Yeah...this was probably most accessible to you given where you were coming from, but even City Beach (which is right off of downtown....and not as big) is busier than Macintosh.
Iowa off the beaten path
- Thread starter jbindm
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Yeah...this was probably most accessible to you given where you were coming from, but even City Beach (which is right off of downtown....and not as big) is busier than Macintosh.
Decorah, Yellow River Forest, Prairie Du Chein, Lanesboro MN are all great spots in the driftless area that Al mentioned earlier.
PDC is a really underrated spot. My in-laws park their boat at the Winneshiek Marina for the summer and they go down there every weekend. Wife and I get over there 3-4 times per summer and always have fun. Lively night life, great access to the Mississippi, and lots of parks nearby.
We get over there once or twice in the summer and once in the fall for the leaves. Always a fun trip.
Any time you are traveling anywhere, always start with Atlas Obscura:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/iowa/places
https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/iowa/places
I'll throw in some love for western Iowa's Loess Hills. Some surprisingly good hiking, with great scenery and wildlife at Waubonsie, Hitchcock, Preperation Canyon and Stone state parks respectively. De Soto bend is also a neat place that's near the hills. The Riverton Wildlife Area offers something like 300 bird species that spend time there throughout the year, many that are rare and in high conservation need,it's one of the most ecologically diverse spots in the state. The Loess Hills scenic byway travels the western border of the state and can essentially get you to all state parks and sends you though lots of small towns. It's all also takes you through the Omaha metro, so you can kind of get the best of both worlds by seeing what the Hills have to offer as well as taking in all of the opportunities a larger city brings.
I think you hit it on the head. About 1.5 hours from Des Moines to CL, about 3 hours from Des Moines to Okoboji. That's a big factor, plus ease of getting around and congestion in the summer. CL is plenty busy, but in the summer on weekends Okoboji is really congested. West Okoboji is a pretty unique public lake in Iowa in terms of depth and clarity. I don't think there's anything else like it in Iowa.
Good stuff here, everyone. Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions and all the other little detours this thread has taken.
When the water level allows during the summer there is a car ferry between Cassville, Wisconsin and a random area north of Balltown.
