Thursday 11th May – 23,000 miles, three states and the Mississippi

A beautiful morning

Start of a new budget week today so time to fill up the tanks and get some mileage under the tyres.

Instead of heading in a straight line to Chicago, we need to take a south-west swing into the State of Iowa, passing the 23,000-mile mark as we did so. But as luck would have it, that took us on the scenic ‘Great River Road’ back into Minnesota and along the most stunning section of the Mississippi we have seen yet. 

We finally managed to get a decent State line photo for Minnesota

So that we could utilise our parks pass again, to see something of note and spend a night in Iowa, we headed to the Effigy Mounds National Monument:

We watched an introductory video about archaeologists estimating the age and the reasons behind these mysterious mounds of earth.  In summary, ancient Woodland Indians probably made them. Some were built as long ago as 1300 B.C and no one really seems sure of the reasons behind them, although many contain human bones so must have been used as burial mounds. The mounds preserved here in north-eastern Iowa are only a small percentage of the estimated 10,000 in the effigy region, which reaches into Wisconsin, Minnesota and northern Illinois. The staff suggested a local hike to see some of the mounds and we set off up a steep incline.  Some of the mounds are in animal shapes that are most easily seen from the sky, such as bears and eagles, whilst others are just conical or linear in form.  

Thank goodness for signs - you will just have to accept that these mounds are bear-shaped!

 

Woodpecker

The different shapes are tricky to see from ground level and Simon was not convinced but the beautiful scenery and wildlife were worthy of the walk in any case:

Baltimore oriole

However, the best bit of our walk, if you’re not too squeamish, was when a dog-walker warned us that there was a Garter snake on the trail ahead that she had nearly stepped on.  Well, he was doing better than that when we found him – he had caught dinner! You have to feel sorry for the poor toad, but this is nature and maybe the snake was starving before he caught it.

View of the garter snake from above - below - dinner!

The trail went out to Fire point and Eagle rock for some amazing panoramic views of the Mississippi.

From the National Monument it was only 15 minutes further south to Pikes Peak State Park, which turned out not only to have some of the best views we have seen in a park, but also to be one of the cheapest with the best services available. Electric hook-up and a bucket crammed with firewood for only $21! Si set to being a fire-starter whilst I went to check-out the look-outs:

The Wisconsin River is ahead and just to the right, as it reaches the mighty Mississippi

It was a breath-taking view over the confluence of the Wisconsin river with the Mississippi. We enjoyed a fire for as long as the wood lasted before walking back down to the look-out for a dusk view: