Sugar Bottom Campground, near Solon, Iowa, is a spacious location that offers a mix of relaxation and outdoor fun. With sites that provide access to drinking water and electric hookups, it’s a convenient choice for both tent campers and RV enthusiasts.

Visitors rave about the cleanliness of the facilities, including individual stall bathrooms that ensure privacy. The campground also features a lovely swim beach, perfect for families looking to cool off and enjoy some time by the water. One camper highlighted, “The beach was a plus for the kids as well. Great place to relax and enjoy mother nature grounding.”

For those who enjoy fishing or simply soaking in the scenery, many sites offer beautiful views of the water. While some campers noted that the sites can be close together, the overall atmosphere remains friendly and welcoming. As one reviewer put it, “The park ranger was very nice, the area was excellent, and the bathrooms were clean.”

Located near Coralville Lake, Sugar Bottom Campground is an excellent base for exploring the surrounding natural beauty. Whether you’re here for a weekend or a longer stay, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to unwind and connect with nature.

## Overview

 The Sugar Bottom Campground is located on the shores of Coralville Lake. The Coralville Lake Project is a multipule use project providing primary benefits in flood control and low flow augmentation, and secondary benefits in recreation, fish and wildlife management and forest management. Coralville Lake provides many recreational opportunities, including boating, camping, hiking, mountain biking, lake and river fishing, swimming, water activities, picnicking, and hunting.
## Recreation

 Visitors enjoy Coralville Lake for boating, fishing, swimming and water activities. Anglers will find large and smallmouth bass, crappie, walleye and catfish. Hiking and mountain biking are popular activities in Sugar Bottom. Several trails are within Sugar Bottom, including the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, Sugar Bottom Mountain Bike Trail, and a barrier-free asphalt trail.The Sugar Bottom Disc Golf Course is located in the Sugar Bottom Day Use Area and offers 18 partially wooded and open holes. The Sugar Bottom Mountain Bike Trail is located in the Sugar Bottom Day Use Area and offers beginner to expert trails.
## Natural Features

 Coralville Lake is located in the Iowa River Valley, just north of Iowa City. The Sugar Bottom Campground lies among a heavily wooded forest of mixed hardwood species on the east side of the lake. Wildlife is abundant throughout the project. Whitetail deer, turkeys, pheasants, waterfowl, song birds and other species roam the lands around the lake. 
## Nearby Attractions

 The Devonian Fossil Gorge is 10 miles away, just below the Coralville Dam. It offers a unique opportunity to explore a 375-million-year-old sea floor and discover fossil remains of sea life that once inhabited this tropical marine environment. Twenty Discovery Points can be found throughout the site. Iowa City/Coralville offers the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, University of Iowa campus, hospital and clinics, numerous restaurants and shops as well as Coral Ridge Mall. Cedar Rapids has wonderful cultural, historic and ethnic attractions such as The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library and is the home of the Kernels Professional Baseball Club. West Branch boasts the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and Presidential Library/Museum. At Amana Colonies visit seven quaint villages with outstanding restaurants, wineries, historic sites and specialty shops. Kalona is known as the ?????Quilt Capital of Iowa\_\_????? and is home to an Old Order Amish and Mennonite Community.

Sugar Bottom Campground

North Liberty, IA is a great camping destination for adventurers of all types. There are tons of hikes and other fun activities to partake in. Experience some of the most stunning views that Iowa camping has to offer. Discover great camping spots near North Liberty, reviewed by campers like you.

North Liberty

The Best Camping Near North Liberty, Iowa

Being from the west I was pretty surprised to be camping on grass. But it was a nice family campground with a playground, a boat dock and a fish cleaning station. Easy access to surrounding hikes and the Raptor center.

Grass Everywhere

Our one-night stay at the Sugar Bottom- Coralville Lake Campground was terrific! My husband and I stopped there during our cross-country road trip. We arrived around 7:30pm on a Sunday in September and easily got a spot. The lady at the entrance station was incredibly kind and answered all of our questions.

The campground is very well marked, with easily visible site number labels. Each site is in a grassy area with a picnic table and fire ring with a grate. Our site had a tree or two that provided some shade, but some other sites were a but more shaded.

We ended up staying in site #103, which is right by the water. What a beautiful view we had! Our campsite was very close to a boat dock, a sand volleyball court, and a sandy beach. We didn't have a chance to swim at the beach, but it looked really nice! It had a large, designated swimming area that was marked with floating ropes. We were also located close to a building with restrooms. Each restroom had a clean, hot shower. The showers were free, which was a plus!

In my opinion, this is definitely a 5-star campground. I can't wait to come back!

Boats and Beautiful Views

It is best to make a reservation especially on the 3 major summer holidays

This is  a beautiful  Federally maintained campground. 

It’s an average campground. Parts are more like an open field. It’s nice, on a popular lake with a resteraunt near by. The people are friendly and it’s close to town. It’s a great place to just come relax and maybe swim.

Average

Nice grassy sites near lake for fishing, hiking, wildlife viewing. Near Iowa Raptor Project that conducts raptor programs and site with walking tour and live raptors, and Macbride State Park as well.

