635 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 04 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 1,327 ftLake Red Rock | 703 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 05 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 1,238 ftLake Red Rock | 700 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 06 | standard electric | 33 ft | 50 amp | 52 ft | 1,320 ft | 766 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 07 | standard electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 1,277 ftLake Red Rock | 755 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 08 | standard electric | 53 ft | 50 amp | 52 ft | 1,284 ft | 814 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 09 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 1,314 ftLake Red Rock | 805 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 10 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 1,202 ft | 902 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 11 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 1,168 ft | 945 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 12 | standard electric | 59 ft | 50 amp | 110 ft | 1,141 ft | 1,049 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 13 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 105 ft | 1,249 ft | 960 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 14 | standard electric | 64 ft | 50 amp | 61 ft | 1,194 ft | 1,317 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 15 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 53 ft | 1,246 ft | 1,315 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 16 | standard electric | 41 ft | 50 amp | 53 ft | 1,299 ft | 1,287 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 17 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 1,255 ft | 1,122 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 18 | standard electric | 66 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 1,288 ft | 1,173 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 19 | type not stated | 90 ft | 50 amp | 1,277 ftLake Red Rock | 1,237 ft | ||
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 20 | type not stated | 84 ft | 50 amp | 1,247 ftLake Red Rock | 1,157 ft | ||
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 21 | type not stated | 72 ft | 50 amp | 1,214 ftLake Red Rock | 1,099 ft | ||
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 22 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 88 ft | 1,191 ftLake Red Rock | 1,038 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 23 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 1,116 ftLake Red Rock | 986 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 24 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 79 ft | 1,262 ftLake Red Rock | 990 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 25 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 1,059 ftLake Red Rock | 964 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 26 | standard electric | 61 ft | 50 amp | 79 ft | 1,197 ftLake Red Rock | 935 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 27 | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 45 ft | 1,120 ftLake Red Rock | 895 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 28 | standard electric | 49 ft | 50 amp | 40 ft | 979 ftLake Red Rock | 889 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 29 | standard electric | 68 ft | 50 amp | 45 ft | 1,082 ftLake Red Rock | 870 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 30 | standard electric | 57 ft | 50 amp | 40 ft | 945 ftLake Red Rock | 872 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 31 | standard electric | 66 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 1,046 ftLake Red Rock | 827 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 32 | standard electric | 53 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 899 ftLake Red Rock | 854 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 33 | standard electric | 69 ft | 50 amp | 52 ft | 1,002 ftLake Red Rock | 791 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 34 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 844 ftLake Red Rock | 844 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 35 | standard electric | 73 ft | 50 amp | 52 ft | 972 ftLake Red Rock | 758 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 36 | standard electric | 67 ft | 50 amp | 53 ft | 820 ftLake Red Rock | 811 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 37 | standard electric | 74 ft | 50 amp | 53 ft | 828 ftLake Red Rock | 760 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 38 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 866 ftLake Red Rock | 699 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 39 | standard electric | 74 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | 926 ftLake Red Rock | 659 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 40 | standard electric | 71 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 984 ftLake Red Rock | 595 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 41 | standard electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | 57 ft | 999 ftLake Red Rock | 683 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 42 | standard electric | 44 ft | 50 amp | 36 ft | 1,004 ftLake Red Rock | 552 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 43 | standard electric | 84 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 1,054 ftLake Red Rock | 655 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 44 | standard electric | 69 ft | 50 amp | 36 ft | 1,010 ftLake Red Rock | 524 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 45 | standard electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 1,099 ftLake Red Rock | 634 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 46 | standard electric | 69 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 1,015 ftLake Red Rock | 487 ft | $20–$24 |
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 47 | tent only nonelectric | 36 ft | 963 ftLake Red Rock | 432 ft | $14 | ||
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 48 | tent only nonelectric | 36 ft | 928 ftLake Red Rock | 410 ft | $14 | ||
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 49 | tent only nonelectric | 41 ft | 866 ftLake Red Rock | 388 ft | $14 | ||
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 50 | tent only nonelectric | 41 ft | 825 ftLake Red Rock | 379 ft | $14 | ||
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 51 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 783 ftLake Red Rock | 360 ft | $14 | ||
| NORTH OVERLOOK CAMP | 52 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 743 ftLake Red Rock | 371 ft | $14 |
25 of 52 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Howell Station1.1 mi
Ivans1.4 mi
Wallashuck1.9 mi
Whitebreast Camp3.1 mi
Fifield (IA)4.0 miRoberts Creek East Campground4.7 mi1007 Hwy T-15 Pella, Iowa 50219
From Pella, Iowa, take County Highway T-15 southwest for 3 miles, then follow signs to the campground.
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
North Overlook Camp 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 →