Ding Darling Greenway
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Looking North from Euclid Avenue. Ding Darling Greenway runs along the left side of the river on up to Saylorville Dam. It is a real greenway, not a finished trail as many have come to expect. You can traverse it by foot or bicycle, mountain bike preferred.
Aerial View. Looking down from the Euclid Avenue bridge, you can see that trees canopy most of the trail. You won't get tanned on this path. And you'll find it much more challenging than the Saylorville Trail on the other side of the river.
Target Entrance. You can enter from the parking lot of the former Iowa headquarters of Target (soon to be Polk County offices). Target remembers the Flood of '93 better than Polk County. Looks like Ding's Greenway is also called Sycamore Trail. It runs thru Sycamore Park at NW 66th Avenue -- a far piece up the trail. Sycamore Park used to feature a jumping juke joint but now sports a modest parking lot plus a boat landing on the other side of the river. Look behind that sign and you'll see Iowa's state foliage -- poison ivy.
Poison Ivy Headquarters. If you react to poison ivy, you will want to take another trail. Poison ivy pretty much edges much of this trail. Fleur Drive has their flowers. We have our ivy.
Primitive. Tree roots, tree stumps and rocks make this a bumpy trail. The other trails feature wide well mowed edges. Ding's Greenway features narrow well ivied edges.
Edges? We don't need no stinking edges. Poison ivy on the right and nothing on the left. This sort of makes the other trails boring.
Avoid Rain. And since these are pure Iowa dirt trails, you will not want to explore this trail after any type of rain storm -- very much like the original Iowa.
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