OPPORTUNITIES ON THE LAND
As you travel across Iowa toward Des Moines, add a great prairie to your day! These favorite places are near Iowa’s major highways. We hope one of them is near your route. Iowa prairie enthusiasts will be there to welcome you!
Hike the Loess Hills of Western Iowa
* Explore on your own
* Guided experience
* Near I-80 north of Council Bluffs
Hitchcock Nature Center
27792 Ski Hill Loop
Honey Creek, IA 51542
Park is open 6 AM to 10 PM.
Ten miles of public hiking trails weave within this1,268-acre complex of native prairie and woodland. Trails vary from easy ridgeline walks to difficult climbs. The Loess Hill Lodge Interpretive Center introduces you to this unique landform.
Host: Pottawattamie County Conservation Board
Trip Leader: Sarah Nizzi. Sarah will lead a guided bumblebee hike. Time TBA.
Northern Iowa Prairie and Fossils
* Explore on your own
* Guided experience
* Fossils near I-35 east of Clear Lake in north-central Iowa
* Hayden Prairie near US 63 and US 9 in Northeast Iowa
Hayden Prairie is a beloved 240-acre native prairie named for Ada Hayden, a professor of botany at Iowa State College (now Iowa State University) and one of Iowa’s pioneer advocates for protecting our native ecosystems.
This was the first site the Iowa Conservation Commission specifically purchased to protect a tallgrass prairie. Hayden Prairie State Preserve had been a hay prairie for decades when the Iowa Conservation Commission purchased it in 1944-45. This good quality prairie has over 100 species of vascular plants. In late May there are millions of shooting stars (Dodecatheon meadia) in bloom. The prairie is large enough to support prairie birds like northern harriers, short-eared owls, Henlow’s sparrow, bobolinks, sedge wrens and northern yellowthroats as well as smooth green snakes (Opheodrys vernalis).
Fossil & Prairie Park Preserve
1227 215th St.
Rockford, IA 50468 - Just 20 miles east of I-35
Besides enjoying some good quality mesic to dry-mesic tallgrass prairie, come here to easily find Devonian fossils you can take home. Open sunrise to sunset. Interpretive center displays.
Trip Leaders: Mark Leoschke and Larry Reis
Iowa DNR Prairie Resource Center
DNR Prairie Resource Center
2820 Brushy Creek Rd.
Lehigh, IA 50557
* Guided experience
* Near US 20 in west-central Iowa near Fort Dodge
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) dedicates 3 full-time employees to producing prairie grass and wildflower seed for use on Iowa’s public lands. Today, the Iowa DNR Prairie Resource Center provides over 65 species of Iowa-origin prairie grasses and wildflowers to public land managers across the state.
Host: Iowa DNR. DNR staff will lead a guided hike. Time to be announced.