Location: Backbone State Park. Dundee, Iowa
Attraction:  Backbone Trail and Cave Exploration

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What do you do in the middle of winter when the weather finally lets up for a bit and gives you some sunshine and a heat wave of nearly 50 degrees? We packed up the kids and some meat, cheese, crackers and water and took a day trip to Backbone State park.

I’ve been to the park nearly a dozen times before, and I’ve even been on the south side in the winter since they have cabins you can stay in year round. But since the east, north, and west entrances are closed in the winter, that made things pretty interesting.  We had two items that we wanted to check off on this trip: The Devil’s Backbone trail, and a cave that you can crawl around and get pretty far back into if you are adventurous enough. With the entrances being closed, we understood that we had some extra hiking to do in order to get to our desired destinations.

The roads we would have normally taken by vehicle made for a pretty nice hiking trail. They were mostly covered in snow and you could see where all the different animals had been walking and imagine which animal they were and try to figure out what they were doing. One, very interesting track, had some weird brush marks next to tracks from a large three toed bird. Our detective work had us arriving at the conclusion that a turkey or possibly a vulture had landed or taken off there and the wings had just scrapped the top of the snow, leaving the perfectly symmetrical brushing marks in the snow.

When we arrived to the backbone trail, I could tell we were going to need to be extra careful. Others had used the trail and the packed snow from previous traffic had turned to ice and on either side of the trail there is a 100 ft drop at times. We carefully navigated the trail, enjoying the beautiful views and rock formations. After we had seen enough, we decided to turn back and try to find the cave, which was on the northern side of the park.

Once we made it back to the vehicle, we drove to the north entrance and planned our path to the cave. We walked along the road, stopping at each bridge to throw in some snow or a stick to watch it float away in the pristine winter waters. They were so clean and clear, the only thing clouding up the view to the bottom of the creek was the ripples and foam from the water moving so quickly. At one of the bridges, someone had built a tiny little snowman on the bridge post for others to enjoy.

Once we got to the cave, we broke out our flashlights and made our way in. One of us had just done leg day the day before so squatting down to a height of 3 ft to go further into a cave wasn’t really in the cards. The kids and I pushed on and got back about 50 ft or more. There were several spots that the cave opened up enough to squat comfortably or even stand. At one point we turn off all our flashlights and the pure black that we were in was something you’d almost have to experience to understand. There was nothing. Your pupils try to dilate, but there is nothing there to see. Not a drop of light to reveal anything.

Once we had our fill of exploring the cave and we felt guilty enough for leaving mom behind, we made our way back to the entrance and described to her what we all saw and made our way back to the vehicle. It was a perfect day to get out and shake off some of that cabin fever that we all experience in the middle of winter.