Black Hawk State Park, IA / Sauk Rail Trail (4/18 - 4/23/23)

Another lakeside stay to ride another great Iowa bike trail. We stayed at Black Hawk State Park fairly close to the lakeside. The Sauk Rail Trail is close so we could ride right from the campground to the trail. Lake View is the town right beside the park that has some restaurants and commercial boating services to make this a popular summer lake destination town.

This time of the year can bring any weather to this area in Iowa. The picture below was taken about 30 minutes after a near whiteout snow squall ran through the area. Luckily it wasn't too cold and it melted almost immediately.

Our site at the state park had water and electric only and was fairly close to the lake. At this time of the year, we had no problem getting reservations.

The Sauk Rail Trail is 33 miles long and all paved passing through several small towns and mostly rural farm country. The north end where we stayed begins in Lake View and ends in Carroll to the south. The trail is in great condition and well maintained. You could notice that they had recently rebuilt many bridges to make this trail better for riders.

The town of Breda is close to the halfway point for a nice rest stop. I recommend visiting Red's Place in town for a beverage or two. The towns along this trail (Breda, Lake View, and Carroll) will all be towns we pass through on our RAGBRAI adventure this July.

Another rest stop is the tiny town of Maple River that has a couple of bars too, but be sure to check to see if they are open. The time we ran through they were both closed on a Wednesday at 2:00pm.