A Saturday at Waubonsie

Last Saturday, the weather was in the high 60s, so I packed up a picnic lunch and forced everyone out of the house. We headed South for about an hour until we reached Waubonsie State Park. Located on the Southern end of the Iowa Mountains, it's a beautiful place to hike. It's more beautiful in the Fall/Winter when the foliage is down and you can see across the landscape (Waubonsie has a lot of foliage along the trails that obstruct views).

It has a few scenic overlooks and we hiked around/near a couple of them. We started at the first one and hiked a ways down the hills. We then came back up, passed the overlook, and followed my favorite trail. You wind up and around the hills until you make it to this spot in the picture: another scenic overlook. This one is my favorite though, as I'm sure you can gather from the photo itself. That view is everything.

If you turn to the left from that bench, this is the view you see. Everywhere you look is miles and miles of landscape, and you feel like you're on top of the world.

Look at that view!

There was a little "nook" off of the path where you could look out over the valley, and we stopped here to do just that.

The Teen and Nature Girl, conquering the old, fallen tree.

We ended up hiking around 4 miles that day, and really got a good workout. I remember a moment when all four of us just quietly admired the view of that top overlook point. It's almost a cathartic experience to hike and be one with nature. We finished our hike, ate the lunch I had packed, and then we headed towards home. Luckily, Sugar Clay Winery is on the way, so we stopped and got some of their fantastic wine to bring home. It was a really great day.

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