Maquoketa Caves State Park Iowa

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:01 am

I want to hit a couple of Earthcaches in Iowa at Maquoketa Caves State Park. I plan to visit a few other area Earthcaches as well. I will be staying in Iowa for a few days. Can anyone recommend a few more cool things to see on Iowa's Eastern side? I'm looking for cool geology, parks or things for kids....even museums or attractions. I may camp or hotel it(haven't decided yet). I will be going the last week in March or so.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:24 am

There are many attractions worth a visit in Eastern Iowa. Here are but a few:

http://www.fieldofdreamsmoviesite.com/

http://www.amanacolonies.org/

http://www.ncsml.org/research/czechpoints/czechpoints.htm

http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.asp?trailid=HGM082-009

http://www.igsb.uiowa.edu/gsi/gb70/pp-info.htm

http://www.silosandsmokestacks.org/resources/FieldTripGuide/Winneshiek/bily_clock_museum_antonin_dvorak_exhibit.htm

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/slideshow.php?id=28977

Anywhere on the Mississippi River

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:40 am

Thanks Ken. I'll look through these.

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 1:08 pm

There's the National Mississippi River Aquarium and Museum in Dubuque that is pretty interesting. Also, just north of Maquoketa along HWY 61, is The Kilns of Hurstville cache. The cache itself wasn't anything special, but we really enjoyed reading about the history of the lime kilns.

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 1:25 pm

Check out the River Museum in Dubuque. All that stuff in one place! Also there's a fun little steep railcar, but I don't know if it operates in the winter or not.

I'm looking forward to doing all those Dubuque area earthcaches, too. Our son went to Bible Camp at Camp Wyoming a couple years, and one of them was a canoe and cave camp. His clothes were trashed after crawling in those caves (some of the ones in the earthcaches, even), but he had a blast.

Must have been posting at the same time. You also aren't real far from the Field of Dreams site. Haven't actually been there, so I can't speak to its worthiness.

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 4:37 pm

Earth cache and cool geology.

The Great Fossil Hunt GC13QGQ

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 4:45 pm

decdogg wrote:

Earth cache and cool geology.

The Great Fossil Hunt GC13QGQ

Yep I've seen that one. I really want to do it but that is going to be a bit further than I want to travel.....That looks like an amazing site.

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:51 pm

The Field of Dreams is in Dyersville, about 35 west of Dubuque, and the rail car mentioned is, I think, the 9th street elevator - fun to ride up and down that thing!

10 miles from Dubuque, there is a virtual cache in Dickeyville WI, "Dickeyville Grotto" GCGAXY that is a neat place to visit.

The worlds largest "M" is just outside of Platteville (20 miles from Dubuque). Don't know if you will see it with any snow cover, but there is a cache nearby.

Belmont WI (5 miles further) has the "First Capital State Park" another historic place to visit.

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:51 pm

Another Earthcache in Iowa worth checking out is: GCPRVJ

The cool thing about this earthcache is it is an area with a lot of fossils, recently unearthed, and the signage there allows visitors to remove up to 3 fossils there if you like.

The history of the recent flooding is also interesting, and how it unearthed all the fossils.

zuma

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:42 pm

A museum in eastern Iowa that I found interesting... though it does not have the kind of two wheeled vehicles that you like:

National Motorcycle Museum

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:56 pm

Lots of great ideas....I might have to add another day....