Tailwater West Day Use Area

Tailwater West Day Use Area is a day-use facility located along the tailwaters of the Coralville Lake Dam. Coralville Lake is a multiple use project providing flood control and low flow augmentation as well as recreation, fish and wildlife management and forest management, with opportunities for boating, camping, hiking, mountain biking, lake and river fishing, swimming, water skiing, picnicking and hunting. Anglers will find large and smallmouth bass, crappie, walleye and catfish. Several trails are within the Dam Complex, including Squire Point, Woodpecker Trail, Tailwater Riverwalk and the barrier-free Veterans Trail. The Devonian Fossil Gorge, just below the dam, offers a unique opportunity to explore a 375-million-year-old sea floor and discover fossil remains of sea life that once inhabited this tropical marine environment; twenty discovery points and a cell phone audio tour lead through the site. Turkey Creek Disc Golf Course, also in the Dam Complex, offers nine partially wooded and open holes. The day-use location offers a large group picnic area with drinking water and electric. Amenities include flush toilets, a playground, an accessible fishing pier and an accessible hiking trail. Coralville Lake is located in the Iowa River Valley, just north of Iowa City. Tailwater West lies among a heavily wooded forest of mixed hardwood species on the west side of the dam. Wildlife is abundant throughout the project: white-tailed deer, turkeys, pheasants, waterfowl, song birds and other species roam the lands around the lake.