Loess Hills State Forest

This is a 360 video of the Loess Hills State Forest in Pisgah, Iowa. ¹Loess Hills State Forest, near Iowa’s western border in Harrison and Monona counties, comprises 11,484 acres. The forest sits in the heart of the Loess Hills, a unique geological ridge formed over time by wind-blown soil, known for its unusual terrain and scenic natural areas. Loess Hills State Forest is Iowa’s newest publicly-owned forest, established through land donations and purchases starting in 1985.

Let’s take a closer look at Loess Hills State Forest. This 360 is made from two images. We will navigate the images by clicking on the right arrow which will move our view a quarter turn each time we click it.

00:00-01:04

We are standing on a dirt path within the Loess Hills State Park. Our explorer in a gray short sleeved shirt and brown jeans carrying a backpack walks in and out of the frame. Looking in the distance, we see rolling hills of brown dirt. In front of us are clumps of green bushes resting inside a patch of tangled grass.

1. Clicks 1-3. The path we are following is right in front of us. The brown, dirt path curves and weaves on the like a snake slithering across the land. The path is higher up then we first thought. It rises above the patch of tangled grass and bushes on our left and the tangled grass and bushes on our right like the path is the rim of a bowl.
2. Clicks 4-9. The bushes and grass that were on our right morph into the tops of trees as we look out into the distance over the forest below.
3. Clicks 10-17. We are now turned completely around from our starting point. We see a main-made wooden structure in the distance, and our explorer is standing behind us.
4. Clicks 18-23. We are back where we started. Looking in the distance, we see rolling hills of brown dirt. In front of us are clumps of green bushes resting inside a patch of tangled grass.

01:05-02:07

We are standing on a dirt path in what feels like a canyon. In the distance, we can see the tops of the forest that we viewed from the pathway. The canyon has dirt with a tangle of brown grass on our left and dirt with bunches of green grass on our right. The top right side of the canyon looks like it has been carved away like a sculptor was shaping a clump of brown clay.

1. Clicks 1-5. We are now facing the right side of the canyon. The side with the sculptor’s cut. Immediately in front of us is a bush that is growing out of the canyon side. It looks like a bunch of green leaves tangled together. Above and to the right of the bush are two triangle shaped impressions that look like foot holds for a climber in the hillside one below the other. Also to the right of the bush is a trail that leads up the side of the canyon toward and past the two triangles.
2. Clicks 6-10. We have turned completely around. Our explorer has walked away from us into a section of the path that is darkened by a canopy of trees. To our right, the sides of the canyon are steep. The dirt there looks like batter that has been mixed, but is not quite smooth.
3. Clicks 11-16. In the distance we see a wall of dirt like a man made dam. It’s so high that we can barely see the blue sky above. In front of us are three box-like shapes in the dirt away from the high wall. The box on the far left has a square hole cut in it. The two other box-like shapes appear to be more rectangular then square and have the short ends facing us. The dirt in front of us has streaks like waves running through it like a fast rain came through here recently.
4. Clicks 17-21. We are back where we started. In the distance, we can see the tops of the forest that we viewed from the pathway. The dirt canyon has dirt with a tangle of brown grass on our left and dirt with bunches of green grass on our right.

¹“Loess Hills State Forest.”Iowa Department of Natural Resources, https://www.iowadnr.gov/Places-to-Go/State-Forests/Loess-Hills-State-Forest. 2023 Mar. 22.