Prairie Flower Recreation Area

Great campground with everything you need for a fun and easy getaway. The sites on the south side are a perfect size, and the loop layout makes it ideal when multiple families are camping together. It’s just a quick drive to the lake and conveniently close to plenty of restaurants, fun activities, and stores if you forget anything at home. The camp hosts were fantastic—very friendly, welcoming, and kept the entire campground in excellent shape. Highly recommend!

Great place for a night, weekend, or weekong adventure! Great access to the lake, clean bathrooms, spacious sites, generally quiet neighbors. Highly recommend when in the area.

We stayed in Honeysuckle Loop, site 180 in our 25' travel trailer. The site was large, private, and shady, but no one warned us about the busy highway right behind us! There was loud traffic noise virtually 24/7 that disturbed the our peace and sleep, even the pets'. It was tricky backing into the site due to untrimmed tree overhang that blocked access to our slideout without tricky angled parking. The restrooms and showers were clean. It was nice that the showers had locking doors, not just a flimsy curtain, and there were plenty of shower houses to accommodate this large campground. Some loops, like the one with a lake view, have little shade, so I guess our shade was a tradeoff for the traffic noise, since it was in the 90s and humid. Do not bother going to nearby Polk City for necessities. The laundromat and only grocery store are closed on Sundays. Ankeny is just a little further away the other direction and has everything you could need. Our site was much further from the lake than anticipated, and we were not allowed to take our dog to the beach, anyway. This campground was okay, but probably won't be back. Update July 5, 2025: There are "no fireworks" signs everywhere that were completely ignored last night throughout the whole campground. Our animals were terrified, and we got no sleep. Most of the offenders had their own dogs that they didn't care about traumatising. And our new neighbor runs his generator 24/7 despite having electrical hookup. Rangers and hosts did nothing. We will NEVER return here. We would leave now, but on July 4th weekend we are stuck.

Each loop offers something a little different. Loop c has many views of the lake. Loop A has good size spots ,but is gravel and my not be level. Loop D has concrete pads on most sites. They have great group sites for groups of 4 up to 10+

This was our first stay at a COE campground. What a lovely surprise. This park, located on Saylorville Lake, has a lot of campsites. Most of these sites are large concrete pads and have a lot of space between your neighbors. Very quite and peacefull campground. It is conveniently located about 10 minutes west of Akeny, IA so you are close to any kind of shopping or restaurants you may need while staying here. Des Moines is also not too far away. There is a beach that had beautiful sunsets every night we were there. We camped at Prairie Flower Recreation Area COE in a Fifth Wheel. We stayed in site B63.