Nice access to lake

Located on Coralville reservoir, has nice beaches.

Spacious campsite, well maintained, clean shower houses.

We have stayed here for the past three years in September as part of a group.  It is a very nice campground located right on the lake.  Most sites are shady and fairly good sized.  This is a COE Park so you also can get a discount with your Senior Pass.  

One of my favorites

Gorgeous area, very clean, well kept campground.  Lots of water view and water front sites. 
Nice setup, lots to do (i.e., hiking, disc golf, bike trails, beach and boat launch) even though flooding issues kept us from using the beach or launch. 
Didn’t use shower facility, but quite a few dump stations to keep checkouts quick!
Only issue was that we didn’t have reservations, and there is no way to make in person reservations. Not usually a problem, except that we didn’t have cell service to call or make online. 
Great experience, we will definitely be back. 

Beautifully kept

Nice park, clean shower houses and nice playground and beach for the kids!

Peace and Quiet

We loved the views from spot 193 but they were lacking in water hook-ups and the staff wasn’t super friendly. 

Great location

A great campground if you want to mountain bike, kayak, boat, hike, fish, play disc golf or just enjoy the view of the lake. Lots of sites to choose from with varying amounts of privacy. All have electric hookup, a few have full and there are some neat hike in tent spots. You really can’t go wrong with this campground. Many activities, very well kept campground, located by Iowa City, Solon, North Liberty so many places to get a bite and see the locals or just get groceries. Here’s a picture from our site 26 stay. 

Mountain Bikers Dream Spot

We stayed at site 48 and it's a perfect spot just off the lake with great views. Only drawback is it's kinda of a walk from a bathroom and the beach but that is more than ok to deal with...with a pop up. Highly recommend

Perfect

Very nice COE campground north of Iowa City in the Lake Coralville area. Beautiful setting, lots of options for sites. A recent wind storm had the area shut down for two weeks but they did a great job cleaning up downed trees and broken limbs. It was very quiet, lots of wildlife and amenities like a boat ramp, beach, playground, walking trails, recycling (!) and an amphitheater (!). Daughter lives close by so we will definitely return. 

Very well maintained 

Last minute on Saturday night they had only 2 spots left.  We were tent camping but they only had electric sites remaining.  We got site 31, beautiful spacious area, right off the River for fishing!  Bathroom facilities were clean and had hot water.  Each site has a water faucet.  Host was helpful and the site was well maintained.  Glad we found it in a last minute change of plans.  Will definitely go back again!


Great campsite 

Fantastic campground! Plenty of space, even if it's busy. No special amenities, but a nicely kept state park.

Well kept, lake front camping

Great open air tent sites right on the side of the lake. Perfect access to restrooms close to the beach and close to the beach and write-off the boat dock. 

Sweet tent sites on the lake!

Stayed for one night in July 2021. Took a dip in the lake: lovely. Bathrooms and showers clean and accessible. Not too much privacy between sites but many sites to choose from. A brave raccoon left his paw prints on my towel drying overnight outside the van but no other detectable critter problems. Lots of families!

Spacious

An easy campground to get in and out of.  Very reliable and you know what you are getting each time. You stay.  Clean restrooms and clean grounds.  

Solid Local Spot

We stayed for 2 nights.  The park ranger was very nice, the area was excellent, and the bathrooms were clean.  Great access to the river!

Great stay

Large campground with many excellent sites on a water view. Quiet at night, convenient bath houses and large fill/dump station. Verizon service was not great in the area but could still stay connected for the most part. I was pleased with the size  of our site and how it was positioned among the others on our loop. 

This place is huge! We stayed here for one night on a cross country road trip. This is definitely a popular local campground. Lots of different sites to choose from (Primitive to fill book up). We had a full hook up site that was nice and back up to a tree line. Most of the sites back up to your neighbors and a lot of sites were very close together.
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Clean, individual stall bathrooms. Very nice lady working the check in booth. Swim beach is also a hot spot. 

Huge! 

This Campground is awesome. Very clean, for me the star attraction here was the solo bathroom &amp; shower both together with lockable door for extreme privacy when needed. The beach was a plus for the kids as well. Great place to relax and enjoy mother nature grounding. 

Awesome Campground 

Check-in was quick and easy. We proceeded to back-in site 61 with water and electric(50/30/20 AMP). We were one and done on what we thought might be a more difficult back-in, but there was enough level ditch in front to allow an easy swing. Our site was somewhat level, but we did have to put blocks under the passenger-side tires. We could back far enough in our site to park our F-450 in front of our rig at an angle and still put our back deck out. We got 2 bars on Verizon and could put out our Starlink. They have a double-hole dump station that can be accessed in both directions. This large COE has a variety of sites, with the 300 loop being full hook-ups. The sites down by the boat launch have electric only and tent sites. There are shower houses throughout the CG. Compared to other COEs we’ve stayed at, the sites here are closer together. The CG wasn’t full during the week but filled up on the weekend while we were there.

Photos of Sugar Bottom Campground

Real photos from real campers