Tailwater East Campground
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 1 of the next 1 nights read 15:46 UTC
- A night
- $22–$26Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 2822 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Tailwater East Campground is located within the Dam Complex at the Coralville Lake Project. The Coralville Lake Project is a multiple use project providing primary benefits in flood control and low flow augmentation, and secondary benefits in recreation, fish and wildlife management and forest management. Coralville Lake provides many recreational opportunities, including boating, camping, hiking, mountain biking, lake and river fishing, swimming, water skiing, picnicking and hunting. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors enjoy Coralville Lake for camping, boating, fishing, swimming and water activities. Anglers will find large and smallmouth bass, crappie, walleye and catfish. Several trails are within the Dam Complex, including Squire Point, Woodpecker Trail, Tailwater Riverwalk and barrier-free Veterans Trail. The Devonian Fossil Gorge is just below the dam, offering a unique opportunity to explore a 375-million-year old sea floor and discover fossil remains of sea life that once inhabited this tropical marine environment. Twenty discovery points can be found throughout the site along with a cell phone audio tour. The Turkey Creek Disc Golf Course is located in the Dam Complex and offers nine partially wooden and open holes.
Facilities
The Tailwater East Campground is located on the east bank of the Iowa River below the Coralville Lake Dam. The campground offers 28 campsites to include full hook-up campsites, standard electric campsites, and non-electric walk-to tent campsites. Amenities include a modern restroom and shower facility, fish cleaning station, and a boat ramp for accessing the Iowa River. The campground fee booth is located in the West Overlook Campground.
Natural Features
Coralville Lake is located in the Iowa River Valley, just north of Iowa City. The Tailwater East Campground lies among a heavily wooded forest of mixed hardwood species on the east side of the dam. Wildlife is abundant throughout the project. Whitetail deer, turkeys, pheasants, waterfowl, song birds and other species roam the lands around the lake.
Nearby Attractions
Iowa City/Coralville offers the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, University of Iowa campus, hospital and clinics, numerous restaurants and shops as well as Coral Ridge Mall. Cedar Rapids has wonderful cultural, historic and ethnic attractions such as The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library and is the home of the Kernels Professional Baseball Club. West Branch boasts the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and Presidential Library/Museum. At Amana Colonies visit seven quaint villages with outstanding restaurants, wineries, historic sites and specialty shops. Kalona is known as the "Quilt Capital of Iowa" and is home to an Old Order Amish and Mennonite Community.
What the agency tells you
Three camping units are permitted per campsite: One RV and two tent, or three tents.
Up to six occupants are permitted per campsite.
Quiet hours are from 10:00 p.m. - 6:00 a.m.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Visitors shall register for their campsite at the West Overlook Campground Fee Booth prior to setting up on the campsite.
Check-Out Time: 12:00 P.M.
Check-In Time: 2:00 P.M.
Do not attach anything to trees.
Pets must be penned, on a leash under 6 feet in length, or otherwise physically restrained.
No parking on grass, roads, shoulders or empty campsites. No UTVs or golf carts within the campground.
All of the following items are prohibited: loaded firearms, explosives, ammunition, bow or other projectile-firing devices, and fireworks.
All of the following items are prohibited: bouncy houses, swimming pools, and Chinese lanterns.
No-Shows: If a customer does not arrive and register for their campsite by check-out time the day after original arrival date, the customer will be assessed a $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night use fee.
Cancellation: If a customer cancels a reservation they will be charged a $10.00 service fee. If a customer cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival they will be charged a $10.00 service fee and will also forfeit the first night's use fee (not to exceed the total paid for the original reservation).
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
All boats shall be removed from the lake/river each day. Boats are not permitted to be moored on the shoreline overnight.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 28
- Hookups
- 22 electric, 1 water, 1 sewer
- Longest rig
- 100 ft
- Paved pads
- 17 of 28
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “Amenities include a modern restroom and shower facility, fish cleaning station, and a boat ramp for accessing the Iowa River.”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Amenities include a modern restroom and shower facility, fish cleaning station, and a boat ramp for accessing the Iowa River.”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 19th darkest of 32 in IA
- Bortle 5
6 of 44 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:46 UTC
recreation.gov lists 22 of the 28 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
OpenBooked
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 · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $22–$26 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.
