Maquoketa Caves State Park

August 5

When I started with UnityPoint Health in March of 2022, I mentioned I was an avid outdoors person. One of my tribemates mentioned I should try Maquoketa Caves.

A year and a half later, we finally made the trip.

The park was only an hour and a half away from where we were living when we first moved to Iowa, in Coralville. Once we moved to Ottumwa, the trip doubled in length, now taking three hours to get there.

Brandy brought it up to me earlier in the week, suggesting we make the drive up Friday after work, spend the night, then go to the park on Saturday, so that’s what we did.

Being a simple overnight trip, we didn’t have a ton to pack. We made sure to pack plenty of food so we had something to eat for lunch on Saturday as well as ample road snacks for the drive out and the drive back. I also made sure to get our hiking gear ready and packed as well.

I ducked out from work early for an eye doctor appointment, then, when I got back, we packed up and headed out, hitting the road just before 4:30.

We got to our hotel, the Econo Lodge on Platt St in Maquoketa, just before 7:30. Brandy went and checked in, we pulled around to the back of the building and found our room.

It was a standard Econo Lodge room, nothing outstanding about it. It appeared they were in the process of doing some upgrades throughout the hotel, but our room was wholly unremarkable in any way. I guess that’s a good thing?

Once we got unloaded and settled, I called the nearby China Cafe and placed a small order for dinner. The restaurant shared a parking lot with the hotel so I just walked to pick up the food.

We ate then promptly called it a night, knowing we’d have a big day ahead of us.

The park is found in the Driftless Area of Iowa, which, from what I understand, means the area has a wildly different geological makeup than the rest of the state. The area is well forested and is marked by mountains and caves, such as those found at Maquoketa.

The park itself is 323 acres on the eastern part of the state, a scant 35 miles from the Illinois border.

We arrived at the park just before 9:00. There were already some people mulling around, but not too many. We parked, sprayed ourselves liberally with deet, and scoped out our options.

AllTrails offers a breakdown of the loop trail that runs through the park, listing it as an easy 1.7 mile loop trail with 288 feet of elevation gain, but that’s if you stay on the trail and just hike it. Following this trail is a person’s best chance to see the entire park, but there are countless options to break out and see different things. All of the people we saw were gathered around the Upper Dancehall Cave entrance.

We elected to not stick to the prescribed trail and instead just followed our instincts. We decided to head south, across the street from the parking area (and away from the people mulling about near the mouth of the caves), to enter at the Middle Dancehall Cave entrance.

The park offers 16 caves open for viewing or exploration and are accessible to a wide variety of people with different abilities. Most of the caves are easily accessed by people of average mobility, I myself was able to walk upright into most of them, but there are some that would have required army-crawling through and what-not. Those are ones I did not explore.

Obviously.

We hiked most of the trails and saw most of the caves on the south portion of the loop, starting with the massive Dancehall Cave. That trail is a paved sidewalk that runs next to an active stream that runs through the cave. It was somewhat reminiscent of Carlsbad Caverns, though on a more midwestern scale.

As we exited the Dancehall, we were presented options. We opted to find Rainy Day Cave, so we took that fork. The paved walkway gave way to a well-maintained dirt path that wound its way through the forest. We climbed stairs and crossed streams, eventually finding our way to the Rainy Day Cave.

There was a small post outside the cave idnicating that this was a cave that I would have to crawl though, however the entrance to the cave was quite large and I was able to walk in without even stooping.

Inside the cave, it was pitch black. The flashlight on my phone did little to pierce the massive darkness of the cave, however time allowed my eyes to adjust enough to the point where I could see the crawling portion of the cave. Ash and I turned and headed out to where Brandy was waiting for us.

We continued up and down more stairs and inclines and declines, through the forest until we came across the Ice Cave.

The Ice Cave was perched at the top of a steep incline. Brandy elected to sit this one out, so she took Ash and I climbed up (the hard way) to the mouth of the cave. There was, once again, a post indicating the need to crawl into this cave, however the entrance, while not as large as the Rainy Day cave, was still large enough for me to get into without leaving my feet. I did have to climb over some rocks and had to stoop a bit to get into the cave, but I made it in and was able to fully stand up once I was inside.

