High prices, average marina experience. Nice people there. Will be nicer once the construction is…read morecomplete.

This park was created when the Corps of Engineers dammed up the Des Moines River and created a…read moreflood control system. It's a man-made lake fed by a large river, so you need to be careful boating, especially after hard rains or storms. With the above in mind, it is an awesome place to rent a pontoon boat, go swimming, fishing or camping. The campground is really well maintained and has concrete pads with nice fire pits. Latitude 41 is a nice bar / grill atmosphere, and has almost anything you would want. If you want to take your kids fishing, I suggest driving all the way to the back of the marina on the SW side and fishing off of the docks. You will almost always find croppy and other small lake fish that are easy to catch with minnows or worms with a bobber. There are so many recreation opportunities here - our favorite is biking and the nature center.

This is one of the best kept secret areas of Saylorville Lake. When you first pull in there is…read moreparking for easy access to the bike trail. After passing that you come into the park and can either go left or straight. If you go left it takes you to the shelter and play area and if you go straight it takes you to the boat ramp and beach areas. The boat ramp is a two vehicle ramp so you can have two boats going in and coming out at a time. There is a huge double parking lot attached. The second part of the parking lot is also used for beach parking. The beach is really nice and has a couple picnic tables with shade over looking it. The shelter and play area is really nice. The play area is new and big and kiddos can play on it for a while. Right next to the play area is the shelter area. The shelter area is huge and in the shape of an L. It has fire places on both ends of the shelter. The play area is to the north of the shelter and on the south side of the shelter is a sand volleyball court and a baseball field. If you were going to have a family reunion or big party this would definitely be a good shelter to rent.

Great quiet and clean place for the kiddos!! There's a bike trail, restrooms and has a short walk…read moreto the waterside.

We got in too late to truly enjoy the camping, but we did have a lovely hike in the morning before…read morewe left. The parts of the park we saw were clean and the trails were well maintained. Hopefully we can come back in the future- I feel like there is a lot left to explore!

What a hidden gem of a campground. Beautiful spot. Nice level campsites. I can't wait to come back.read more

Waterworks Park is a beautiful place to take a walk, ride your bike, have a picnic…read more I love spending time on this beautiful path in the summer, there is nothing quite like going over a wood walking bridge on your bike with the shadow from the sun riding below you! This spot is so beautiful my old band even made a music video here once.. https://vimeo.com/14161874 Perfect for a family outing, or just a beautiful place to get a work out in! Bring your suntan lotion and bug spray and have a beautiful day!

This is one of the Des Moines gems that doesn't get enough credit for all it does. It does a lot to…read morecontribute to the local community. You have access to a nice section of woods, a river and some wide open spaces. People have forgotten but they have a kind of a mini arboretum of trees in the front of the park or I should say the section nearest to Fleur drive. They were open to promoting live music events and have for many many years and they finally a build a kind of bandshell that really has wonderful acoustics and is towards the top of a hill. It's usually not very crowded so you could run walk walk your dog and really ride your bike and not feel the same bit of concern as you would have grayslake because the amount of people that are at grays, lake. Grays lake has a natural loop of 2 miles. You could get some much longer walks in within the waterworks Park. It also has several intersections of bike paths that could take you to Cummings or to the west side of Des Moines and some all the way over to the western suburbs and to the downtown. If you've never been a highly recommend you going.

This is a fun park on the NW side of town. The park is fun because it has a ropes area to climb…read morein. The park also has a play area for kids that attaches to the ropes area. The park features two tennis courts, a picnic area with bbq pits, and a sports field that is set up for baseball or softball. This park connects to the High Trestle bike trail. There is a bridge that connects the park to the trail and a pond on the opposite side of the trail that is good for walking around.

Ashworth is literally the trail hub of Des Moines. I can…read moreget anywhere on this one. I love how flat it is and how easily accessible it is. There are posts at almost every intersection that let you know how to get where, how many miles it will take, and about how many minutes it might take to get there by bike. I can literally get from downtown Des Moines to Jordan Creek just by following this trail. There are always happy bikers, runners, and walkers on the trail and you definitely see some interesting things. Now that it's warming up, you can easily find me on this trail at least once a week. See you on the trail side!

I just moved to the area and was desperately looking for some running trails that were away from…read morethe main roads/cars. These paths I believe were at some point covered by water during the flooding, but when I recently ran them they were in good condition. I can tell the city maintains these trails and I would imagine once it warms up a bit more they are well travelled. I have found my running place! Secluded, well treed, and you feel safe even if there are only a few stragglers on the trail. You also run by the river which is nice. I would imagine this would be a good biking trail and dog walking trail as well. I highly recommend this park and the trails within it!

Great small park! This was the perfect spot for our picnic today. When we stopped by there was…read moreplenty of parking with over 2 dozen stalls. They had 6 covered tables, 4 trash cans, a double charcoal grill, water fountain and, porta potty. The play area was fun for the boys. 4 different slides, 4 swings, and a sand digger provided plenty of options to burn off some energy. Come check it out if you're near by.

This is the park commonly called the froggy park. It's a fun park with a play area for kids with…read moremultiple slides and other objects for kids to climb on. It has a shelter for parties and a big wide open field for sports like soccer games. There is a creek that runs through the park and has a couple bridges over it. Deer and ducks are commonly seen in the creek area. The park has multiple trails that connect with other trails that go throughout the NW side.

Green space on a bluff with dramatic downtown views perfect for chilling with a picnic or if you…read morewant some nature and privacy that Grey's Lake can't provide. It has tennis courts, it has a pond & a playground. You are very close to multiple breweries, if you want to make this a bike ride desticnation or just want to go read a book with lots of shade on a nice day! You bring the blanket, I'll bring the food and brews!