Iowa

Day 88:  Ledges State Park was our first stop in Iowa.  In this region of boringly flat farmland, you would hardly guess that this patch of woodland hides a steep-walled creek canyon winding between sandstone cliffs.

It was an adventure to drive the one-way park road down into the canyon where it crosses the creek multiple times by way of shallow concrete fords lined with steppingstones.  The water level is high enough about half of the time so that the park road has to be closed to traffic.  The hiking trails we explored were short but steep, up and down the slopes and along cliff rims.

Day 89:  We had a very pleasant Iowa bike ride, a little northeast of Des Moines.  We rode 10.8 miles each way out and back on the paved Chichaqua Valley rail trail, which is mostly wooded, passes or crosses several small creeks and wetlands, has some views across fields and pastures, and crosses the South Skunk River on a long trestle.  For lunch we joined a cyclist at a trailhead picnic shelter and shared traveling, hiking, and biking experiences—we had hiked some of the same trails in Glacier National Park—and he told us of some of the interesting local places.

Day 90:  We hadn’t seen our nephew Tyler more than once or twice since he moved to Iowa several years ago, so it was great to be able to visit him, his wife Nicole, and their one-and-a-half-year-old son Connor for the day.  They took us to see Maquoketa Caves, a state park with walking trails through an extensive cave system.  We stuck mostly to the trails through the large caverns with full headroom, but there are also passages that can be explored by those who don’t mind crawling through small openings.