Pikes Peak in Iowa?
A short seven-mile drive from the Effigy Mounds National Memorial you can find Pikes Peak State Park. To reach there you have to pass through the town of Marquette where you get to see this chap:
You can read more about the Pink Elephant in the Miscellaneous Photos folder.
I’ll guess that those of you not from Iowa or some neighboring area likely think that Pikes Peak is in Colorado. And you would be correct. There is indeed a quite famous Pikes Peak in that state but before that one received its moniker, Zebulon Pike came to Iowa. How did this come about you may (or may not) wonder? As a person predisposed to pedantry, allow me to explain:
In 1803, the U.S. government under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson made what is known as the Louisiana Purchase. The land covered 828,000 square miles and covered all or part of 15 current states as well as some land that is now part of Canada. In 1805, the government sent Zebulon Pike to explore the Mississippi valley and select locations suitable for military posts. Pike recognized the site of the current park as an important, strategic point, and an excellent location for a fort. The government agreed on the vicinity but selected the prairie around Prairie du Chien (now Wisconsin) for the fort. Several years later, Pike was again sent westward by the government and it was then that he named Pikes Peak in Colorado.
In addition to being a much smaller version of the more famous Colorado mountain, the park in Iowa also has its own version of Bridal Veil Falls. (This link goes to a Google images search.) Many locations have drawn that name but the most well known to we Americans is likely the one in Yosemite National Park. The Iowa Pikes Peak Park Bridal Veil Falls draws its name from its appearance when it freezes in the winter. In summer it’s, shall we say, cute.
Like the Effigy Mounds Monument, this park offers some spectacular views of the Mississippi. You can see the Wisconsin River as well.
Two final notes about my visit to this park. When, for the third time, I crossed paths with a couple walking through the park with their long-haired dachshund, I interpreted it as an omen that we should chat so I struck up a conversation. Tom and Charlotte are from Fargo so we were able to chat about the Maris Museum. It also turns out that they are leaving their Fargo house to their children who “won’t move out anyway” and relocating to a cabin in Park Rapids that they’ve essentially built themselves and have nearly completed.
The second note elicited memories from the Mongolian Express journey I took last year. I haven’t recently looked at that journal or those pictures but on the Russian part of the trip, it became quite common to encounter wedding parties in public places. I remember this happening in Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg specifically but there may have been others. So here I am in Iowa, just about a year later when, as I’m leaving the park, I see what I would not have seen had I not stopped to chat with Tom and Charlotte:
The final two choices
When I put my plan together for this trip, this Saturday included four possible stops. By the time I left Pikes Peak State Park I calculated that I had time enough to choose only one of the two remaining. One choice was to leave the river, pass through Prairie du Chien, cross back into Wisconsin and drive 70 miles or so east to Spring Green – the site of Taliesin – the home and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright. The second was to continue down to Dubuque and visit the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. I opted for the latter and the decision turned serendipitous. I should note that here again, south of Gutenberg, the GRR turns away from the river and passes through a more rural landscape. It is little more than a big loop off of and back onto U.S. 52.
So why was this a serendipitous decision? First, the museum was a mere 10-minute walk from my hotel (that would have been considerably less had I not been limping along on a throbbing knee). Second, the museum complex itself – which probably deserved more then the three hour visit I made – was extremely interesting in its depictions of history and life in and on the river, steamboats, and of Dubuqe. Third, the aquariums – one devoted to the Mississippi and one more globally focused – were surprisingly aggressive in their presentation of the effects of climate change and on the need for conservation. Finally, there was the special exhibition all about, you guessed it, turtles! I didn’t take a photo of every one in the exhibition but among the ones I did snap was
The chap in the lower right corner is, of course, a Diamondback Terrapin.
The last of the day’s good choices turned out to be my decision to eat dinner in the hotel restaurant – Caroline’s. I made the choice based in part on the ratings given to the restaurant on Trip Advisor. It also suited my throbbing knee.
I had locally sourced free-range pheasant which was quite good with a Chasing Tail Ale from Squatters Brewery in Utah. This was too thin even for my undiscerning palate. However, what made the choice an even happier one was that the torrential downpour that rolled over the city and began during my dinner and continued for well over an hour. Had I left, I would have been one wet soul.