One exit off Iowa’s Loess Hills Byway drops you into 1,500 acres of raw, rolling prairie

It’s Iowa’s best-kept outdoor secret

Hitchcock Nature Center sits in Honey Creek, Iowa, about 20 miles from downtown Omaha.

The Pottawattamie County Conservation Board manages nearly 1,500 acres of prairie, woodland and Bur Oak savanna here, and the gates stay open every single day of the year from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The park lines the Loess Hills Scenic Byway, a driving route that winds through some of Iowa’s most striking terrain.

What you find inside the park, though, goes far beyond the road.

Ice Age winds built these hills from river dust

The ground beneath your feet at Hitchcock is loess, a fine silt that blew off the Missouri River Valley floor during the last Ice Age, roughly 12,500 to 25,000 years ago.

In western Iowa, those deposits run up to 200 feet deep. The only other place on Earth with loess this thick is Shaanxi, China.

Over thousands of years, erosion carved steep ridges and rolling hills that rise hundreds of feet above the flat bottomlands.

Before it became a nature preserve, this land served as a YMCA camp.

Pick your own route on 14 miles of trail

Fourteen miles of unpaved trails connect across the park in a network, so you can piece together your own route. Some paths follow flat ridgelines.

Others drop into steep, rugged terrain that will test your legs.

The most popular loop links the Dozer Cut, Bunker Hill and Badger Ridge trails for about 5.8 miles and over 1,200 feet of elevation gain.

Badger Ridge is a favorite for its wide-open views of the surrounding hills and valley. Bikes, horses and ATVs are not allowed.

Climb the tower and see Omaha’s skyline

A 45-foot observation tower stands next to the Loess Hills Lodge at the park’s highest point.

The tower sits on top of a 250-foot hill, so you get a true bird’s-eye perspective of the whole landscape. From the top, you can look out 360 degrees across the Missouri River Valley.

On clear days, the Omaha skyline shows up in the distance. That same tower also serves as home base for the park’s famous HawkWatch program every fall.

Watch 13,000 raptors ride the wind south

From Sept. 1 through mid-December, volunteers at the Hitchcock HawkWatch count an average of 13,000 migrating raptors each season.

The program ranks among the top 25 HawkWatch sites in the country and is one of the top five in North America for migrating bald eagles. Westerly winds hit the steep Loess Hills and push updrafts that raptors ride south.

Volunteers have documented 21 species, including peregrine falcons, red-tailed hawks and merlins. You can climb the tower and watch right alongside them.

Over 300 bird species call this park home

More than 300 bird species have been recorded at or near Hitchcock, and in 2003 the park became Iowa’s first designated Important Bird Area.

Spring draws birders looking for rare species returning to the region. Summer brings breeding indigo buntings, Baltimore orioles and scarlet tanagers.

Because the park sits near the center of the continent, eastern and western bird ranges overlap here. That geographic sweet spot creates a diversity of species you won’t easily find at a single site.

Iowa lost 99.9 percent of its prairie, but not here

Less than one-tenth of one percent of Iowa’s original remnant prairie still survives. Hitchcock holds some of the largest remaining patches in the state.

The steep terrain of the Loess Hills made farming nearly impossible, and that difficulty kept plows away for generations.

Today those prairies support pollinators, protect water quality and hold the fragile loess soil in place. Plants and animals that exist nowhere else in Iowa still find a home on these ridges.

Test your talon strength inside the lodge

The Loess Hills Lodge sits at the park’s highest point and holds an interpretive center packed with hands-on exhibits.

A raptor display lets you listen to raptor calls and try a talon-strength simulation. Prairie and woodland exhibits walk you through how the Loess Hills formed and what lives in them now.

Kids can dig into the Curiosity Cove area to make animal prints, build habitats and complete a scavenger hunt. The building runs on solar power and uses porous pavement and recycled materials.

Sleep in a cabin or camp deep in the hills

Three cabins sleep up to five people each and come with heating, air conditioning, a refrigerator and a microwave.

If you bring an RV, 18 sites have electric and water hookups.

Group tent sites sit near the campground, and backcountry campsites are tucked into the hills for something more remote.

At night, the park’s distance from city lights opens up the sky. You can see far more stars here than anywhere near Omaha.

Grab a sled and hit The Chute in winter

The park stays open through winter, and the roads hold up well even in snowy months. You can rent snowshoes at the Loess Hills Lodge and explore the trails under a layer of white.

Kids and families bring sleds to ride a steep hill known as The Chute. Quiet winter hikes along snow-covered ridges put you out with almost nobody else around.

The campground and cabins remain open year-round if you want to stay overnight.

Tag a monarch butterfly or hunt for mushrooms

Seasonal programs rotate through the year, from guided nature hikes and monarch butterfly tagging to mushroom hunts and night sky viewing.

Children’s programs like Nature Club and Knee High Naturalists run regularly. Kids can check out a free Adventure Pack at the visitor center with binoculars, animal ID cards, a compass and nature books.

An Earthcaching course uses GPS units to explore the park’s geology at six stops. You’ll also find an archery range, a playground and an accessible boardwalk trail.

Explore Hitchcock Nature Center in Iowa

If you want to see what 1,500 acres of prairie and woodland look like up close, head to 27792 Ski Hill Loop in Honey Creek, Iowa, about 20 miles from downtown Omaha.

The park opens every day of the year from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and admission costs $5 per vehicle. Lodge gallery hours change with the seasons, so check the official website before you go.

Cabins, RV sites, tent camping and backcountry spots are all available for overnight stays.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• A 200-mile ribbon of ice-age silt makes this Iowa road one of Earth’s rarest drives
• This Colorado detour drops you into 800 years of ancient Puebloan engineering genius
• California has a secret bay bigger than you’d believe and it dodged discovery for centuries