West Overlook Campground

Great Army Corps of Engineers Campground; well maintained, and quiet. Easy access, well-spaced, level, paved, electric only sites; each w/ a picnic table and fire ring. Large two-sided dump & fill station just outside park entrance w/ plenty of room for even the largest rigs. The ACOE campgrounds are hidden gems, that are often discounted to $7.50-$15 per night when using National Park Senior or Access Passes. We paid $10/night for a great 30A electric site overlooking the Coralville Dam.

We used this COE campground as an overnight and rest day on a cross country trip. It was easy enough to find off the highway. Our site was easy to back into and had a view of the lake. Electric worked great and was much needed for A/C in August as it was quite hit and humid. Enjoyed watching birds and a groundhog by our site. Clean and well-kept campground. Would definitely stay again.

Has several loops. Gravel and paved pads. Good showers. Boat ramp. All network channels picked up. We would pick one of the other campgrounds on the lake as this was was very family orientated. Kids everywhere. Lots of traffic.

With close proximity to I80. The campsites were clean and well-maintained as well as nice showers and bathrooms.

This USACE Campground is just a few miles north of Iowa City and offers convenient access to Interstate 80 as well as the University of Iowa campus.

We were in town for the University of Iowa vs Penn State University football game and used the West Overlook campsite as our base camp for the weekend's activities.

We stayed in West Overlook site W-38 which is in a small loop of 5 or 6 campsites and receives very good shade from well established oak and pine trees.

Our pad was gravel and offered a 30 amp electrical hookup and ample space for our 24 foot B+ RV. The pad leveled out the farther you backed into it, but had a noticeable incline to it near the road, so I think it would be pretty tough to level out a coach with a longer wheelbase.

If you want to use a satellite dish for television or internet, this loop is not for you, however as we walked through the other loops we noted that the tree coverage was much less dense and that many people had satellite dishes set up.

We had 3 "bars" of OTA television signal strength showing on our antenna control panel, however we did not watch any television so cannot comment on the number or variety of OTA television channels available.

The bathroom, shower and dump station facilities provided by the facility were all clean and operational.

We did note that the only spigot for potable water was located just outside the campground at the dump station, so if you were tent camping and needed to fill water jugs / buckets you would probably need to drive over to the spigot as it would be quite a haul from most all of the campsites.

We had 2 bars of LTE cell service for both ATT and Verizon at our campsite.

We stayed on a Friday & Saturday night over a big football weekend in late September and the entire campground looked pretty full to us, however we noticed that the "CAMPGROUND FULL" sign was folded down and not displayed, so there may have been an unoccupied site or two somewhere that we did not see.

The campground host did tell us that there is rarely a weekend where they don't fill to capacity, so if you want to be sure of having a spot when you show up it would be best to make a reservation on www.recreation.gov up to six months prior to your arrival date.

Close to the worst camping experience we have ever had ! Way overpriced and your packed in like sardines. It's basically a place for all the weekend warriors to go to show off their $80,000 campers that they will owe on well past their retirement.

The entertainment was good though, watching them try to back these monstrous campers in for sometimes 20 mins Lol. Facilities looked like they could be nice, but because this place is basically a small city on busy weekends, there were pretty messy. My guess is understaffed and over paid.

Not one second of peace and quiet, hooping and hollering going on till the wee hours. I could go on and on, but bottom line is it was a nightmare and we will never return or recommend it to anyone !

We are on a 2 week road trip and stopped here overnight. I was easy to get to from 80, clean and had a lake. We enjoyed a sunset paddle 😀

We stayed in the Tailwater West section of this campground. (There are at least 4 sections, West Overlook, Tailwater West, Tailwater East and Cottonwood.)

Tailwater West has about 20 sites and seems tailored for big rigs. There are two pull thru sites and the rest are large back-in sites. There is no office at Tailwater West. After arriving, you need to drive over to West Overlook to check in. The dam is right "above" our site and we could hear water rushing by all night.

We stayed here one night in our way west. The campground is about 10 minutes north of I-80.

A clean, safe, friendly Corps of Engineers campground. And a great value at $13 using the Senior Pass. We camped at West Overlook COE in a Fifth Wheel

We used this as an overnight stop while traveling cross country on I-80. This is a great spot only about 15 minutes off the highway and super quiet.

We just stopped overnight. This well run campground is COE and is on the Coralville Reservoir. The area slopes from high ground to the lake. We had a site away from the lake as we were only here for one night.

Sites have asphalt pads. Our site had electricity only. The toilets were clean and functional.

The usage is very high on weekends as it is very close to Iowa City.