Aside from the standard Interstate, US, state, and county road markers, you will find several other markers along Iowa's highways designating scenic and historic routes. If you have additional information or routes to add to this list, please let me know.
Sources cited include the state highway map, the DeLorme Iowa Atlas and Gazetter, newspaper articles, and brochures on Iowa's scenic byways. Distances for most byways were calculated via Google Maps.
Images for the Delaware Crossing and River Bluffs Scenic Byways and the Glacier Trail were provided by Jeff Morrison, and the image for the Glacial Trail Scenic Byway was provided by Mike Ehret.
NOTE: This page, like all others on this site, is not affiliated with the Iowa Department of Transportation. For the Iowa DOT's official Scenic Byways page, click here.
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In August of 1993, Iowa state officials designated four routes as "Scenic
Byways" as an attempt to boost tourism. The Grant Wood, River Bluffs, Western Skies, and Woodlands (later renamed Historic Hills) Scenic Byways were the original four. The Iowa Valley Scenic Byway was added in 1998, and on July 11, 2000, the Driftless Area Scenic Byway and Glacial Trail Scenic Byway (then known as the Old O'Brien Glacial Trail) were designated while two new segments were added to the River Bluffs Scenic Byway. The Delaware Crossing Scenic Byway was dedicated on July 14, 2002. All of them were marked by special "Iowa Scenic Byway" signs until the fall of 2011, when each scenic byway received its own unique marker. During that time the Lincoln Highway, Loess Hills Scenic Byway, and the Great River Road were incorporated into the state byway system. (The Great River Road's signage initially did not change because of its status as a multi-state scenic route, but new signage incorporating the Iowa Byways design debuted in late 2016.) Three additional scenic byways (Covered Bridges, Jefferson Highway, and White Pole Road), plus extensions of the Driftless Area and Historic Hills Scenic Byways, were announced on October 31, 2016. Most of them were signed in the summer of 2018, while signs for the Jefferson Highway began to appear in mid-2019. More information can be found at the Iowa's Byways official website. |
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This byway follows 82 miles of roads in Madison County, focusing on the county's famous covered bridges and the birthplace of John Wayne in Winterset, among other destinations. It includes:
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This 36-mile loop in Delaware County starts and ends in Hopkinton. It follows County Roads D47, X31, D42, and X29; partly-unpaved 267th Street; and County Road X21 from Hopkinton toward Manchester. South of Manchester it turns onto unpaved 221st Street before going northward to County Road D22 (old US 20) via 205th Avenue (old IA 116 (I)). From that point it follows D22 and IA 38 back to Hopkinton. |
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This follows 93 miles of state and county roads between Postville and IA 76 in Allamakee County. Specifically, it follows:
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This 36-mile loop in northwest Iowa was known as the Old O'Brien Glacial Trail before 2009, and should not be confused with the Glacier Trail in Hardin County. It starts and ends at the intersection of IA 10 and Clay County Road M36 north of Linn Grove. It follows M36 southward to Buena Vista County Road C16, and C16 westward to Cherokee County Road M12 before joining IA 10 again southeast of Sutherland; it runs eastward along IA 10 to the M36 intersection. |
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This 64-mile route starts at US 151 and runs eastward to the Mississippi River. Attractions include Grant Wood's art colony in Stone City and the grave of Iowa's first governor in Andrew. This route follows:
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This route along the Mississippi River runs from Canada all the way
down to Louisiana. (There are actually two routes, one on each side of
the river). On June 15, 2000, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation
designated this route as one of 30 new National Scenic Byways in the
United States and one of two in Iowa. Signs designating it as one of
"America's Byways" were put up in October 2003.
Iowa's 326-mile segment of the Great River Road follows:
Jamie Jensen's book Road Trip USA (Moon Travel, 1999) includes a tour of the Great River Road, featuring a segment on northeast Iowa. |
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This is an 84-mile route through southeast Iowa, passing through several
state forests and the villages of Van Buren County (including Keosauqua
and Bentonsport). It was known as the Woodlands Scenic Byway before it was renamed in April of 2006. The route follows:
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This 75-mile route starts near the Meskwaki settlement, runs through the Amana Colonies, and ends in Marengo. The byway follows:
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This follows the original route of the Jefferson Highway between the Minnesota and Missouri borders on its way from Winnipeg to New Orleans. Like the Lincoln Highway, "loop" routes are posted along alternate Jefferson Highway alignments, and some segments listed here are not completely signed. It follows:
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America's original "Main Street", this route, designated in
1914, originally ran from Council Bluffs to Clinton in Iowa en route from
San Francisco to New York City. The entire route became US 30 in 1926, and that highway has gone through many alignment changes over the years. Many red, white, and blue markers were painted along telephone poles along this route. Starting in April 2011 the Iowa DOT began placing signs marking the Lincoln Highway as a state heritage byway. Several "loop" routes were also signed along alternate Lincoln Highway alignments. I have set up a page of Lincoln Highway photos in the Photo Gallery, while Jeff Morrison has his own Lincoln Highway Photo Gallery featuring photos that were taken for his photojournalism class in the fall of 2002. James Lin's Lincoln Highway Page and the Iowa Lincoln Highway Association's official website have additional information on this route. At 378 mainline miles plus several loops, the Lincoln Highway is the longest scenic byway in Iowa. As signed, it follows:
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This 220-mile route through western Iowa was designated in 1991. It was also named
