Established Camping
Thomas Mitchell County Park
About
County
Location
Thomas Mitchell County Park is located in Iowa
Directions
From I-80, take exit 143 (Altoona) south, turn east on 8th Street (turns into NE 46th St.). Turn south on 108th St. Park entrance 1/4 mile on west side.
Coordinates
41.64300017 N
93.37800028 W
Access
- Drive-InPark next to your site
- Walk-InPark in a lot, walk to your site.
- Boat-InSites accessible by watercraft.
Stay Connected
- WiFiGood
- VerizonGood
- AT&TUnknown
- T-MobileUnknown
Site Types
- Tent Sites
- RV Sites
- Standard (Tent/RV)
- Group
- Cabins
- Tent Cabin
Features
For Campers
- ADA Access
- Trash
- Picnic Table
- Firewood Available
- Phone Service
- Reservable
- Showers
- Drinking Water
- Electric Hookups
- Toilets
- Alcohol
- Pets
- Fires
For Vehicles
- Sanitary Dump
- Sewer Hookups
- Water Hookups
Nice campground although not too many spaces.
Came in late, even though there were several empty spaces turns out they were reserved. Very nice camp host told us we could have a non-electric site, none of them were reserved. Bathroom/showers were clean.
Clean and quiet in tent
Spent 2 nights tent camping here. We stayed at site 4, glad I read reviews on here. I personally would not want to be in a site beyond number 7 as it gets too close to the dump station and subsequent “sewage lagoon”
Shower house was clean, pretty quiet, and only 5 miles off the highway
Lovely campground, mostly RVs/Camper Vans
We rolled up to this campground past 10pm on a Thursday night just looking for a safe spot to sleep and hopefully a shower before getting back on the road. This place was great. The drive into the grounds was a little confusing, but I imagine that in the daylight we would have had an easier time. There was no camp office that we could find, but we were pleasantly surprised when we found an open spot that we could make a same day reservation and payment online ($29 for an electric site after fees). There are QR codes at each site that you can scan to quickly and easily do this on the spot. You can reserve online ahead of time as well. The bathhouse was very clean and had two showers that had hot water. We could not hear the highway from our spot despite it being close by, and the other campers around were very quiet. My only somewhat negative note about this place is I am not sure at all where tent campers are intended to go. We were in a van and this was perfect for us, but for non-vehicle campers this may not be as ideal.
Oasis close to home
I have created a space in my minivan so I'm a vamping and I have reserved the same spot for one weekend a month for the next 8 months and I am so excited to have a place to come and relax while decompressing from My crazy Life.
- (11) View All
Creek side sites available
Thomas Mitchell park is located outside of Altoona Iowa on 197 acres. There are electric and non electric sites available. The outer loop has a creek that flows behind the sites with large stairs to get down to it. Kids were having a blast in the water. Some sites are reservable and some walk up. There is a fishing lake,playground,sand volleyball, and hiking. The main hiking trails are wide with smaller ones shooting off the sides. There is also a group site that you can hike to on the Devote trail. The camp hosts are helpful and offer firewood,which they bring to your site, on Wednesday-Sunday. It is very peaceful but we also camp Sun-We’d when there isn’t a ton of people. We will definitely camp here again.
- (10) View All
Cute county park
Nice little county park just east of Des Moines with fairly easy access to I-80. Several other campers in the tent area, but very courteous and quiet. And no music! We arrived late and found a spot. LOTS of bugs and very loud peepers at dusk in the frog pond near the entrance, but they quieted down, and our bug screens worked like a charm (we sleep in our Outback on quick turnaround nights). In the morning light we did notice that we were right next to the “sewage lagoon” by the RV dump spot. We were upwind , so it wasn’t too bad. Would recommend avoiding sites 18 and 19. Overall a nice place for a quick overnight. Clean and well groomed.
- (7) View All
Lovely little park
Tons of open areas, lots of small trails and fast fill up camping. Ill always return here!
Great little place that's still close to civilization.
This place has a lot to offer and the hosts are great. Our favorite time is in the Fall.
Best little park
Great place to go tent camping, very clean and quiet. They sell firewood bundles for $5. Easy trails for the kids to go hiking and playing in the creek to cool off in the heat. There is even a pond for fishing that you can take a trail from the campsite to. 100% going to go back and camp again.
- (4) View All
Lovely getaway park
Campground is very green and shady. Many sites are creekside. Park has large playground area, hiking trails, fishing pond. Mosquitoes can get pretty bad, also poison ivy if you get into the thickets.
Campground with a little creek
Perfect weather last weekend and loved the little creek to splash around in with the dogs. Loads of rock stairways to enter and edit the creek throughout the park. Also has a fishing pond however we didn't pack our poles.