Fort Dodge, IA Outdoor Activities

Sleepy Hollow Sports Park sprawls over 80 acres of fields and slopes buzzing with a variety of year-round activities, from go-karts and bumper boats to downhill sledding. To pay homage to the homestead’s Native American past, Sleepy Hollow's team puts together four 5K races throughout the warmer months of the year, centering each race's theme around one of the four elements: earth, water, fire, and wind. During these meticulously constructed events, Sleepy Hollow will pit runners against manmade obstacles—such as The Great Wall in the Kosama Warrior Mud Run—and natural obstacles, such as the 4-mile creek in the Kosama Warrior Water Run and the Midwest's indigenous dragons in the Aspen Warrior Fire Run.

Being an Iowa-based company, Sleepy Hollow supports more than 300 groups annually, providing funding for causes ranging from local schools to cancer research. The park also serves as the permanent residence of the annual Des Moines Renaissance Faire and Haunted Scream Park.

Brenton Skating Plaza's outdoor ice-skating rink is comprised of a 120'x60' sheet of ice that can hold up to 220 skaters. There, skaters—equipped with one of 450 pairs of skates available for rent—can cut lines through the ice in the open air, surrounded by all-glass boards. Throughout the season, which stretches from November to March, the rink hosts skating lessons, broomball games, and public skating.

Lloyd Bridges had just discovered a host of sunken treasure on the ocean floor in Sea Hunt, and Randy Molnari had stars in his eyes. It didn't help that just weeks before, his elementary school class had visited Houston's marine-biology museum. If you were to tell this young, imaginative boy that he'd go on to earn certifications in shark feeding and technical diving, or that he'd explore some of the world's most exotic underwater locations, he'd believe you. Today, he and his team of carefully vetted instructors help novice and intermediate divers discover the underwater realm with lessons and trips for beginning or technical divers.

Classes include certifications in open-water diving and nitrox usage, and online lessons prepare computers for their own trips to the bottom of a lake. His staff works with police and fire rescue, and each member undergoes a two-year apprenticeship before they begin teaching. Once familiar with the techniques of scuba, clients can accompany staff on trips across the world, daring feats such as exploring shipwrecks in Lake Huron, cave diving in the Caribbean, or rescuing rubber duckies in the bathtub.

Since 2007, foodies have flocked to Iowa's Premier Beer, Wine & Food Expo each year to check out food and drink booths, watch cooking demonstrations, and meet chefs. Guests explore more than 100 booths filled with samples of wines, food, and cheeses they may purchase and store at a complimentary drop-off location until they’re ready to leave. Expo-goers may also enjoy cooking demonstrations and meet-and-greet sessions with nationally recognized celebrity guests, including Food Network’s Dr. BBQ and Goose Island Beer Company–founder John Hall. Not to be outdone, local chefs share the secret techniques, ingredients, and facial expressions they use to make popular regional dishes.

As children and their caretakers enjoy a leisurely day at Union Park, a cluster of animals—storks, giraffes, brown bears, and ostriches among them —suddenly storms past. What sounds like a stampede is really the family-friendly site of The Heritage Carousel of Des Moines, which has been entertaining guests since 1998. For only 50 cents, participants can hop aboard the turn-of-the-century replica carousel, which builders hand carved from basswood and hand painted. As the dulcet tones of an old-fashioned band organ hum in the background, the carousel accommodates children, wedding parties, and bull riders in training. Elsewhere, riders can pause from carousel excursions to sample other Union Park attractions such as multiage play equipment and the Rocket Slide, whose recent repainting replicates its original look from the early 1970s.

We are an 18-hole public golf course located in the heart of Iowa. We showcase bentgrass tees, fairways, and greens and over 40 undulating bunkers. Our course pays tribute to the links traditions of golf by relying on the prairie winds and fescue grasses as the primary defenses.