Best nature preserves near Des Moines in fall for adults

Brown's Woods

The closest thing the metro has to a real forest walk: 486 acres of oak and hickory on the bluffs above the Raccoon River, less than fifteen minutes from downtown. Four and a half miles of dirt trail loop through rolling hills and small stream crossings, and the canopy turns gold and russet through most of October. Bikes and horses are banned to protect the soil, so it stays quiet on a weekday. The trade-off is that those same trails get slick and muddy for days after rain.

Ledges State Park

The fall-color trip central Iowans make by default, and it earns it: sandstone walls a hundred feet high above Pea's Creek, with the Des Moines River valley opening up behind them. The four-mile trail system is genuinely steep in places, with railroad-tie stairs the Civilian Conservation Corps cut in the 1930s, so it rewards decent shoes. Canyon Road runs through the creek at several fords, which is half the fun and the first thing to close when the water is up. It is also the busiest park on this list on an October Saturday; go on a weekday if you want the overlooks to yourself.

Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge

Six thousand acres of reconstructed tallgrass prairie twenty miles east of the city, with a bison and elk herd inside a fenced enclosure you can drive through. Fall is arguably its best season: the big bluestem and Indiangrass go bronze, the asters and goldenrod are still going, and the walking trails stay open sunrise to sunset. It is the one place near Des Moines where you get horizon rather than tree cover. Two caveats as of this writing: the Prairie Learning Center is closed for storm repairs, and county road construction has shut the road through the bison enclosure, so come in on Pacific Street.

Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt

By far the largest area on this list, and the wildest: more than 8,000 acres of restored wetland, prairie and old Skunk River oxbows in the far northeast corner of Polk County. Fall is migration season here, which makes it the metro's best bet for waterfowl, herons and river otters, with a bird blind and a viewing platform to watch from. Trails are short and flat, spread across the property rather than gathered into one system, so it rewards a map and a slow morning. It is also open to waterfowl hunting, and the Otter Trail closes from September 1 through the end of the season, so check before you go.

Strasser Woods State Preserve

A 40-acre remnant of upland forest inside the Des Moines city limits, dedicated as a biological state preserve in 1982 after the Strasser family donated it. The half-mile trail through hilly woods takes twenty minutes, which makes this the after-work option rather than the day trip. It is the most intact old woodland you can reach without leaving the city, and mushroom hunting is expressly allowed. Do not come expecting facilities: there is a small parking area at the end of a residential street and nothing else.

Walnut Woods State Park

A flat, easy two-plus miles of bottomland forest along the Raccoon River, protecting what is reported to be the largest natural stand of black walnut in North America. Walnuts drop their leaves early, so the draw here in fall is less about color than about a level river walk with good light and more than ninety recorded bird species. The Athene pedestrian bridge links it across the river to Raccoon River Park, which doubles the distance if you want it. Being floodplain, the trails flood periodically and stay muddy for a while afterward.

Lake Ahquabi State Park

Six miles of trail south of Indianola, built as a loop around a 115-acre reservoir plus wooded side paths through the hills that flank it. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the dam, lodge and bathhouse in the mid-1930s and three areas of the park are on the National Register, so the stonework is part of the walk. Reflected color off the water is the reason to come in October, and the lake loop is gravel and level enough to do at dusk. It shares a road with the Annett Nature Center, which makes a two-stop afternoon easy.

Pammel Park

One of Iowa's first state parks, dedicated in 1928 and run by Madison County since 1989, built around a limestone ridge called the backbone that the Middle River wraps around. Some of the oldest recorded oaks in the state grow out of the rock up there, and nearly five miles of trail work the woodland below. The lower loop drops onto the river-bottom timber and climbs back on steeper grades, which is what makes it a real hike rather than a stroll. The park's other oddity is the Harmon Tunnel, a hand-cut passage through the ridge that the park road runs through.

Annett Nature Center and Park

The most trail miles per acre on this list: a seven-mile network folded into 160 acres of forest, prairie planting and wetland five miles south of Indianola. The primary trail drops from the nature center down through the woods and wetland to a 30-foot observation tower, which is the best elevated fall-color view in Warren County. Warren County Conservation runs guided forest-therapy walks here, and there are 25 geocaches along the trails if you want a reason to cover all of it. The center building keeps weekday office hours and is closed weekends, though the park itself is open sunrise to sunset.

Thomas Mitchell Park

The small, quiet one: 197 acres of mature oak-hickory woodland along Camp Creek, east of the metro near Mitchellville. Polk County describes the trails as moderate and they total under two miles across three short named routes, so this is an hour rather than an afternoon. The draw is that the woodland is old and full of wildflowers, mushrooms and deer, and it is rarely crowded. Worth knowing that the trail network wraps a developed core with a playground and ball field, so it is not a wilderness experience.

Yellow Banks Park

Named for the yellow glacial bluffs that stand 150 feet over the Des Moines River, which is the view you come for. The reason to pick it in autumn is the Savanna Trail, which passes some of the last open-grown savanna oaks in Polk County, a few estimated at more than 250 years old. Migrating hawks and bald eagles work this stretch of river through the fall. Trails here are a handful of short named paths rather than one long loop, so plan on stringing several together for a real walk.