Sandpiper Recreation Area
October 2026
About
Overview
Sandpiper Recreation Area is a day-use facility located on the 26,000-acre Saylorville Lake Project, which stretches over 50 miles up the Des Moines River Valley. The lake provides a wide variety of recreational activities, including boating, swimming, fishing, hiking and hunting.
Recreation
Visitors come to Saylorville Lake for its great boating, sailing, water skiing, windsurfing and swimming opportunities. Anglers fish for walleye, wiper, largemouth bass, catfish, crappie and northern pike.
The paved Neal Smith Trail winds 24 miles from Des Moines to Big Creek State Park and connects the campgrounds on the east side of the lake. It is designated as a National Recreation Trail and is used for biking, hiking, jogging, walking and in-line skating.
Facilities
This day-use area contains one large group picnic shelter that can accommodate up to 500 people. Amenities include water and electricity, flush toilets, a playground, overlook, boat ramp and access to hiking and biking trails. A marina is nearby.
Natural Features
Sandpiper is situated in a broad, open area on the northeast side of the lake. Dense timber stands surround the recreation area, but shade is limited within the site.
Wildlife is abundant throughout the project. White-tailed deer, turkeys, pheasants, waterfowl, and other small game animals roam the lands around the lake.
Amenities
Phone: 515-276-4656
Is SANDPIPER RECREATION AREA fully booked?
A campground showing no availability is almost never full for good. People cancel — plans change, weather turns, someone books three weekends and keeps one — and the site goes straight back into the booking system, usually without warning and often at odd hours. The reason sold-out campgrounds feel impossible is not that sites never free up; it is that nobody is watching at the moment they do.
CampHawk watches SANDPIPER RECREATION AREA in Johnston, IA for you. We recheck it every 15 seconds, around the clock, and the moment a site opens we send a text, an email and a push notification — and on Recreation.gov we can put the site straight into your cart, so it is held while you get to your phone.
Searching is free and needs no account — the calendar above is live right now. Watching SANDPIPER RECREATION AREA for cancellations is the paid part.