Pikes Peak State Park, Part Two of Camping In Iowa......

Last weekend we went to another Iowa State Park, Pikes Peak State Park in McGregor IA.  It is on the bluffs of the Mississippi River. I can not say enough about how beautiful it was. The hiking and biking trails are great and well maintained. We had so much fun. McGregor is a cute little town just a few miles from the park that has lots of little shops to go into. We never made it to them because we spent so much time hiking and biking but they looked super cute.  Right across the river is Prairie du Chien WI which is a bigger town if you need anything. We went to Prairie du Chien because we forgot a couple of things and found a great meat market called Mississippi Meats

The view from Pikes Peak was just beautiful. The river is just so immense. Every time I looked at the river I was in awe.

                                     A lot of wild flower to take in at the park

When evening rolled around  we would walk down to the peak and watch the sunset. Again I was in awe

We had so much fun hiking! Anyone who knows me knows that I love to hike and walk so it was perfect for me. We hiked everyday we were there and still did now get to every trail.

There were hidden treasures to see throughout the park.

                                                Another overlook that we hiked to.

                                                 Morgan taking a little breather

We laughed when we say the name of this trail..My-Otis. We never did go on the trail

                     Otis had enough of hiking by the time we found this bench to take a rest on

                Morgan on the other hand had a lot of fun and wanted to explore everything

The pictures cannot show you the depth and steepness  of the hills that we hiked on.

                                                                     Natures art

Another hidden treasure was this old house trough. What was really neat about it was it was full of water that was coming out of a natural steam. Water was seeping out of the ground. It was so clear and so cold. The dogs loved walking in it after walking in the heat.

We came across these mushrooms while hiking. They were so bright yellow that they stood out from all the brown and green. We only saw this one bunch of them in all our hiking.

On Sunday we had set out to do a 5 to 6 mile hike. We were not going to take the dogs with us but they were so excited to go when we took them for a hike around the campgrounds we decided to take them with us. Little did they or us know we ended up hiking for 5 hours and went 9.6 miles. They were ready to lay down when we got back.

We went to Effigy Mounds National Monument on Monday afternoon. I had never heard of it before but was really glad we went to see them. We learned a lot. You can read about what Effigy Mounds is Here.

They had really great trails to go on to see the mounds and several great overlooks.

As we were walking down a trail I saw this tiny little bug flying by me. It kept flying around my head and then landed on a leaf. I was able to snap a picture of it. I looked just like a little fairy.

                     In the evening the deer would come out of the woods. They were fun to watch.

In the park they had several hummingbird feeders up.  There was often up to a dozen hummingbirds buzzing around. I managed to get a couple good pictures of them.

This was our campsite. We were in site 44. We liked the campgrounds a lot. The sits were very roomy and most of them were flat. The bathroom/shower house was very nice and clean the few times I was in it.  The only thing we did not like was the dump station. It was on a downslope so it was difficult to get the tanks dumped.

What is a trip without a selfie...even if we are dirty and sweaty from hiking 9 miles

I cannot say enough about Pikes Peak State Park. This trip was one if not our favorite camping trip we have taken. We had so much fun that we have booked another trip there in the fall. I cannot wait to see the bluffs in all the fall colors.

Get out and explore!
Sharon

Camping in Iowa, Pilot Knob State Park.....

We decided to take a last minute trip at the end of June. We wanted someplace close so I started looking for a campgrounds to go to in Minnesota. Since it was the weekend before the 4th of July a lot of the sites we wanted to go to were full. So I started looking in other states. We have camped in South Dakota and Wisconsin but never Iowa. I came across Pilot Knob State Park  It is located in Forest City Iowa just an hour and half from home.  Since I had to work over the 4th of July we went from Wednesday until Sunday night. The park we pretty empty until Friday night when it filled right up. Since it was a holiday weekend I figured it would. In talking to the campground host she said most weekends it is not nearly as full. By the way the campground hosts were wonderful. Super friendly and around a lot checking in on people.

One of the highlights of the park is the tower that is the second highest point in Iowa. You can climb to the top of it and see forever.

Otis was not sure he liked being at the top of the tower.

We found a ton of black raspberries to pick. Of course once we pick them we had to go to town to get some ice cream to eat with them.

The walking trails were very nice in the park. We hiked just about all of them. Best of all was the lack of mosquitoes. It was so nice to be able to walk in the woods and not get ate alive. We never had to use bug spray even when were next to the bog. Dead Man's Lake, a four-acre floating sphagnum bog is another highlight of the park. It had a trail that went all the way around it. 

One thing the park lacked was trail signs. I laughed when I saw this sign on a  bench. You had to really look hard to read it.

We were excited that they had a mountain biking trail. A lot of state parks will not let you bike on the trails. The trail was just right for Rick and I, just tuff enough so you really had to pay attention to what you were doing but not so hard that you were scared for your life. It was a little over grown in places and had a few places that we had to walk our bikes because horses can also use the trail. They had a lot of rain in the area so the trails had some ruff spots from them.

The park also had a beautiful amphitheater. I told Rick it was to bad we were already married because it would be a perfect place for a wedding :)

We had a great time while we were there. The camping spots are nice. Some of them are a little close together but on a less crowded weekend it would not be bad at all. The sites were plenty big. The tents sites were really nice.

I was very happy with our last minute getaway and would recommend Pilot Knob State Park for a nice relaxing place to go.

I should have a new post for you tomorrow on our camping trip this past weekend.....

Happy Camping
Sharon