Mariposa Recreation Area

This is a nice county park conveniently located not far from town and I-80. All sites are dry camp sites, but there are hydrants thrpughout the camping area. Picnic tables & fire rings at each site. The sites are all grass. Sites 1 & 2 are mostly level, the others are manageable.
The lake was recently dredged and improved. Two new pit toilets were put in near the lake. There is a nice nature trail that goes around the lake.
The park also has a playground and a playscape. Lots of wildlife.
A great place for a quite getaway or for a stop while traveling along I-80.

The park is closed this year and probably next year as well. (Yes, it is even closed for day use, picnics etc...) The long awaited refurbishment of the lake is underway. A joint county and state venture, the lake has been drained and is being both enlarged and deepened. Plans are to include a boat ramp. Previously there was no boating allowed. Boating will likely be restricted to electric motors and/or to no wake speeds with either gas or electric motors..

Another county park I checked out recently is Ashton-Wildwood county park. It lacks a lake, but seems a good substitute for now. Costs $7/night and is in northeast Jasper county 20 miles from Newton, Ia. I haven't stayed there yet, but will post a review after my first camping trip there.

Mariposa gets one star till the work is complete...

I have stayed at Mariposa county park numerous times over the past 3 years. There are 8 large RV camping spots. All are grassy areas. (no gravel pads) The remainder of the camping area is walk in tent camping only. There are pit latrines and farm style water spigots available. The park gates close at 10:30 P.M. and open at 5 A.M.

The county conservation officer for the park monitors the campground every few hours and he is quite friendly. He tells me that the campground only fills up at labor day and memorial day. Usually, I am the only one camping in the park, although once I had two neighbors. One of them was tent camping and the other was an RV. You can't see the tent camping area from the RV area, so it was like only having one neighbor. (And that one was 75 yards away.)

The park has a small lake which offers moderately good fishing. Swimming and boating are not allowed. There are about 2 miles of walking trails. Mostly the park sees day use from local fishermen and the occasional picnic gathering. The camping area is well away from the day use area.

Located about 8 miles northeast of Newton, Iowa, the park is both quiet and isolated while being close enough to town to make it convenient.

As of the summer of 2017, a bridge is being rebuilt which causes a detour in getting there. From Newton, take highway 14 north to county road T-12 south. When T-12 makes a right hand turn, (intersection with a stop sign) go left instead and in a quarter mile at the bottom of the hill is the park entrance.

County road T-12 is a 2 lane concrete road.

Once the bridge re-opens, take T-12 north from highway 6 at the east edge of Newton and follow the road till it turns to gravel. Then you are at the park entrance.

The park used to offer free camping, but began charging the $7/night fee several years ago. Even at $7, this is a great place to spend the night or a few days.

For now, I'll rate access at 3 of 5 because of the detour, but normally I would give it a 5 because there are paved roads all the way to the park entrance and within the park. Cell service is ok if you have US Cellular, otherwise you are probably without service.

It was a long day of driving, only because the 1st two campsites we tried to stay at were full or the sites were way to close to each other to be comfortable.

The first place we tried was Walnut Woods. It looked ok, but the sites were really close to each other and it turns out it was full (by 4:00pm).

The second site we tried was Thomas Mitchell County Park, it had a few openings but the sites were even smaller, I'm not sure we could have put out our slides comfortably.

So we ended up trying out Mariposa Recreation area. So glad we passed on the other two!

Mariposa only has a 15 sites, but they are beautiful! The first 5 or sites will fit any size RV/Trailer, the remaining sites are for tents for smaller units.

The park is the cleanest we have ever been at.

We arrived Monday night on June 26, 2017 and we are the only ones here.

The sites are overly large and mostly level.

Absolutely beautiful. There is even a 1/2 mile nature walk.

Driking water is available at several spigets, trash bins, and vault toilets.

We spoke to the park warden, they usually are never full, even on weekends.

Highly recommend this site! Only downside was there was a detour to get here.