Best Glamping near Preston, IA

first timers/ young kids- yes. Primitive campers- no. My husband had never been camping. I grew up with very primitive camping- no electricity, only pit toilets, sometimes fresh water, and no showers (milk jug showers!) Little by little, I’m warming him up to camping. This is a great place for new campers, families of young kids, or just looking for an easier trip. There’s a shower house with flush toilets, warm showers, and surprisingly CLEAN! The site was medium size. Enough room to spread out. Ground was flat so finding a tent site was no problem. Electric hookup worked. Picnic table was good. Check your site before booking! One section of sites is like an open field? No trees and full view of others. But these surround a playground- also very nice. Glamping with young kids? These sites would be a perfect. AT&T and Verizon cell service worked fine

Great place to camp! Right on the Hennepin Canal. RV, tent, Cabins, and Yurt camping. The couple that run this campsite are so sweet! Pedal bikes for kids (and grown ups), a spray ground, and more! Two local breweries in town and tons of shopping and food options.

My wife, son, and I recently stayed here on our trip back home from Iowa. The campground was clean and quiet.

Campground is well maintained, restrooms, showers, recycling station, fire wood available, campground host onsite, resident park ranger, standard RV sites, some electric tent sites otherwise primitive with fire rings and tables. Trout stream (Catfish Creek) runs through campground and park and is stocked by Iowa DNR, has Swiss Valley Nature center with trails.

This campground has an assortment of primitive and electrical sites. They also have cabins and canoe/kayak rental, a visitor shop with food/drink and a mini museum of the local wildlife. Great place for the family.

The campgrounds are very nice. They have clean bathrooms, a nicely stocked store, and a couple playgrounds. Thay also have an Eco Center with turtles, snakes, and an aquarium that our family really enjoyed. The grounds are on backwaters of the Mississippi so there are boat ramps, docks, and areas to fish. The camp store also offers canoe, kayak, and other boat rentals. Our site was pretty flat, although it was a little tricky backing into it. They put the site number posts at the end of the pad near the road and our site had a tree on the other side, so we had to use the grass across the road to maneuver in and out. I'm not sure what the rules are, but there were a lot of dogs not tied up. Most people kept a close eye on them, but we had a couple wander through and do their business in our site. I also didn't notice anyone cleaning up after their dogs, so walk with caution.

Gorgeous surrounding, something for everyone. No strict rules. Environmental center for kids and adults alike and a cafe. Lots of bugs, high humidity and it can flood . Electric hookups no water hookups but a pump at many sites.

Nice educational center with canoe and kayak rentals, with lots of Mississippi backwater to explore. Showers are open until October 14 this year.

Primitive tent site, fire ring/grill, cheap stay. has small camp store and newer nature center, canoe/kayak rentals, shower house, wood for fee. Can be very buggy depending on season, right along backwaters, good fishing, wildlife viewing. Has a pontoon for tours.

Turn at quarry off Great River Road/Highway 67. Plenty of sites, boat landing, kayak/canoe rentals, naturalist programs, nature center with native  animals including large fish aquarium,  cabins, park store and kitchen, shower house, pontoon  river cruises. Watch river levels for flooding, bugs can be bad since location is bottomland riverine forest.

CG is spread out along bottomland river forest and includes camping cabins, tent and RV sites, RR/showers, playground, dump and water stations, Eco Tourism store/grill, paddling rentals, Blue Heron Cruises, nature center. Sites include fire rings, tables, gravel backing pads, electric with some right near water edge.

Primitive. Campground host, wood available in park, playground, showers, fishing, golfing, historical village, bike/hike/horse trails, park gates close after hours. Concessions available, pool.

Closed for winter-CG offers plenty of secluded sites with seasonal host, firewood, playground, RR/showers, trails. Park offers pool, golf with concessions, Pride Lake for fishing/paddling, historical Pioneer Village.

Seasonal cg has good shade in forested areas with fire rings, tables, durable roads. Seasonal host with firewood, rr/showers

Although this campground is closed for the winter, these sites offer wooded and shaded spots. Sites themselves offer tables and firings. The campground has a seasonal host offering firewood on site, showers and restrooms, play area, trails, and overflow parking just adjacent for the entrance.

CG is well maintained, Rangers are seen regularly, has standard RV sites, nice shower/restrooms, wood available, near trails, short drive to Pride Lake for paddling and fishing, golf course with clubhouse, Pioneer Village site to the north in the park, pool open with concessions Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Closed for winter-Newer CG offers RVs including big rigs basics like electric, water, sewer, fire rings, hard pads. Not much shade though trees are planted. Park offers Pride Lake for paddling and fishing, trails for hike/bike/horse, pool with concessions, golf course, historical Pioneer Village , an trails with wildlife!

CG offers: RR/showers, seasonal host, firewood, play area. Sites have tables, fire rings, hard pads. Little shade until trees grow. Park offers swim pool, golf, concessions, shelters, hike/bike/horse trails.

Campground is closed for the winter season. Campground offers host, nicely maintained heated showers and restrooms, play area, firewood, available on site, RV pads are hard surface, have fire rings, water, electric, tables. Since this campground is newer, not much shade yet.

