Route Description
Iowa 26 begins at a T-intersection with Iowa 9 at the foot of the Black Hawk Bridge in Lansing. As a part of the Drifless Area Scenic Byway and Great River Road, it heads north nestled between the bluffs that tower 300 feet (91 m) over the city and homes that line the Mississippi riverfront. After exiting Lansing, the highway draws closer to the river and to the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad.
The highway is dotted with houses as it continues north between the river and the bluffs. The bluffs were created during the last ice age when this region of the midwest was untouched by glaciers. The region is thus called the Driftless Area, referring to the lack of glacial drift, the material left behind by retreating continental glaciers.
One-and-a-half miles (2.4 km) south of New Albin, Iowa 26 crosses the Upper Iowa River and then intersects County Road A26, which takes the Driftless Area Scenic Byway west to Iowa 76. Through New Albin, it travels along Railroad Street, referring to the adjacent railroad. Heading northeast, it leaves the city, which is also the state line, crossing into Minnesota as Trunk Highway 26.
Read more about this topic: Iowa Highway 26
Famous quotes containing the words route and/or description:
“A Route of Evanescence
With a revolving Wheel—”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
“As they are not seen on their way down the streams, it is thought by fishermen that they never return, but waste away and die, clinging to rocks and stumps of trees for an indefinite period; a tragic feature in the scenery of the river bottoms worthy to be remembered with Shakespeare’s description of the sea-floor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)