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After our pit stop at the Reagan house, we drove on until lunch time. We were approaching the Mississippi, and so I suggested we stop on the river to see if there was a place for lunch where the kids might see the Mississippi River. We crossed over the bridge into Clinton, Iowa, and then I followed the signs to the River Front District. There was a Fourth of July celebration going on! The road was blocked off for a parade, and there were bouncy castles out. We managed to score a parking space, and we walked to the one restaurant I could see from where we parked: The Candlelight Inn. It was located right on the river, and we ate outside with a view. They had signs that boasted their town was home to the
Chicken George. That's what Oliver decided to order. It ended up being fried pieces of chicken, but not like chicken nuggets or chicken tenders. Instead, the outside was more like... an onion ring, maybe. I'm not sure how to describe it! Tempura might be the best word I can use. I ordered a salad and a baked potato, which were excellent, and Andrew ordered a
The Mississippi River at Clinton, Iowa
The river is much wider than it appears in this photo because the forested land in this picture is actually an island (and not the other side of the river).veggie burger, which he said was also good. We found out the parade was going to be starting at 1pm, and it was 10 till. We thought about stopping to watch it, but we were going to get blocked in! So, we headed out, and, actually, we got to see a number of the floats as we left.
At last, at last, we were heading to the caves. Jo cracks me up. After we went on the ferris wheel at Navy Pier, she started calling our vacation an "adventure vacation." When she heard we were going to explore some caves, she got so excited for the next adventure. She declared were were all "Toad's Treasure Trackers," and she was super stoked to put on a headlamp. Anyway, we drove up on US 61 to Caves Road and entered the state park from the east. As we pulled in, the parking lot was full on that side. That's the best place to start, but we had to park closer to the campground. It worked out, because we ended up finishing our hike at the campground! To get started, though, we walked back east near the parking lot and found the
White Nose Syndrome
To prevent the spread of White Nose Syndrome, visitor's shouldn't wear the clothes and shoes they've worn into other caves without having them properly cleaned first. stairs leading down to the Dancehall Cave. We passed a lot of poison ivy on this part of the trek, so be sure to stay on the paths!
Near the top, there's a bin full of maps, plus a short message about White Nose Syndrome. It didn't give much explanation about the syndrome, but, from what I've read online, the best thing visitors can do to protect the health of the bats is not wear the same clothes worn in other caves. This means, if you've been exploring caves elsewhere, you can have traces on your clothes and shoes. You should shower and change (including your shoes) before exploring here.
We got our map and went down the stairs to get to the upper entrance of Dancehall Cave. When we first walked in, the ceiling was low enough where we had to bend at the waist. Stepping stones had been placed in the first stream we had to cross. Water dripped all around us, and we could see where some stalactites were starting to form. There were a few lights installed in the cave, and there were even a few paved sections next to the deepest parts of
the stream. We were still thankful to have our headlamps! The cave was really cool, but when we first emerged from it, I was stunned by the beauty of the forest in contrast with the dark cave we came out of.
We had a choice to go up some stairs or continue in the cave. Oliver decided we'd continue, and so back in we went! At the next entrance/exit, we saw a number of bats flying around. It was so cool! We hiked around the area and then decided to climb up the stairs to Balanced Rock. We walked into another cave. From there, we branched off from the main walkway to a small step that led into a very rocky incline. We decided to be adventurous and climb up the rocks. Oliver (age 7) was able to do it on his own with me spotting him, but Jo (age 5) needed help getting up some of the boulders. When we reached the top, we could look down at the main part of the cave. It was neat, and the kids felt adventurous. Climbing down was a bit tricky since there was slick mud on everything, so Andrew carefully
Our Route through Maquoketa
This is a rough estimate of the path we took through Maquoketa Caves State Park. helped the kids down. We went through the main part of the cave then, which I believe was the middle entrance to Dancehall Cave. We emerged and walked to an area we recognized from before. At that point, we'd probably been at the park for about an hour. I led us back into the cave to head back the way we came. We walked through Dancehall Cave to that first entrance (the upper entrance).
When we got back to that entrance, we decided to follow the signs to hike back to the campground. First, we followed the signs that pointed to caves 1-7, and then we found signs to the campground. It was a gorgeous, forested hike. Although people obviously use the path, it wasn't that well walked, especially once we were beyond the two other caves on that route. After those caves, there was a bit of overgrowth on the path, and we passed by a lot of Queen Anne Lace. I worried if some of it could be wild parsnip, and so I advised the kids to avoid touching any plants. It probably would have been a good idea to have had them in long pants! The
trek back had a few steep inclines, but both kids were able to do the hike on their own. We crossed a few streams and followed the signs to the campground. We eventually came out on the road and walked to the campground and then to our parking spot from there. We made sure to wash up well with soap & water in case we'd touched any poison ivy (I had a bad experience with poison ivy as a kid, so I'm a little paranoid).
Honestly, Maquoketa Caves was one of the highlights of our trip. While it's kind of out in the middle of nowhere, it's worth going out of your way for. As a bonus, on our drive from Maquoketa Caves to Cedar Rapids (where we were stopping for the night to see fireworks), we drove on the Grant Wood Scenic Byway, which had a few roadside stops (like his schoolhouse).
As always, there are more pictures below this post of these various points.
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