Dolliver Memorial State Park, Iowa
Dolliver Memorial State Park is a beautiful state park along the Des Moines River. It is about 20 minutes south of Fort Dodge and 1.5 hours northwest of Des Moines. Its nearly 600 acres contains almost 8 miles of hiking trails through woodlands, along sandstone bluffs, and even has a small box canyon. A map of the park’s hiking trails can be found via the Iowa DNR (https://www.iowadnr.gov/portals/idnr/uploads/parks/trailmaps/trails_dolliver.pdf).
We first visited this park in the fall of 2020 when we hiked a portion of the Boneyard Hollow Trail. We started at the northeastern trailhead (42.397544, -94.076323). The trail climbed up stone steps to the top of a hill. We walked across the hill, starting our search for the box canyon. The trail descended and before crossing the mostly dry streambed, we wandered into the box canyon. Although the walls of the little box canyon aren’t huge, it felt like somewhat of a hidden gem. It was especially nice with the bright colors of autumn.
61mm, ISO 250, f/7.1, 1/80 sec
Mid-morning - October 9, 2020
27mm, ISO 250, f/7.1, 1/60 sec
Mid-morning - October 9, 2020
27mm, ISO 250, f/7.1, 1/100 sec
Mid-morning - October 9, 2020
We visited Dolliver again for fall color this year toward the end of October. This time we hiked the Copperas Trail at the south end of the park. We started at the east trailhead (42.384460, -94.085223) and completed the full loop. The trail first crossed over a bridge and followed the main road a short ways before heading west up the hill into the forest. The trail wandered through the forest until about the halfway point where there was a nice clearing at the top of the hill. The trail then descended to the valley. Once down, the trail took us through a really nice section of forest before we got to a stream with sandstone bluffs named Copperas Beds. We walked along the stream a little ways to explore, before finishing the trail.
Clearing above the trees at about the halfway point looking south/southeast
24mm, ISO 160, f/6.3, 1/1600
Mid-morning - October 23, 2021
Much of the first half of the trail looked similar to this
24mm, ISO 160, f/6.3, 1/32o sec
Mid-morning - October 23, 2021
Forest on the valley floor
44mm, ISO 160, f/6.3, 1/160 sec
Mid-morning - October 23, 2021
Looking back up the stone steps on the descent to the valley floor
24mm, ISO 160, f/6.3, 1/320 sec
Mid-morning - October 23, 2021
Forest on the valley floor
45mm, ISO 160, f/6.3, 1/160 sec
Mid-morning - October 23, 2021
Copperas Beds sandstone formation with Jess as the model :-)
36mm, ISO 160, f/6.3, 1/80 sec
Mid-morning - October 23, 2021
We really enjoyed both of our visits to Dolliver and plan to return to explore more trails. It’s a nice little park with varied elevation and views. It is not nearly as busy as the comparable Ledges State Park near Madrid, IA. If you’re looking for a park similar to Ledges to explore, Dolliver would be a great one.
Thanks for reading!
