Sugar Bottom Campground

We came to this COE park on the recommendation of another blogger for four nights. Those four nights turned into the 14 day limit. We stayed in one of the 11 FHU sites. Our price is half off for the America the Beautiful Pass. The price for FHU's is $26, W/E is $24, and 30 amp only is $20. Most sites are 30 amp only. There is an area of electric only that sit along the water and have nice views. The park has plenty of large shade trees. All sites are gravel except for the 11 FHU sites are paved concrete. Roads are all paved. Every site has a gravel picnic area with a fire pit and grate. Site are very nicely spaced and scattered in loops. Our site backed up to the trees, had a great shade tree outside the door, and no neighbors on the driver's side. We had full privacy for sitting outside. The park was very quiet and almost empty during the week. There are no trains or highways! On Friday the switch was flipped and the park was completely full with lots of families having a fun time. This is definitely a weekend destination being located between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids and located on the lake/reservoir. There are several other smaller campgrounds with in the recreation area with similar facilities. The park has a large playground, disc golf, boat launch, swimming beach, and dump station. The only ding is the very curvy two mile road leading back to the park. We had decent Verizon service.

I stopped here on my way to southern Illinois… It was a beautiful site lots of flat spots plenty of back in and pull through parking… 50 amp service and water at most sites… Lots of hiking trails and plenty of birds squirrels and other wildlife… I also walked down to the lake from my site and enjoyed some swimming… If I come back I will definitely try and stay in sight 58 because it has a nice flat spot at the end of the road and has plenty of shade from the trees.. no WiFi and cell signal in my spot was too weak to work from, but all in all a beautiful spot

Ended up driving in here after dark on a Sunday night after researching a few campgrounds in the area. Backed into spot 11 without having to unhook and woke up to a lovely view of the water. Full bars Verizon and very quiet. Would stay again on the way through

The hosts are always friendly and the campgrounds set on scenic watersides. This campground is no exception. It is big (there are several smaller ones spread throughout the Coralville Reservoir area) but the sites are spacious and laid out so you have space. Even with all the rain this spring the campground has, for the most part, pretty good drainage. Lots of trails and if it weren't so wet, I'd be trying out the mountain bike trails.

Large well maintained Army Corp of Engineer campground. Some sites with water and electric many with electric only. Narrow twisty road in, but very doable. The small town of Solon is not far away and is very nice with friendly people. The American Legion in the heart of downtown area is open to the public and serve a great breakfast! We went there a couple of times and very much enjoyed it.

Great bathroom/shower facilities, some site very close together but not all. Check out the map and be choosy. 3 bar Verizon 4G LTE. Nice walking trails, small lake beach area, good kids areas.

This campground is very well maintained and although we booked an electric site, we actually had full hook up which is great! Lots of great hiking and near Devonian Fossil Gorge which is really neat and free.

We had one problem when arriving. The 30 amp outlet was melted. They sent a Ranger out that night and it was fully replaced. We have used our surge protectors while here and had no issues.

The roads getting back to camp are a bit challenging but totally doable. Very lovely campground.

This campground has its own boat ramp and beach. 200+ RV sites, some right on the water others with wonderful water views. The entrance into the park is steep with tight curves. We were in #49 with a nice water view. The site had a downward slope resulting in our hitch almost in the gravel to get level. Regardless we’d use this site again. Cell phone access without the booster was 3 for Verizon and 2 for ATT. Great dump station that will handle 4 units at once. There is a centralized garbage collection and recycling bins at the dump station. Firewood is sold on the honor system, 6 pieces/$5.

Very nice Army Corp campground. Very well maintained with trails, playgrounds, beach, boat ramp, and more.

We really like this campground. We pay half price with a golden access pass at federal sites, including this one so normal price is $26 for fhu. On approach, the road is steep at first and quite curvy later as you approach the park. It takes a bit of caution and skill to get to the park, but it is very doable. People come around blind curves so just take things slow and be aware of traffic coming towards you and stay in your lane. The drive is absolutely beautiful, forested and hilly. Don't let the road scare you away from this park, it's not that bad and it is that beautiful.

Inside the park there is a beach that is absolutely wonderful. There are shaded areas with full hookups away from the water, nearer to the dump station and some absolutely gorgeous waterfront sites. There are many sites in between as well that have a water view and are nicely shaded but some are w/e and some are electric only. The 300s where we were at the back away from the water seemed to be all fhu.

AT&T service for us was by far the fastest -- we have 50-75 down and 5-10 up on AT&T. T-mobile was reasonable around 10-15 down and 4-12 up. Sprint/Calyx was a bit more sluggish around 3 down and .5 up. Verizon was surprisingly spotty here with some areas of the park having 20-25 down with .5-2 up and other areas being completely dead zones. We worked easily off of AT&T using the others as backups for streaming and non-essential/non-work stuff with no problems at all.

Partway through our stay a tree branch above us cracked a small amount during a rain storm and started to make a lot of noise like it was going to come down, creaking popping and groaning. We notified the rangers, who came very quickly and moved us to a backup campsite in their camp host area. While not as shaded and not as nice really as where we were, it does not have a big tree above us threatening to damage our RV so we appreciate that. It's also nice to know that campgrounds have some backups for things like this. They will be cutting down that branch.

So many fireflies here at night! They just light up the fields beautifully. The day use area has a disc golf course which is impeccably maintained and some biking trails (concrete, it looks like) that give this park some extra activities. There is a nice kids playground near the entrance to the 300 numbered sites, across from the bathhouse also at that turn.

The park is located close to Solon, which is a small town with a few restaurants, gas stations and has a few small hardware and other stores. In the other direction is North Liberty which has a Walgreens and a CVS and many other stores. Solon is probably 10 minutes away, with the town square being 13 minutes away. That's where a great little mexican restaurant is. North Liberty is ten minutes away the other direction and Iowa City is about 30 minutes away. Within 30 minutes there are many places to get anything you might need, but you also feel remote without actually being super far from things. To us, this makes the location ideal.