(65) Monona County 6.29.2026

One of the things we have enjoyed about this county trip-weekend adventure has been all of the coffee shops in these western counties! Coffee shops can be hard to come by in some Iowa counties, but this weekend we have had a plethora of choices. Monona County did not disappoint; great start to the day at the Graceful Grind Coffeehouse in Mapleton.

The rest of the county did not show up in the same way ☹

We knew the William Ring House wasn’t going to be open, but we drove by to at least catch a shot of it

But we were disappointed when we drove up to the Museum of American History, located in a historical Mapleton church, to find it was closed even though online it showed it was supposed to be open.

We did a drive down the main street in Mapleton as we headed out of town

A quick drive through Castana

Off-roading the streets of Castana

A quick stop in Turin to check out the Turin Man Discovery, where four skeletons were found by accident by a local citizen in 1955

 

On to Onawa with a stop at the Monona County courthouse

The Onawa Public Library

Another wonderful Iowa main street- this one touts the widest main street in the continental United States!

and lunch at Frannie's Cafe along the main street!

The next disappointment of the day was the Lewis and Clark State Park. We were super excited to see the replica of the Lewis and Clark boat only to find the entire park and conservation center closed as they are in the process of cutting down all of their cottonwood trees due to danger of them falling down so this is all we got to see

We ended up stopping at the Cubby’s Gas Station to watch the second half of the Japan versus Brazil world cup game (and played a game we picked up at the Hometown Variety in Mapleton earlier this morning) as there were no local restaurants/eateries in Mapleton with a TV.

Although none of us have seen the movie the Children of the Corn, we could not pass up Whiting to see one of the many Iowa filming locations

Our kids might have had too much fun acting like the “children of the corn” :D

Our final stop of the day was Moorhead and Preparation Canyon State Park to do some hiking in the Loess Hills.

 

We knew the Moorhead Cultural Center would be closed

We didn’t even know this Loess Hills Hospitality Center existed, but it was also closed

 

Thankfully the day didn’t end in disappointment as the Loess Hills did not let us down. We may not have mountains in Iowa, but we sure do have some foothills. It was hot and windy, but we enjoyed the adventure of hiking some of the Loess Hills ridges.

Rate: 1
Other Things to See/Do:
Moorhead Cultural Center, Moorhead
Monona County Arboretum, Onawa
Monona County Historical Museum and Kiwanis Complex, Onawa
Onawa Dragway, Onawa