West Overlook Day Use Area

West Overlook Day Use Area is a day-use facility on the shore of Coralville Lake, on the east side of the lake just above the Coralville Lake Dam. It offers a boat ramp, designated swimming beach, playground, picnic sites, group picnic shelter and a sand volleyball court. Coralville Lake is a multiple use project providing benefits in flood control and low flow augmentation, as well as recreation, fish and wildlife management and forest management. Visitors enjoy 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. The lake is located in the Iowa River Valley, just north of Iowa City. Wildlife is abundant throughout the project, with white-tailed deer, turkeys, pheasants, waterfowl, song birds and other species roaming the lands around the lake. 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 can be found throughout the site, along with a cell phone audio tour. Several trails are located at Coralville Lake, including the Woodpecker and Squire Point trails and the barrier-free paved Veterans Trail and Riverwalk Trail. The Sugar Bottom Day Use Area holds a mountain bike trail with beginner to expert routes and an 18-hole disc golf course; Turkey Creek Day Use Area offers a 9-hole course. Six campgrounds around the lake range from non-electric tent-only sites to full service 50 amp water and sewer sites.