Maquoketa Caves State Park

This was a stop on an all day drive to get out to see interesting geology and get in a short walk. We did the end to end walk of the Dance Hall Cave. Afterward, we did a short hike around the park to take in all the other smaller caves. No Spelunking for us this time.

Bucket list! Must see! I consider this a moderate hike...Be prepared for a lot of steps...but it is so worth it! I only had 1 hour so it was a bit of a speed hike for me. Lol. The caves were so beautiful! You could definitely spend all day hiking the trails! Well maintained and marked trails/stairs/paths. I went during the day on Friday with a decent amount of parking, but I feel this would be packed on a weekend.

Located in Eastern Iowa, Maquoketa Caves offer a very unique experience of hiking a trail of caves. Plenty of parking and no charge. Some caves require crawling into, but most do not. A flashlight or headlight would be helpful at times. There are 15 caves with intertwining paths to see each one. It took us about 3 hours and just 2.5 miles to visit nearly every one. Pick up a map at the Park Store once you've parked. I suggest going on to the first stairs down to middle Dancehall (l) and go underground, emerging across the street at Natural Bridge. Get across the Creek and go the opposite direction on the Woodland Tr. As it loops you will visit 5 caves.. The trail will bring you back to the parking lot & the store. Come over to the other side and descend the same set of stairs. Th

Really cool hiking trails and caves you can walk through but for those who like to get dirty and crawl through caves, lots of those too. They have a park here, decent showers and restrooms. They have some picnic and grills next to the park and a waste management and water pump for rvs. We camped at site 16 which was secluded which we loved..until around 7pm when we had raccoons that wouldnt leave us alone. We had all of our food in the car but I think from cooking dinner on the fire they wanted to try to get some food. We tried shooing them off for hours. Literally non stop with 3 different raccoons. Even though we wanted to stay out and enjoy the weather and fire we were getting exhausted trying to run them off so we went into the tent. The whole time they were scratching at our tent, tr

A truly beautiful hike filled with caves to explore! There are a total of nine caves, ranging in size from massive walk-through caverns to smaller, single-person passages. Two of the largest caves let you walk straight from one entrance to another, while one of the smaller ones requires squeezing through two tight openings before you can barely stand inside—definitely an adventure! The full hike took us about three hours at a steady pace. I’d recommend bringing a flashlight for exploring, though it’s not absolutely necessary. Between the unique caves and the gorgeous trails, this park is a gem. I’ll definitely be returning to Maquoketa Caves in the future!