During our walk through with our homeowners they mentioned that we might enjoy a visit to Lake Red Rock, which is close to Pella. We got some additional information about it from a travel brochure that we had picked up downtown. Since no rain was in the forecast for today and it was to be less blustery than it has been, we decided to go check it out.
We started at the park’s Visitor Center, which was about a 15 minute drive from the house. There we learned that Red Rock is actually the largest lake in Iowa. It is 11 miles long and has a water surface of 15,250 acres. The lake and the Red Rock Dam were created by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1969 to reduce the risk of flooding along the Des Moines River. The dam is also used to provide hydroelectric power.
to the Visitors Center.
a new one is to open nearby sometime in 2026.
as well as the 17 miles long Volksweg Trail
that runs from the Pella Public Library in downtown Pella
to Cordova Park at the northwest portion of the lake.
From the Visitors Center, we drove about 18 minutes to Cordova Park to climb the observation tower there and then walk some of the Volksweg Trail.
The Cordova Observation Tower was constructed as a water tower in 1972 as part of the park’s water system. The water tower was 15’ in diameter and 100’ tall. It could hold 130,000 gallons of water. In 1984, the park was able to utilize rural water, so the tower was no longer needed. It was converted into an observation tower in 1998 with the addition of stairs, the observation deck, and a red light on top to help with navigation for boaters. It is the tallest in the Midwest and is recognized as having the tallest and longest continuous fiberglass staircase in the world.
The following are pics from our out and back walk on the Volksweg Trail.
as 2 sections of the trail are marked separately
Peckish Travels 