Out in the middle of Coralville Lake, Sugar Bottom campground has its own swim beach and a disc-golf course, and Iowa City families book it as their default summer week. The days fill themselves: a round of disc golf after breakfast, the beach after lunch, supper cooked outside at the site. A motorhome stretches that into a full week instead of a long weekend, with the kitchen, the bunks, and the air conditioning parked a short walk from the shore.
The same Corps lake week runs at Saylorville outside Des Moines and at Lake Red Rock farther southeast. Beyond the lakes, Iowa's other rig weeks are a hookup base above the Mississippi in the northeast corner and the two big fairs, Clay County in Spencer and the State Fair in Des Moines.
Sugar Bottom and Sandy Beach at Coralville Lake
Sandy Beach is the smaller, quieter campground on the same lake, and between the two, the site you book decides how the week runs. Some Sugar Bottom pads have water, sewer, and 50-amp power at the site, so the rig never moves once it's level. Sandy Beach's sites are electric only, with a dump station on the grounds, which means one midweek run to empty the tanks.
Lock the campsite before the motorhome. Coralville's campgrounds are reservation only, and the Corps lists Sugar Bottom and Sandy Beach as open May through September. Check the length on the specific site before you settle on how long a rig to rent. If it's only two of you, a smaller rig opens up other trips, and the Iowa campervan page covers Rathbun Lake and Honey Creek.
Saylorville Lake, just north of Des Moines, runs the same kind of week across loops that range from hardwood shade at Cherry Glen to open prairie at Prairie Flower and riverside sites at Bob Shetler, and the Des Moines campervan page walks through them. Lake Red Rock, southeast of the city with campgrounds at Whitebreast and North Overlook, is the lead on the Des Moines RV page.
Pikes Peak State Park above the Mississippi
In Iowa's northeast corner the Mississippi runs between tall wooded bluffs, and Pikes Peak State Park camps on top of them. Everyone walks out to the stone picnic shelter and gazebos at the main overlook for the river view, and for a family with a motorhome, the campground behind it becomes the base for the whole week.
The day trip is Effigy Mounds National Monument, seven miles north, where the two-mile Fire Point trail climbs past more than 20 mounds on the bluff. Back at camp, the DNR lists full-hookup and electric sites, showers, and a trailer dump station, with sites booked through the state's online reservation system. If you're staying the week, reserve a full-hookup pad first.
Farther south in eastern Iowa, Maquoketa Caves State Park is the detour kids talk about afterward, with trails that lead straight into the caves and cool air breathing out of the rock. The Davenport RV page covers camping there with a rig.
The Clay County Fair and Okoboji
Up in the northwest corner, the Iowa Great Lakes around Okoboji are summer lake country, with the old rides at Arnolds Park for an afternoon. For a rig, the week to plan around is the Clay County Fair in Spencer, when fairgoers and lake families chase the same motorhomes and the same pads across the county. Book the site and the rig together as early as you can, and see the Spencer RV page for the fair's own campground and the state parks on the lakes.
The Iowa State Fair from a rig
A motorhome at the Iowa State Fair means a nap, a cold drink, and your own bathroom between the barns and the grandstand. Fair week draws on the same rigs and the same dates as Saylorville and Lake Red Rock, so the fairgrounds campground and the Corps lakes around Des Moines compete for both. The Des Moines RV page has the fairgrounds' camping rules.