Sunday, April 23, 2006

Underrated Treasure

No, I wasn't refering to Maquoketa Caves State Park as underrated in the title, although I suppose it is too. While its an amazing place, there are only 29 campsites in the whole park. Unsurprisingly, they were nearly all taken, so my group of 13 ended up camping at Scott County Park. These are all people I know through WIU, and few of them are from this area. As I was leading the caravan back to the Sac Fox campground, I was trying to imagine what the park would look like to someone seeing it for the first time. I decided its a pretty great park, but I know that its never one of the first things I think of as an asset to the area. Many picnic areas, over 200 campsites, an olympic-sized pool, miles of well-cared-for nature trails, no admission fee. Its another thing that we probably take for granted around here, but isn't something every community has.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What??????????????
QCI, the prophet of amenities to keep young people in the QC area takes for granted a beautiful park in Scott County? Kinda shows the value of these great parks to some people.

QuadCityImages said...

Its not that I don't use it, or enjoy it, it's just always been there. I'd compare it to the recreational trails in the QC. We've had them for years, and nobody thinks twice about them, but the system of trails is better than tha majority of cities in the US, especially ones our size. Some things I think we, or at least I, start to "get used to" and forget how good they are.

Anonymous said...

QCI...

You are absolutely right about the trails, including the bike trails. To think Kathy Kirschbaum let significant political blood in order to have them realized when she was mayor. There is always someone against something and its only through the lens of history that we sometimes are able to see how important amenities become.