Iowa Through my Eye
Johnson county-Local Edition
Years ago I saw a picture of a limestone arch in Johnson County and I wanted to find it. I tried searching for it, but always came up blank. Then Sunday I was scrolling through Facebook and there it was on the Johnson County Conservation page. They gave an address and my heart leapt!
Also while scrolling on Iowa Through the Lens (totally recommend both pages) I saw a sunflower field and it was in Johnson County but out in the boondocks and they didn't really know how they got there and they drove through water and might have walked through poison ivy to get to it. I asked for some rough directions and she also told me about an old abandoned bridge in the area and that was it. I was SO ready for an adventure. I convinced by co-pilot explorer Rebecca to come with me and we were off and what a day we had!!
We started with the limestone arch and The Barn. When we pulled up The Barn doors were open and I saw magic in there and I so wanted to go inside but didn't know if we could. A gentleman inside invited us in and we were thrilled. It was spectacular inside! The layered wood on the inside of the door and the walls, the magnificent lights above, that fireplace, the surround of windows at the top and a only if you dare (or rather are invited) to scale staircase up to the windows greeted us. It was breath taking in there.
Out past The Barn right in front of a picturesque pond was the labyrinth and arch. After years of wanting to see it, I was here. It was down a dead end road that I've driven by dozens of times, but have never driven down. At this point I was telling myself to not pass by any roads-adventure could be right around the corner.
We saw a beautiful lush garden so we went to check it out and the cheery tomatoes, jalapenos, egg plants and big plump green peppers were begging me to find a plot of land and grow rows of my own. I later read that this part of our excursion is frowned upon, so I'm sorry we walked into the garden and didn't just look from the fence.
There's something about repurposed bricks that pulls at my heart. We have bricks on our house that we were told were from the Chicago fire, but I can't find any information about that so not sure if it's true, but I sure love our old bricks and the old pavers out at The Barn. They have both Puriton Pavers and Missouri Moberly Blocks. Both beautiful and chalk full of history in themselves.
We drove down the road to check out Big Grove Preserve and came upon 3 more smaller barns. They were equally beautiful and magnificent just on a smaller scale. The climbing clematis on the trellis reminded me of a Disney Princess castle and the sweet arched window and the weather wanes completed the transformation to another world.
This area is now part of Johnson County Conservation from a sale and transfer from Schwab-Burford that was just completed in March 2020. It backs up to Bur Oak Land Trusts Big Grove Preserve and across the dirt road is a CSA. It's so peaceful, quiet and slower paced here. This area isn't anything new or hidden, I just hadn't explored it before and I'll be back.
We stopped to take some pictures with some ditch flowers. Silphium integrifolium- rosin weed to be exact. Rebecca thought she'd become friends with the flowers, but their sharp leaves didn't want to be friends back! When we bent the stems down to get a closer look we found out that the leaves create a cup that were filled with last nights rain. It so reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, which is a movie we've been talking about watching.
And then on our drive out we came across a little turtle in the middle of the road. Rebecca hopped right out to save her first turtle. She said it was something she's always wanted to do. Oh she's so my daughter!!
On to the bridge and sunflower field.
We headed north east out to the Hawkeye Wildlife Management area to find Greencastle bridge. When I was out here months ago I was at the crest of a steep gravel road and saw a road stretched out in front of me and a white truck clearly stuck in the mud. I had no idea where the road went to, but I knew if a big truck was stuck that my low rider mini van wouldn't make it through. As we followed the map it became clear that this road I saw before that was impassable was the road we needed to take. And today I was driving our 4 wheel truck. Wahoo!!
The road was not for the faint of heart or low rider mini van. We saw a car parked part way, but we continued on through deep ruts, giant puddles and no where to turn around. At the end of the road we were greeted with the old abandoned Greencastle Bridge crossing the Iowa River.
The tree placed on top of the bridge during the 2008 flood was still on it's perch. A tangled pile of trees and branches resting against the bridge begged for Rebecca to climb over them.
I've tried hard to find information about this bridge, but it's been far and few between. What I did find is it was built in 1922 and used until 1992. Another bridge was supposed to be made, but it never happened. It seems this is the only bridge crossing the Iowa River between 965 in North Liberty and Amana. It's a 6 panel Pony Truss panel. It's 202 feet long and almost 15 feet wide. The Greencastle bridge replaced the Dupont bridge in 1922. Seriously unless you have a high clearance vehicle with 4 wheel drive, park near the beginning on the road and walk in.
On our way back out Rebecca saw the hill in front of us and said "Mom can we please go up it." I of course obliged.
I was able to stop by and see a road and field I photographed months ago when I was here. It was so neat to see the change the spring and summer growing months have brought.
At this point Rebecca was hungry and we were a bit weary, but there was a sunflower field somewhere around here just begging to be discovered. Our clues were given: on Swan Lake Ave, near the Hawkeye Wildlife Management area, there might be water on the road where we need to go and poison ivy to walk through.
Because of construction on 965 we couldn't get to Swan Lake Ave from that side, so we came at it from another direction. Who knows where. We drove it east towards 965 passing Swan Lake, but realized this was not where it was. We turned around and headed west. We got to the corner of Swan Lake Ave and Half Moon ave and the road turns to a B Maintenance road but honestly it looked great and even my low rider mini van could do this without a second glance. As we were driving down this stretch of the road out of the corner of my left eye I saw yellow. I backed up and there 100 feet off the road in a field down a farm vehicle only road were sunflowers. Not just a few, but football fields worth of them.
We had found the field. We didn't drive through water and we walked down a weathered dirt farm road to get to it so we obviously came a different way. The patch is a DNR planted patch so it's full of other weeds and ticks we found out about later. YUCK!! If I understand it right the DNR plants sunflower fields throughout the state to feed doves to bring them in the area for the fall hunting season.
This day of exploring was just what I needed because I knew Tuesday would dawn and I'd be spending the entire day at the hospital for appointments. Get out there are wander. Get lost on back roads. Find a new park, city, river or area to you and see what you can find. There is so much out there just waiting to be found.
