Iowa outdoor enthusiasts love state parks, want more restroom access

MOUNT VERNON — It was a good day for long-haired dogs, children with puffy coats and Eastern Iowa friends from different cities who met to enjoy nature on the first day of 2024.

Emma Hunt, 6, and Liah Backes, 7, scrambled up the limestone outcroppings at Palisades-Kepler State Park, Emma carrying a baby doll in a sling, while Brittney Hunt, 34, of Cedar Rapids, watched from below.

“I home-school,” Hunt said. “Being able to be out in nature and for her (Emma) to learn certain things local to Iowa, certain kinds of trees and nuts and all that, to add into our environmental learning has been really good for us.”

The trio were among more than 130 people who came Monday to Palisades-Kepler for the First Day Hike, one of 24 hikes the Iowa Department of Natural Resources offered at state parks, forests and natural areas around the state.

Hikers of all ages met at the lodge at noon and took off along the Cedar Cliff trail, which winds along the bluff of the Cedar River. Some people strode the full 2-mile, hilly trail, while others stopped at the gazebo to chat with Ranger Luke Wagner. A couple families with small children spent an hour on the riverbank sandbar, digging with sticks and watching the ducks huddled in the frigid water.

They all met back at the lodge for cocoa, hot dogs and s’mores roasted over a fire in the massive stone hearth of the 1930s building.

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The Gazette asked some of them about their favorite things in nature in Iowa.

“I like the trails that aren’t paved,” said Jeff Madsen, 62, of Cedar Rapids.

Palisades has 5 miles of unpaved, rugged trails — some of which were improved in last April. The Iowa DNR and Friends of Palisades-Kepler smoothed out rutted trails and then laid geogrid fabric to keep new gravel in place. They then put in new steppingstones along Cedar Cliff trail. The second part of the project will be done this year.

“I love hunting morels in the spring,” said Tracy Paxton, 51, of Hiawatha. She and her husband, Bill Paxton, 53, moved in the last year from the Quad Cities and have enjoyed visiting different parks for hiking with their golden retriever, Mowgli.

Judy Beuter, 63, of Solon, loves the bald eagles that spend the winter along Iowa rivers.

“I think it (Iowa) is just as beautiful in winter as it is in summer,” she said.

To ensure she can keep hiking, Beuter wears a sacroiliac support belt to protect her back and sturdy shoes to keep her from twisting an ankle. She met some new friends Monday at Palisades-Kepler, which she said is one of the joys of events like the First Day Hike.

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Wagner, who became park ranger at Palisades last year, slowly is learning the history of the park established in 1922. He still can’t get enough of the view from the stone bridge near the dam where you can see the bluffs across the river.

“It’s all pretty spectacular to me,” he said.

When asked what outdoor improvements they’d like to see in Iowa, several people mentioned restrooms. At all outdoor areas — not just Palisades — they’d like to see more restrooms, updated restrooms and restrooms not locked for the winter.

Restroom upgrades are on Wagner’s shortlist of projects for Palisades-Kepler. The park has a couple of 1980s restrooms that aren’t accessible to people in wheelchairs and don’t have floor drains. Wagner hopes those can be replaced in coming years.

When the ground thaws in the spring, workers will dig trenches to install new fiber-optic cables to improve Wi-Fi service in the park, Wagner said. This will allow the Iowa DNR to make all camping sites reservable online, as opposed to leaving a portion of the sites available for in-person, walk-in camping.

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com