Lake of Three Fires - Bedford, Iowa

 

The park is named after three Native American warriors that were members of the Fire Nation, Pauite Tribe who lived in the area.

First stop was the RV dump in the main campground.

This little fellow was left to greet us on the picnic table for our campsite.

Our campsite came with a high line. We put the horses in these corrals since we didn't think any campers would be using them, but they were not that secure. We were worried especially about my horse getting out.

So we put up our portable corrals to be on the safe side.

We had electric hook-up and there were water pumps sprinkled about the campground.

None too close to where we were, but we had enough hose to get water to our trailer and to our horses.

I was looking forward to riding around the lake. We were saddled up and I was walking my horse to a picnic table to use for mounting up when Mercutio stepped on my right foot with all his weight - breaking the pinky toe. I could tell immediately it was broken.

I iced it and elevated it and buddy taped it.

Luckily, I have pain meds left over from previous injuries.

Ari rode around the lake on his own the first day and the second day we loaned my horse to another camper named Mike. Mike and Ari rode together for a couple of hours. Ari said the trails were fabulous.

Because if the trails were lousy, I wouldn't feel bad about breaking a toe.

I expect I can ride in a few days, but it will be a few weeks before it will heal.

Wabounsie State Park - Hamburg, Iowa

 

Another state park where the equestrian area is outside the state park. Instead, you drive past Wabounsie Road, and the equestrian entrance is two driveways down on the left.

The campground was pretty empty, so we were able to put each horse in their own 20' x 10' pen. They had plenty of room to move around and some shade as well.

There are high lines sprinkled through out the campground. These are nice to allow the horses to graze on the grass a bit, but we prefer to keep the horses in the pens most of the time.

This is a primitive campground - meaning no hook-ups. There are water pumps here and there so we can access water for our trailer and for the horses. 

Our Winegard connection was sufficient to stream movies.

Ari had no cell reception on Verizon, but my Google phone had full bars.

We are riding sections of the same trails used by Lewis & Clark on their expedition. It is heavily, wooded and quite shady. The trails are very pretty, but there is only about two hours of riding here.

Omaha, Nebraska is an hour north of this campground, so we opted to spend an afternoon exploring the Old Market area. This store was great.

I bought two t-shirts (not any of the ones in the pictures). They had an amazing selection of shirts, coffee mugs, etc. with various cute verbage.

The equestrian camper next to us has this fabulous blender that uses a lawnmower pull to operate. Apparently, it sounds just like a chainsaw. She is camping in a weekender, so she doesn't have all the bells and whistles we have in our LQ.

This is Jack. He is 3 years old and he got a pony ride. His family was camping near us and he had never been on a horse. We regularly give pony rides to kids wherever we are, if we can. He was scared to ride on his own, so we had his mom ride with him, so he would feel safe.

He did just fine.

Jack is a survivor. He has been battling some medical issues and has had several surgeries, but he seems like he is on the other side of all that and has his whole life ahead.

Wolf Creek Trail Ranch - Correctionville, Iowa

 

No RV Dump at Turkey Creek Ranch and no RV dump where we were headed, but luckily Sioux City Park was three miles before our destination and only a slight detour, so we stopped there to dump our tanks.

Wolf Creek Trail Ranch is a working cattle ranch and horse motel. 

Cindy, the owner, is a lovely host. Our horses got large pens - 20 ft x 10 ft. No cover.

Mostly, I was looking for a layover stop to break up our drive.

Our LQ was parked next to the large rodeo arena. We had electric hook-up and water close by.

Cindy and Ari rode through the 400 acres on the property. They were riding through Cindy's herd of cattle, so I stayed behind. I didn't want to risk my horse spooking and bolting on me.

Ari said it was a wonderful ride and Cindy is a great guide.

They had more acreage, but their property taxes keep going up and the price of cattle is not going up to keep up with the property taxes. The County has been nibbling on their property to pay for the back taxes. That seems a shame. Cindy also told Ari that the cows are expected to birth at least one calf a year or they will get sold as the only way they can maintain the herd is if they keep up with the number of cattle they have to sell in order to pay the bills.

Ranching is a hard life.

Turkey Creek Ranch - Newcastle, Nebraska

 Comet Shower

While staying at Union Grove, we took a side trip into Sioux City, Iowa. We visited the Art Center where we saw this very cool installation. Click on the link above to see the Comet Shower.