This CG is one of 6 that you have to choose from here at Scott County Park, wherein Woodside is definitely more geared for the RVs – especially the much larger ones, so if you have a very big rig, this likely is the best CG for you – with each site offering FHUs with electric, water& sewage, fire rings and picnic tables. If you wanted to tent camp here, you could, although I would recommend nearby Incahias or Sac-Fox as better for tent campers. Unlike some of the other campgrounds, Woodside is somewhat bare and desolate inside the actual campground with the land being incredibly flat, but wide open so therefore not providing much privacy or shade whatsoever. Back-in slots are spacious, hard and very level with the grounds being incredibly well-kept and impeccably clean bathroom / shower facilities with great HOT running water.

Albeit with a short hike through the forest, Woodside CG is near Cody Lake and Glynn’s Creek, which offers some decent oaring in your kayak or canoe. Sitting adjacent to Cody Lake is an eponymous community shelter than can be reserved or used on a first-come, first-served basis. There’s also a playground for the kiddos and a restroom facility that is also spartan-clean as well access to Glynn’s Creek Trailhead which is a moderate hike and further afield throughout the rest of the park, there’s no shortage of hiking / biking / horse trails. We found Woodside to be fairly quiet, although lacking in privacy without the benefit of any real brush or trees to blot out our next-door neighbors, but that said, everyone was incredibly friendly with full displays of Midwestern hospitality that this area is known for.

Scott County Park is easy to fall in love with, whether traveling solo or with a family as there is a lot that this park offers up: from fresh water catch & release lakes, combination of topographies, from woodlands, wetlands and prairie grasslands, beautiful 18-hole championship golf course, outdoor exercise areas, club house and concessions, stand-alone cabins for rent, designated dump stations and trash receptacles, numerous picnic areas, massive heated swimming pool complete with a snake-like water slide, volleyball court, ranger stations, seasonal on-site hosts, firewood available for purchase at entry stations, Walnut Grove Pioneer Village and St. Anne’s church at the park’s NW perimeter, 7 community shelters, designated picnic areas, a memorial park, equestrian area and an incredibly well-paved network of roads that allows you to easily access just about every corner of this park. Oh, and the incredibly friendly rangers that constantly patrol and keep this beautiful park in full working order were nothing short of amazing.

Happy Camping!

We saw an article about "Dutch Days" in nearby Fulton on www.OnlyInYourState.com, (first weekend in May) and thought it looked like fun. The nearest campground at Thomson causeway recreational area was closed both for repairs and for flooding so this was our best choice.
It was not crowded this early in the season, though most of the sites are pretty private and that wasn't an issue. We stayed in the 60's loop which is more open than most since it has the playground. There's only one shower building, which is clean and well-kept, and it is on the 80's loop, though there are paths to it from the others.
There are a few pull-through sites, but I'm not sure they're indicated. The ADA sites are large and well paved, though the tables do not have wheelchair overhangs.
Fire rings are hit and miss, our site had a low square pit with a non-adjustable flip-over grill, other sites had taller, circular rings, check site photos.
There are two trails downhill to the lake from the 60's loop, no lakeside campsites.
The lake is small but pleasant and stocked with fish. There are boat rentals available and a small restaurant and general store.
We went on day trips to Fulton and Clinton, IA. Eagle point park has a good view of the Mississippi, but  more spectacular views are at Mississippi Palisades State Park, a 50 min drive.
If you don't feel like cooking, a great choice is the Candlelight Inn(s), half an hour to the east or west in Clinton, Sterling or Rock Falls. A great family restaurant/ steakhouse famous for it's "Chicken George" (they'll give you a free sample to get you hooked)

This campground is a lovely gem! Most of the camp sites are fairly secluded from one another by distance and from surrounding foliage (see pic). The exceptions would be sites 55-64 that loop around the playground. We, unfortunately, didn't know this and so had site 61. It was nice little spot with plenty of shade but I was a bit jealous of those with more secluded spots, especially since we are tent campers and all of the others on the loop were big RVs.

The pros:

- The campground hosts were lovely. Friendly but not overbearing, as some can be.

- The on site restaurant/bait shop/ boat rental was very convenient! Husband forgot to pack something and the little bait shop had what we needed. Plus, we were able to buy firewood there, too.

- Lovely scenery! The hiking trails were well maintained and there were lots of beautiful flowers, bird, and butterflies. We even saw a raccoon!

- The (and I cannot emphasize this enough) CLEANEST campground bathrooms I've ever seen! I'm not squeamish and have been camping for years so my expectations for campground bathroom cleanliness is well calibrated but these bathrooms (even the vault toilets!) were amazingly clean! There weren't even spiderwebs on the ceiling of the shower house. Just *chef's kiss*

- The water from the pump was very clean.

The cons:

-  Lack of privacy/seclusion for the 55-64 sites along the loop.

- For that same loop, since it circles the playground, if kids playing noises bother you, might want to choose a different site.

- The food at the restaurant was meh. It was fine- it was sustenance. Nothing to write home about.

- LOTS of big RVs. It wasn't an issue for us on this trip, but on other camping trips sometimes being surrounded by big RVs just isn't a great vibe.

If you want to spend a lot of your time just relaxing at camp, this is a great spot. Our site was huge, flat and private - no trouble finding flat ground to pitch the tent. It rained a lot, unfortunately, but the host stopped by and made sure we knew how to find the shower house for shelter if the weather became dangerous. We had a couple hours when the rain paused long enough for a short hike. There is a small lake for fishing and paddling, and a restaurant in the park (ended up being vital since I forgot to pack coffee). Site had electric and was a short walk to privy and water.