Plymouth County

Overview

Plymouth County is the northernmost county on the Loess Hills National Scenic Byway. In addition to traveling the byway spine, you can explore the Ridge Road Excursion Loop and the Butcher Road Connection.

Directions

When you arrive in Akron, look for information about the byway at the information kiosk in the city park along Iowa Highway 12 on the city's north side. Although Akron is the northern anchor of Iowa's Loess Hills, you're no doubt looking around and wondering "What hills?"

If you watch as you drive south out of Akron on Iowa Highway 12, you will see them rise gently out of the relatively flat fields like gentle swells on the ocean. To the west you'll see the Big Sioux River, Iowa's boundary with South Dakota.

When you arrive in Westfield, the westernmost city in Iowa, be sure to follow the signs to the Loess Hills Interpretive Center which has new exhibits in a former one-room schoolhouse at Union and Linden Streets.

As you continue south on Highway 12, you will notice the Loess Hills rise in height and become more sharply etched. Similarly, you will also notice that, at times, the highway lies on a narrow ledge of land between the base of the Loess Hills and the Big Sioux River.