Backbone Bluegrass Festival 1358 110th St, Strawberry PointThe Backbone Bluegrass Festival has been around since 1981 and brings a mix of bluegrass, country and gospel acts to the northeast corner […]
Recreation
An Iowa bicycle collective can help you find, fix and fall in love with your ride
If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you give a man a bicycle, teach him how to keep it in tip-top shape, and […]
Like all of us, ‘birds suffer from lack of being seen.’ Good thing Iowa has a century-old bird club.
Founded in 1923, the Iowa Ornithologists’ Union (IOU) has endured for a century as one of Iowa’s most prominent organizations dedicated to avian wildlife. Through organizing field trips to participating […]
Iowa is a disc golf capitol of the U.S., with 363 courses across some of the state’s best parks
What sport do you associate with the state of Iowa? Wrestling? Basketball? Football? Disc golf probably didn’t come to mind, but the Hawkeye State has a long, storied history with […]
Behind the handlebars: Eight styles of bicycle and what they do best
So you’re ready to hit the trail and feel the summery breeze on your face. What pair of wheels is right for you? Drew Boss, lead mechanic at the Iowa […]
‘Teach someone to love something and they’ll take care of it’: Paddle Fest wants more people, fewer fish floating in Iowa waterways
Everything in nature is connected, including us. Humans have been struggling with this concept since Alexander von Humboldt, in the mid-19th century and somewhat radically for the time, suggested that […]
When the Saints went marching through southern Iowa
Long before I-80 cut a clear path through the state — and before any asphalt, rubber tires, railways or virtually any infrastructure existed to aid westward travelers — crossing the […]
Contact Buzz: Recreation is renewal
“A period recourse into the wilds is not a retreat into secret silent sanctums to escape a wicked world, it is to take breath amid effort to forge a better […]
‘Suspicious fire’ damages Iowa’s largest sycamore; Gov. Reynolds’ opposition to CAFO rules threatens waterways
Iowa’s largest sycamore tree, which is located in a state park near Burlington, was severely damaged by a “suspicious fire,” the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said in a […]
Anyone can Catan at an upcoming tournament in Cedar Rapids, the result of a geeky cross-state collaboration
Less abstract than chess, but more complex than Scrabble, Eurogames — which came to prominence in the late ’70s and early ’80s in Germany and quickly spread across Europe — […]
‘Escarp’ to Brush Creek Canyon, a wild nature preserve in Fayette County
Brush Creek Canyon is one of 95 preserves that protect natural, geological, archeological or historical sites in Iowa. They are often minimally maintained, which only adds to their charm. A […]
Descend into Yellow Banks Park, 576 acres of ancient history
Tucked along a panoramic stretch of the Des Moines River in southeast Polk County is a park that feels many miles away from the state’s largest metro area. Buffered from […]