Hiking: Botna Bend Park (8)

I am far behind on all my posts with all the adventuring we've been doing!  Last Monday the forcast was a bit dreary and I saw a place that could be a hit or miss hiking spot.  Originally I thought we'd go as a family, but I thought if it was a disappointing location, I didn't want Mason to be spending his then little free time doing the boring hikes that were a drive away.

I took the kids to Botna Bend Park in Iowa which is about a 50 minute drive from our house.  Quite a bit of the drive was through rolling farm land. We saw pigs, horses, and cows.  Woodrow even saw chickens!  Right as we got about 500 feet from the entrance, the bridge was closed and we had to take a short detour,which meant more farm land for these kiddos, plus driving through a small town.  The town was small and quaint and I wondered if any of them had even heard of COVID-19.

This place was pretty fun, and perfect for the kiddos.  I think it Mason wanted a nice place to camp with the kids this would be a nice spot.  It was mostly campground, with access (during the summer) to the West Nishnabotna river, where they do canoe trips.  The trails were all flat and short, but great for the kids to run and play at.  We walked on some trails to a campground area that was closed, but the kids had so much fun playing on the trees!

The trees reminded me of Winnie the Pooh's house.  Theo decided to climb a tree, but got pretty nervous once he was about 7 feet high.  We had to do some coaxing to get him down the tree.  There was also a tiny log cabin that the boys liked playing in.  Woodrow was not a fan of attempting to get down from the second floor, even though I assured him I wouldn't let him fall, and it was no higher than his old bunk bed.

The boys could have played on the knocked down trees for hours.  We walked some of the trails, and were able to see elk and bison that were in the park.  There was even a white bison, which Theo thought was very cool.  There were some people feeding the elk carrots, and they let the boys each have one to feed the Elk.  They thought that was pretty cool.  Before leaving we stopped for a short time to play at the playground in the park. 

Overall, the boys had a lot of fun.  I'd go back once everything was in bloom or to canoe, but I wouldn't make it a regular rotation on our hiking trails plan.