It was Spring Break and Easter weekend - the perfect time for Minnesotans to head somewhere warm, shed winter clothing, and enjoy temperatures above 50F for a spell. We knew many who were making trips to the Southwest or St Thomas and St John's, COVID restrictions be damned. We went to Iowa. The Upper Mississippi River Valley and Driftless region of northeast Iowa, to be exact.
We drove along the wide, slow-moving deeply carved river - an alluvial floodplain choked with trees and marshy backwater channels sandwiched between high ridges and bluffs - its barges moving slowly from lock to lock, pool to pool, small town to small town one after the other, lining the thin ribbon of land between the highway, railroad track and river bursting with off white grey and beige mobile homes one after the other raised on stilts to escape the inevitable flooding. Built there and raised there as claims to a history of the working river. Built not for beauty, nor views. Perhaps for fish. Perhaps for history, family, or avoidance, or all three. To be a local, or, to know the river, one must know where the fish are at any given time of the year, what channels are navigable by boats and barges, skiffs and tugs, and which will lead you to trouble.
We went because, well, we felt uncomfortable going much further than a few hours from home due to COVID, because we hadn't been vaccinated, and because we'd never been to that part of Iowa - that bit of the river. This part of Iowa is different than the corn-fed plains one finds in much of the state. River towns and river culture are a little funky everywhere but this part of the river - between lock 3 and lock 12 - seems especially unique; rangier, looser than the Mississippi and St Croix further north, but not quite Mark Twain's more languid territory either, maybe a little forgotten, a little stuck, a little slow, a little in-between.
We stayed in a cabin in the middle of a trailer park in Harper's Ferry. There is no longer a ferry - if there ever was. There is only the sparse town, a marina, a mini-mart, a couple of bars, and a supper club - a dead ringer for a 1950's church basement complete with chairs, and an empty salad bar stacked in the corner. The waitstaff will chat with you for a good while. Cigarette smoke filtered in through the screen door from the bar patrons outside. From our cabin, we had no view of the river, and could hear the noise of the highway and trains a few hundred feet away. We imagine one might smell the river (and maybe Wisconsin) in the dull heat of summer, but in early April, it seemed not to be there unless you saw it. A few miles downriver is the border with Illinois. Abraham Lincoln trod through these hills, woods, creeks, and floodplains as a young soldier during the 1830's Blackhawk War. Trouts -of the river and brown variety - shift quickly in the currents of the many small streams tumbling through the bluffs into the big river. Forts were built, treaties were inevitably broken, the land was "settled" and farmed. And before any of it, people had called this place home for thousands of years. People still do.
We enjoyed our time. We hiked in Yellow River State Forest, found Buffalo Trace and Eagle Rare bourbon in a gas station, hiked and visited Effigy Mounds National Monument, the Driftless Area Wetlands Centre, Pikes Peak State Park, McGregor, Marquette, and Prairie du Chien. We made breakfasts and dinner in our cabin, sat by the outside fire in the evenings, played cribbage and cut-throat games of Sorry, read not too old issues of National Geographic and Archaeology magazines, ate peanuts from the shell, and watched a few Family Feud re-runs on the TV. It didn't seem much like Easter, and that was okay.
What is the Driftless Area/Region you might ask? The Driftless Region is an area within four states that border the Mississippi River that was unglaciated. This area is known for its deeply carved river valleys, spring-fed waterfalls, and trout streams.
The national monument is a sacred space to the native American tribes that are historically and culturally affiliated with this area. The 191 known burial mounds were constructed during the Late Woodland Period (1400-750 BP) with at least 31 of the mounds built in the shapes of bears and birds. In the north unit, there are several trails high on the bluff that wind through conical mounds and mounds built in the shape of bears.
From eye level, it's a bit hard to imagine the animal shapes. See below for NPS aerial photo with bears and eagle outlined.
In the north unit, there are several trails high on the bluff that wind through conical mounds and mounds built in the shape of bears. The south unit is located in the flood plains across the Yellow River and along the Mississippi and features a couple of trails, one of which takes you to the Marching Bear Group - a group of 10 bears, several eagles, and a couple of ceremonial mounds.
This is a small, kid-focused nature center built on reclaimed railroad land on the outskirts of Marquette, Iowa (just across the bridge from Prairie du Chien. If you're an adult you can walk the trails in a few minutes. If you're a kid, you could spend a few hours here looking at the exhibits, ducks, turtles, and playing in the various outdoor play areas along the trail.
Located between Harper's Ferry, Waukon Junction, and Egan, this park contains more than 8,900 acres of woods, hills and valleys, streams, and a great many trails squeezed into the 6 units that comprise the park. You can hike, camp, fish, bike, hunt, and kayak or canoe. It's a nice place to explore the flora, fauna, and unique geology of the area. Just watch out for rattlesnakes.
Pikes Peak State Park Yep, this park is named after the same Zebulon Pike who gave his name to Pike Island below Fort Snelling and the mountain in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Turns our old Zeb was scouting for places to build forts for the military in1805 (hence Fort Snelling in MN) and while he enjoyed the view and cut of the land, Fort Crawford ended up in nearby Prairie du Chien instead. There are a few short trails in the park - accessing an overlook of the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers, and the town of McGregor below, and the ever-popular Bridal Veil Falls - though on our visit, the spring was merely a trickle and we saw no brides.
Where to Eat?
We didn't do much dining out and about - having brought the makings of a few meals with us and visited the Piggly Wiggly in Prairie du Chien (pretty decent beer and cheese curd selection) for a few extras. We only ate in a restaurant once - the Spillway Supper Club in Harper's Ferry - so can't offer a variety of options or reviews. We had a burger, a BLT and a pizza at the Spillway - all of it decent, in large quantity, served with a smile, and the experience provided us with a deeply important question to ponder - "What defines a supper club?"
It would be fun to return by boat to explore the many locks, the pools, and backwater channels of the big river, both lazy and restless in mid-summer, trawling a line behind, with a cooler or two of very cold beer, tequila with stops to grill steaks or the catch of the day.
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