July 4th means family and food at Ledges State Park

BOONE, Iowa — It’s the Fourth of July, Independence Day. After the morning parades, and before the fireworks start, it is time for a family picnic at Ledges State Park near Boone.

Oscar Alvarez, of Des Moines is manning the grill for breakfast. A mountain of hash browns, and a pile of sausage and bacon, as well as pancakes on a big gas grill. He said it’s the Alvarez and Flores families who join up every year.

“Every Fourth of July will come down here spend the afternoon together food enjoy the kids,” said Alvarez. “We got twenty, if not more people. Ledges State Park, we come here as often as we can.”

A nearby park shelter was closed for remodeling. But no worries, the family had everything they need, and most of all under shade trees.

We’ve got your typical breakfast, you got your sausage or bacon, got some hashbrowns on the grill, here we got some pancakes going,” said Alvarez. “Then later this afternoon we got the famous hamburgers going on the grill, and hotdogs.”

Canyon Road in Ledges Park is closed due to high water created by the rising Des Moines River into Saylorville Lake.

“With that Saylorville Lake level coming back up, it’ll back up into the park a little bit more over the next week,” said Andy Bartlett, the Ledges State Park Manager. “According to their projections and maybe the water behind me will probably come up another four or 5 feet in elevation so where we’re at could possibly be underwater here in the next four or five days.”

Bartlett said that even with the high water, it does not really impact the park. There are plenty of picnic areas and trails to explore. You just can’t drive your vehicle down into the canyon.

Ledges State Park is celebrating a 100 year anniversary in 2024. There will be events coming in September and November.

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