The Iowa Tulip Trip - April 2024
- Sheri Greene
- Apr 16, 2024
- 8 min read
In the Pacific Northwest, the Skagit Valley is known for producing Tulip Bulbs – MILLIONS of them. Every spring they have a “Tulip Festival”, and you can walk through the fields of the blooming tulips. Although I grew up in the shadow of this festival, I never made it to see the tulip fields. The pictures below are from their web page, just to give you an idea of what it looks like.
When I heard that there was a Tulip Festival in Pella, Iowa, I was bound and determined not to miss my chance!
So, Mom and I headed off on a three-day adventure – deciding to stretch the trip to two nights so that we could include a visit to Lake Okoboji on the Northern Border of Iowa. We also decided to take my dog, Finn, with us on this trip as he’s a pretty good traveler.
We headed out for Pella, via Winterset (The birthplace of John Wayne and home to the Bridges of Madison County). We’ve already visited those two places, so we just used it as a weigh point to keep us off the main highways, and then headed straight to Pella so we’d have plenty of time to see the tulips. The Iowa countryside is beautiful. Throughout the 3 days of traveling, we went through the varied landscapes, all still bleak this early in the year, but the grass is just beginning to green up, the fields are being worked for the first planting of the year and we had lovely blue sky on our first day. The farms are all so neat and tidy, you can see that the people that work the land are proud of what they do.
We took a short detour into the town of Carson. It had some beautiful homes, and we both loved the way that they had decorated one of their main streets - - I’m sure that they’re full of flowers later in the season, but I just loved the way that they used the livestock water tubs and the “telephone poles” to create a community feel.
We then checked out Greenfield, Iowa. With a population of just over 2,000, it seemed like a much bigger town. The Opera House was beautiful and had clearly had some sprucing up done on it, and the Adair County Courthouse red bricks were pretty against the background of the blue sky.
Just before arriving in Pella, we drove along the shore of Lake Red Rock – A Reservoir formed by the Red Rock Dam on the Des Moines River. It was beautiful – There were Cabins available on the Lake that are managed by Cordova Park, a Marion County Park, it looks like at least some of the cabins overlook the lake. During the summer months you can rent the cabins by the week for about $1200/week, you can rent them by the day in the off season and while they clearly fill up, it looks like with some prior planning it would be a nice place to stay. It’s only 2.5 hours from Omaha, which isn’t too bad!
We parked and had a nice picnic lunch looking out over the lake! I’m not sure how I got home without any pictures, but, there you go, I have no pictures of Red Rock Lake!
We arrived in Pella around 1:00 PM and found that the tulips were bit different than the ones in Skagit Valley – There are over 120,000 tulip bulbs planted in the public and private gardens around Pella. We Parked near the Central Park and were pleased to see that we weren’t too early to enjoy the beautiful tulips. We also wandered for a bit around the town, which was lovely.
Because it was a warm day, and we didn’t want to leave Finn too long in the car, we didn’t stay long, but will keep Pella on our list of places to go back and visit in the future. Many little shops and restaurants around the square to explore on our next trip.
In the back of one of the houses that had opened their gardens, we found some nice sculptures, and a very polite classroom of what I would guess were 1st graders, who were busy sketching whatever took their fancy. It was fun to see them enjoying the sunshine.
I’d love to be able to include a map of the route we took, but truth be told, I have no idea which roads we took, so I’ll just share some of the sites from the places we stopped along the way.
Pella is the home to Central College, a private college associated with the Reformed Church. The grounds were lovely and the Chapel was particularly beautiful.
From Pella, we headed to Fort Dodge where I’d booked us a room for our first night. Along the way we found this beautiful old church in Sully, Iowa.
We then found Marshalltown, Iowa, which is the county seat of Marshall County. The Town was busy, and the Courthouse was beautiful. It looked like a nice place to be!
Deciding to head straight for the Best Western in Fort Dodge, which had a nice room waiting for us, and to save exploring Fort Dodge for the next day, we settled in for the night. Dinner was Mexican Food from the restaurant on site, which was delicious!
It was Finn’s first night at a hotel, and he was a bit unsure about the noises from the hallway, but he settled in after Mom had a discussion with him!
We woke up for our day two adventure to cloudy skies and cool temps. Based on the weather forecast, we thought we ought to be able to get around and see what we wanted to see without being rained on. So, we headed into Fort Dodge.
