Backbone State Park

Hiking in Backbone State Park | Visiting Family | Hiking the Cedar Valley Nature Trail | May 2026

On our last morning on the road, we enjoyed a slow start, then packed up and hit the road. For our last little adventure, we stopped at Backbone State Park. The last time we were here was in 2014 when we stopped by after a full day of exploring Effigy Mounds and Pikes Peak with our siblings, and definitely didn’t do this park justice. Our main purpose for visiting that time was to plant a letterbox, which we did poorly, as it was no longer there after getting a whopping 0 finds. We also didn’t remember how treacherous the climb was to the box planted somewhat off trail. Too bad, it was a cute carve!

We started our time in the park at the cave on the North side of the park, then drove South to the park’s namesake trail on “the Backbone,” which neither of us remember doing before. The Backbone is a narrow bluff overlooking the confluence of the Maquoketa River and the South fork of the Maquoketa River as they join and run into Backbone Lake. We walked around the loop counter-clockwise and enjoyed the views between trees and the wildflowers in bloom all around us. It was definitely worth returning to the park to hike this loop! The loop is only a mile long with ~130 feet of elevation gain.

After that, we drove to my parent’s house and reunited with family. We had about 2 weeks before Curtis’ next assignment in the Quad Cities, and there were enough events going on during that time to keep us busy. Our niece turned 4, and we were actually able to go to her birthday party for the first time — we’re usually in Pennsylvania this time of year! We also got to attend her dance recital, and babysat for my sister a few times. The kids were really into going for walks, which we were all for! We wanted to stay in shape following hiking the Hennepin Canal Trail and in Wisconsin state parks, in preparation for more big walking plans we have this summer!

With that in mind, we also went for a few long walks on our own. We set our sights on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, which is part of the larger American Discovery Trail. We had done a few sections back in October of 2022 through Robins, so we started with a 3 mile round-trip section from Robins Road to County Home Road. This part was easy and uneventful, just what we needed at that time because Curtis was getting over being sick. A few days later, we returned to the trailhead off of County Home Road and walked 4 miles to Lafayette. We saw a lot of cardinals, and a couple of snakes that were…enjoying each other. Or eating each other. Not sure. It felt productive to get such a large section complete (8 miles round trip — longer than any section than we did on the Hennepin!) But then we realized that there wasn’t really any trail parking in Lafayette, and the next main trailhead to the North was 6 miles away in Center Point. So we’ll either have to find a creative way to split it up, or wait until a very pleasant day temperature wise when we feel up for walking 12 miles round trip.

On our last weekend here, we drove up to Center Point and hiked another 6 miles round trip from the main trailhead there to I-380 and back. It was hot in the sun, buggy, and the heat made the farms we walked past smell worse. But we completed it, and left a section of about equal length between 380 and Urbana for ourselves for next time, until we’re ready to tackle Lafayette to Center Point. And sure, we could borrow bikes and get this done a lot faster, but then we wouldn’t notice the small things along the trail that you can only see when you’re on foot. Like the snakes.