Backbone Overlook

On our way home from Brush Creek Canyon and Motor Mill last Sunday, my husband and I drove through Backbone State Park.  It is Iowa’s oldest state park and when I was a kid we called it “The Devil’s Backbone”.  This first photo was taken at the new overlook along the road just inside the park’s east entrance.  The Maquoketa River can be seen, lined with cliffs of limestone exposed below the tree-covered slope.  If you walk the well-known “Backbone Trail” to the far reaches of its loop, that’s where you will end up.  I have hiked it many times.  There wasn’t enough time to do that on this trip, however.  We had to get home to milk the cows!    

We were using the road that winds through Backbone Park as part of our route back home to the farm.  I attempted several drive-by photo shootings of the trees and rock formations, but only this next one was the least bit blog-worthy….

Right now, I’m enjoying using the first photo as my computer screen’s background.  What a fun and easy way to instantly enlarge favorite photo scenes!