Ledges State Park, near Boone, Iowa

 5/16/2023 to 5/23/2023


        Ledges is a small state park in the middle of Iowa. When we first got here, it seemed like the middle of nowhere. But like all the places we've been, it grew on us as we discovered what it had to offer. 


        There are about ten + formal trails in the park, all of them about a mile each. For our longer afternoon walks we combined several trails to get my goal of 10,000 steps. Three trails were relatively flat (and easy on my arthritic knees), but the rest were carved with lots of steps into the side of the canyon. The road through the canyon is very pretty. In the winter, when it's closed to motor vehicles, people hike or cross country ski on the road. 

 

        My favorite spot reminded me of hop rocking in Montreat. We got there following an informal extension of one of the trails down to a creek.

        
        Scott's favorite landmark was on the trail he took with Annie every morning. We assume this chimney is part of a structure built by the CCC at the time they park was built. 



        Scott took a kayak trip down the Des Moines River. In the summer there are organized kayak and tubing trips which we could have done together, but they don't start until Memorial Day. So Scott figured out where to get in near Boone and where to get out near our park - about 15-20 miles. I was his transportation to and from the river. He had a great time. 



        The park was totally full on the weekend - even the primitive walk-in sites. We were surprised to see a lot more Class A's than usual. We have a Class A, but it's rare to see more than one or two others. Here there were six in our small section of the park. All other license plates were from Iowa, so Texas tags were unique again. Our site was small, but had a view of the woods. 


        
        We got to know some of the towns in central Iowa. We got mail (i.e. Amazon packages) at the Boone Post Office, also went there for Mexican Food. We got my glasses repaired in Ames (after I left them where I shouldn't have and Scott sat on them). In Ames we saw the campus of Iowa State University. It was beautiful, but deserted with school out of session. We bought a second kayak in West Des Moines at a Scheels Sporting Goods. Scheels was like a Dick's Sporting Goods x 2. We found out that West Des Moines is not a section of Des Moines, but a totally separate city. Getting to know all these Iowa towns and cities will make watching the presidential caucus news more interesting in 2024. 

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