River
Iowa River
520 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Mississippi River
In numbers
Length
520km
Average flow
280m³/s
Basin
32,700km²
Drop
194m
from 357 m to 163 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
520 km of river and 26 stops on the way: 5 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmEast Branch Iowa Riverat 357 m
- 28 kmCornelia Lake Bridge
- 79 kmAlden Bridge
- 92 kmWashington Avenue Bridge
- 92 kmRiver Street Bridge
- 92 kmIowa Falls Bridge
- 93 kmIowa Falls5,195 people
- 118 kmHardin City Bridge
- 193 kmMarshalltown27,620 people
- 205 kmQuarry Bridge
- 208 kmLe Grand Bridge
- 210 kmLe Grand Bridge (1896)
- 264 kmChambers Ford Bridge
- 362 kmLake McBride3.1 km²
- 367 kmNorth Liberty15,931 people
- 374 kmCoralville Lake13 km²
- 382 kmCoralville20,608 people
- 387 kmCIC Iowa River Rail Bridge (North)
- 387 kmIowa City74,220 people
- 388 kmIAIS Iowa River Bridge
- 388 kmBenton Street Bridge
- 390 kmCIC Iowa River Rail Bridge (South)
- 415 kmEnglish Rivertributary
- 434 kmHorseshoe Lake0.5 km²
- 450 kmCedar Rivertributary
- 502 kmBlackhawk Pond6.3 km²
- 506 kmBell Pocket2.6 km²
- 520 kmMississippi Riverat 163 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Tributary of the Mississippi River in Iowa, United States
At the mouth it carries 284 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 8.8 seconds. It drops from 357 m to 163 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 32,700 km², about the size of MD. 876,000 people live in it. Highest water: May; lowest: from December to February. Its dams hold back little of its water (7.0% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- Iowa CityLargest city on its banks · 74,220 people
- The Eastern Iowa Airport (CID)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 29 km from the cityCar hire at CID airport (Cedar Rapids)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water72 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Iowa River, month by month
Highest water: May
Lowest water: from December to February. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 110 m³/s in the lowest month to 670 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Iowa River: the basin in numbers
32,556 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 876,000people live in the basin
- 27/km²people per km²
- 302maverage altitude of the basin
- 860mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 8.3°Caverage air temperature
- 1%protected areas
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 0.6km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 3% Forest
- 78% Cropland
- 2% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Iowa River: what you find on the way
- 8WeirsAlden Milldam, Steamboat Rock Dam, Burlington Street Dam and 5 more
- 1Waterfalls
- 70Boat rampsBoat Ramp, Iowa River Access, McCoy Landing and 67 more
- 2MarinasMid River Marina, Scales Pointe Marina
- 3River beachesPine Lake Beach, Sugar Bottom Day Use Beach, Sugar Bottom Campground Beach
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Iowa River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
5lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (5)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake McBridekm 2993.1km²
- Coralville Lakekm 30913km²
- Horseshoe Lakekm 3590.5km²
- Blackhawk Pondkm 4156.3km²
- Bell Pocketkm 4182.6km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Iowa River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Mississippi RiverUnited States3,766 km12,700 m³/sTributaries (5)
Also: Cedar River, English River, Indian Creek, Otter Creek, Short Creek
In the same basin
United States3,726 km2,500 m³/sOhio RiverUnited States1,579 km8,000 m³/sArkansas RiverUnited States2,364 km240 m³/sTennessee RiverUnited States1,049 km2,000 m³/sRed RiverUnited States2,189 km1,900 m³/sYellowstone RiverUnited States1,114 km390 m³/sPlatte RiverUnited States500 km200 m³/sCanadian RiverUnited States1,458 km200 m³/sIllinois RiverUnited States432 km660 m³/sAllegheny RiverUnited States523 km560 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
United States459 km190 m³/s49 km awayDes Moines RiverUnited States845 km250 m³/s94 km awayMissouri RiverUnited States3,726 km2,500 m³/s273 km awayWisconsin RiverUnited States692 km340 m³/s203 km awayIllinois RiverUnited States432 km660 m³/s249 km awayOsage RiverUnited States444 km310 m³/s293 km awayKansas RiverUnited States238 km210 m³/s380 km awayPlatte RiverUnited States500 km200 m³/s406 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1672169) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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