Iowa Lakes Region

From June 2021

I spent significant parts of my youth in southwest Iowa, working on my uncle's farm and getting in and out of trouble with my same-age cousin, Tim.  I remember others talking about the Spirit Lake area of northwestern Iowa, but never visited there until last year on the way home from our Colorado trip.

Technically, we found our campground in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes.  Robertson Park, a small county park, was just across the Iowa border.   Our campsite was on the water and equipped with electric, dump station, and shower for $20/night.

 

There are small and big lakes dotting the landscape all over this part of Iowa.  Spirit Lake, Iowa is the town in the middle of it all.  There were brewpubs, Tiki bars, and restaurants.  Most had large outdoor spaces--always a nice thing during the pandemic.  

 

Iowa may be flyover country for some, but it isn't all cornfields.

 

New Trails Nearby

 We had our first 70 degree day today.  To celebrate, Julia and I hit the road early, driving up to Mirror Lake at dawn.

We have hiked and cross-country skied at Mirror Lake many times but recently read about two new trails in the State Natural Area.  

 

The Bluff/Canyon trail and the Lake View Ridge trails were so new that we kept tripping over recently cut small stumps still in the trail.  Julia did a belly flop but bounced right back up.

 

There was fog, due to yesterday's soaking rains, but the sun was starting to break through. We welcomed the warm weather with a hike of about five miles, including some off-trail meandering.

This afternoon, I'll split some firewood, listen to the Brewers' baseball game,  and then get the grill going for supper.  Next week turns cold again, so we will enjoy the preview of summer while we can.

Nebraska: Ponca State Park

 From June 2021

 

Continuing east, we drove across Nebraska on Hwy 20.  Julia was busy on google and decided that she needed to try a runza, a meat pastry pocket regionally popular in Nebraska.   In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, pasties are a somewhat similar and were eaten by the miners in that area. I've had pasties, but I'm not a fan.

We weren't quite sure where to find a runza.  Fortunately, there's a chain of restaurants called Runza in Nebraska, so we stopped when we found one in Valentine (I just looked it up and it's apparently now permanently closed).

Julia said that she was glad that she tried it but wouldn't go out of her way for another one.  It was only 10:30 a.m, and I declined to try one.

We continued on to Ponca State Park, which is located on the Missouri River. 

Nice campground with electric and showers

 

The Missouri River seemed very shallow compared to its brother, the Mississippi.

 

There were some trails here that we enjoyed.  One featured a gnarly oak tree that dated to 1644.

We would stay here again if in the area.

 
 

Nebraska: Chadron State Park

 From June, 2021

We thoroughly enjoyed our two weeks in Colorado, but it was time to start heading east towards home.  

Our first destination was Chadron State Park in Nebraska.  But for some reason, Julia thought it was important to see Courthouse and Jail Rocks.  We made a little detour.

 

I think that these rocks are much more impressive if you are in a wagon trail coming across the plains from east to west.  After spending two weeks in Colorado's high country, *yawn*.  

Nebraska is another state with separate fees for entrance and camping.  Chadron State Park.  Admission was $6/day.  Camping for an electric site was $30/night.    Our campsite was perched on top of a grassy hill with nice views of the surrounding hills.

We hiked several of the trails through the outcroppings.

Some of the trails went through high grass.  We didn't do ourselves any favors bushwhacking for better views.

I lost that smile when I made it back to the Scamp and discovered a Lone Star tick crawling on my neck.  Stripping down, three more Lone Star ticks were found.  Don't worry  No pictures of that.

Colorado: Mount McConnel Trail

 

We hiked about 0.5 miles from our campsite through the rest of the campground and down the campground road leading to the picnic area, where the trailhead is located.  The limited parking area fills up during the day, but there were no cars or hikers in the early morning when we started our hike.

This was a 4.2 mile double loop hike with about 1400' of elevation gain, topping out at just over 8000 feet.  Parts of the trail were marked by fire and beetle kill.  Unlike Dadd's Gulch, where the soil was literally still scorched, there were optimistic signs of new growth on this mountain.

isis

 

The first part of the double loop is the "Kreutzer Nature Trail, which climbed sharply up switchbacks.  Most nature trails in Wisconsin are wheelchair accessible or at least very mild and flat for the mobility impaired or seniors.  This was not that kind of nature trail.

We hiked clockwise, as recommended.  The second loop climbed even more steeply than the first, but then suddenly flattened.  We walked through a stark landscape that evidenced both the fire damage and the renewal of life.  

 

 

Some peaks don't pay off with a big view at the end.  This one did.  So we hiked it again the next day.

Colorado: Mountain Park Campground

Each day at Dutch George campground became progressively hotter. On our last day, after picking up a few supplies at unincorporated Rustic, we drove through Mountain Park Campground, another forest service campground at slightly higher elevation and more shade. To our surprise, there was a non-reservation loop in the back. It was still mid-week and early enough in the day that there were a couple of vacant campsites.

When we returned with the Scamp, we snagged the nicest one.

We were able to spread out and had no immediate neighbors.  The structure on the left of the photo was the campground well house.    Yes, we had flush toilets and access to hot showers in the reservation-only electric loop.

We were happy with our non-electric site.  You can see some sunlight in the photo.  I was able to keep our battery relatively healthy by moving my portable 100 watt suitcase panel around to catch the sun.

We did not have a riverfront campsite, but there were trails along the river which were a minute away.  Again, in the heat of the day, we found ourselves soaking our feet in the cold water.

Mountain Park campground also had a great mountain peak trail that we could walk to from our campsite.  We liked it so much that we hiked it twice.  But that will have to wait until the next post.