(42) Hardin County 6.14.2024 – 6.15.2024
We weren’t hard-pressed to find things to do in Hardin County 😊we dedicated 2 days to Hardin County, and we’re glad we did because we still didn’t get to see everything we were hoping to!
Iowa Falls was
our main attraction, but on our way we couldn’t miss stopping by some of the
smaller towns of Hardin County:
Hubbard, and we found out it was “Hubbard Days” this weekend!
Sherman.. unfortunately, this is all that’s left of this little town ☹
Buckeye
and Alden-which is the smallest town with a Carnegie Library. It also has a neat little downtown area.
We also found it
was “Alden Days” this weekend as well!
We stopped
at the Caulkins Nature Area which is one of the better county conservation
centers we’ve stopped at! It had a lot of exhibits inside but most interesting
was the live animal exhibits outside.
We finally made it to Iowa Falls and perused the downtown area which has restaurants and some neat boutiques, stores, and a coffee shop.
Iowa Falls is also home to the oldest pop corn stand in the state of Iowa. Unfortunately, it is only open on Wednesdays- we are determined to find a county that has an open popcorn stand for us to go to!
We were able to
go to the Iowa Falls Historical Museum that is located in the chamber of
commerce in the Carnegie Building
We stopped at
Estes Park to get a picture with “Bill Riley”
We then made our way to the Swinging Bridge at Assembly Park. It was definitely neat to walk across and enjoyed the bluff views of the Iowa River.
We were hoping
to get to go up into the Mills Tower train crossing, but it was closed—maybe
next time!
We also stopped
by the Iowa Falls Depot which is home of the Iowa Falls Historical Society, but
it was also closed.
Although we had
to do a bit of searching, we found the Iowa Falls Dam and were definitely
amazed at the amount of water coming through! It was worth the search.
We had made an
appointment to tour the Dow House and weren’t disappointed—we love hearing
about the history of these small towns.
We made our way to Eldora and Pine Lake State Park where we were going to be lodging for the night. We set up our tent and made our way back into town for dinner at the Eldora Social Club, Carnegie’s Lounge—which as you could guess by the name is in a former Carnegie Library. The pizza was SO good, and they’ve done a great job of keeping the historical library feel—definitely worth going to!
Eldora is the county
seat so of course we had to snag a picture of the beautiful courthouse.
And there’s no
way we were going to pass up a $3 theatre—thankfully it was showing a movie we
were wanting to see—IF!
We made our way
back to Pine Lake to camp out for the night.
Saturday morning came and we packed up and headed into town to the Sunshine Café. It was definitely your typical small-town diner.
We also stopped by Love-a-Latte for some coffee
And couldn’t
pass up a picture of this random bell. We honestly have no idea what it was
because there was no sign 😊
We couldn’t leave Eldora without finding the “Twister house” an iconic Iowa landmark from the big screen. In case you didn’t know, this house was featured in the final “F5 tornado scene” in Twister, which we (Travis and Angie) of course watched earlier this week to prepare for our live viewing of the house this weekend :D
Since it was
“Hubbard Days” and “Alden Days” we made a slight change in our plans to make it
to both parades as Hubbard’s was at 10am and Alden’s was at 11am! In case
you’re ever in town and can only make it to 1, we’d definitely say Hubbard wins
for best parade, but we think Alden would win for best festivities based on
what else is going on this weekend. We just weren’t able to attend any of the
other festivities.
We had a little
extra time so we headed over to Ackley and scooped the main street before
stopping by the Sky Kone for some ice cream
We also took a peek at the Ackley Depot
We made our way
back to Iowa Falls and made sure to drive by the Ellsworth Community College
campus
We headed to the Scenic City Empress River Boat, which was our ultimate destination for Hardin County and were utterly disappointed. By the time we got to the counter, they were sold out ☹ The boat ride starts at 2pm, and ticket sales start at 1:30pm, which is what time we arrived, and we were too late. Make sure you arrive EARLY and line up outside the door.
After our loss, we decided to head back home but did stop in New Providence on our way.
Rate: 4
Other Things to See/Do:
- Scenic City Empress River Boat tour, Iowa Falls
- Mills Tower, Iowa Falls
- Corner Soda Fountain, Ackley
- Heritage Museum, Ackley
- Chairish Coffee, Ackley
- Congress of Old West, Ackley
- The Soda Fountain, New Providence
- Hardin County Homes, Eldora
- Hardin County Historical Library, Eldora
- Eldora Welcome Center & Railroad Museum, Eldora
- Hardin County Historical House, Eldora
- Civilian Conservation Corps/Prisoner of War Recreational Hall & Military Museum, Eldora
- Hardin County Farm Museum, Eldora
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