With a population of over 20,000 this is a “big” town! Sitting on the Des Moines River and at the end of the Fort Dodge, Des Moines, and Southern Railroad in 1906, Fort Dodge was a busy place! It is locally referred to as “Little Chicago” because architects modeled downtown buildings to resemble Chicago in the mid-1900’s. While we found that the downtown area of Fort Dodge is clearly struggling and population continues to decline, the old homes show the grandeur of its past. I’ve included a couple of pictures below of some of the houses. The one on the right was built in 1903 by one of the town leaders, is 5,700 square feet, and is on the historic register. It’s currently for sale for $399,000 - - a small portion of what you’d pay for this home in Omaha.
Storm Lake, Iowa was our next stop. It is a very inviting town – even with the wind blowing and the grey clouds threatening. Storm Lake is the home to Buena Vista University, a Private School affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. It was founded in 1891. The campus was truly beautiful, many of the buildings sitting on the edge of the lake. We’ve found that towns with a college or University, like Pella and Storm Lake, just have a different feel to them – they seem more vibrant.
We circled the lake visiting the three small towns that surround it. At one end of the lake there is a large Resort with a huge waterpark – I’m sure that it gets very busy in the summer months. Next to that resort, there were some lovely duplex cabins that sat on the edge of the lake. Further research showed that the cabins are owned by the city and managed by the resort. The wood carving below was amid the cabins! The photo of the lake is not mine, but one from the internet – it was very bleak when we there, although the town looked inviting with lots of shops and restaurants/cafes for those staying there.
We stopped to have our picnic lunch (which we ate in the car) and parked next to the “Heritage Tree Museum”. The museum is an eclectic collection of over 35 trees that have a heritage of the US and the world. Each tree is labeled with the type and history of the tree. I saw an Apple Tree attributed to Johnny Apple Seed, a Colonel Sanders Ash Tree from Kentucky, and a Sugar Maple from the Scared Grove (A Mormon Shrine in New York). Because of the yucky weather, I didn’t make the trip all the way around – I have learned my lesson, no more traveling in the Spring in the mid-west without a heavy coat!
We also found another lovely church as we rounded the lake. As you can see, the sky was threatening, and it began to rain as we headed out.
Storm Lake is another place that I’d love to go back to for a few days just to enjoy the town.
Our next stop was Bridges Bay Resort on Lake Okoboji. We had a lovely room with a view of the lake and a spectacular sunset. We ordered a Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sandwich for dinner from The Waterfront Grill, and it did not disappoint! The Dill Pickle Tzatziki was especially delicious!
Finn slept much better in this room as we had an all-glass door, and he could see out the window to see what was going on!
We woke up to sunshine, blue sky and a promise of warmer temps for a homeward leg of the journey.
We first drove around Lake Okoboji (which is very developed and between the road construction and the traffic, didn’t enjoy it much), and stopped at a Bakery for a breakfast treat, a candy store for some take home presents, and a small gift shop with a kitchen store wing. We’re so spoiled here in Omaha. The bakery was OK, but nothing special. The Candy Store didn’t come anywhere near Baker’s. The gift shop was fun because there just aren’t very many kitchen stores around anymore – it’s fun to browse through all the gadgets.
Our first stop as we drove through the countryside was a lonely church, The Covey Church in Hartley, Iowa. It was built in 1974 and is the oldest church building in O’Brien County. It’s preserved as a historic landmark and service are conducted only once a year. There was a small cemetery across the road from the church and all of the markers looked very old – The two in the picture below both have dates of death in the 1890’s.
From there we headed to Cherokee, Iowa. As we were coming into town, we saw what looked like a huge building up on a hill with a red roof. As we wandered through town, a vibrant town with a population of 5,100, we sent out in search of the building that we’d seen from the highway. We wound our way up a hill found a beautifully kept area, and dead-ended into what is the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services – Cherokee Mental Health Institute. Before we even saw signs, we thought it must be a mental health facility for the criminally insane! The buildings are old and beautiful with very interesting architecture, as you draw neared to the buildings it’s a bit shocking to see the razor wire and serious fences designed to keep people in. This picture below is from 1915.
In December of 1945 the peak of its patient census was reached at 1,729. It is still functioning today, but the average daily census is approximately 45 patients, and the average length of stay is 25 days. The part with the razor wire and holds the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders, the criminally insane and violet patients. It was an interesting building to stumble upon, but I must admit, I wasn’t anxious to spend too much time there.
After leaving Cherokee we made our way home. Our last stop was to take pictures of a hog barn! Throughout our journey we saw these facilities everywhere. It just didn’t seem right to come home without a couple of pictures!
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