Sioux City's Stone State Park
What local plants or animals might you be able to explore at a park near you?
While exploring the park, you might catch a glimpse of some familiar critters and some very unique plants. One plant you'll find is typically found in the southwest United States and Mexico than western Iowa. What could allow for this plant to grow such out of its typical home?
Transcript
[Abby Brown] The largest city in northwest Iowa is Sioux City, with well over 80,000 people. When those people want to enjoy nature, they can head to Stone State Park, right within this urban area. Stone State Park is unlike any other park in Iowa. They have the Loess Hills. Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center is where we can learn all about it. A nature center like this is especially important in the Loess Hills because the environment outside is fragile. Now, we're gonna get to go outside and hike and see the beautiful sights, but first let's learn more so that we can be sure we understand how an amazing place like this right next to a big city can have such amazing animals and habitats and unique views. We're really close to Sioux City right? So tell me how that works with the city right next door and this beautiful nature center sitting so close.
[Dawn Snyder] We're really blessed to have a great park like this with over 1200 acres right in Sioux City city limits. Many of us don't realize we're actually in Sioux City and a great state park.
[Abby] Where do you live?
[Max] Sioux City.
[Abby] And we're in Sioux City right now but this does not look like a city, how can that be?
[Max] It's a forest.
[Abby] It is a forest!
[Max] And it's a city to the animals and bugs in the place.
[Abby] What do families love to do most here?
[Dawn] They really love to hike.
[Abby] So if I'm going on a hike, and I think we will today, what will we see?
[Dawn] We will see wild turkeys, of course. They're pretty much one of our main animal species out here. We might be lucky to see a glimpse of a whitetail deer where, of course, we're going to meander through the baroque woodlands and get up into the prairie, in our native prairie. Because we're in the Loess Hills there are stairs and that's a steep hill, but we do have a chance to get up to see the tri-state view of Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
[Abby] And there's a river nearby?
[Dawn] Yes, we are actually right here in the tri-state area and the Big Sioux River is our boundary between the state of Iowa and the state of South Dakota. And that Big Sioux River then also flows into the Missouri River. So we are blessed in Sioux City region to have one of the largest rivers in the United States, the Missouri River, and then also the Big Sioux.
[Abby] Now that I've learned about some of the unique things to do and see here, I'm ready to go. It's autumn right now, so what types of things do you think we'll see in here today that will change in other seasons? Let's go check out Stone State Park!
[Announcer] Funding for FIND Iowa has been provided by the following supporters.
(text on screen Find Iowa, Coons Foundation, Pella, Gilchrist Foundation)
(text on screen Iowa PBS Education)