Lake Red Rock · Iowa
Overview North Tailwater Picnic Shelter is located on the Des Moines River on the North end of Red Rock Dam. It is just 10 minutes from Pella, known for its Dutch heritage, and 15 minutes from Knoxville, the Sprint car capital of the world. Visitors enjoy boating, fishing, hiking, biking and viewing wildlife.
Sites at North Tailwater Picnic Shelter are reserved through Recreation.gov. Sites here can be reserved in advance through the official system, and they are claimed fast — cancellations then trickle back all season, unannounced, at any hour of the day or night.
| Total sites | 1 |
|---|---|
| Site types | Group, Shelter |
| Hookups | Electric hookups at some sites |
| Location | Pella, IA |
| Book through | Recreation.gov |
| Official listing | Recreation.gov |
Because sites are booked months ahead, a steady share of reservations get cancelled as trips fall through. Each cancellation instantly returns that site and those nights to the official calendar — first-come, first-served, no waitlist, no announcement. Refreshing the booking page yourself, every few minutes for weeks, works in theory. In practice, the people who get these sites are the ones who hear about the opening first.
itOpened scans the Recreation.gov calendar for North Tailwater Picnic Shelter around the clock. When a site matching your dates and your vehicle opens, you get a text with a direct link to it. You book it yourself, in your own account, at the normal price. We never book, hold, or resell — your fee pays for monitoring, and openings are first-come, so speed is the whole game.
| Howell Station | Cancellation alerts available |
|---|---|
| Whitebreast Camp | Cancellation alerts available |
| Wallashuck | Cancellation alerts available |
| North Overlook Camp | Cancellation alerts available |
| Ivans | Cancellation alerts available |
| Fifield (Ia) | Cancellation alerts available |
| South Overlook (Ia) | Cancellation alerts available |
| Miner's Retreat Enclosed Shelter (Ia) | Cancellation alerts available |
| North Overlook Picnic Shelter (Ia) | Cancellation alerts available |
| South Tailwater Picnic Shelter | Cancellation alerts available |
| Whitebreast Point Shelter (Ia) | Cancellation alerts available |
Page data refreshed 2026-10-29. Site facts come from the official directory listing for North Tailwater Picnic Shelter; cancellation statistics come from our own scanning logs.