My travels in Iowa started right here in the state capital of Des Moines. The Iowa State Capitol was my first stop in the city. I have a goal of visiting every state capitol building, and I’d rate this one pretty high on my list, though not necessarily as a favorite. The main structure has the grand architecture you’d expect from a capitol, but I especially liked the towers around the building and its warmer stone colors. It’s always nice to see something a little different from the white and gray government buildings found in so many other capitals.
There are several other government buildings and monuments around this part of Des Moines. Near the capitol I came across a memorial, while a few blocks away I found the Polk County Courthouse. Walking between them gave me a chance to see more of downtown rather than simply visiting the capitol and moving on.
Right in front of the capitol building was the finish line for a triathlon. I think the majority of the athletes had already finished by the time I arrived, but there were still plenty of people crossing the line. One of the athletes let me take his photo, although I never thought to ask for his time or stats. Since I enjoy running and biking myself, walking around taking pictures almost made me feel like I should have been competing instead. I’ve still never done a triathlon or any serious race beyond a 10K. One benefit of arriving during the event was all the food stands, which gave me an easy place to grab lunch.
Before visiting, I hadn’t pictured Des Moines as a city with much of a skyline. Of course its buildings are nothing compared with those of America’s largest cities, but downtown was considerably bigger than I expected. After visiting some much smaller state capitals elsewhere in the country, Des Moines definitely felt like a substantial city rather than a small capital surrounded by countryside.
I took some of my skyline photos from the top of a parking garage to get a better view. On the way up I found this giant praying mantis staring out a stairwell window. With doors separating the stairwell from the outside, it was basically stuck, so after taking a few pictures I carried it outside and sent it on its way.
I’ve seen plenty of praying mantises sitting on trees and walls, usually staring back with what almost looks like curiosity, but I couldn’t remember ever seeing one fly. Once released, this one gave me the chance. I managed to photograph it at full zoom from quite a distance, and in flight I thought it looked more like some strange little bird than a giant insect.
Overall I found Des Moines to be a very nice city, although I came across a couple of unusual sights while wandering around. One was an abandoned house, but far more intriguing was this bizarre mural painted across another building. I have absolutely no idea what the story behind it was. At first it just seemed strange, with children holding bees and the girl on the left looking distraught. Looking more closely made it even stranger: the smiling boy on the right appears to have teeth falling out while staring at a bee wearing a top hat.
The mural was about the strangest thing I encountered in Des Moines. Otherwise I really enjoyed walking around the city, especially the downtown coffee shops, restaurants, and bars. The weather was perfect and there were plenty of people outside enjoying the historic district. I rarely go to bars alone while traveling, but I liked one of the coffee shops enough that I ended up visiting it twice.
My favorite place in Des Moines was without a doubt Gray’s Lake. I came here on a perfect summer night with no humidity and a slight breeze, then ended up walking all the way around the lake. The highlight was the pedestrian bridge, which is illuminated at night. I only wish I’d brought a tripod, because photographing it while holding my camera in the low light wasn’t easy.
Another part of the lake had hundreds, if not thousands, of bicycles lined up for the triathlon taking place the following day. The swimming portion of the event was held at Gray’s Lake as well, so my evening walk happened to take me through part of the race setup before I encountered the athletes at the capitol the next day.
Like many Midwestern cities, Des Moines developed around a major river. The Des Moines River runs directly through the city, with bridges connecting the downtown areas on either side. Along its banks are parks, trails, government buildings, museums, and other attractions, making the riverfront another good area to explore on foot.
Here are a couple more random scenes from around Des Moines, including a customized car that caught my attention and another view along the streets downtown. One of the things I enjoyed about the city was simply walking around without much of a plan and seeing what I came across.
A place I almost missed entirely was the Pappajohn Sculpture Park. The outdoor art park was only a few years old when I visited, and it contains a wide variety of large contemporary sculptures surrounded by the downtown skyline. One of the works that caught my attention was the metal tree, Air Gets into Everything, which was based on a cast of an ancient olive tree in Italy.
Two more works show just how different the sculptures throughout the park can be. The towering human-shaped Nomade is constructed from a lattice of letters, while the massive steel beams of T8 create something completely different from the surrounding buildings and landscaped park. Pappajohn Sculpture Park ended up being one of those places I nearly overlooked but was very glad I found before leaving Des Moines.
