🌅 Best places to catch an Iowa sunset

July 31, 2026

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🗣️ It’s Friday and the last of July. Good riddance!

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

The AAU Junior Olympics began this week in Des Moines and runs through Aug. 8.
There are currently 116 data centers in Iowa. Sixty-nine of those are in Des Moines alone.
The death rates in most US states have fallen, but they’ve climbed 5% in Iowa. (I know you’re probably guessing cancer, but it’s actually falls.)
There are new rock-climbing routes in Maquoketa.
August is National Immunization Awareness Month, a good time to make sure you and your kids are up to date.
Around 600 workers are at least temporarily out of a job after a large fire at the AgriStar plant in Postville.
TSA has been sharing passenger information with ICE.
Far from keeping students safe, school resource officers in Iowa do more harm than good, particularly to Black and disabled students, a new ACLU of Iowa report found.

Amie Rivers

Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line

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The most scenic sunset-viewing spots in Iowa you can access for free

The High Trestle Trail Bridge offers not only a fun experience over the Des Moines River, but a beautiful sunset view. (Jason Mrachina/CCBY-NC-ND 2.0)

There’s something about an Iowa sunset—even Mark Twain recognized that. Maybe it’s the way the sky seems bigger here, or the unobstructed horizon. Whatever the reason, you don’t need a ticket—or even much of a plan—to catch a great one.

Take a quick evening outing or the scenic route home to visit these areas that offer some of the best sunset-viewing spots in Iowa.

🌅 Catch the last rays of summer →

🐕 🐕 These two are Tanner and Trapper, who belong to reader Russ J.

Those ears!

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(Courtesy Invention Convention Worldwide)

🔧 Attention at the Invention Convention: Brook, a third-grader from West Branch, and Clara, a second-grader from Council Bluffs (both pictured above), won awards at last month’s Invention Convention US Nationals.

Brook invented a Tub Table for less-messy bath time play, and Clara invented Road Trip Roll, a dice-based car game to keep kids off screens.