Things To Do In Sioux City, Iowa

Check out our list of things to do in Sioux City, Iowa before your trip here.

If you are traveling here with your RV, take a look at our list of 10 Items You Should Have On Your RV Camping List before you hit the road.

2022 Cross Country Road Trip Stop 4

Sioux City, Iowa was the the 4th stop of the 26 we made on our recent cross-country road trip. We actually camped in South Sioux City, NE because the campground was closer to downtown Sioux City than any of the campgrounds in Sioux City.

(1) We camped at Scenic Park Campground, located just across the Missouri River from Sioux City. We had a great view of the city from our campsite. (Read more about Scenic Park Campground here.)

Our first day, of 2 short days in this area, was spent in Walmart buying groceries, setting up, making and eating dinner. We did have a chance to take an after dinner walk around the paved walkway that encircled the campground.

(2) The following morning, we ate a quick breakfast and packed lunch and set out early to make the most of our one full day in Sioux City. We were very disappointed to find out that most of places we had on our To Do List were closed on Mondays! We were really looking forward to going to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. 

(3) Luckily a friend made a suggestion to visit the Sargent Floyd River Museum. It had not made our list but since nothing else was open, we went. We actually were very happy that we did.

We learned about Sgt. Charles Floyd who was the only fatality of the Lewis and Clark Exhibition.

We also learned about the Lewis and Clark Exhibition.

And about the vessel we were on and about the history of Missouri River transportation.

(4) There was a very nice welcome center in the museum with helpful receptionists who told us about the Woodbury County Court House. We wouldn't have thought to go here if they hadn't told us about it. This building, built in 1918, was gorgeous inside and out.

The details on the outside and inside of this building were so interesting and each had it's own story to tell.  The huge figure here above the Douglas Street entrance, symbolizes the spirit of law. The figures on either side represent all types of life and symbolize society. I thought it looked a little scary, but pretty cool, from this angle.

The north entrance features a man and woman holding a baby. These statues symbolize the family and along with the words "justice and humanity" written above, signifies that the court house provides protection and justice under law for all.

The inside of the court house is just as interesting as the outside and even more gorgeous. The dome catches your eye immediately and brightens up the lobby with a tinted light. It was huge and amazing. The murals were equally as impressive as the dome.

Each mural had its own story. This one tells us all about urban life in Iowa. 

This court house was well worth a visit.

Good To Know: Make sure to get the free (it is also free to enter the court house) pamphlet that has all the information you need to know about the inside and outside of the building so you know exactly what you are looking at. 

(5) It was lunchtime so we headed to Stone Park.

We packed a lunch to have a picnic here.

Then we went to look for one of the many trails listed on the park map. We saw some signage that pointed in the direction of a trails but they never led us to a trail.

We finally found what we thought might be a trail and started to walk down it. The path was about 1 1/2 feet wide and had tall grasses and weeds on each side that scratched our legs and wasn't fun at all. We abandoned that trail after a couple of feet. We were starting to wonder why nothing was working out for us on this day.

We decided to give up on finding a trail and head to the next destination on our list of things to do. Our bad luck took one more bad turn when JT jumped into the driver's seat of the van and went to open the window a crack and the entire window unhinged and fell into the door. We frantically started calling for help. AAA could not help us. We decided to head back to the campground to figure out what we were going to do. On our way back, we spotted this small car repair shop. All of us, at the same time, decided to stop here.

Our guardian angels were taking care of us that day and sent us to a couple of very caring and honest people. The guys at Ross Auto Repair looked at our van, diagnosed the problem and got right on the phone to order us the part we needed to fix the window at a very reasonable cost. We did not feel like we were being taken advantage of although we were desperate and would have paid anything. It gives you hope in humanity when you meet people like these two. (Thank you so much guys!)

(6) The rest of our day would have to be spent waiting for the car to be repaired. We would have to miss out on doing what we had left on our to do list. But, yay!, Soko and JT didn't want me and Sandie to miss out on going to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and it was only a few minutes away from the shop so they dropped us off here and went back to the repair shop to drop off the car.

(7) Because of our car problems we missed going to Trinity Heights where there was a life-sized last supper sculpture and other larger than life sculptures. But this small disappointment was nothing compared to the big headache we would have had if we hadn't been so lucky with our car repair. 

We don't expect a road trip, especially one that is over two months long, to go as smoothly as it looks when we are planning the trip. We call these unplanned events "small bumps in the road" and although they are stressful when they are happening we know, because we've been on a few trips now, that the bumps are to be expected. We just hope that there aren't too many and not too big!

To make sure we appreciated and were grateful for all the good we had on this crazy day and to make sure we were thankful for just being able to be on this road trip, we were given this beautiful sunset when we got back to our campground to put everything back into perspective. 

Read about the third stop we made on our road trip, Memphis, TN.

Things To Do In Memphis, Tennessee

Have you been to Sioux City, Iowa? What things did you find to do?