Discover Lake Iowa Park

West of Williamsburg, you should plan a stop at Lake Iowa Park, a beautiful park set in and among the rolling hills south of Interstate 80.

A new Nature Center opened in 2010 near the entrance of the park.

“It will be two years old in July,” says Lee Sorenson, Iowa County's conservation board director.

Although it has not yet been outfitted with nature displays, the grounds around the Nature Center make a beautiful setting for a picnic or a family outing.

Behind the Nature Center, to the south, is a five-acre pond. “We're in the process of building a walking trail that comes all the way from our nature center, around the pond and back,” Sorenson says. The new trail, expected to be approximately one mile in length, should be finished later this year.

On the east side of the Nature Center, you'll see a new feature that will be a hit with the kids. What's being billed as the Nature Explore Playscape is no ordinary playground.

“Instead of a metal playground, this uses all natural materials,” Sorenson says. “There's no metal, no plastic. It's all made from natural materials.” The playscape includes different play areas, including a hollowed-out log that kids can crawl through and several log balance beams. “We have a treehouse with two platforms and a rope bridge between them, so kids can climb up on the rope to get to the upper level of the treehouse.” The play area also includes several sand areas and a ‘messy materials' area where kids can play with an assortment of items from nature.

There has been a lot of buzz around one of the more unusual features of the playscape, a stage area, where they hope to soon install a number of outdoor musical instruments, all made from wood, that will stay outside during the summer. Picture a xylophone-like instrument and you've got the idea.

The playscape area at Lake Iowa Park is expected to be completed by Memorial Day weekend, “yet, we have kids playing on it all the time already,” Sorenson jokes.

Lake Iowa Park will hold a grand opening celebration for their new Nature Explore Playscape and the traveling Tallgrass Prairie exhibit on Saturday, May 26, at 9 a.m. A freewill donation pancake breakfast will be held that day in the lower level of the nature center from 7 to 10 a.m.

Sorenson also encourages visitors to check out the fully enclosed bird blind to the west of the nature center.

Lake Iowa Park includes 123 camp sites, placed high above a 97-acre man-made lake. Sorenson notes that in recent years, the surrounding trees and scrub brush had started to block campers' view of the lake. “We cleared that area and now we manage it so it stays that way,” he says. “People love to see the lake.”

The campsites are located on the south side of the lake. The north side of Lake Iowa Park includes a variety of picnic spots, shelter houses, a restored prairie, hiking trails, a swimming beach and a boat ramp. For an unusual picnic spot, park just west of Shelter No. 4, and you'll see a finger of land that juts out into the lake, just large enough to hold a single picnic table.

If you like to fish, you can catch bluegill, sunfish, channel catfish, crappie, and largemouth bass at Lake Iowa Park. Dee's Trading Post, located right outside the park entrance, sells bait and supplies.

Directions: If you're coming from the Cedar Rapids or Iowa City area, take exit 211 off of Interstate 80, head south toward Millersburg. You will come to a four way stop which will be 230th St/, turn west then go until the next available left which will be G Avenue and Lake Iowa Park is three miles to the south on the east side of the road.

For more information: Call (319) 655-8465 or go online to www.mycountyparks.com/county/iowa.aspx or www.facebook.com/LakeIowaPark.

WHILE YOU'RE IN THE AREA

Gateway Park and Preserve

In the town of Marengo, check out Gateway Park and Preserve on the north side of town, on North Street.

You can park near the large outbuilding and enjoy a walk around the 7.5-acre arboretum. From there, a hard surface trail goes all the way to Hwy. 212.

Gateway Park also features a 40-acre lake and a 12-acre pond for fishing, as well as a boat ramp with access to the Iowa River.