Washington Evening Journal
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Lake Iowa Park provides plenty of outdoor opportunities
Slings strives to make the park the best it can be
By Ben Lamparek, Hometown Current
Jul. 30, 2025 4:20 pm
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
LADORA — Jacob Slings started his role as Iowa County Conservation Director back in March of 2024.
Since then, Slings has adjusted and settled into his new duties.
“It’s been an absolute whirlwind to come from the city of Altoona to Iowa County,” Slings said. “It was a big change of pace.”
Slings had several initiatives he wanted to work on at the Lake Iowa Park once he began.
“My main initiative was to just kind of clean up the park and give it that face-lift citizens have been looking for,” Slings said.
This includes things such as infrastructure and appearance. Essentially, making the park look nicer and to make all the commodities more enjoyable with better experiences.
Neatening up spaces such as campgrounds and shelters were a few things Slings mentioned.
The improvements to the park are all done in an effort to help improve people’s experiences at the park.
The Conservation Board’s mission states: The Iowa County Conservation Board’s mission is to acquire, develop, and maintain parks, recreational areas, forests, wildlife, and other conservation areas, to encourage conservation, education, and to improve the quality of life in Iowa County.
“There’s something here for everybody,“ Slings said. ”It’s all about getting people outside.“
Here a few of the recreational activities that can be done at the park.
Fishing
Along with camping, fishing may be the park’s most popular activity.
“Lake Iowa is more of a pan fisherman’s lake,” Slings said.
The lake has blue gills, crappies and red ears (all smaller fish).
“We have a lot of fish out there for everybody,” Slings said. “All different expertise's can fish. It’s a great lake for any experience level.”
Boats, kayaks and canoes are available to rent.
A huge crappy spawn was seen in the spring, drawing large amounts of anglers to the lake.
“Early spring when the crappy spawn was on, it was an extended four week stretch and there was 20-plus boats on the lake at one time,” Slings said. “I’d see another 30-40 on the shore.”
In the summer months, blue gills have been a popular catch.
“Blue gills are still hammering right now,” Slings said.
With the excessive rainfall of late, catfish have also been biting at a higher rate.
“Catfish right now are biting actively because of water going over the spillway,” Slings said.
“Elevated water turns a still water system into a flowing system, and fish take advantage of that to find food. It’s kind of like a conveyor belt, and they don’t have to travel for food.”
Although Lake Iowa Park has not held one, several fishing competitions have been held throughout the year at Gateway Park in Marengo.
“The state sends us notifiers when tournaments come in,” Slings said. There have been four or five so far this year at Gateway.“
Hiking trails
Within the last 10 years, the park fully finished up it’s multi-use ‘horse’ trail that goes around most of the park. Out and back, it equals 6.5 miles.
“The multi-use trail takes you to all different kinds of habitat and topography,“ Slings said. ”It’s really scenic.“
The trail provides an enjoyable scenic route across the park and connects to other areas of the park.
Nine other smaller trail systems also exist in other areas of the park, providing plenty of unique offerings in terms of different views around the park.
Disc golf
A part of the trail system includes an 18-hole, 2.6 mile disc golf course.
“It's a long hike and a tough course,” Slings said. “You’re in it for the day.”
The course may require a more advanced skill to not lose discs on, but Slings says they do a good job of finding a lot of lost discs.
Disc golf has become a more popular niche sport of late, and Lake Iowa provides one of just two available courses in the Iowa County area. The other is in Amana.
Upcoming events
Kids events were held throughout the summer with the goal of providing interactive, educational experiences.
After Aug. 9, the Nature Center will be open one Saturday a month as summer ends.
Creepy Camping, a Halloween event, is one of the park’s biggest events of the year, with hundreds of kids coming out.
When the weather cools, the park will enter more of a maintenance phase.
Outdoor activities remain popular in the winter time.
“Hunting, ice fishing and cross-country skiing are all popular in the winter,” Slings said.
Lake Iowa Park is a big piece of land, and Slings strives to provide positive outdoor experiences for everyone.
“Parks are for everyone,” Slings said. “There’s something here for everybody and we hope to continue to provide unique opportunities.“