♪♪ [ Birds chirping ] Travelers craving beautiful scenes along the Great River Road can find a plethora of views at Bellevue State Park.

The park has been in existence since the 1920s and is a direct result of Jackson County residents wanting to preserve the beauty of the area.

They actually raised $5,000 as a community to purchase this land, and it was originally, I think it started at 37 acres, and they took it to the Conservation Commission or the board, state of Iowa, and they said, "We'll sell it to you for a dollar."

So, the state purchased it for a dollar.

Kohlsdorf: Divided into two units, Nelson and Dyas, the park invites visitors to explore the historical landscape with eight miles of walking trails.

Lindberg: If you can wake up between, oh, it depends on the time of year, but probably 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, you can get a nice, pretty sunrise.

And then sunsets, again, are gorgeous, as well.

The Jackson County bluffs and the terrain that we have, unique terrain, I should say, that we have around here -- you're going to go down into valleys, and you're going to come up the bluff.

So, it's very pretty, awesome trails that we have.

[ Birds chirping ] Kohlsdorf: One particular area drawing interest from visitors is the one-acre butterfly sanctuary in the park's Nelson Unit.

Lindberg: All these flowers, our primary purpose is to attract pollinators.

So, they're not all necessarily native to the state, but they do attract pollinators to the area.

♪♪ Some species of butterflies will actually utilize specific plants.

We'll take example the monarch butterfly.

It will use the milkweed seeds or milkweed plants.

Comes over, pollinates them.

Milkweed, unfortunately to all others, are considered poisonous.

So, the monarch kind of thrives on that one plant.

They'll lay their eggs.

Their eggs thrive off of the milkweed flower or the plant itself, and they create their little chrysalis.

And then we have monarchs.

♪♪ Kohlsdorf: Run primarily by volunteers, the garden's mission promotes Iowa's historic prairie landscape and encourages travelers to understand the importance of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

Lindberg: We're creating a space for pollinators.

Pollinators are great.

So, imagine everything that you eat around here has to be pollinated, especially in your garden, to produce any kind of fruit.

So, think of raspberries have to be pollinated.

They start off with a flower.

Anything in your grass that grows, like clovers, pollinated by bees.

So, flowers are also pollinated, not only by butterflies, but bees, ants, moths to pollinate some.

So, pollinators are important.

♪♪ Kohlsdorf: The park also provides a scientific side to one of its more prominent pollinators, the monarch butterfly.

♪♪ Lindberg: When you come to visit us, we have different species that kind of visit.

So, we have up to about 60 species of butterflies that come and visit our area.

A lot of them might be the little smaller ones that you don't necessarily see on a day-to-day basis, but as they come through, monarchs are a very prevalent one.

We do some tagging here.

We work with volunteers.

We'll tag them to assist in conservation efforts, just to kind of see what we can find out about monarchs and as they go across and make their way down to Mexico and their way back.

Kohlsdorf: Whether you want to learn about the limestone bluffs of Jackson County or the diverse prairie plant life along the Mississippi River, Bellevue State Park is home to many learning opportunities for Great River Road travelers.