What can $5 get you? The oak grove beach are is nicely maintained and a lot of beach for…read moreactivities and getting together with friends. Day trips cost $5 for the permit. The are hundreds of parking spots. Tons of big grain sand, not Pensacola sand bit you could imagine it's coquina if you close your eyes. The water at saylorville in July is clear and a little green. Perfect temps for cooling off as you watch all the boat people go by. The dedicated swim area is the size of a football field. So even busy there is room to spread out. The bottom is the heavy sand and comfortable to walk in if you're grossed out by weeds and mud. Overall this is nice spot and only 5 miles outside of Ankeny. The views is nice of the Saylorville lake which is a core of engineers lake along the Des Moines River Basin. There is no lifeguard on duty but also no rip tides. Come enjoy a little 'surf' action as the little waves sweep in and give you that faux beach experience!

This is a nice small rec area. When you first enter the area you can either go straight or left…read more If you go left it takes you to the picnic area. The picnic area has two shelter areas and a small play area. The play area consists of just a rope structure that kids can climb on. Shelter 2 is a neat shelter that is down a trail and tucked back in to the woods. If you go straight when you first enter it takes you down to the beach. The beach area is very large and has a very large parking lot and there is a bike trail that connects to it. The beach is a great place to take the family.

What an awesome place! We did tubing 4-6pm; not super busy and kids had a blast. Everyone working…read morethere were interacted with were friendly and welcoming! Facilities were well maintained and clean. Can't say enough good things about this place!

What a great small ski hill. Excellent instructors and learning environment. Not crowded. Priced…read moreright.

A really hidden Des Moines gem actually it's in Johnston but so very close to the north side of Des…read moreMoines. It has extensive walking areas parking areas and a beautiful area along the river all free. There are maybe 10 shelters and picnic areas that are open for rent many of them that have children's playgrounds right next to him so it's an ideal setting for family picnics wedding celebrations annual picnics company picnics just a great recreation area that is well maintained. You can see all kinds of birds both along the river anything from bald eagles to blue herons to pelicans and in between I've seen indigo buntings on this trail and things as common as Cardinals and as unusual as an oriole. It's a great place for deer around twilight or early in the morning well turkeys. Native plants native wildflowers. And it's relatively flat easy location to get to with accessible walking you could walk in park with a wheelchair and have a nice outdoor experience. the playgrounds make it a wonderful place to take kids to have a picnic and blow off steam.

Wanted to look into renting the Lakeside center for my daughters wedding. I called twice and spoke…read moreto Leslie, she answered all my questions. The second time I called I wanted to reserve it. You can not do this online, unless you've already booked something with them before. So I had to leave work early to go in there. Ankeny residents have a better price then nonresidents. That's fine, my daughter is a resident. But to put it in her name we both have to go back. me to cancel it and her to book it. Seems like a lot of hassle, but it's an inexpensive wedding venue, so I guess we'll jump through the hoops. Leslie was courteous and polite. She answered my million questions. Now to plan the rest of the wedding! Yikes, where to begin? They don't accept credit cards, just cash or check.

10/7/23 We were…read moreassigned a site in the "G" pinwheel. Very spacious between sites, with tons of grass and trees. Concrete pads. Good hook ups. Very very nice, especially since it rained a couple days. Didn't have to deal with mud. Most of the park is beautifully landscaped. It must take a small army to keep it looking so good. There are three friendly, absolutely gorgeous horses near the park entrance. We asked the owner if they like apples and carrots. He kind of smiled and said he didn't know if they would, but that they like peppermint! We tried to go the apple & carrot route, but had no takers. Didn't try anything peppermint. There's a huge pond with fountains on the property. It's quite nice. One of our neighbors trotted off with his rod and reel one day. Don't know if he had any luck. The larger community building has three toilet stalls and three private showers. Two of the showers are small. The larger (for the mobility challenged??) has no hand rails but the larger toilet stall does. The sink area has an outlet on each side, but there's no place to hang your jacket while you wash your hands. Very inconvenient. There is a shuffleboard table, pool table and two video games, as well as a tv. The laundry room has 4 washers and 4 dryers. There's a nice big room with a sweet kitchen for private parties, as well as a lounge area. Someone used it for a Sweet 16 party during our stay. There are no fire rings or picnic tables at any of the sites, and there was no easy route to the community building from our area. We either had to haul all of our laundry gear using the streets, or take the truck. Cutting across someone's site would have been rude but much faster and easier. There is an overflow parking area for guests with more than one vehicle next to the "G" pinwheel. I wish some of the people who were in our pinwheel would have used it, as they parked their extra vehicles so they were partially in the driving lane. One pickup was parked nose-in to the site, but the back of the truck was so far into the driving lane it was hard to get past it. Bad form. The park is close to all the stores and restaurants in Altoona. It's a good location, and it really is a nice place at a decent price. I would definitely recommend it to anyone coming to this area.

We stay at Griff's regularly when visiting our daughter's family. An A+ in my book. Clean, nice…read moreamenities, best RV bathrooms and showers I've seen anywhere. Open year round. Fair prices. Propane for sale. A couple of reviewers have called the owner rude. Gruff may be closer to the truth, but extremely helpful.

This is a lovely campground with beautiful mature trees and roomy spaces. There is a short walk to…read morerestrooms and showers which are very nice. Some spots are right on the river (look at site map) so are difficult to get especially on weekends. Used our sr. cards and got a great rate. Negatives: sites don't have septic and you have to book thru recreation.gov which is not the easiest site to navigate. All in all, well worth it! Camp host Frank is wonderful!

This is a great big recreation area that is broken up into three parts. When you first pull in you…read morecome to a stop sign and if you turn left you go into the camping area. If you go right you go into the picnic and playground area. If you go straight it takes you down to the boat ramps. I have never been to the campground portion of the rec area so I will leave that part to be reviewed by other people. The boat ramp area is very nice. They have two different sets of boat ramps. They have an upper set of boat ramps which are very long and very steep. They have a lower set of boat ramps which are your standard length and grade. The parking is down by the lower ramps and there is a pretty large parking area. The picnic area is very nice here. They have six shelters and two play areas for kids. Shelter 6 is arguably the best shelter area as it has the nicest playground close to it, a horseshoe area, and it also has an amazing view of the lake. By shelter 1 there is an entrance to the bike trail heading north with plenty of parking. There is also an entrance to the bike trail heading south near the entrance to the campground area. Overall this recreation area is a great place for the family offering lots of different options.

No playground here, just a pond for fishing & a walking path. Prior review shows nice play set but…read moresaw nothing

It was in a very nice neighborhood, lots of fun activities and slides for little ones to enjoy…read more There was a small pong not far that had some small fishing available as well!