Bob Shetler Campground

The campground has three sections all below the dam. You must have reservations. This area of Lake Saylorville is very, very busy on the weekends with many people picnicking and fishing next to the spillway with others traveling park roads. The East campground next to the spillway has concrete pads. It's tight getting in this little loop because of tree branches and the approach getting through the gate. Big rigs take it wide by going in the grass at the entrance or the branches will get you. Spot #19 is a pull thru, 50 amp, on the inside of the loop at the end of the row. I picked up one satellite with Dish.  I recommend spot #20 which is on the end and backs in next to the spillway. It has the most green space, the most privacy, farthest from the day use areas and should be good for satellites. If you are not self contained, I would not stay in either campground next to the spillway on the weekend. I would stay in the large loop away from the spillway where the bathrooms get significantly less use. One last thing, a lot of fish were getting caught in the spillway.

We stayed here six years ago and this last weekend was our most recent. We stayed in a different loop this time which was right by the public area for fishing at the spillway. Our site was great. One of only three pull throughs but because of its location I cannot rate it higher this time. The campers behind us all had lots of visitors and partied late. One had another class B pull into their site and stay the night and ran their generator for hours in the afternoon and again in the morning and it was LOUD.
As far as the site it was extremely spacious, in fact huge! Nice wide concrete pad with picnic table and fire pit. It was level and the electrical hookup was in a good location.

This was our first engineer corps reservation/stay. The campsites were clean, fairly flat, and evenly spaced out. Depending on the site, some offer shade others sit in the sun. Plenty of space to walk our dog. Easy to complete the walk-up registration process and select a spot. Being in the valley below the damn, road noise from above could be loud at times.

Located on Saylorville Lake, Bob Shetler Campground is a Corp of Engineers park is nicely spaced and sites are very level. We were in the first section (before the spillway), but you still need to go to the other side of the park to check in; there is plenty of space to turn around.

We were camped on the lower, smaller section and literally right on the river, just below the dam's spillway. If you like to fish, this is an excellent park. Although its out in the woods, the location is very convenient to the down town area. There are lots of trees and, yet, our DirecTV sat grabbed a signal right away.

Johnston is a small suburb of Des Moines. The Bridges of Madison County was filmed about 25 minutes from here and the Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage sites are everywhere to explore.

Note, the $10 nightly fee reflects our America The Beautiful National Park Pass discount.

We had wanted to try a COE campground and Bob Shetler Recreation Area was a beautiful place. Very clean. Staff was very friendly and explained how COE's operate. We got the 50% discount for the the America the Beautiful senior pass. Site 15 was concrete pad with fire ring. Next to the river and view of the dam. Took the scooter out and drove across dam and got great pics. Stopped by the boat launch which was very busy and checked out the lake.

We stayed here due to Prairie Flower being totally booked. We were pleasantly surprised as how well we liked it. Sites were decently spaced. Bathrooms were clean and well kept. Bob Shetler Campground sits below the damn and during our time here the lake was very full and they were releasing water. Many people from the city seemed to come watch the water so it made for a very busy park. A lot of gawkers.
The sites were level and fairly easy to back into but having the sites laid out a bit differently would have helped. We saw others with longer trailers struggle a bit just due to the 90 degree angle. Our short Airstream didn't hurt for our ease of backing in, not so sure we wouldn't have been a bit frustrated with our fifth wheel. Access to the dump wasn't too bad but not the easiest we have seen. Electricity worked fine even during extremely hot days.
This isn't your "out in nature" spot but if you want something close to the city, it isn't bad. Traffic noise at night was low.