Camping Cabins available on Raccoon River Valley Trail

Posted Oct 26, 2010
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Dawson, Iowa Another important amenity is being completed this fall along the Raccoon River Valley Trail in west central Iowa, two new “camping cabins” that will be rentable soon in Sportsman Park just east of the town of Dawson. This park is about one city block north of the new North Loop of the RRVT. “These cabins will be great for RRVT users who will be passing by on the trail,” said Mike Wallace, the Dallas County conservation director. The conservation board manages Sportsman Park and has an employee living there full-time, so the cabins will be available for campers all year long. It’s the Dallas County conservation staff that has constructed the cabins, too. Wallace said the cabins are each 14 feet by 18 feet and can sleep five. There are two sets of bunk beds in each cabin, and a larger bed that can sleep two. Each cabin also has a bathroom, shower and sink. Each also has a microwave oven and a small refrigerator. And the cabins have both heat and air-conditioning. “They’ll be small and cozy,” Wallace said. “It’ll be like camping without having to have a tent or bringing along a trailer.” The cabins are of wood-frame construction, but they’ll also have long siding on them, so they will look neat in the wooded setting of Sportsman Park. That park also has a tenting area, and it is expected to become one of the most popular campgrounds all along the trail. The RRVT currently stretches 56 miles from Jefferson on the north to Waukee on the southeast, but the new North Loop, which is being completed in the next couple years, will add 33 miles and bring the trail’s total to 89. Sportsman Park is located a half-mile east of the Dawson trailhead, and about six miles west of Perry. Information about renting the cabins is available from the Dallas County Conservation Board in Perry at 515-465-3577 or by email at conservation@co.dallas.ia.us.