Horse camping is the perfect way to enjoy Pella. If you're an equestrian lover who prefers nature-based adventure, yet still wants comfort, this is the perfect opportunity for you. Finding a place to camp in Iowa with your horse is easier than ever. Search nearby equestrian campsites or find top-rated spots from other campers.
The equestrian campground features both electric and non-electric sites also. A modern shower building, horse stalls, hitching rails and a 100 foot by 200 foot riding arena are available.
Lake Iowa Park offers a quiet, safe and beautifully-maintained campground that includes 120 rocked pads with electricity, shower houses and a dump station. There are water hydrants with rural water spread throughout the campground to fill your camper tanks. There are two non-electric areas suitable for tents which are within a short walk to the shower house. Currently there are no reservations for camping, it is all first come first served.
2 cabins are available for rent. Each cabin has a full kitchen and ADA compliant bathroom and will sleep 8 people.
Located one mile North of Knoxville on a quite dead-end road. It is 2 miles from the Knoxville Iowa Racetrack, 4 miles from Elk Rock Equestrian Park, 4 miles from Red Rock public boat launch. Site has 50/30 amp. receptacles, and water hook. Traveling with your horses there is a fenced in accommodation for them next to the camp site. There is a shared firepit, and additional outside sitting.
We do have a bunk house for additional sleeping with 2 separate rooms with air and queens size beds, you can rent separately or together. There is additional seating area in front. These units have no water or plumbing.
$50 / night
At Singing Mesa Ranch, our goal is to be your favorite spot for horse boarding, camping and hitting the trails. Our focus is to create an inviting but small and quiet destination where family is welcome, folks respect each other and you can unwind. You don't have to have a horse to stay with us! Established in 2015, we have slowly built a small campground, opened our indoor stall barn, outdoor pens and uncovered paddocks to our campers and as a horse motel. We have a 60x90 insulated indoor arena, a heated stall barn with up to 8 stalls and a wash rack. We have 16 miles of maintained trails and acres of space to blaze your own path. In 2022, we added the outdoor arena which is 100x220 with cattle roping chutes and return. Looking for a travel stop while traveling through Iowa, we are 20 minutes East from I-35 at Osceola, 20 minutes South of Indianola and right on Hwy 65. Stop by with your camper or LQ and horses and stay the night with us. Our facilities are open year round.
$15 - $75 / night
Scout
It was beautiful, full of wildlife, easy to find,not too far from highway but far away enough to not hear
GuideNot too far off the highway. Very clean and quiet. The campground is above the lake but a short trail will take you to the lake. Couldn't see the lake from where we camped, but nice woody area behind our campsite. Nice little visitor area. Lots of trails to walk with the dog including a nice trail along the lake.
Great place to spend one night. If I had more time, I would have gone paddle boarding or fishing on the lake.
RangerVery well kept campground! Bathrooms and entire area was really in perfect shape. One of the cleanest showers and bathrooms I have seen. $10 for tent, $16 for electric - how can you go wrong?
Only issue is that the spots are pretty close together. Around 2:30am there was so much smoke in our van from nearby campfires that I woke up sick and my dog threw up all over the bed. At 3am we decided we needed to move to an electric site because it was too much to have the windows open. I felt really bad for anyone in a tent. I coughed all the next day.
The campground was not that busy so there is no way I would stay here on a busy holiday weekend due to the spots being too close. If a few people make a fire you better shut down all your windows. No sleeping in the cool, night air here.
But this is an issue at other places too. Just never experienced anything on this level before. Esp considering no one in our section even had a fire going.
I wish campgrounds would start banning these fires. But that’s a topic for a later date.
Other than that it was a great spot.
Scout$12 a night for primitive camping and you get nice warm showers by the main entrance and nice bathrooms by the main entrance. Stand-alone bathrooms throughout the park have the deep composting toilets that smell bad but whatever the ones up front are nice. Would recommend 10/10
GuideThe good: The area around the lake and near by pond, is not overly developed. There are wild raspberries and mulberries, lots of wildlife. We had a blue jay that visited us regularly at our campsite, along with deer walking through. The bad: very few sites have a view of the lake. To walk to the lake or near by pond you must go down hill, which could be a problem for any one with mobility issues. Once down to the water trail are easy to walk. I would say if you can try and get sites, 67-70. They have beautiful views.
Scout
We stayed in the Elk Rock Equestrian campground and it was so peaceful and beautiful. The facilities were clean.
GuideThis place is huge. We pulled in very late on a Weds night / Thursday morning. Self registration at the front. Looked like a decent amount of folks here but we didn’t drive very far into the park. If you take a look at the PDF maps on their website you can see how vast the places is with 122 spots! Bummed we needed to keep driving the next day- was very tempted to stay another night.
Shower house and bathrooms were really nice! Wasn’t expecting to want to take a shower but couldn’t pass up the opportunity when we saw them. Very hot water.
There are picnic benches everywhere and fire pits. 10/10 - would stay again!
RangerThis is a really busy boat ramp but the campground is pretty big and open. The boat ramp is the closest one to mile long bridge. It also has a cleaning station and restroom available.
The campgrounds are very clean. There are lots of trails around the area.
It’s also a great place if you like to go horse back riding with lots of trails that go near the water.
There are camp hosts to help answer questions. There are also firewood bundles available to purchase for $4. The bathrooms and showers are very clean.
ScoutNice, quiet and affordable. Saw lots of deer and rabbits right outside our door. Shower rooms are very nice.
GuideWe went in the chillier months so the park definitely was not at its most scenic as it probably usually is. The hikes throughout the woods were quite nice and eventually loop around at least the one we were on did). They have a ginormous and steep boat landing with a large parking lot. The water looked pretty nice, although is was quite low at the time. The best part about the trip was the eagles. We must have been there at just the right time, because lined all through the trees along the lakes edge were eagles upon eagles. I'd say we saw about 70 bald eagles perched in the tress. It was really a beautiful sight. Aside from the park, it's pretty close to pella, which is a nice historic Dutch town. Good food and bars there to check out! Would visit again, but when it's warmer!
GuideWe really wnjoyed riding the trails here. Good facilities for our horses.
LegendI stayed at Elk Rock State Park with my son and his Boy Scout troop. The weather was perfect that night and we were able to have a nice fire. The next day we broke down our tents pretty quickly because of the rain.
We obviously stayed in the group campsite, but the campground is big with lots of trees and good facilities. It even has an equestrian part of the campground for you horse lovers.
Lake Red Rock is really close so it is a great place to stay the night and then pull your boat down to the lake for some fun on the water. Iowa doesn't have any mountains but it makes up for it with a lot of green scenery and some wonderful activities like horseback riding and boating for the family.
This is a very good state park and campground.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular equestrian campsite near Pella, IA?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular equestrian campground near Pella, IA is Equestrian Campground — Elk Rock State Park with a 3.6-star rating from 5 reviews.
What is the best site to find equestrian camping near Pella, IA?
TheDyrt.com has all 6 equestrian camping locations near Pella, IA, with real photos and reviews from campers.
