My kids have a goal of hitting all 50 states before they leave for college – and at 12- and 10- years old, they’re well on their way with 29 and counting.
How do you classify an “official” visit to another state or country? My husband and I have long debated it, but have settled on basically spending at least a day there and doing an activity. So, our flight layovers in Minnesota and Colorado don’t count, but hiking, driving about 100 miles and eating dinner in Iowa does.
So, when our summer plans got up-ended by Coronavirus, we started thinking of ways to check more states off our list.
Our restrictive criteria made a good location somewhat limited:
- We didn’t want to drive for more than six hours (one bathroom break should do it).
- We wanted to stay somewhere that took cleaning, social distancing, and mask-wearing seriously.
- All activities would need to be outdoors and with minimal interaction with others.
Within that 6-hour road trip radius from Indianapolis, there is only one state we haven’t visited: Iowa, The Hawkeye State!
After doing some research, I decided that Effigy Mounds National Monument in Battle Ground, Iowa would be our primary destination – again, outdoors, cool historical/archeological factor and unique – check, check, check! It is about an hour away from Galena, IL (and where we were staying. It’s an adorable town and vacation destination in its own right) and our drive took us through the beautiful countryside of southwest Wisconsin and its dairy farms as well as the scenic road along the Mississippi River.
We crossed the Mississippi River at Prairie de Chien, Wisconsin and into Battle Ground, Iowa. Woohoo, state #29 for the boys!
But first, how is a National Monument different from a National Park? A National Park is a U.S. government-designated piece of land because of some “scenic or outstanding natural phenomena” while a National Monument is reserved for areas because they contain objects of historic, prehistoric, or scientific interest. There are dozens of U.S. National Parks, but there are over 100 National Monuments — many are forts, but the most popular and well known are the Statue of Liberty and the National Mall in Washington D.C.
It rained the entire way to Effigy, but we were prepared with rain ponchos and were undeterred. We needed to explore some of Iowa and this ultra-cool National site. Luckily, the rain let up just as we started on the first hike. There are two parts of Effigy Mounds National Monument – the North and South sides, divided by State Road 76.
What’s unique about this National Monument is the more than 200 earthmounds built by the first peoples of the U.S. more than 1,200 years ago. The mounds were ceremonial burial places, and there is still some mystery behind why some of them were built. More than 20 different tribes from what is now Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota crafted the giant land sculptures.
The Visitor’s Center at Effigy (on the northern side) is currently closed, but we had downloaded a hiking map from the National Park Service web site, and I recommend that you do the same. The bummer about the Center being closed is that it features some artifacts found in the area and some additional historical information.
We chose to do the Little Bear and Big Bear hikes from the Visitor’s Center as you don’t have to walk too far to see the earthmounds (and we have one son who we’re still breaking into hiking). It was very manageable, and I never heard him say “are we finished yet?” It’s nearly 3 miles, with a little elevation at the start – but that means an easy return trip. You’re treated to a small round mound almost as soon as you start the hike to whet your earthworks’ appetite.
The Mississippi River is less than a mile from the park, and the views are worth the slight uphil climb. We spent quite a bit of time peering out at overlooks of the Mississippi – you can see the mighty river for miles and all of the tiny (and larger) islands that crowd the river. The hikes from the Northern side are out and and back with some options to do some loops and see the overlooks.
The other special thing about the mounds is that they are shaped like animals – bears, birds, turtles, and others. It’s a little hard to see how they look like an animal until you walk around them and imagine which parts are the head, body and legs – a great way to engage our boys (“That’s the bear’s head; uhhh…no, it’s his butt. hahahahah!”). The mounds are marked so you know what you’re looking at even if it’s tough to tell. The trail from the Fire Point overlook to the Little Bear is lined with about 20 small, round mounds – perhaps a barrier protecting the little bear from predators or something completely different. “Maybe the kids wanted to jump from mound to mound like a row of trampolines?” Maybe not, my ninja-minded son, but still fun to imagine.
I have seen aerial shots of the mounds and they’re really amazing from that view, but as you walk along the path, with trees surrounding you and the Mississippi River in the distance, it’s cool to think about walking in the same footsteps as our first peoples who were honoring their deceased in the same place.
Especially for families with younger kids, please note that the mounds and hiking trails surrounding them are sacred areas, so it is important to be respectful, not too loud our boisterous – good reminders for my boys.
The South part of the park includes several bear formations, known as the Marching Bears (10 in all and a couple of birds) but it’s almost 5 miles. We’ll save that one for another trip.
Another important factor in exploring Effigy was that we were able to have some good conversations with the boys about the First Peoples of North America and making sure that they understand the history of how many of them were forced to leave their land.
You can easily explore most, if not all, of Effigy National Monument in just one day. We actually added a quick trip to Iowa’s Pikes Peak State Park – not even 10 minutes from Effigy. It includes some stunning vistas of the Mississippi River, a campground and hikes up and down the river bluffs. You’re also not too far from the ball fields where they filmed Field of Dreams in Dyersville, IA. The boys were hiked out and ready to find dinner, so we didn’t detour to the cornfields where the baseball players emerged from in the movie.
Is this heaven? “No, it’s Iowa.” Visiting Iowa, even just for the day, left us wanting to explore more. And we were able to check the state off our list, inching closer and closer to #50.