Turkey Creek Ranch boasts an obstacle course.  If you click on the link, you can watch Ari ride Mercutio through the obstacle course. I rode him through the obstacle course as well to try and build his confidence on the trail a bit and settle him down.

Turkey Creek Ranch has a small office where guests can check in as well as shop for souvenirs.

There are a lot of corrals available. They are all uncovered, 10' x 10'. Lots of shade from the trees.

There is a nice picnic pavilion available as well.

Campsites were close together and the place was crowded with equestrians travelling through from Minnesota and Wisconsin on the way to their winter stops.

By Sunday, we were one of three campers left.

Ari getting ready to ride. There are loads of trails, all well maintained and well marked. I did a short ride as I would rather have a short, successful ride where my horse stays calm, then push my luck.

Ari went out on a solo ride and also rode with one of the other camping couples.

We enjoyed our stay here quite a bit. We had electric and water hook-up. No RV dump or sewer hook-up. We stopped at Little Sioux Park on our way to the next campground to empty our tanks.

Our Winegard worked fine here.

It is a couple of miles of dirt road getting into the campground and I wouldn't recommend trying it when it is too wet or muddy.

Lots of flies at this campground which were driving both of us nuts. 

Union Grove State Park - Beresford, South Dakota

 

Union Grove State Park might be referred to as the little sister of Newton Hills State Park.

The horses are in good-sized corrals up a hill above the equestrian campground

There is a nice picnic pavilion for equestrians to gather

There is a single wheel barrow provided for all the corrals.

Previous equestrians did not clean up after their horses, so Ari and I spent some of our time cleaning out the manure to make it a little nicer.

We have electric hook-up only.

There is a single water pump next to the vault toilet. Luckily we have enough hose to run the hose all the way up to the hill to the corrals, so we don't need to carry heavy buckets of water up hill.

The camp host saw us as we were riding on the trail and he came by later to say 'hi'. He told us he won't clean up after campers, so it is basically on us to maintain the equestrian campground.

We are the only campers, so we are fine being responsible for ourselves.

The trails here are very limited, maybe an hour's worth of riding, but they are well maintained, nice and easy trails.

Newton Hills State Park - Canton, South Dakota

 

We drove past the entrance to the horse camp as it is not labeled horse camp. We drove to the state park entrance and were told to turn around and go back a half mile to this entrance.

There is an RV dump at the park entrance, so if you need to dump your gray and black tanks, you have to go into the state park, dump your tanks and then come back out to go to the horse camp.

Each campsite gets one large pen for your horses. There wasn't anybody using the campsite next to us, so initially we put Lennox in that pen and Mercutio in the pen belonging to our campsite.

Wheelbarrows are provided for each pen. You are instructed to fill the wheelbarrow and someone will come by each morning to dump it for you.

Later when another camper took the spot next to us, we set up our portable corral next to Mercy's pen. Lennox got to stay in the portable corral and he was quite happy.

We were expecting some showers, so we put up our shelter in Mercy's pen to give him some cover from the rain.

We had electric hook-up only. There was a single water pump for the entire camp, but we had enough hose to get water from the pump to our pens.

Our Winegard worked fine, so we had internet.

The campsites were shady and nice. 

There are about 10-12 miles of trails, so not a lot of riding. But the trails are easy and flat in a pretty wooded area with lots of wild flowers.

I put Mercy in the lead and he behaved really well for all three rides that we did.

It seems like the tune-up work Ari did with him helped immensely. He was a lot calmer.

He spooked a few times - once at a squirrel and one time an apple fell down from a tree right in front of him and that surprised him. However, he didn't just take off and start running away. Instead, he startled and then recovered, which is much better.

Sioux Falls - the largest city in South Dakota with about 200,000 people - is about 30 minutes from this campground. We took an afternoon to explore Sioux Falls and we were not disappointed.

Of course, you can't visit Sioux Falls without going to Falls Park, where you can see a large collection of water falls.

It is a lovely park, plenty of parking and easy to find.

This would be a great location for a yoga or meditation class.

We went into the downtown area to walk around and see the public art.

There was a patisserie! Oh my stars, a real patisserie!  I splurged and bought beignets and croissants for our breakfast for the next few mornings. Then Ari and I shared this lovely chocolate mousse with a gold flake decoration.

This is a statue of a trapper.