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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:46 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
28 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 22 mapped sitesAll 28 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 22 of the 28 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.
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E01 | type not stated | 68 ftIowa River | ||||
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E02 | type not stated | 67 ftIowa River | ||||
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E03 | type not stated | 94 ftIowa River | ||||
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E04 | type not stated | 59 ftIowa River | ||||
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E05 | type not stated | 130 ftIowa River | ||||
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E06 | standard electric | 54 ft | 20/30 amp | 40 ft | 182 ftIowa River | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E07 | standard electric | 50 ft | 20/30 amp | 93 ft | 95 ftIowa River | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E08 | standard electric | 54 ft | 20/30 amp | 42 ft | 188 ftIowa River | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E09 | standard electric | 44 ft | 20/30 amp | 44 ft | 164 ft | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E10 | standard electric | 50 ft | 20/30 amp | 58 ft | 119 ftIowa River | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E11 | type not stated | 100 ft | 20/30 amp | |||
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E12 | standard electric | 50 ft | 20/30 amp | 32 ft | 146 ftIowa River | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E13 | standard electric | 50 ft | 20/30 amp | 32 ft | 154 ftIowa River | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E14 | standard electric | 50 ft | 20/30 amp | 38 ft | 161 ftIowa River | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E15 | standard electric | 50 ft | 20/30 amp | 42 ft | 162 ftIowa River | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E16 | standard electric | 44 ft | 20/30 amp | 35 ft | 167 ftIowa River | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E17 | standard electric | 42 ft | 20/30 amp | 31 ft | 152 ftIowa River | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E18 | standard electric | 43 ft | 20/30 amp | 31 ft | 140 ftIowa River | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E19 | standard electric | 50 ft | 20/30 amp | 35 ft | 134 ftIowa River | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E20 | standard electric | 50 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 39 ft | 279 ft | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E21 | standard electric | 50 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 33 ft | 241 ft | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E22 | standard electric | 50 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 33 ft | 210 ft | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E23 | standard electric | 50 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 40 ft | 175 ft | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E24 | standard electric | 50 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 59 ft | 123 ft | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E25 | standard electric | 50 ft | 20/30 amp | 50 ft | 162 ft | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E26 | standard electric | 50 ft | 20/30 amp | 50 ft | 145 ft | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E27 | standard electric | 68 ft | 20/30 amp | 40 ft | 189 ft | $22–$26 |
| TAILWATER EAST CAMPGROUND | E28 | standard electric | 60 ft | 20/30 amp | 46 ft | 208 ft | $22–$26 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 28 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Tailwater West Campground0.3 mi
Cottonwood Campground (IA)0.5 mi
West Overlook Campground0.5 mi
Linder Point Campground0.9 mi
Sugar Bottom Campground2.8 mi
Sandy Beach Camp7.1 miFrom Interstate 80 (Iowa City, Iowa), take Exit 244 towards Dubuque St./North Liberty. Travel north on Dubuque St. for 3 miles and turn right onto West Overlook Rd. NE. Travel on West Overlook Rd. NE for 1.1 miles. At the second stop sign, turn right onto Prairie Du Chien Rd. NE. Travel est on Prairie Du Chien Rd. NE for 0.7 miles, across the Coralville Lake Dam. The entrance to the Tailwater East Campground will be located on the right side of the road.
From Interstate 380 (North Liberty, Iowa), take Exit 4 towards North Liberty. Travel east on W. Penn St. for 2 miles and turn right onto N. Dubuque St. Travel south on N. Dubuque St. for 1.9 miles, at the traffic circle, continue straight onto Dubuque St. NE. Continue traveling south on Dubuque St. NE for 1.9 miles. Turn left onto West Overlook Rd. NE and travel east for 1.1 miles. At the second stop sign, turn right onto Prairie Du Chien Rd. NE. Travel east on Prairie Du Chien Rd. NE for 0.7 miles, across the Coralville Lake Dam. The entrance to the Tailwater East Campground will be located on the right side of the road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Coralville, IA
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 64°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 15°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
Tailwater East Campground 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 →