Saulsbury Bridge Recreation Area

A nice little camping area, been there many times.

The bridge is mostly gone now except for one part of it. Not quite what it used to be.

This is a 675 acre county conservation area that is at the confluence of Chicken Creek and the Cedar River. There are three camping areas. One is for RVs, $20/night with 30 and 20 amp hookups (I think there are 50 amp too, but I cannot recall). Shower house/restrooms are clean. The dump station is along side the showerhouse, and it is easy to pull through, dump, and drive just about straight out of the RV area. There are two loops for RVs, the big one has almost all the sites. At the far end, there is a parking lot and access to tent only campsites. Each of those sites is a little alcove in the trees and has picnic table and fire ring. The site opens up to the water. These sites are $10/night. There are other tent sites along the Cedar River that have a a spot to park. That was the busy area so we did not go down there. From the RV area, there are a couple trail heads for hiking. You have to keep you bearings on the trail, because they also attach to access to near by fields, and it can be hard to tell where the conservation area ends and someone farm begins. It gets really confusing at night, just sayin'. Excellent fishing and small boat access. Highlight is a bridge that burnt down in 1977. Two sections remain overlooking the Cedar, and offer excellent views of the Muscatine sunsets that Mark Twain commented on. There is a picnic area on the bridge as well, but I'd caution letting the littles read the scrawl.

Oh, we aware that the the area is a river bottom, so it is prone to flooding. Right now (summer 2021) we are in a drought and every accessible. If you count sandbars, the park may even be bigger than normal.