A Fond Farwell to Prairie Rose State Park

Goodbye, Colorado!


Hello, lush-country Iowa!

Our first stop was Prairie Rose State Park, IA.

Aww, to being out of car seats and enjoying simple joys, throwing, catching, running around in open spaces!

...and beautiful sunsets over water!

The park setting was lovely...

...a lake, TREES, surrounded by rolling, country, hay fields.

With one full day to enjoy it, we started with a hike.

wide, mowed, grass trails around the perimeter of the lake::peeking through the tree at the very high waters::smelling flowers along the way::crossing the rushing spillway

After naps, we finished the day with their beach.

...which was infested with crocs (they pretend 24-7 these days!)...in Iowa? So weird!

But they were so cute and playful.

We even saw a good-sized iguana!

We were able to get very close to the creatures (even snuggles and smooches) without any trouble...AMAZING!

Prairie Rose SP in a few words? pretty, peaceful,...a keeper on our list of traveling stops!

NEXT, the Land of Lincoln....