The cave was aptly named, a good ten or fifteen degrees cooler than it was outside. This cave, with a smaller entrance, was even darker than the Rainy Day cave. There was a very small hole in the back corner of the cave, but I didn’t even approach it.

On we went, passing by other caves as we headed up toward Balanced Rock. There was a quite long staircase leading up to the rock with a landing just before you reach it. On this landing was a bench where we stopped to take a break. Ash sat and drank some water however we had an incident with a hiker and Ash having a bit of a tangle which set Brandy on edge for the remainder of the trip. She was overly concerned with ensuring Ash’s behavior wasn’t going to continue that way so we altered our course.

As we sat, we heard a cacophony of obnoxious children’s voices echoing through the caves below us. It sounded like they were exiting the caves where we had come out half an hour earlier. They continued on, polluting the air with their ruckus as they went, defying the sanctity of peaceful nature. The adults within their group were of little assistance in the matters, their voices carrying just as far as their underaged counterparts’.

The Return

Once the racket passed us by, we headed back down into the Dancehall Cave, the way we had come earlier. We continued on past the entrance where we’d entered and found ourselves in Upper Dancehall Cave. The paved walkway continued north alongside the stream I’d mentioned earlier, but the ceiling of the cave grew lower.

…and lower…

…until I was walking with my pack off and in my hand, and I was bent at the waist as if bowing to a Japanese statesman.

I continued on like this for much longer than I cared to until the ceiling raised again, then was gone entirely as we swiftly exited the cave.

Just outside the Upper Dancehall Cave entrance is a Natural Bridge, much like those seen in the deserts of the southwest. We stopped for a bit to catch our breath and ready ourselves for the climb out of the caves.

Brandy’s anxiety and our physical limitations had brought us to the end of our journey, though we’d missed several caves in the south portion of the loop, and everything north of the natural bridge. This means we can justify coming back at some point.

The stairway up to the parking was pretty long, though I was able to make it up without pause. As we reached the top, I only then realized that we’d crossed under the road and were on the north side of the parking area. We came out very near the car. As soon as Brandy emerged from the stairwell, I remotely started the car to get the AC blowing and cooled before we got in.

As we shed our equipment and packed Ash into the back seat, I noticed a small “pop-up” park store across the street. I ran over and grabbed two magnets and two stickers before getting back into the car and starting the journey home, arriving back just after 2:00.

Conclusion

This was a perfect trip. A quick, two-day excursion to an hour and a half long hike through some beautiful terrain and some wonderful exploration.

Later research shows that Backbone State Park, a desired return trip for Brandy, is only an hour away from Maquoketa Caves. Perhaps as we slip into the cooled temperatures of fall, we can make a trip to hit both parks and see more of what we missed at each.

In the meantime, I took plenty of pictures at Maquoketa, all of which are on my Photo Diary page. Check those out.

Brandy is leaving for San Diego on the 19th and will be gone for about a week. On that very day is Nick’s birthday party in Pella so I will be headed up for that, but not before I make a trip to a SORELY missed destination for me… more on that to come later.

Once she gets back, we will only be a few weeks away from our last big trip of the year, heading back to the 505 to get my annual green chile haul, and to Walsenburg to see Christy.

Until then, you know what I’m about to say, and I still mean it, every time I say it. If there’s anyone that ventures out to my little corner of the internet, I appreciate you stopping by.

-Phil

Epilogue

Sunday, August 6, was an absolutely perfect day. After the wonderful trip we’d just gotten back from, I woke up in time to head to the store and get the stuff to make biscuits & gravy/gravy & eggs. The moment I got back, the skies opened and it started to rain. I cooked, made coffee, sat down and ate. I opened all the blinds in the living room, letting me watch the rain as I watched the CBS News Sunday Morning. The guys came to start repairing the ceiling in the spare bedroom after the “tree meets roof” incident. They milled around for the better part of the afternoon, then, at around 4:00 or so, we decided on an early dinner from Culver’s. I went and got us burgers and cheese curds (for me) and onion rings (for Brandy) and we each got a concrete mixer. I ate while watching Marvel’s Secret Invasion, then Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for a bit before turning in nice and early.

It truly was the perfect end to the perfect weekend.

-P

Maquoketa Caves State Park