a National Scenic Byway on June 15, 2000. In addition to the mainline, or "spine", route, there are 16 excursion loops along the way; those are signed with the name of the loop in place of the Loess Hills byway name. The route follows:
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Starting and ending at Marquette, this 106-mile loop runs through the
hills of northeast Iowa. Among the attractions along this route are Montauk
(a former governor's home, located at Clermont) and the Volga River State
Recreation Area. The route follows:
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This 103-mile route through western Iowa is advertised as "the
road less traveled." Attractions along this route include the De Soto
National Wildlife Refuge and the Danish communities of Kimballton and Elk
Horn. The route follows:
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This 26-mile byway follows County Roads N54 and F65, which was designated as the White Pole Road as early as 1910 and was part of US 6 prior to the construction of I-80. It runs through Adair, Casey, Menlo, Stuart, and Dexter. |
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This 15-mile circular route follows US 6, US 151, and IA 220 through the Amana Colonies. It is marked with rectangular brown signs with the name of the route in white text. |
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A new 26-mile trail appeared in northern Scott County, birthplace of William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, during the spring of 1999. It follows:
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This trail in the Des Moines River valley commemorates the path of the 1835
U.S. Dragoons (the country's first mounted infantry unit). It starts with two
branches originating from Fort Dodge and Webster City that join near Stratford; from
there it runs through Boone and Des Moines to the Red Rock Dam between Pella and
Knoxville. The trail, which is roughly 200 miles long, contains several signed alternate routes.
A promotional brochure that was published in May 1994 contains a map of the route and all of its alternates. Using that and the Iowa DOT's PDF county maps to pinpoint rural street names and road surfaces (paved unless otherwise noted), the Dragoon Trail follows:
**On June 3, 2005, 5th Street between Vine Street and Railroad Avenue in West Des Moines was changed from a one-way street going south to a one-way street going north. Signs for the Dragoon Trail have been removed from this area, so the recommended route is to follow Vine for one block eastward to 4th Street. |
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A separate 4-mile long "1835 Dragoon Trail", with different markers than the rest of the route, is signed along Old IA 163, Pella Avenue, L Street, C Avenue, D Street, and 3rd Avenue in Oskaloosa between IA 163 and IA 23. |
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In the summer of 1993 this former auto trail in northeast Iowa, named for Czech-born musician Antonin Dvorak, was resurrected with new signage. The 36-mile route begins at the Minnesota state line and follows County Road V58 through Cresco to Protivin, where it follows County Road B16 (including the former IA 325) through Spillville and US 52 to its southern end in Calmar. |
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This is a former auto trail that was established in 1918 and registered with the Iowa State Highway Commission on September 6, 1921. It originally followed the general route of US 65 north of Hampton, a series of county roads between Hampton and Marshalltown, and the general routes of US 30, IA 146, and US 63 south of Marshalltown. A history of the Glacier Trail from the Iowa DOT can be found here. The Glacier Trail is signed for about 25 miles through Hardin County along Business County Road S56 in Ackley, County Road S56 from Ackley to Eldora, IA 175 through Eldora, and County Road S62 south of there. |
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Originally designated in the 1920s as a spur from the Lincoln Highway to West Branch (home of Herbert Hoover) and Iowa City, this 45-mile route was revived by local promoters in 1987. It starts at the intersection of Clinton Street and Iowa Avenue, near the Old Capitol, and follows: |
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This meandering route through Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois was created by the American Petroleum Institute in 1961. After several conferences with the four states' governors, including one in Amana in September 1963, it was officially dedicated on May 15, 1964. The trail in Iowa split into north and south routes in Toledo before they re-joined in Davenport. Both branches were marked on state highway maps from 1966 through 1975, but markers remained — often staying on highways' original alignments after they were relocated — for many years after that. In June 2008 the Iowa DOT decided to abandon the trail since none of the four states were actively sponsoring it anymore and began removing the remaining trail markers, although some scattered markers remain along the old route. More information about the trail's history can be found here.
The approximately 750-mile north branch followed:
The approximately 400-mile south branch followed:
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This 32-mile route runs along the Iowa River from Alden to Eldora, entirely within Hardin County. It follows:
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Designated in 1996 (the sesquicentennial of the Mormons' trek across
Iowa), this route roughly follows the Mormons' westward journey from Nauvoo,
Illinois, into Utah. The 314-mile route through Iowa follows:
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This is an approximately 50-mile route along the Iowa River Greenbelt between I-35 near Thornton and Alden, following:
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First signed in the summer of 2019, this 54-mile route starts at the intersection of East 7th and Walnut Streets on the State Capitol grounds in Des Moines. From there it follows Walnut Street, US 65, IA 163, US 65, US 6, IA 330, County Road E35/Main Street, North 19th Street, and Summit Street to the intersection with North 15th Street, the entrance to the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown. |
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Stylized as "wAttA wAy", this approximately 115-mile loop through Pottawattamie County (hence the name) was created by the Pottawattamie County Tourism Promotion Committee in 2012. Starting and ending in Council Bluffs, it follows:
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