Prairie Flower Recreation Area

Nice level spot

A couple yrs ago we showed up and the pad was covered in children’s chalk. We had to wait a bit but the park ranger came around with a gator with a water tank and and power washed it off. We have 2 Shibas so we would have had chalk all over. Was very appreciative. This time we showed up and there were several piles of granulated white powder thrown across the deck. Still have Shibas. This was not chalk. Called the host who called the ranger who showed up much later and said it was laundry detergent and swept part of it off. There was no way to look at it to say it was laundry detergent. I grew up with a pool and it easily been been chlorine that I had seen spilled on the ground. Regardless I don’t want an unknown powder getting on my feet and my dogs feet. Then have my dogs like their feet lick their feet and get sick. If we have to be out by noon why can’t they check out the spots to see if they are ready for the next. I am not asking for a mint on my pillow but how about cleaning up an unknown substance that may or may not kill our pets. Luckily about 1/2 later Mother Nature came through with a severe thunderstorm and power washed the concrete til nothing left. BTW there was no suds for it being laundry detergent. This isn’t the same place I came too 2 yrs ago. They gave the option of moving spots but in 2 days we had to move spots anyway because this one was reserved and we had already set up thinking they could fix the mess. We knew it was going to rain. I wasn’t going to break down in the rain and move to another spot and the move yet to another spot 2 days later. Yet we did move 2 days later as we were suppose to between storms and the original spot never had anyone camping there after we moved and still was empty when we left the park. Did the host know we were moving around for no reason. That is the most empty I have seen that park in 5 yrs except for last year of course. But yet we were moving around spots?

Prairie Flower is our “go to”place for camping. Sites are spread out. Views of the lake. Clean bath houses.

Prairieflower is a wonderful campground. Clean, spacious camp sites. Bathrooms are kept very clean.

Just needed a place to pop up the camper and sleep. Barely 12 hours onsite. Only complaint was noise. Barking dogs and highway traffic was relentless. Clean restrooms, working electrical box, and mostly level site

Love the concrete pads and view of the lake. Conveniently located to explore the other public areas as well as easy access to Ankeny & Polk City. Very unfortunate to have lost a lot of shade trees in the last 2 years due to the Emerald Ash Bore but such is the case in many campgrounds.

Nice open sites with a good shade tree.

Saylorville is a beautiful lake and worth a trip there. Lots of bike trails. But do not rent site B41. You’re in a valley surrounded by trees and bushes. They need to cut all of that back

We love Prairie Flower! This site has a partial view of the lake, and is mostly sunning. Your picnic side is on the lake side, and it gets afternoon sun. Not much shade to help, but the sunset can be beautiful!

When we arrived, the people in the site next to us had their tents and dogs setup on our site. Instead of setting up on the grass next to their drive they were setup behind the electric post on our site. DNR was nice but said where they should be set up isn't really good for tents. So instead of causing problems, we stayed in our already small site made even smaller. And the people didnt even spend time at their site because they were across the road at a different site and our kids had to use our much smaller site to play.