Best fall hikes in NE Iowa

September 4, 2026

Sign Up for the Iowa Starting Line Newsletter

🗣️ It’s Friday and many of us get a three-day weekend coming up (thanks to the workers who fought for it). Get thee to an Iowa Labor Day picnic or parade here.

Time for Only in Iowa, this week’s photo, Positively Iowa, and news you can use.

It’s still hot enough to keep most of Iowa in either a heat advisory or, for those in the southeast, an extreme heat warning.
If you’re in Waterloo, there’s a citywide clean-up scheduled for Sept. 12. This posting is really a reminder for me to clean out my basement. (Anybody got a truck I could borrow?)
The University of Northern Iowa will finally, more than 30 years after he played there, retire Kurt Warner‘s jersey before the Sept. 12 UNI football game. Why did it take them so long? Reply with your insider knowledge and/or speculations!
Almost the entire Iowa congressional delegation (minus Sen. Joni Ernst) is asking President Donald Trump to quit it with the free beef importation.
There are frivolous lawsuits, and then there’s this Iowa guy.

Amie Rivers

Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line

Email me

‘Fall’ in love with these Driftless Area trails

Pikes Peak State Park in McGregor offers 11 miles of trail featuring fiery displays of autumn leaves overlooking the Mississippi River. (wildnerdpix/Shutterstock)

Autumn in Iowa has always been my favorite. Hiking through the woods is the best way to take it in. And there’s no better hiking (showing my bias!) than Northeast Iowa’s Driftless Area.

Drink in autumn leaf displays paired with dramatic limestone bluffs, ice caves, and more on one of these hikes this fall.

🍂 Take a hike ->

🐦 This is a male pileated woodpecker and a Baltimore oriole, taken by reader Marc W. back in May.

“I have been watching a pileated woodpecker nest near Lake Macbride,” he writes. “On a recent visit, I saw a male pileated woodpecker land near the nest at the same time as a Baltimore oriole landed on an adjacent branch. The attached picture is a composite of two pictures (taken seconds apart) so that both birds are in focus. Two very pretty birds.”

Send me your photos!

Want your community event promoted for FREE to Iowa Starting Line’s 60,000+ newsletter audience? Email me to find out how!

Grinnell High School students won first place in the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America’s national championship.

Abigail Hammond, Slane McCue, and Lucy Skouson won the Hospitality, Tourism, and Recreation division with their project to create a Great American Novel theme park in Iowa City, the UNESCO City of Literature, according to advisor Amy Skouson.

FCCLA is a national nonprofit career and technical student organization for students in family and consumer sciences education.

Thanks for the tip, Dan M.!

Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series: What to know about the state’s biggest college football rivalry

Iowa and Iowa State meet Sept. 12, 2026, in Iowa City. Here’s the history behind the Cy-Hawk rivalry and what to know before kickoff.

Iowa doctor attributes decline in health care access to Rep. Miller-Meeks’ votes

During a press conference organized by the Committee to Protect Healthcare, doctors urged constituents to evaluate lawmakers on their legislative voting record rather than their professional backgrounds. The conference highlighted legislative decisions by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia), and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa).

Hinson, Miller-Meeks, Nunn’s records on worker-friendly bills

They say they care about Iowa workers. But are they actually voting for us?

Share your thoughts here

Do you enjoy reading this newsletter?

Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Amie Rivers with stories by Ty Rushing, Shaely Odean, and Zachary Oren Smith. It was edited by Crystal Niforos.

Iowa Starting Line is free for everyone. Your support makes our work possible.

Support local news