# Road trips in Iowa > 5 road trips and 13 hand-picked places in Iowa, with routes, stops and practical tips for driving and camping. Source: https://camping-spirit.com/roadtrips/iowa/ 5 road trips and 13 hand-picked places in Iowa, with routes, stops and practical tips for driving and camping. ## Road trips through Iowa - [Iowa’s Driftless bluffs and Norwegian Decorah](https://camping-spirit.com/guides/b9-iowa-driftless/): Up the Mississippi bluffs past ancient effigy mounds, then inland to the trout streams, springs and Czech and Norwegian towns of north-east Iowa. - [Covered bridges, Dutch windmills and the Amana Colonies](https://camping-spirit.com/guides/b9-madison-county/): Central Iowa’s gentle side: a sandstone canyon, the covered bridges of Madison County, Dutch Pella and the German Amana villages. - [Great River Road south: Dubuque to Hannibal](https://camping-spirit.com/guides/b19-mississippi-quad-cities/): Iowa caves, the Quad Cities, Burlington’s crooked Snake Alley, the Mormon town of Nauvoo and Mark Twain’s Hannibal along the middle Mississippi. - [Great River Road: the upper Mississippi](https://camping-spirit.com/guides/great-river-road/): River bluffs, lock and dams, Mark Twain’s Hannibal and the Gateway Arch. - [Giant baskets and infinity rooms: a Midwest oddities run](https://camping-spirit.com/guides/midwest-oddities/): Novelty buildings, a fiberglass spaceman and a house that should not exist. ## Places worth the detour in Iowa - [Effigy Mounds National Monument](https://camping-spirit.com/places/b9-effigy-mounds/): Over 200 ancient mounds, some shaped like bears and birds, on wooded bluffs above the Mississippi. The Fire Point trail climbs to river views in about an hour. - [Roseman Covered Bridge](https://camping-spirit.com/places/b9-roseman-bridge/): The most famous of Madison County’s covered bridges, made widely known by the book and film The Bridges of Madison County. Reached on a gravel road. - [Field of Dreams Movie Site](https://camping-spirit.com/places/field-dreams/): The farmhouse and ballfield from the 1989 film, still among the Iowa cornfields. Bring a glove. - [Pikes Peak State Park](https://camping-spirit.com/places/b9-pikes-peak-sp/): A bluff-top park with one of the best views on the upper Mississippi, over the mouth of the Wisconsin River. A boardwalk trail leads to a small waterfall. - [Mount Hosmer Park](https://camping-spirit.com/places/b9-mount-hosmer/): A small hilltop park above Lansing with a wide view of the river, its islands and the Black Hawk Bridge. The road up is short and steep. - [Dunning’s Spring](https://camping-spirit.com/places/b9-dunnings-spring/): A spring-fed waterfall tumbling down a limestone bluff at the edge of Decorah. Free, easy to reach and linked to town by bike trails. - [Bily Clocks Museum](https://camping-spirit.com/places/b9-bily-clocks/): Elaborate hand-carved clocks made by two farmer brothers, in the house where Antonín Dvořák spent the summer of 1893. - [Ledges State Park](https://camping-spirit.com/places/b9-ledges-sp/): Sandstone ledges and a creek-bottom road through a small canyon by the Des Moines River. The road floods after heavy rain, so check before driving through. - [Holliwell Covered Bridge](https://camping-spirit.com/places/b9-holliwell-bridge/): The longest of the county’s surviving covered bridges, spanning the Middle River in a quiet, wooded setting. Closed to cars but open to walk across. - [Vermeer Windmill](https://camping-spirit.com/places/b9-vermeer-windmill/): A working Dutch-style windmill built in the Netherlands and reassembled in Pella’s historical village. Visit during Tulip Time in early May, when the town is in bloom. - [Amana Colonies](https://camping-spirit.com/places/b9-amana-colonies/): Seven villages founded by German Pietists who lived communally until 1932. Walk the brick and sandstone streets and stop for German-style food and crafts. - [Maquoketa Caves State Park](https://camping-spirit.com/places/b19-maquoketa-caves/): More caves than any other park in Iowa, from walk-through passages to crawl spaces, linked by boardwalks in a wooded limestone ravine. Bring a headlamp; some caves close in winter to protect bats. - [Snake Alley](https://camping-spirit.com/places/b19-snake-alley/): A brick street from 1894 with seven tight switchbacks down a bluff, often called one of the crookedest streets in the world. Drive it downhill only, or walk it; park at the top on Columbia Street. ## FAQs **What are the best road trips in Iowa?** Popular routes include Iowa’s Driftless bluffs and Norwegian Decorah, Covered bridges, Dutch windmills and the Amana Colonies, Great River Road south: Dubuque to Hannibal and Great River Road: the upper Mississippi. CampingSpirit has 5 trip guides that pass through Iowa, each with a stop-by-stop itinerary and a route map. **Which places in Iowa are worth a detour?** Our editors recommend Effigy Mounds National Monument and Roseman Covered Bridge.