Yellow Banks Park — Attraction in Carlisle

Yellow Banks County Campground is our 148th stop and we stayed for 7 nights. All reservations are done online and there is no office to check in - easy process. There are a limited number of full hook up spots so made our reservations 11 month prior. Only 20 minutes from downtown Des Moines, you are in the woods and very close to the Des Moines River (bugs). We has some nice shade during this hot period, there is good spacing between sites and was peaceful. The site is crushed gravel and sloped quite a bit for some challenging leveling. There are some train tracks but are down the bluff so we could hear little of the 2 trains coming by during the day. And lucky one evening as 4 eagles were circling near our site. All in all, would rate a 4.4. Connectivity: No park WiFi; Verizon (47.1 down/10.1 up); T-Mobile 654.0...

First time going here. Took the kids for a hike and picnic. The places of interest are not well marked. You kind of have to drive around and find your way around. There is one long trail to the bluff but it's not marked after the initial starting point and it has several places to choose where to go along the way so making it there at all especially with young kids is quite a feat. Overall not much to see there in terms of trails. They did have places to camp that were heavily treed. There are 2 playgrounds. There is a pond you can launch a boat in. There are places to bbq where u do not have to camp. There is one large camping area all by itself that is $60 and you can have up to 20 people. That seemed pretty cool. Would probably not be back unless...

I've driven past the sign for Yellow Banks as long as I can remember when I traveled to Des Moines. Having a little extra time decided to visit. First, I visited the pond area and took a trail. It was very hilly so made for a nice work out. Some of it had wood chips and then dirt but nicely mowed. There were helpful signs for trails around the park. The gnats were annoying. Later, I wanted to see the river side so I drove over there. It was picturesque and peaceful with a large sandbar. There was also info about the Des Moines river trail so you can probably kayak/canoe there but I don't know for certain. I would like to visit this park again. There was a campground and I also noticed areas for tents that seemed...