Russell Wildlife Area- Mahaska County, Iowa

Today, somewhat on accident, we stumbled upon a fun and relatively easy new spot to explore.  One of our boys had to be in our hometown for an appointment a little before 3 so we were looking for a spot nearby to explore.

"I think there is a little park north of Oskaloosa" said husband- so I'm off to google.  

"Is it Russell Wildlife Area?" I say staring at the map

"Is it north of Oskaloosa?" says husband? 

"It looks like it" I say. 

"Well, pack a lunch"

So we head towards Russell Wildlife Area via my bff iphone and google maps.  There wasn't much information online and when we go close the only sign I ever saw pointed us towards "Mahaska County Conservation".  Apparently the area used to be used as a limestone quarry and there are 5 quarry ponds in the area that you can fish in.  (Don't forget a fishing license).  I think we found 4 of the 5 ponds.  When we pulled in husband looked around and said

"This isn't the place I was thinking of'" but were were already there and on a somewhat limited time frame so we stayed.

We parked next to the first pond and had lunch on the dock which currently was out of the water.  The water was very clear and blue and the boys loved that there were some type of freshwater mussel shells on the banks.  More on this in another post but we ALWAYS pack food, our boys are ALWAYS hungry and it makes for an unpleasant hike to try to make them walk when they are begging to eat.  

After fueling our troops we headed south to a red gate and headed past it down a gravel path where we pretty quickly came to the second small quarry pond, followed fairly quickly by a larger third pond and then the very large 4th pond.  It took us 30-40 minutes and we stopped at each pond to look around so i would call this a very accessible hike.  In fact it was almost too easy for my liking.  I tend to be more of an off the beaten path, get a little bit lost type of gal.  The 4th pond was large and lovely with a limestone bluff rising up from one side.  

Right about this time I started thinking, ok this wasn't a total bust, its hot and an easy walk, but this is a pretty little spot to visit, and then we stumbled upon this:

An awesome little swinging bridge!  This was about 3/4 of a mile from where we parked- for my boys this bridge alone would make the easy hike worth it.  The big two had a blast running back and forth and making the bridge swing. #3 was hesitant and wanted to go slowly and by himself and #4 had already thrown in the town two quarry ponds ago and was hitching a ride on husband's back.  The bridge appears to span a small creek bed that was dry the day we visited.  

A set of stairs led us up to the top of the limestone bluff we could see from across the pond and gave us a decent birds eye view of the large pond.  I think this would be lovely in the fall with some of the leaves out of the way, or even on a warm winter day or in the spring before the foliage is thick.  The upper trail was a nicely mowed grass path, and today it was a pretty but HOT path to hike with little shade. The path split a few times and we went left, left, left and then found ourselves back by pond #3 where we turned right, and then right again and were back onto the gravel path and almost back to our car.  The whole adventure (minus lunch) took us a little less than 90 minutes and I'm sure we could have done it quicker but we stopped frequently to take in the sights. 

Would we go back?

Yep- it was an easy hike close to home and I think it will be a fun place to visit during different seasons.  The kids liked  the ponds, and loved the swinging bridge.  We got lucky this weekend and had the place to ourselves.  Looks like they hold a kids fest every fall here.  

What will we do differently next time?

The kids really wished that we had brought a fishing pole, and honestly I think husband did too- we saw a huge fish jump out in the middle of pond #1 while we were eating lunch and little boys #1 and #2 spent a lot of the hike trying to figure out how to make a fishing pole.