Byway Directions
When you arrive in Akron, look for information about the Loess Hills and the Byway on 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 on the east side of the highway within a couple miles of town. 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 Hills rise in height and become more sharply etched. Similarly, you will also that, at times, the highway lies on a narrow ledge of land between the base of the Hills and the Big Sioux River.
For more information, contact:
Plymouth County Conservation Board
Canoe rentals for use on the Big Sioux and Little Sioux Rivers.
712/947-4270
Plymouth County Economic Development
712/546-6911