Ledges State Park, May 28 2006

Posted by Tar 

First hike of the season, and we chose Ledges State Park. Neither of us had been there before, which is a shame considering how close it is! We more or less followed the path recommended by the author of Hiking Iowa. It was about 5-6 miles, all told (I forgot the pedometer), and included about a mile on the side of the road.

 The hiking along the side of the road was all out in the sun, but most of the remainder of the hike was in the woods, in the shade. It was really a very pleasant hike, with lots of steep ups and downs into and out of the canyon (or what passes for a canyon around here).

   <– Steps leading up out of the valley.

The park itself was quite crowded when we were there. It was Memorial Day weekend, after all. The campgrounds were all full, there were lots of picnickers, children running this way and that. But we only passed maybe 4 other groups of hikers, so apparently most park visitors don't go on the trails.

The maps provided by the park did include some general vague idea of where trails were located. But the map did not include all of the trails that were actually there, and it did include some trails that actually were not there. And not all the trailheads are marked, so we found ourselves standing in front of small openings in the weeds saying "is this the trail?" And I hate it – hate it – when we can't seem to get started on a hike because we can't find the stinking trail!!

  <– Some wildlife we found along the way. A turtle (which Wally desperately wanted to hold) and a snail (which he also wanted to hold, until it actually touched his skin).

If you go: Don't count on the trail map provided by the park to be of much help! Really, though, you can't go wrong here at Ledges – the trails all seemed nice, over varied terrain, and with nice scenery.

Click here for more photos.