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Iowa Travel

In the popular movie Field of Dreams, a long-dead legendary baseball player returns to life and steps onto a baseball diamond a farmer has built on his cornfield. Surveying the scene of agrarian beauty, the baseball player asks, “Is this heaven?” “No,” the farmer replies. “It’s Iowa.”

In Iowa movie theaters this brief exchange produced bursts of applause as well as hoots of laughter. The mixed reaction reflects the two-sided feeling Iowans have for their state: on the one hand, a self-deprecating awareness of Iowa’s reputation as a place where corn and hogs reign supreme, and on the other, a deep conviction that Iowa, a magnificently fertile land between two great rivers, really is the next thing to heaven.

Missouri's DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge

The cargo of the sunken paddle-wheel steamboat Bertrand, on display at the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge near Missouri Valley, Iowa, provides a fascinating snapshot of life in the steamboat era.

Maquoketa Caves State Park, Iowa

One of our favorite state parks is Maquoketa Caves State Park in eastern Iowa. It features something for everyone: campsites, 6 miles of hiking trails, a cave museum and more than a dozen caves.

Famous Winding Stairs of Iowa

It's not often you can walk all over something that's listed on the National Register of Historic Places. But that's exactly what folks do on the famous Winding Stairs on Main Street in Traer, Iowa.