With more caves than any state park, Maquoketa Caves is one of Iowa’s most unique outdoor attractions. Enormous bluffs tower throughout the park, and a six-mile trail system winds through geologic formations and forests brimming with natural beauty. As one of the state’s earliest state parks, Maquoketa Caves has been a popular destination for picnickers and hikers since the 1860s. Grab your hiking shoes and a flashlight before traveling to Maquoketa Caves, because this state park is nothing short of an adventure.
But before heading to the caves...start here at the Visitor Center which has a rich history itself. Learn about the geology of cave formations and park history at the new interpretive center, formerly known as Sager’s Museum. The facility is open on weekends during the summer and includes a video tour of the park as well as park history.
Between 1925 and 1936, Jackson County, Iowa, residents Paul Sagers and his brother Fay spent countless hours combing the bluffs and countryside hunting for the pottery, stone tools, and animal bones left by the prehistoric people who lived there long before them. In those years, the brothers amassed an amazing 16,000 objects. Some of the artifacts are on display in the limestone-and-oak building that Paul Sagers built by hand as a museum for his collection. But the bulk of the items are at the University of Iowa, where they have been cataloged by the Office of the State Archaeologist and are stored in such a way that they are preserved and available to researchers, but not usually out where people can see them.
To log this cache you will need the following information that is found at the coordinates.
1. How many caves can you explore?
2. How much does the balanced rock weigh?
You must submit the answers to these two questions in order to log this cache!
Virtual Rewards 4.0 - 2024-2025
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between January 17, 2024 and January 17, 2025. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 4.0 on the Geocaching Blog.