Get away ... from everything. When it's time to escape from the hustle and the bustle of your everyday life and finally spend some time in serenity, the Loess Hills are your destination. Unique, breathtaking scenery ... original, authentic, "down-home cooking" ... remarkable attractions ... and most of all, peace.
Situated along Iowa's western border, the Loess Hills National Scenic Byway passes through the globally unique Loess Hills landform that is up to 15 miles wide and about 200 miles long from north of Sioux City, Iowa to near St. Joseph, Missouri. |
So...what are the Loess Hills?
They are hills made almost entirely of windblown soils called loess (rhymes with bus). Toward the end of the last ice age, winds picked up soils that had been ground as fine as flour and formed dunes along the ancient waterway that became today's Missouri River. The process repeated itself during the thousands of years the ice age took to end, enlarging the dunes. Because the prevailing winds were from the northwest, the dunes on the Iowa side of the river were higher than those west of the Missouri on the Nebraska side.
Eventually, topsoil evolved on the dunes and a unique natural community developed. Ice age animals like wooly mammoth, camel, giant beaver, and giant sloth roamed the Loess Hills during the Hills' early years. Humans have lived here off and on for 6,000 years, as evidenced by stone tools, spear points, pottery, and burial sites.
Today, the definition of a Loess Hill is a hill made of loess that is more than 60 feet in height; using that definition, about 640,000 acres of land in western Iowa constitute the Loess Hills landform. Although deposits of loess are found across the world, nowhere else but China are those deposits high enough to create a new landform.
The Loess Hills are also important ecologically. Iowa is a prairie state, but more than 99% of its native remnant (never ploughed) prairie is gone. More than half of the remaining remnant prairies are found in the Loess Hills. Vertical prairies cling to the steep and irregular topography of the Loess Hills, most noticeably at their western extreme on the precipitous bluffs along the Missouri River Valley. Many eastern and western plant and animal species reach their range limit in the Loess Hills. Yucca, also known also soapweed, is one example.
Eventually, topsoil evolved on the dunes and a unique natural community developed. Ice age animals like wooly mammoth, camel, giant beaver, and giant sloth roamed the Loess Hills during the Hills' early years. Humans have lived here off and on for 6,000 years, as evidenced by stone tools, spear points, pottery, and burial sites.
Today, the definition of a Loess Hill is a hill made of loess that is more than 60 feet in height; using that definition, about 640,000 acres of land in western Iowa constitute the Loess Hills landform. Although deposits of loess are found across the world, nowhere else but China are those deposits high enough to create a new landform.
The Loess Hills are also important ecologically. Iowa is a prairie state, but more than 99% of its native remnant (never ploughed) prairie is gone. More than half of the remaining remnant prairies are found in the Loess Hills. Vertical prairies cling to the steep and irregular topography of the Loess Hills, most noticeably at their western extreme on the precipitous bluffs along the Missouri River Valley. Many eastern and western plant and animal species reach their range limit in the Loess Hills. Yucca, also known also soapweed, is one example.
Byway Spine & Excursion Loops
The Loess Hills National Scenic Byway features a 220-mile paved route (spine), with 185 miles of optional excursion loops that range from interstate highways to gravel roads.
Byway History
The Loess Hills National Scenic Byway began in 1989 as a grassroots effort by dedicated citizens in cooperation with Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development and the Western Iowa Tourism Region. Golden Hills RC&D is a nonprofit organization that collaboratively develops and leads community, conservation, and cultural initiatives to improve our quality of life in rural western Iowa. The Byway became an Iowa Scenic Byway on July 8, 1998 and on June 15, 2000 received the National Scenic Byway designation.
The Loess Hills National Scenic Byway guidebook and this website have been sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, Rural Development Through Forestry Program, Iowa West Foundation, Western Iowa Tourism Region, Golden Hills RC&D, Fremont County Board of Supervisors, Mills County Board of Supervisors, Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors, Harrison County Board of Supervisors, Monona County Board of Supervisors, Woodbury County Board of Supervisors, Plymouth County Board of Supervisors and the Loess Hills Alliance.
The Loess Hills National Scenic Byway guidebook and this website have been sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, Rural Development Through Forestry Program, Iowa West Foundation, Western Iowa Tourism Region, Golden Hills RC&D, Fremont County Board of Supervisors, Mills County Board of Supervisors, Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors, Harrison County Board of Supervisors, Monona County Board of Supervisors, Woodbury County Board of Supervisors, Plymouth County Board of Supervisors and the Loess Hills Alliance.