Best Glamping near Runnells, IA

One of the more beautiful places to camp in Iowa. Awesome hiking trails and really well-shaded campsites. The hike in spots are great if you like privacy and being in the middle of the woods - but you don’t want to be THAT far from your car.

Beware of the raccoons. They’re plentiful and crazy smart here. We had one open our cooler, steal an egg from the cartoon - without disturbing anything else. Honestly, I was impressed! But some of our friends had them rip through their tents to get at food - not as impressive.

Pammel Park is awesome. It is actually a State Park that is managed by the local County Conservation Board. Pammel Park has amazing trails with varied terrain and nice forests.

The campgrounds are clean with options for tenters and RVs. There are even Yurt Cabins that can be rented. Pammel Park has a great water trail for Kayakers with several launch points.

The only caution I would have is pay attention while you are hiking, there are rattlesnakes in the park. Overall I highly recommend Pammel Park. It is about a 30 minute drive from Des Moines and about 5 minutes from Winterset.

I would consider Pammel Park a secret gem even for native Iowans. Checkout Pammel Park and spend some time in the historical town of Winterset.

Above average overall for central Iowa. Views of Saylorville Lake. Plenty of shade. Clean restrooms. It’s a large park and some sites are close together, but generally spacious. Good cell service.

Good sized lake, nice beach, camp store operators real nice. Decent distance between sites for a state park on Iowa. Boat rentals. On my annual camp rotation.

We camped here to be close to the Iowa High Trestle Trail for bicycling and it's very handy for that. Nothing fancy, but has plenty of sites, flush toilets and showers available. Sites with electric are $18/night and primitive sites are $11/night ...hard to beat that.

Stopped overnight on our way home from Iowa City. No reservations & took our chances on finding an electric site. Score! Neighbors were friendly. Water pressure to fill tank was pretty weak but other than taking a little longer, no complaints. Had an owl in the tree above the camper as a look out even! A++++

This is a great little park just east of New Virginia, Iowa. I went to the park with my son and Boy Scout Troop for a night hike, that is why there are no pictures. This is a great little park. The hiking trails are pretty easy going through the forest and then opening up next to old Native American burial mounds. This is really a great place to pitch a tent. It is clean and well maintained.

Ledges State Park is one of the most visited parks in Iowa. I loved coming to this park as a kid and I can't wait for it to re-open. It has been closed since January 2018, but it scheduled to re-open in January of 2019. Here is a link to a local story explaining the closure and flooding and the schedule to re-open the park.

https://whotv.com/2018/10/24/ledges-state-park-flooding-and-renovation-update/

Don't let the name fool you, for a city park and campground, Winterset City Park rocks. You probably didn't know that Winterset, Iowa is the birthplace of John Wayne. You may have seen the Clint Eastwood movie the "Bridges of Madison County," but you probably didn't know that the bridges are real and the movie was filmed in Winterset.

The campground is clean and there is a large space for campers/RV's and a separate spot for tents towards the back of the campground toward the park. The park itself is gorgeous and your just a few blocks away from the John Wayne Museum. If you are in Winterset the second week of October, stay for the Bridge Festival, it's a blast!

The campground is a solid 3.5, clean and well maintained. When you include all of the sites it pushes it up to a 4 star campground.

I like this place, I really do. It certainly packs a punch with all of the amenities that Kellogg RV Park offers up, not least of which is partnering up with apparently the best burger joint in the whole of Iowa. Burgers and camping? Can it get any better? Well, while this location gets extra points for achieving EZ on- and off-again I80 highway access, that likely is also its downside, as you are so close to arguably the busiest of all thoroughfares here in the state of Iowa that it makes you wonder if you are really getting away from it all or just taking a quick pitstop. 

As for the grounds themselves, they are very well organized and nearly everything on this property is either brand-spanking new or has a nice degree of ‘kitsch’ that just feels right where you are at in the middle of the Midwest. There’s a well-appointed separate laundry location on the NE corner of RV Park, with a community shower/ bathroom facility smack-dab in the middle of the place, making it central and convenient to get refreshed. There’s a simple little loop that will jog you around the place, where in all there’s some 38 spots perfectly carved out for RVs or 5th Wheelers. While the map for Kellogg RV Park indicates a playground behind the laundry, if it was there to begin with, it has been replaced by a chicken coop, which I have to admit is pretty dang awesome to be woken up by these fine-feathered friends each dawn. Plus, um, there’s fresh eggs for your brunch munching pleasure! 

With amenities in mind, each pull-thru, gravel-strewn site (all 18’ wide with lengths ranging from 65’ to 85’) comes equipped with all of the typical hook-ups (20 / 30 / 50 amp electric, water and sewage) along with plenty of in-ground fire rings, stand-up BBQ grills and plenty of brand new picnic tables along with complimentary WiFi. There’s solar panels on the for southwest corner of the campground, which sadly eliminates the vibe that you are out in nature. If there was just one bit of advice I would give this place it’s this(and it’s quite simple): plant some trees! That’s the one thing I noticed that felt incredibly weird… there’s just a few trees in this whole place. Granted, it is somewhat surrounded by corn fields, but here’s a hint: After mid-September when all that corn is harvested, the place feels like a barren desert, so how you compensate for that is by planting trees, shrubs, bush or anything that would make this place feel like it was planted in nature versus carved out of a watershed. 

While the main office is up front where you would have seen that Iowa’s Best Burger Café sign, where there’s also an Amoco gas station along with a convenience market that has limited groceries and supplies. Bonus points to Kellogg RV Park for having an F5-rated tornado shelter located on-site, so while your RV might blow away, no worries, you and those you hold most precious will be protected in the event of a tornado, which is important because this state gets hit by them all the time. They’ll also sell you a bundle of firewood for$6 / bundle, which is fair, especially considering that they’ll deliver the bundles directly to your site. 

Insider’s tips? Here’s a few: (1) IMHO the best sites are those located as far east and north as possible (yes, right near the laundry facilities and chicken coop). Why? Well, because they will be furthest away from I80, so less noise, plus they are on the periphery, so this offers up better views of corn country, and additionally, more tranquility. Plus the shower / restroom facilities are centrally located, so not too far away; (2) If you are looking to get buzzed while out here at Kellogg RV Park, you are in luck as just nearby there’s Grinnell Craft Brewhouse, Buzzed Bee Meadery as well as Van Wijk Winery – all of which are absolutely worth the visit!; (3) Should your foodie vibes need to be tamed while here, head on over to nearby Maytag Blue Cheese for a slice or slab or head on over to Dayton Meat Products, which not only processes meat in case you are out and about with a bow & arrow, but will serve up some pretty outrageously awesome sausages, loins and particular cuts of meats that you just can’t find anywhere nearby. Oh, and if farmer’s markets are your thing, then check out nearby Grinnell Farmers Market or Jasper County Farmer’s Market – both just 10 minutes from here; and (4) Once you grow tired of pillaging your on-board mini-fridge or Cordova roto-molded cooler and are looking for some local fare, I will have to admit that Iowa’s Best Burger Café does live up to its boast – and while I didn’t have another burger while I was in the ‘Hawkeye State’ I do make it my business to check stuff out when I see ‘Best’ noted anywhere and there’s reasonable proof behind this claim here, so give the good folks here the better side of your discerning tastes and try them out. Oh, and there’s that little thing that there’s not too much competition in these parts, so unless you are up for a good drive, the only other joint is RJ’s Bar& Grill, which trust me, is much more Bar than Grill. 

Happy Camping!