Hiking: Preparation Canyon State Park (5)

Today February 16th we took advantage of the warm(er) weather and went hiking at Preparation Canyon State Park in Iowa, about 1.25 hours from our house.  I wanted to make sure that we took advantage of hiking on the long weekend, especially with the nice weather, but I also wanted to make sure that we weren't going to be over-saturated with the closer hikes.  The temperatures in winter are great for hiking, but I am missing the greenery of Spring/Summer.

I found a location in Iowa that was about an hour and twenty minutes North of our house to explore.  The park is part of the Loess Hills area which we've hiked in before.  It's a pretty area, even in the winter, and there were several options for trails within the park.  The boys actually attended Cub Scout camp not to far from the park last summer.   

When we arrived we discovered that one of the roads was gated off, which was frustrating since everywhere I looked before coming said that the park was totally open.  There was a designated parking spot and we were able to enter, we just had to hike a little extra.  The temperatures were tricky and they had more snow than we had on the ground in Omaha.  The boys took their Cub Scout Hiking sticks and we set off on adventure.  I was a little concerned about the layer of snow on the ground, but it worked out okay. 

The trails were a great mixture of highland and lowland, weaving up and down.  I would definitely consider this a moderate trail, and not "easy" like some of the reviews said.  The real fun we encountered was with the heavy amounts of MUD!  Whew!  Let's just say, almost all of us tumbled in the mud, and went home with muddy shoes, pants, and hands.  A fun adventure for little boys. 

Another highlight for the kids was finding a dead deer carcass.  They greatly enjoyed that!  Honestly, everyone was in pretty great spirits.  A few tears at the end of the day (we'd gone about 6 hiking miles-I always say hiking miles feel like more than regular miles).  We stopped at a scenic overlook before leaving the park and saw a few eagles soaring.  It was a really nice day and I will definitely go back.  This will be a beautiful spot in dry weather when it's all lush and green.